Really good points Jim, (long post alert!)
The first thing to say is that the improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure would be mitigation in themselves. If we can take some cars off the road then it would really help.
Then, and I am no expert, we need to establish what types of journeys are made through Marple. I’d suggest there are those within the town. People from Rose Hill or Hawk Green popping to the district centre. Those from within Marple travelling to somewhere else, Stockport, New Mills etc. and those journeys that start outside of Marple and end outside of Marple but travel through Marple. Each would need a different strategy.
Those journeys that start and finish in Marple could be reduced with better local infrastructure. We could start with schools – persuading people to walk or cycle with dedicated lanes and zebra crossings and dissuading them by closing roads at certain times and civil enforcement of existing traffic measures. These routes could then link the new pool, park and so on.
For those journeys that travel through Marple but don’t start or end here we can ask the question ‘do they have to travel through the centre of Marple?’ Could we change how traffic moves around the town, someone mentioned a bypass although this will induce traffic flow. (Look at the A555 and High Lane) We could map those journeys and look at reprioritising roads and changing direction signage. There are challenges with this, namely Victorian architecture and naural bottle necks such as Dan Bank. Which is why it is necessary to also dissuade people to travel through Marple by changing the prioritisation of Stockport Road so that it is easier to take another route.
We have those journeys that start elsewhere and end in Marple, the cycling links work both ways and a pleasant town centre would attract more people. We have good car parks at present and people are willing to walk from them to the centre. (think the Trafford centre car park or Manchester train station to the shops)
Finally, we have to look at the journeys that start in Marple and end in neighbouring towns and Stockport. Better infrastructure would help here too, a lot is already there but there are some simple changes that could be made such as all weather surfaces rather than gravel and compacted mud.
Each of the above have particular challenges, as I have said I aint no expert and I’d dearly love to hear from our local councillors as to what their plans are, there is an ‘emergency active travel fund’ which is into the millions for Greater Manchester – how much of that pie do we get? The Stockport.gov website has the quite below for Romiley…
Romiley Active Neighbourhood
Working closely with residents and WalkRide Romiley, it's proposed to develop an Active Neighbourhood for streets north of Compstall Road. This will create improvements for pedestrians in the village centre as well as providing parklets for the community to enjoy. A safe cycle route to Stockport Town Centre will also be created with new crossings on Compstall/Stockport Road, making it easier to access and enjoy the canal and encourage the enablement of play streets.
The aim here isn’t to take all cars off the road – I couldn’t work or live without the car – but if we have a population in Greater Manchester of 2.547 Million people, and there are 200 Million car journeys of less than a kilometre, (0.62 miles) That equates to 78.5 journeys per person. The population figure includes children. If we use a DVLA figure of 141,797 cars registered in the GM boroughs then that figure is 1410 per car per year. This seems hard to believe, but if you count a drive from home to school, to home again, to school at 3pm, to home as four trips each day, it is feasible.
If we can make a dent in this, and children see that an alternative is possible then we may still have some hope!
The government are offering the money, we are being asked what we want to do with it, it seems churlish to say 'nah, we're alright as it is'
