AFTER three years dawdling in the slow lane, the road transport strategy is finally starting to pick up speed.
Having been left in limbo since 2006 by (yet another) bizarre States decision – to approve the strategy but not how to pay for it – the decision in the Assembly last month has broken a deadlock of Dickensian daftness.
Of course, the final chapter in this saga would not have been complete without a bit of farce. Once again, therefore, we had a States department coming to the Assembly with an idea its minister did not believe in.
The £26 parking permit, an idea seemingly hatched in desperation, was thus duly dispatched and replaced with an extra 1.2p a litre duty on fuel.
It was not the perfect solution – what is? – but, short of abandoning all pretence at managing the island’s traffic, at least it broke the impasse.
The dust can therefore be blown off Environment’s copy of the March 2006 Billet, which set out what the island could expect from a fully funded strategy.
Chief among those is a better bus service. More buses can be bought so that commuters are not left behind during peak periods and the main routes are better served. Even premium fare night buses are on the agenda.
There should be some tangible benefits for everyone out on the roads. For example, free school buses for all school children – one of the principal aims of the strategy – could dramatically reduce traffic congestion. One census showed that while 5,000 children were driven to school in a car or van, just 757 took the bus.
Some of the ideas are more leftfield: shower facilities for cyclists, a website for people willing to car share, buying car parking spaces for Town residents, P plates for new drivers, a ban on bull bars.
Others, such as a permitted route network for HGVs and new speed limits, could be unpopular in some quarters.
But, with 50,000 vehicles for a population of 60,000, few can argue against a co-ordinated and well-funded strategy.