Transport Group

Contact: Ian Eiloart, 01273 477457, ian@eiloart.com

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Next meeting: Wednesday, 13 August, upstairs, Lewes Arms, 7.30pm.

Agenda: EDAP; Future plans; AOB

Past Events

Public Meeting: Wednesay June 18th at Pelham House

Transit in Transition

Public Exhibition of Real and Ideal plans for transport in Lewes - 7pm Public Talks by John Grimshaw, director of Sustrans and John Whitelegg, Professor of Sustainable Transport.

News: July '08

East Sussex County Council is proposing cuts to the 128 bus service, which services Nevill and Malling estates. At the same time, they're predicting a £ 78,000 surplus from the Lewes parking scheme, which is to be spent on local transport schemes.

National Cycle Week will be a nine day event: Sat 14 to Sun 22 June (hey, sometimes it takes a little longer by bike!)

There's to be a feasibility study to examine the possibility of reopening the Lewes-Uckfield railway line.

News: January '08

At the last meeting we were joined by Anne and Tim Locke, of Cycle Lewes.

We are planning on holding one or more public events during National Cycle Week, in June.

We're engaged in Lewes District Council's Air Quality Action, having attended consultation sessions. Ian Eiloart is now the ward councillor on LDC's air quality action group. East Sussex County Council (who are responsible for roads and transport) have a representative on the group, so it should be able to achieve positive outcomes.

Areas that we're interested in as a group include:

  • Car clubs
  • Smart Bikes, and other cycle provision
  • Improved public transport
  • Re-opening the Lewes-Uckfield railway line
  • Walking buses for schools
  • Improving conditions for pedestrians

Bulletin, September

We're about to start work on the exciting stuff.

With considerable help from the county council, we now have access to a mass of data on volumes of traffic flowing through various points in and around the town; and also to data on the origin and destination of traffic entering and leaving the town. This is invaluable. We are now collating and analysing it.

As soon as we have a clear picture of the town's traffic, we can start work on the exciting business of pulling together a comprehensive traffic-reduction plan, which will be a collection of different measures designed to reduce the different kinds of traffic which we identify. The plan will specifically be designed to achieve this while promoting the town's economic and social life.

The data which we have obtained also allow us to set baselines from which we can measure progress as the plan is implemented.

One small sample of the new data...... Question: in an average 12-hour, daytime period, how many vehicles flow down Malling Hill towards the town? Pause to consider the answer, which is.... 10,800. Let's watch that and other figures as they start to fall.

Next meeting Thursday September 6 at 7.30 pm in the upstairs room at the Lewes Arms.

Bulletin, August

After many false leads, we may finally have made a break-through in getting hold of the facts and figures which we need to analyse the flow of traffic through our town.

It turns out that East Sussex County Council have recently finished constructing a computer model of Lewes traffic. Although this was designed and funded specifically to help them forecast the impact of any new property development in the Phoenix Quarter, it should be able to serve the more general purpose of allowing us to see exactly where our traffic problems are coming from (and thus to come up with a series of tailor-made plans to solve them).

The council's initial response to our approach has been very helpful, and there should be more to report at the next meeting.

In the meantime, Lewes District Council also have been very supportive and they are due to involve us in their formal consultation, beginning in September, on their Air Quality Action Plan, designed to reduce the level of nitrogen dioxide in Fisher Street and other parts of the town centre.

The wheel begins to turn....

Next meeting:
Thursday August 2 at 7.30 pm in the upstairs room at the Lewes Arms

Bulletin 6.7.07

We've started collecting the data which we need to get a clear picture of the origin and destination of the traffic in Lewes. If we're lucky, we'll have collected and analysed all the available data by the end of August. Once we've done that, we can put together specific plans for dealing with the different kinds of traffic movement and we can draw up some kind of timetable for further events and actions.

The group has been growing but we'd be happy to have still more members - for ideas, for practical help, perhaps simply for moral support.

Bulletin, 4.6.07.

We've had a great start. Prof John Whitelegg, who is a renowned expert on sustainable transport, has agreed to act as our adviser - a really big plus. We've also had a very good first meeting of the group.

Looking ahead, it's clear from John Whitelegg's advice and from the ideas of those who came to the first meeting that there are a great many moves which the town could make to cut traffic - some of them relatively quick and easy, others long-term and tricky. But before we get to the stage of coming up with specific plans, we need to gather good, hard data so that we can analyse the traffic in the town and see the various origins and destinations and purposes of the cars and lorries moving through our narrow streets.

John Whitelegg's advice is that this data will allow us to salami-slice the big problem into, say, a dozen smaller problems, each of which can then be approached in its own way. For example, the traffic generated twice a day by parents driving their children to and from school can be dealt with in ways which are quite different to the ways in which we might be able to solve the problem of heavy goods vehicles breaking the lorry ban and driving through town illegally.

Various members have gone off to collect existing data from local authorities, major employers and institutions in the town etc. Once we have that, we'll see what's missing and set about filling the gaps. We hope we can start to come up with some concrete plans quite quickly.

We'll be taking all this forward at our next meeting, on Thursday July 5 at 7.30 pm in the upstairs room at the Lewes Arms. It's an open meeting - any one with any interest is welcome to come.

Opening Statement: We want to find the answer to a simple question: "Is it possible to cut the amount of traffic flowing through Lewes?"

This simple question may have a complicated answer. We recognise that all kinds of people in the town currently rely on cars to get their children to school, to bring customers to their businesses, to fetch their shopping; and on vans and lorries to bring in supplies. But there are at least three very good reasons for trying to find a viable answer:

First, there are times when the centre of Lewes feels as though it belongs to the traffic, and the people are simply squeezed in at the edges. Many Lewes residents would agree that it is the worst single problem in the town - the noise and smell and pollution and potential threat to pedestrians. And the traffic wardens who come with it.

Second, there is a powerful consensus among scientists that our planet is heating to a dangerous degree and that cars are aggravating this problem. The activities of the average UK citizen produce 12.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas every year. And 1.2 tonnes of that comes from driving a car. It must be worth the effort to try to find a way to cut our contribution.

Third, there is a similar consensus among those who understand the oil industry that we are fast approaching the point of 'peak oil' after which it will become increasingly difficult to get access to crude oil and, therefore, it will become increasingly expensive to buy petrol.

If we can answer our question, we can have a better town and a better planet and save ourselves money in the process.

Two important dates on the horizon:

Wednesday May 30 at 6pm: Professor John Whitelegg, who must be this country's leading expert on 'sustainable transport', is giving a public lecture at the Westlain House Lecture Theatre at the University of Brighton at Falmer. The title of the lecture is "Time for transport to grow up: delivering a 60% cut in greenhouse gases from the transport sector."

Thursday May 31 at 7.30pm: first meeting of this transport group, in the upstairs room at the Lewes Arms.

Get involved: contact one of the Group contacts on the Groups page