Janet Fulford, of Mile End, is perfectly correct to state North Station requires “some” radical thinking (Letters, March 3).

The problem is the “radical thinking” should have been done 20 years ago, with radical application for the future – which is today!

On Monday, at 8.30am, the traffic in Bergholt Road was backed up to Tufnell Way. Most of the traffic was cars and vans containing one or two people.

In the traffic was a double- decker bus half full. At North Station, the traffic was jammed in and two ambulances using “blues and twos” got through because drivers pulled up on to the kerbs.

At 9am, the same doubledecker bus reached the Albert roundabout the same time I did walking.

My prediction is that, by 2015, the Bergholt Road traffic will be backed up to Bakers Lane and it will take one hour to get to the Albert roundabout.

The development of the North Station area with stores, a supermarket, depository and housing has increased traffic, but decreased any free space available to build a better road infrastructure to reduce the traffic problems.

More housing in the area means, on average, two more cars per house, so increasing road traffic.

Building roads, such as the Northern Approach Road, only means vehicles using that road get to the North Station blockage quicker.

This traffic problem does reduce at about 9.30am and access is then relatively free.

So it is a rush hour problem.

So, what can be done?

Well, perhaps more flexitime working could reduce peak-time traffic flow. Will Colchester businesses respond and encourage this?

Will offices, shops, banks etc allow staff more latitude in their start and finish times?

Then, to encourage drivers to use buses, put on more buses and reduce fares, even allow free travel for passengers between 8am and 9.30am hours.

After all, what is Colchester losing in delayed travel time costs compared to some free bus travel cost?

Consider reducing traffic lights to improve traffic flow and separate road and pedestrian traffic as much as possible.

Introduce more pedestrian footbridges over key places and so reduce the stopping of through traffic at pedestrian-controlled lights.

The new plans for the North Station area, which I have seen on the internet, look fascinating and need to be encouraged. Regrettably, however, I fail to see how these plans will reduce the North Station traffic jams at peak traffic times.

So, if Colchester fails, as before, to be radical now, will the future require a more radical response? Or should we even bother?

Colchester should help itself and think what can we do to solve this problem and not pay more council tax for roads to get even more crowded.

Allan Hewitt
Bluebell Way
Colchester