MPs outline road wish-list for Essex

8:20am Thursday 25th October 2012 in Echo News

MPs outline road wish-list for Essex MPs outline road wish-list for Essex

A FREE Dartford crossing and a Shoebury bypass are among the items on the transport wish-list for south Essex’s MPs.

During a debate on the county’s infrastructure in the House of Commons yesterday, Tory MPs James Duddridge and Jackie Doyle-Price called for measures to improve the lives of everyday motorists.

Ms Doyle-Price, who represents Thurrock, said the case still needed “to be made” for retaining toll charges at the Dartford crossing and claimed removing them would speed up M25 traffic considerably.

Following her cue, Rochford and Southend East MP James Duddridge called for a relief road to end the uncertainty of trips between the outskirts of Southend and Shoebury.

He said: “Broadly speaking, we would like an outer relief road, from Shoebury, bypassing Southend.

“However, in all candour, all alternatives at the moment would involve housing all along the side of the road, which would put congestion back into the system.”

Comments(16)

EssexBoy1956 says...
7:26am Thu 25 Oct 12

And more cycle lanes?

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PJR-121 says...
8:56am Thu 25 Oct 12

So it's a Southend bypass, not a Shoebury bypass... Did wonder how they could bypass Shoebury - where would the road go?

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Nebs says...
8:59am Thu 25 Oct 12

We have a great road system. The problem is that too many people want to use it all at the same time. As long as you avoid the rush hours it is normally quite easy to get to anywhere in the county.

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Eric Whim says...
9:03am Thu 25 Oct 12

I wish they'd honour their promises and get around to resurfacing/filling potholes

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
9:04am Thu 25 Oct 12

Building more roads to cure congestion is like selling bigger trousers to beat obesity.

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PJR-121 says...
9:58am Thu 25 Oct 12

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
Building more roads to cure congestion is like selling bigger trousers to beat obesity.
Well, people don't want to give up their cars, so what would your solution be?

And charging people to get out of their cars won't work either - petrol prices rising sharply hasn't reduced the number of vehicles on the UK roads by a significant amount...

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
10:13am Thu 25 Oct 12

Many motorists are reducing their car use:

"The online poll of 2,669 adult motorists found that four in 10 are cutting back on time spent on the road and looking to public transport (20%), walking (32%) or cycling (5%)."

http://www.guardian.
co.uk/money/2012/jul
/25/majority-car-own
ers-struggling-costs


I'd say that 40% of motorists reducing their car use is quite a significant number.

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Barry Bas says...
10:50am Thu 25 Oct 12

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
Many motorists are reducing their car use: "The online poll of 2,669 adult motorists found that four in 10 are cutting back on time spent on the road and looking to public transport (20%), walking (32%) or cycling (5%)." http://www.guardian. co.uk/money/2012/jul /25/majority-car-own ers-struggling-costs I'd say that 40% of motorists reducing their car use is quite a significant number.
That's 40% of 2669, not that big a sample size to start with when you consider that there is about 30 million cars on the road. I'm not a statician but I don't think that you could, or at least should, claim that relates to all car drivers in the country.

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
11:00am Thu 25 Oct 12

Barry Bas wrote:
Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
Many motorists are reducing their car use: "The online poll of 2,669 adult motorists found that four in 10 are cutting back on time spent on the road and looking to public transport (20%), walking (32%) or cycling (5%)." http://www.guardian. co.uk/money/2012/jul /25/majority-car-own ers-struggling-costs I'd say that 40% of motorists reducing their car use is quite a significant number.
That's 40% of 2669, not that big a sample size to start with when you consider that there is about 30 million cars on the road. I'm not a statician but I don't think that you could, or at least should, claim that relates to all car drivers in the country.
That's how all opinion polls work. A random selection of people are questioned. Sometimes we agree with the figures and sometimes we don't.

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PJR-121 says...
12:00pm Thu 25 Oct 12

The poll also says reducing - not giving up, so at some point these vehicles will still be on the road. Define reducing - does it mean they don't use the car at weekends? or travel to work by public transport one day out of five?

40% of 0.008% of the total amount of vehicle on the road - Sorry but I don't like opinion polls at the best of times, but that's a very low percentage to take seriously.

So how would you address the problem? I'll agree you can't build new roads everywhere though, otherwise the country would be nothing but concrete...

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
12:40pm Thu 25 Oct 12

PJR-121 wrote:
The poll also says reducing - not giving up, so at some point these vehicles will still be on the road. Define reducing - does it mean they don't use the car at weekends? or travel to work by public transport one day out of five?

40% of 0.008% of the total amount of vehicle on the road - Sorry but I don't like opinion polls at the best of times, but that's a very low percentage to take seriously.

So how would you address the problem? I'll agree you can't build new roads everywhere though, otherwise the country would be nothing but concrete...
You don't understand how polls and percentages work, do you?

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Eric Whim says...
12:50pm Thu 25 Oct 12

38.25% of statistics are made up on the spot 36.98% of the time by 78.365% of people, supposedly

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PJR-121 says...
3:19pm Thu 25 Oct 12

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
PJR-121 wrote: The poll also says reducing - not giving up, so at some point these vehicles will still be on the road. Define reducing - does it mean they don't use the car at weekends? or travel to work by public transport one day out of five? 40% of 0.008% of the total amount of vehicle on the road - Sorry but I don't like opinion polls at the best of times, but that's a very low percentage to take seriously. So how would you address the problem? I'll agree you can't build new roads everywhere though, otherwise the country would be nothing but concrete...
You don't understand how polls and percentages work, do you?
Oh I do, but I'd prefer a larger group were asked to garner a more representative figure.

And again, reducing vehicle use and giving it up completely are two seperate things.

The problem as I see it is that a car can go anywhere, while a bus or train will only stop at certain points, and the cost is large if you want to travel distance.

A bike is fine for short to medium journeys, but for long journeys it becomes a bit of an issue. Combining the two - a train then bike, would be nice, but most train companies ban bikes on rush hour services.

However, in terms of the motorways, the Managed Motorway system, adding another lane of traffic in busy periods, does seem to work. It means no new roads are needed, and no significant widening too.

Bypasses of major population points too are a good idea, however it needs to be proven that the roads being bypassed do pose a problem.

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
4:47pm Thu 25 Oct 12

People ar going to have to learn to walk from the bus stop or station aren't they. We cannot continue building more and more roads. We simply don't have the space. The age of tolerating roads congested with traffic - the majority of it consisting of cars with a solitary occupant - for eight hours out of every day is over.

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Nebs says...
6:22pm Thu 25 Oct 12

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
Many motorists are reducing their car use:

"The online poll of 2,669 adult motorists found that four in 10 are cutting back on time spent on the road and looking to public transport (20%), walking (32%) or cycling (5%)."

http://www.guardian.

co.uk/money/2012/jul

/25/majority-car-own

ers-struggling-costs



I'd say that 40% of motorists reducing their car use is quite a significant number.
40% is very significant. If everyone reduced their driving by 40% all the problems would be solved. But the survey does not tell us how much they are reducing their driving. The other 60%, if they are not reducing, must by definition either be doing the same or increasing. No conclusions can be drawn from this survey as it does not provide enough information.

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Horton says...
6:36pm Thu 25 Oct 12

Now then, let's see what's on Duddridge The Invisible MP's wish list... Oh, yes, here it is - "Please Dave, can I have my old job back as a Whip so that I can continue to use it as a lame excuse for doing sweet F.A. for my constituents? Oh, and it really helps to justify my London housing allowance. Where is Rochford and Soutehend anyway?? Thanks. Yours ever, love, James xxx". What a waste of space.

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