The managing director of a Belfast business improvement district has called for more improvements to public transport and the city’s walkability to tackle traffic chaos in the city centre.
Recent weeks have seen traffic congestion in the city centre, especially during evening rush hour, with Translink advising of delays at peak times. Ongoing work surrounding the new £340 million Grand Central Station and a major resurfacing scheme of the A2 Sydenham Bypass have been contributing to the traffic issues.
As part of a new series, Belfast Live is asking people across the city who have been impacted by the congestion what they would do to fix the traffic issues.
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Every day this week, we have been speaking to some of those working in retail, hospitality, and public transport along with commuters, about what we can do to alleviate some of the congestion issues, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
Today, it’s the turn of Chris McCracken, Managing Director of Linen Quarter Business Improvement District, who is calling for improvements to public transport, including more frequent, reliable services, to counter the recent traffic concerns.
Linen Quarter BID is an independent not-for-profit company focusing on delivering specific improvements in the area, which includes areas such as Dublin Road, Bedford Street, and Bankmore Square.
Recognising current congestion has caused “frustration and concern” among both residents and the business community, Chris is calling for a pause on roadworks in the city to be brought forward to coincide with the Christmas light switch-on event on November 16.
He said: “I’d certainly echo the call to put a moratorium on roadworks – but if we could align that with 16h November when the Christmas lights go on it just means we would have slightly freer flowing traffic for that peak period.
“However, this [issue] requires long-term solutions. It’s not about facilitating the car and making the car have easier access to Belfast – it’s about facilitating people and moving people around our city, and we’re not going to do that by building more and more car lanes. We need to think about other solutions.
“Grand Central Station is a great example of one of the solutions we’ve got. There’s a capacity for 20 million people to come through this station [per year], we’ve got eight railway lines and 26 bus stands, and this is the future of transport in our city.
“But outside of this, we need to have more investment in the North-South Glider, we’ve seen the success of the East-West Glider, the North-South will take a lot of cars off the street, 105 people for every Glider. If you put a Glider against the amount of people in cars, the cars would stretch a kilometre just to accommodate that one Glider.”
Additionally, he said we need long-term thinking to combat the traffic issues, and improving getting around the city for pedestrians and cyclists.
Chris added: “We need to make it a more pleasant experience for people to walk around the city, walking is a major mode of transport we don’t often think about. If you’re having a journey of less than two miles, if you’re able to, why not just walk instead of taking the car?
“But we need to make that walking experience more pleasant. There’s a programme called Streets Ahead which earmarked £30 million for the Linen Quarter and £30m for Cathedral Quarter, so let’s bring that public realm programme ahead and make a pleasant walking experience.
“Belfast City Council had this idea there would be a civic spine in Belfast running from Ulster University to Queen’s University. That civic spine would be a walking spine, it would be a cycling spine, it would be a way for people to get around the city without a car. So more investment in that proposal would be very timely.
“We need to think about cycling as well. There was a plan a few years ago to have £100 million radial cycling infrastructure routes, with eight routes going in and out of the city. There was no money available.
“We’ve just had a £1.5 billion settlement for Stormont – so let’s invest some of that money into cycling infrastructure. It’s helping people move around the city more easily, and it’s taking cars off the street.”
One of Linen Quarter BID’s key calls is for late night transport to be in place year-round, not just over the festive period. The Christmas late-night services for Fridays and Saturdays will return later this month, but Chris said we need to expand on this more.
He said: “One of the things we’re working on is late night transport. We’re delighted the Christmas service will be returning on November 29 on Friday and Saturday nights. So if you’re coming in the city to socialise, you can get home much later. We want to continue that service so it’s year round, that’s one of our key objectives.”
Video by Belfast Live videographer Harry Bateman.
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