East Sussex to scrap half of its planned emergency active travel schemes

I used to live down that way. Where are these cycle lanes ?

From Waitrose up to the Grove lodge roundabout, one lane has been closed off to cars and there's fixed bollards keeping bikes and cycles apart.

Here's a round-up typical me posts in local newspaper letter column comment sections. I think there is some genuine incomprehension from the letter writers that a road or a lane should be closed, also a lot of pretty underhand what aboutery about disabled drivers. 
 

Was I consulted about the situation we find ourselves in now?  Our main street busy, noisy, parked-up (pavements and all),considered by many to be “too dangerous” to cycle and toounpleasant to walk in.  Is it such a surprise that after 60 years of this building-up, many people are increasingly questioning any further development along those lines?  Have we forgotten how nice the world is when there aren’t cars? 

The car is an exclusive club – if you are too poor or too infirm to belong, you are out and are left with very little to fall back on.  Many of those in the club are burdened by obesity, high blood pressure, mishaps, expense, pollution, conflict with others, a race to keep up with the Joneses that they can never win.  That’s to say nothing of the people not in the club. 

Surprisingly, some club members are left disappointed, angry and frustrated by the experience and blame everyone except themselves for their predicament:  cyclists for taking up road-space, the Council for not building enough roads, or restricting closing a few of the roads that there are. If you are in traffic, you are traffic. 

“I have to travel four miles for work”: 20 minutes by bike, and you shouldn’t have to be a die-hard or a fanatic to do it. Take a look at the New Forest in August: people all over the country are longing to cycle. 

Car dependence been going on a long time now, is ingrained, people are addicted and simply cannot see any other way of living.  The self-generated image of the hard-pressed, victimised motorist being hounded off the roads by Lycra warriors and green fanatics doesn’t accord with the reality around us today, though.  What’s being proposed with cycle (hopefully soon to be bus lanes) and pedestrainisation really isn’t that big an ask. 

Our shopping habits, especially for non-food, have changedcompletely.  The shops of the future are going to have to offer us something we can’t get on-line – e.g. service, a unique experience.  I think that starts with creating a people-friendly shopping environment.   

Newbury, Winchester, Oxford, Salisbury – the same old story of the by-pass  or throughway being built at great exense to the envionment and the public purse, intended to remove through traffic from the town.  What happens? After a few years, both the by-pass and the town are both again choked, you end up finding ways of by-passing the by-pass.  Where does it end? 

The car dependency thing is scarily so ingrained in people now, you do get the feeling some would literally choose to die rather than just park or drive 2metres further from a shop.

A scheme in Hadleigh to make the high street one way and widen pavements was removed because some complained the barriers were ugly.

A scheme in Beccles to make a market square traffic free was removed because people complained they had lost their 'free' car parking & had to pay 70p to park their car.

What hope is there that any of this new stuff stays or that people eventually get it, when they are prepared to complain& campaign against it because it costs them 70p extra to park,whilst owning & maintaining a car.

70p? I'm half way through paying £355 a month for this, I can't afford 70p to park it. 

there is something about getting right the presentation of these schemes.

yes, the adject laziness we've gotten into - just nipping into this shop - is staggering when you look at and think about it. Retailers often defend it - some are desperate for any sort of trade and the thought that they might lose some it puts them into overdrive.