Cycle Free Zone - Cardiff Style!

I know cyclists are an ever "popular" and heated debate on other boards, so thought I'd get a consensus of opinion here too.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/09/07/huge-support-for-a-car-free-suburb-in-cardiff-from-walesonline-readers-91466-31786959/

Personally, I think it's a good idea as even if it fails I'm pretty sure you could convert the area to being "car-friendly" again. Then again, I can say that as I am a cyclist who lives in London.

It is a good idea, but not one I think we're ready for. The Vauban example in Germany has 5000 people, about a third of the size of Ely, so it's fairly small-scale. It was also planned from the outset, including the layout of residential culs-de-sac, a planned network of cycleways linking all residential streets, and a good tramway system linking the area to the city centre. Adapting existing street layouts will probably be less successful.

Cycling is never going to be for everyone, most particularly the elderly and disabled. So there has to be an alternative, and if cars are banned then you're left with public transport. This country is light years behind most of Europe in terms of public transport provision. Most reasonably-sized European cities have a decent tramway system at the very least. We have a crappy bus system that would need more extensive route coverage and a much higher service frequency - 10 minute service intervals at the most. I don't think our current deregulated public transport system is capable of delivering this level of service and still make a profit.

It's also a system that requires extensive use of online shopping for everyday things. Obviously we're heading that way, but again it's a system that can discriminate against the elderly who in many cases do not use computers. The elderly also make much more use of taxis. My 93 year old mother is restricted on what buses she can use because she can't walk up the hill from the bus stop, and she will get a taxi for a 1-mile trip to church on a sunday morning - no bus service will cover that.

Having said all that, it's an ideal that we'll have to work towards, as climate change will make unfettered car travel increasingly untenable. But it will take at least 50 years to make a significant impact in my view. Obviously you have to start somewhere, but any experimental suburbs are probably better located in London, where there is already a much better public transport system and more of a culture of doing without cars than somewhere like Cardiff.

That's very true. I've lived in London for nearly a decade now and have never owned a car, nor would I want to. The times I have driven here it has been a frustratingly slow and stressful experience (it is often much quicker to cycle). London drivers are some of the worst in Britain too.

I think the success of the Boris Bike scheme has taken TFL by surprise and it's good they are continuing to expand. It's great for built up areas with dense traffic populations, I hope they can trial it in other UK cities too.

I think the Cardiff scheme could work as it is likely to only attract residents who are keen on having cycling as their number one form of transport. I doubt avid car users would see a benefit in living in such a neighbourhood. We do forget that we are a relatively small island with a big population and with the ever increasing cost of fuel, it is worth considering other possibilities for urban and suburban transport links.

I take your point about Cardiff transport though. Think we're spoiled here in London and it's easy to forget. A few years back I tried to get a bus from my brothers place in Llanishen to the City centre and was outraged - OUTRAGED - to discover I might have to wait twenty minutes for a bus.

Only place I could see something like this working in Cardiff would be near Drope, if they could build a railway station on the mainline there and a bus link onto the link road.