Saturday I travelled to Bath for a wedding and never again unless I got to. It took me hour and half to travel off the A46 dual carriageway junction to the City centre and then drove around a long term car park for half hour to find a place to park.
When are they going to sort this place out. Its just as bad today as it was some 18 years ago when my sister lived there. Surely they can put a multi storey car park there to blend in with rest of stone built buildings on some near derilict ground which there are, in or near the city centre.
They've only half cured the problem with the A46, when is the rest going to be sorted. A4 and A36 ????
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I live in Bath and you're not wrong.
A park and ride site for the A46 traffic has finally been sorted. Don't know when it'll open though.
The A4 Batheaston bypass, which takes in the A46 bit down the hill caused enough of a stink that they didn't dare link it up with the A36 Warminster Road - even though it crosses the Avon! Half the traffic that enters Bath on the A4 from the east is estimated to leave on the A36 heading south.
I'm guessing that the long term car park was Charlotte St.
Top tips for next time (if there is one)
1 - don't come down the A46. After Pennsylvania, turn right at the roundabout onto the A420 headed for Bristol. Turn next left, after a while down into a valley, turn left at the sort of T junction, up the hill, past the racecourse and turn right after the Blathwayt Arms, down a steep hill into Weston Village. Pass the Royal United Hospital and pick up the A431, then A4 into the centre.
2 - Alternative to Parking. Monday to Friday, the Lansdown park and ride works, and is just past the turn to Weston Village. An alternative is the Newbridge P&R, all are open from 6.15 to 8.
3 - Parking in the centre is expensive. I aim to get into Charlotte St before 11am, or else walk in. An alternative, if you're patient is Victoria Park or Julian Road at the top of the park, where once you get a space is free and is only 10 minutes walk further on.
BTW the big grotty multi storey in the centre is going, along with the Bus station and Southgate shopping centre. And there is no alternative parking being provided. You have been warned!!
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Or go to Chippenham, park your car for not a lot in the station car park and catch a train to Bath! I'm serious, as long as your venue is fairly central. Trains are every 30 mins and take 10 mins.
I quite agree about the A46 not joining up with the A36 though. It remains a complete mystery why an extra 500 metres (?)of road was not built, except maybe to the guy collecting the tolls on the bridge at Bathampton.
papho
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Or go to Chippenham, park your car for not a lot in the station car park and catch a train to Bath!
Good call actually. should cost less than a fiver each, and the half hourly trains are intercity, not the cattle wagons.
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Lansdown Park and Ride operates Saturdays also - good if in Bath all day and don't want to walk in from Victoria Park. Before Christmas, just get there early, period!
Check before using the train from Chippenham - weekend trains may be cancelled to allow track maintenance and the alternative coach service that is provided takes a lot longer.
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The Batheaston bypass is in my opinion one of the biggest wastes of public money. It was a very expensive solution to a problem that never existed. Until they link the A46 up to the A36, the traffic problems in Bath will never be sorted. By not linking the two roads, an oversight of immeasurable proportions has been made. All the bypass has done is moved the congestion elsewhere. Also it has had a serious impact on the traffic through Bradford-on-Avon since traffic heading south now uses it as an alternative rather than grinding along the A4. Bad planning. Not to mention the environmental terrorism that occured, the ripping up of lovely lush meadows to create a pointless road that serves little, if any, purpose. In the mornings it's quicker to drive through Batheaston than use the bypass. How crazy.
I wouldn't claim to ba a particularly 'green' person but as a society, we really need to take a step back and look at what we're doing.
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IIRC the Swainswick/Batheaston bypass was at the time of construction (1993/5) the most expensive road ever built in Britain - partly because of the secuity costs. The original plans had a link to the A36 on the other side of the valley, which would have kept north/south traffic away from Bath itself, but these were dropped after determined local opposition from residents over the other side of the river at a Public Enquiry. As it is at the moment the whole thing is a white elephant.
Autumnboy should be grateful the Rugby mob weren't at home - the traffic gets properly bad then!
It also possesses what the Sun described as "the most pointless speed camera ever", though I'm sure there are now many more contenders for that title. However that's another topic.
I used to be indecisive now I am not so sure
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I know the only people who are to make any money out these Traffic hold ups are the one's who run the Toll on the bridge near Batheaston.
I thought it may have been the start of the Festival week, started Saturday 22nd for a week. But from what you are saying its a normal day in the joys of driving through Bath.
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Oh Yes I see what you mean about the speed camera on the old A4 for 30mph zone, when you're entering Bath city and you're lucky to do more than 30cm an Hour.
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When the Batheaston bypass was being built, environmentalists and preservationists organised massive proptests.
Apparently thas were similar protests against the speculative development of Georgian Bath 250 years ago.
I wonder too if people protested about the building of the Iron Age hillfort on Solsbury Hill, next to the A46 section of the Batheaston bypass!
Cheers, SS
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