Tortuous Traffic in Torquay (mini blog 2)

… is part of a whole series of “exciting” projects to improve the Borough.

One of these is entitled “The Strand: Harbour Public Realm” as in the list above. Now as soon as you read the phrase “Public Realm” there is a good chance it will mean pedestrianisation and restrictions to those horrid things called buses. On rare occasions it can also mean restrictions or even banning of cars, but this is less usual because the private motorist is more likely to vote their councillor out than is the typical bus passenger.

So The Strand at Torquay is to get the Public Realm treatment.

Once it was the town’s busy bus interchange facility; a bus station in all but name. Most routes would turn at the roundabout which supports the clocktower, a k a The Mallock Monument. One major route would continue up the hill towards Babbacombe.

Open Street Map shows a more recent emanation of the area.

There are little blue bus icons on both sides of The Strand. But that luxury has been expunged for some time. A more recent development was the removal of the stops on the “water” side, round the corner into Carey Parade.

A Stagecoach bus map on their web site (undated, of course and out of date, of course) shows a recent view.

Many buses (apart from route 12 (RED) terminate at the roundabout at the Carey Parade end of The Strand with route 22 (GREEN) being the only service up the hill and thus the only service actually travelling via The Strand itself.

So it was fairly easy to move the 22 bus stop for Babbacombe round the corner to Torwood Street.

Thus it was that all bus stops were removed from The Strand but traffic, including buses (actually only the 22) still passed by.

This situation is reflected (almost correctly) in Google Maps with the stop on the actual harbour side of The Srrand shown as empty …

… and the Torwood Street stop showing the 22.

61 and 62 are not operated by Stagecoach and as there is no definitive map showing these services, fbb will stick to what can be explained in a map.

The net result of these changes is that work on the Public Realm can go ahead with gusto.

See; the former broad dual carriageway road has been narrowed on both sides with lots of Public Realm. But work did not proceed with gusto during the holiday season, so visitors to the English Riviera could enjoy the potential Public Realm and not enjoy the disruption to the once-easy interchange options in The Strand.

But worse was to come and will come to this blog on  Thursday .

Here is Carey Parade where you would (recently) find most bus stops that used to be on The Strand.

And here is Carey Parade before the wheel was invented; or, at least before passenger carrying motor vehicles were de rigueur!