Living Streets in Cardiff

Cardiff

Contact

Anne Greagsby
Email
annegre@aol.com
39 Beulah Road
Cardiff
CF14 6LU

Cardiff is a modern city with over 320,000 inhabitants established on the incredible wealth of a vast coal empire which is, through imaginative re-development, fast becoming one of Europe's finest maritime cities surrounded by some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain.Cardiff residents live in pleasant suburbs yet are only 10 or 15 minutes from the city centre travelling by private or public transport. Many of the suburbs still offer the pleasure of a village atmosphere. This is spoiled by the 'railings' designed to route pedestrians. In fact Cardiff could be the railing capital of Wales!

Cardiff's parks and leisure gardens are world famous - 1,200ha of them. Uniquely Cardiff's parks extend to within yards of the city centre shopping area.

Fascinating Edwardian arcades and a Victorian covered market intermix with modern shopping precincts in the heart of the city. Cardiff's world renowned Civic centre, which never fails to impress visitors to the city, houses government offices, law courts, museum and university campus. One of the prime buildings is the City Hall. Unfortunately this is spoiled by the car parking, obscuring and blighting the view.

Cardiff is a sporting city famous as a hot bed of rugby. In 1999 Cardiff hosted the Rugby world Cup Final at the impressive Millennium Stadium incorporating a sliding roof and is located a stone's throw from other city centre attractions such as shops, museum, castle and theatres. The City often becomes pedestrianised when a big match is on but as buses are diverted and streets are full of noisy fans residents don't get a great deal of advantage from it.

Cardiff University, University of Wales College of Medicine, the University of Wales Institute, and the Welsh College of Music and Drama make up a student population of over 25,000 with the majority of them living close to the city's vibrant centre. This has caused parking problems as so many students have cars.

Travel to Work

All persons 16-74 in employment Cardiff Wales
130,270 1,186,256
People who work from home 6.67 9.72
Train 1.97 1.23
Bus 10.95 5.25
Motor cycle 0.60 0.75
Car 55.87 61.24
Car/Taxi passenger 7.56 9.48
Bicycle 2.70 1.38
Walk 13.20 10.35
Other 0.48 0.60

Population Cardiff Wales

Car Ownership
No Car 29.70 25.95
1 Car 44.47 45.55
2 Cars 21.33 22.94
3 Cars 3.51 4.31
4+ Cars 0.99 1.25
Total Cars 126,052 1,328,621 

Latest News from Cardiff

A469 Caerphilly Road: Multi Modal Scheme
Update. The latest!

I attended a cabinet meeting on the 8th April 2004 at county Hall which was considering the A469 proposals.

Cllr Michael said 'if integrated transport is to become a reality, then a consensus needs to be forged in this city. People should be able to choose public transport because it provides a quality alternative to the car. the task facing us is to persuade residents and businesses that we cannot delay any longer.'

He reminded us that transport makes or breaks cities. The projected increase in road traffic levels in Cardiff is 30% or more over the next 20 years. All parties on the council know that doing nothing is not an option. The Councils Local Transport Plan commits the council to promoting positive alternatives to the private car. the A469 proposals form a key componet of the Councils drive to promote an integrated and sustainable transport. Proposals to reduce the volume of traffic on the radial routes to and from the city centre are imperative if we are to reduce congestion.

Improvements to the key radial routes will rest on these key principles -

• Bus priority measures need to be continuous wherever technically possible.
• technology needs to be utilised to get buses ahead of queuing traffic
• limited land acquisition will be necessary at certain locations to accommodate bus lanes and bus priority measures
• on-street parking cannot be permitted where this would interfere with the flow of buses, but alternative facilities will be provided wherever possible where on street parking needs to be displaced.

Improvements to the Northern Corridor were scheduled as part of the first phase.