St Ives Park and Ride

Some weeks ago I posted that work had been completed on the extension to St Ives Park & Ride car park. That wasn't quite right. Since then some work has continued.The most recent has been the erection of wooden fences to prevent  (I suppose) pedestrians straying into the path of the buses.

I haven't done any counting of parked cars, but it does seem to me that the end of the car park nearest to St Ives town centre is always busier than the far away section. That says to me that people are using it as a free car park for access to the town centre. Good news for St Ives shops and businesses, I guess. But not really the intention of the car park extension.

St Ives Park & Ride

Work starts next week on doubling the size of the car park at St Ives Park & Ride. It will cost £2m and the number of parking spaces will increase from 500 to 1000. Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier ( 8 November, page 13).

Station Road bus stop - more letters

This week's Hunts Post (12 September, pages 6 and 7) prints two letters about the problems of the new bus stop in Station Road, St Ives. How absurd it is that old and vulnerable people waiting for buses to hospital have to wait on a busy pavemnt in eth open when there is a waiting room only yards away in the bus station! Buses waiting at the stop are lilkely to impede emergency vehicles, and block sightlines which make crossing roads nearby dangerous  for pedestrians. There is a suggestion that parking should be restricted in Station Road, and the exit from the Waitrose car park into Station Road be closed.

Park and ride

In the The Hunts Post of 21 September was a letter complaining about people using St Ives Park and Ride to park and then taking the bus into St Ives town centre in order to avoid paying town parking charges.

A follow-up letter (28 September, page 7) points out, correctly, I think, that this is a legitimate use of the park & ride, and it's not so much to avoid parking charges, as to actually find a parking space on market day. There is a supplementary point - about whether 'old age pensioner' should get free parking.

Standing room only

This week's Hunts Post (21 September, page 6) has a letter from a Swavesey resident about the difficulties his daughter has had using the guided bus for travel to Hills Road due to overcrowding, and buses not stopping at Swavesey because they have been full. She has returned to using the slow bus (Citi 5) which goes round the villages. He appeals for extra buses to Cambridge starting from Swavesey.

On page 7 is another letter about crowded buses from a St Ives residents who uses a stick, and find that people won't give up their seats to elderly or disabled people. She also mentions signage at bus stops, and senior citizens parking at St Ives Park & Ride, then using their free passes to travel into St Ives - in other words they are dodging car parking charges.