Despite plans for congestion-busting schemes across the district, motorists continue to face gridlocked traffic on a daily basis.

But it seems we continue to make more journeys by car than by bus.

According to the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority’s Travel to Work Census figures, there has been a 12 per cent decrease in commuting by bus and a 14 per cent growth in car journeys. Rail journeys rose by 77 per cent, cycling by 13 per cent and walking by 11 per cent.

In Bradford, a new bus and cycle lane aimed at cutting congestion on one of the city’s busiest roads is due to start operating within the next week.

Bradford Council hopes the £47,000 project – on Huddersfield Road and Woodside Road and funded by West Yorkshire Metro – will improve bus times, leading to a reduction in cars on the road and an increase in people using public transport.

In Keighley, a multi-million pound scheme to cut peak-time congestion has won approval from Bradford Council's Keighley Area Committee. The scheme, introducing one-way systems, is aimed at tackling traffic gridlock which councillors fear is putting off shoppers and visitors.

The Council has dedicated nearly £1.5 million to the scheme, and highways officers will now draw up a detailed scheme for public scrutiny.

While moves to tackle these area are to be welcomed, congestion blackspots continue to blight much of the district’s road network.

Keith Thomson, who writes the T&A’s environment column, Envirowatch, says figures show that Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle are less congested than West Yorkshire, which could be down to "better mass transit and public transport arrangements”.

“Manchester and Sheffield have the modern trams, and Newcastle has the Metro,” he says. “It would certainly help to have modern mass transit systems and they are very expensive, as Leeds and Edinburgh’s efforts to get a working tram system have shown.

“We do have a good bus service in Bradford but it’s very expensive. A greater subsidy to the bus company to allow fixed costs, of say a fare of £1 for all journeys, would certainly get more people on buses. You only have to look at what happens with us older people with our free bus passes.

“It’s also worth considering what happens in school holidays when the road congestion is very much reduced. Far too many children are part of what is now known as the school run – in my day we walked to school, and back, or used public transport.

“We certainly need to find a way of encouraging people not to take children to school in cars, and that may mean going to the nearest school and not one at the other side of the city.”

He adds: “We don’t have an inalienable right to drive a car and park it for free.

“Maybe families that don’t have cars can have some form of tax rebate to encourage them and help them use public transport, and somewhere along the line we need to address the concept of the out-of-town supermarket and shopping centre.

“They have enormous car parks, and perhaps they should have to pay a much larger business rate, associated with the number of parking spaces, whereas local shops in the high street and villages could have a rebate.”

Mr Thomson’s suggestions for easing congestion include: l Decide what we mean by congestion, by collecting information on traffic flows at certain times on specific roads.

  • Improving tight spots in the present road system, such as Saltaire roundabout and major junctions.
  • Encourage people out of cars by increasing bus fare subsidies, consider park and ride, safer and separate bicycle routes, and two new local rail stations for trains with more carriages.
  • Develop a 15-minute shuttle rail service between Bradford and Leeds.
  • Make out-of-town and supermarket shopping pay for their ‘car magnets’ and subsidise local shopping through business rates.
  • Make it difficult for children to be taken to school by car – they should either walk or use an improved yellow bus system.
  • Tighten up on the enforcement of car behaviour, through unadvertised cameras, and penalise parking on the pavement.

“One of the things we mustn’t do is build new roads,” he says. “As soon as you do they will fill up with cars and the problem just moves along to another point.”