CONTROVERSIAL bus gates that have led to tens of thousands of motorists being fined in just a few months are due to be extended at some of Scotland's busiest thoroughfares.
Plans to reduce congestion and improve the overall environment in Glasgow city centre have led to two new no-go zones for private transport being identified, with hundreds of on-street car parking spaces also due to be removed.
It is expected the overall traffic in Glasgow city centre would fall by almost 10 per cent, but journey times would significantly increase if all the measures are implemented.
The city council wants to limit traffic heading north to south in the city centre by installing a bus gate on Renfield Street, one of the most polluted in the country.
Another, limiting vehicles arriving from the southside, is planned for Oswald Street.
The city council is expected to approve the plans today as part of a strategy for city centre traffic over the next decade with bus gates scheduled to be in place by 2017.
Other key plans include widening footways and creating avenues and new cycle lanes on key routes, further pedestrianisation of some streets and making car trips through the heart of the city centre "more circuitous and less appealing to drivers".
A bus gate at Nelson Mandela Place, introduced by the city council in June, caught a daily average of 694 car drivers in its first week.
Operating from 7am until 7pm every day, it has been credited with a drop in congestion and in harmful traffic emissions.
But after just two months it generated £1.5 million in fines, sparking concerns by the city's Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.
The major new report into the city centre's transport and traffic states: "The main bus corridor proposals have been tested using transport modelling.
"The avenues and cycle routes were generally found to increase journey times and decrease average speeds for motorised traffic on affected corridors with some re-routing as well.
"The introduction of bus gates/traffic management measures on Renfield Street and Oswald Street provided benefits to buses on these corridors but led to re-routing and longer journey times for general traffic.
"Traffic travelling through the city centre is anticipated to fall by up to nine per cent as a result of the measures contained in the report." As part of the plans, where the road is not wide enough to accommodate cycle lanes, existing on-street parking will be removed from one side of the road.
The six locations designated as avenues include Candleriggs, George Street, Gordon Street, Sauchiehall Street, West Campbell Street and West Nile Street, all selected because of their "existing character, levels of traffic, ability to connect across the city centre and links they provide to key shopping facilities and transport hubs".
Councillor Alistair Watson, political head of transport at Glasgow City Council, said: "One of the actions of the strategy is to improve signing and the provision of information and any changes to city centre traffic management would be advertised and promoted well in advance."
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