Tackling Inverness' worst traffic jam
THE connections between Inverness and Brazil do not immediately jump to mind. But Sao Paolo endures the world’s worst traffic jams, as illustrated by a survey which reported it had 182 miles worth of accumulated vehicle queues, all at the same time. And 1000 new cars are bought every day in that city. There must be more lead in the air than there was flying around the OK Corral.
Congestion is an increasing headache in Inverness, with vastly mushrooming car ownership coupled with narrow streets whose width dates back to a pre-Culloden era. I read on the Internet that rural areas now have higher rates of car ownerships than cities, with 85 per cent of rural households having a car, a clear link to the lack of public transport. It seems that every driver in the countryside comes in to Inverness at weekends. Often they sit in traffic jams for ages, watching the city folk.
Can you hazard a guess on which is the worst traffic tailback territory in or around our city? Friars Bridge with its choc-a-block roundabouts at each end is a decent shout, as are the Inshes and Kessock Bridge roundabouts.
But official Highland Council figures actually show our biggest “hot spot”, or should it be “sit still and fume” spot, is at the traffic lights at the junction of Kenneth Street and Glenurquhart Road. In summer, the volume of vehicles stuck there can produce absolute gridlock from Tomnahurich Cemetery all the way to the Longman Roundabout. Older drivers wait so long by the cemetery gates they wonder if it’s worth their while going home. It is Standstill Avenue, the junction with the sign “abandon hope all ye who enter”.
Wildebeest migrate across the Serengeti at a faster clip, despite having lions and crocodiles to worry about. Wagon trains could creak their way from the east to California more quickly, no matter the broken axles and flying arrows. At peak times, the only way to change lanes in Kenneth Street is to buy the car next to you.
I remember the taxi driver who got stuck in a jam at Kenneth Street. The passenger gave him a tap on the shoulder and he got such a fright that he accelerated through a shop window. The driver explained that it was his first day driving a taxi after 20 years driving a hearse and it was the first time anyone in the back had tapped his shoulder.
But the Kenneth Street congestion produces misery for those living in the side streets along that route as frustrated drivers try to circle round the blockage in more rat runs than a wicked scientist could devise for rodents on treadmills. Yes, it’s jam today and jam tomorrow in the Kenneth Street
On the west side, it is the only way in to the city centre and to the A9 and A96 from the A92 Fort William road. Eastwards, traffic from Lochardil and all points comes down Castle Street, over the increasingly overloaded Ness Bridge and grinds to a halt. People’s road fund licenses have expired while waiting at those lights.
The solution to these traffic lights from hell is simple, a new Ness crossing which sucks in traffic from the west and, via the southern distributor road, allows it easy access to the A9. I mentioned the need to get cracking on this crossing in my first column, what seems like aeons ago.
But what happens? Public consultation, usually shorthand for councillors have bottled the obvious decision, has managed to make things more confused. And we need that like Eden Court needs a banjo player for Beethoven’s Fifth.
The public were asked to choose from five options and, lo and behind, we’re now up to seven options. An £85 million tunnel plan was dustbinned two years ago because of technical problems and the small detail that Highland Council didn’t have anything like that amount to pay for it. It now has £16.5 million set aside for a bridge, so little wonder that there is some confusion at council HQ that, when the new Scottish Government say there is a council tax freeze for another five years, the tunnel has dug, as it were, its way back. But you don’t shop at Marks & Spencer when your budget limit is Poundland. You don’t stay at Culloden House when your pocket has enough for Lenny Henry’s place.
I don’t believe for a nanosecond that the tunnel will actually be the final decision and very few do. But more time and money is being wasted going through the appraisal process again. This is taking longer than a Kenneth Street queue.
The bridge crossing the river near Pringles Woollen Mill remains the preferred option of those who take the strategic view and want to give council taxpayers best value. However, no sooner have we got Scottish Parliament elections out of the way than next May’s Highland Council elections are now the focus and the choice of bypass routes becomes a potential election football.
I am told that some people would like to just kick the crossing choice in to the long grass until after the council election. Meanwhile, those traffic jams still waste fuel, increase carbon dioxide emissions, cause wear and tear to the vehicles and the non-productive time spent waiting reduces our area’s economic health. Not to mention road rage when it all gets too much.
Let’s get a decision made within months. This process has taken years, having begun three Provosts ago, and it’s time to have some backbone, pick an option and get cracking.
I SEE that Mothercare is going to close 110 city centre stores because of the trend towards edge-of-town retail parks and on-line shopping. Mothercare moved out of Inverness city centre several years ago to the retail park but they also own Early Learning Centre, to which I am a fairly frequent visitor, and I’d hate to see that Eastgate shop close or move out of town. With Junners closing down last year, we can ill afford to lose the remaining dedicated toy shop in the city centre. That would border on child abuse!
In that context, I note that retail guru Mary Portas - labelled Mary Queen of Shops - has been appointed by David Cameron to investigate how to stem the growing tide of vacant shops on Britain’s high streets. Apparently town centre vacancy rates have doubled over the past two years and town centres have seen their slice of retail spending fall to 42 per cent last year from 50 per cent in 2000.
Portas is to focus on how to develop more diverse high streets by increasing the number of small and independent retailers doing business in local town centres. That’s the right way to go rather than moaning about retail parks, where customers are voting with their feet, or their accelerator.
There needs to be concerted pressure to give priority, such as lease and rates discounts, to those keen to bring smaller independent shops to the city centre. Our town centres are too samey, yet on an Easter break to west Ireland it was so different. Virtually all shops are local and thus more interesting to the casual shopper or visitor. Inverness does very well with small retailers in the Victorian Market, fascinating visitors, but we need to get more of them in to the prime shopping streets.
They don’t threaten the multiples and, unlike the multiples, there is less chance of them disappearing overnight.
