Consultation on City of York Council’s draft transport strategy closed earlier this month.
The strategy outlines a number of schemes which aim to improve transport in York, while increasing the share of vehicles on the road that are electric or hybrid.
The strategy also bids to reduce carbon emissions from transport by 71 per cent and reduce car miles travelled by 20 per cent.
York’s Green Party has since welcomed the majority of the policies included in the strategy.
Green Party transport spokesperson for the city, Andy D’Agorne, said: “This is an ambitious programme that aims to meet our carbon reduction targets, tackle air pollution, reduce congestion and improve York’s transport systems.
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“We are happy to support most of it. The challenge will be to avoid York’s continuing tendency to produce good strategies which it fails to implement effectively.
“Programmes to transform bus travel such as bus priority measures are well behind schedule and at risk of us losing the funding secured from external sources.
“We are in a climate emergency. We have growing demand for travel in a finite space, a health crisis and an economy which is slowly recovering from the pandemic.
“Despite clear financial challenges, this administration has a clear mandate and a near full term of office in which to take radical action to fix our transport network.”
The Greens outline their stance on the key aspects of York’s transport strategy
The Greens claimed that there should be a clear deadline for introducing a commercial vehicle ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone), covering everywhere within the outer ring road, and “potentially” the Designer Outlet.
They added: “The City centre’s ‘foot streets’ area should be clearly signed as maximum 10mph at all times of the day and steps taken to limit any traffic not accessing premises within the area.
“York’s Bus Service Improvement Plan desperately needs to tackle unreliable services to save us from a spiral of decline, with urgent implementation and enforcement of key bus priority measures
“The dial-a-ride service needs to be restored and incorporated into wider mobility options. New services such as hospital or city centre ‘shuttle buses’ should be fully considered.
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“Adopting a ‘Vision Zero’ approach to gradually eliminating road collisions, would be enabled through extending 20mph areas to include villages.”
The party also wants to see the overnight parking option at Park&Ride sites progressed more quickly, as part of its tourism strategy.
Mr D’Agorne said: “Recognising the limits on council resources, the party suggest that reducing traffic levels and making walking, cycling and bus use more attractive is the way to minimise the need for enforcement, with ‘rule breaking’ and inconsiderate parking often arising from current frustrations with delays and time pressures on road users.
“Removing Castle Car Park for new public space (except for retained disabled parking) is something that needs progressing as part of an overall review of long term parking strategy for the city.”
