Not just the U1 that can do one

Expect further disruption to travel plans this term, as roadworks mean the campus journey takes nearly two hours.

As if the U1 journey wasn’t bad enough already, students and staff attempting to get on and off campus are hit by further delays, traffic, and road rage.

Having already been closed since June, Coventry City Council has put off plans to re-open Gibbet Hill road until the end of October, prolonging this transport nightmare.

The University and Coventry City Council claim that they made the decision after closely monitoring traffic flows over the last month.

With an increasing number, and length, of traffic jams, students are starting off their day irritated.

The paradoxical ladies man and Computer Science student, Akwasi Akoto remarked during this morning’s journey: “This is not my kind of slow jam”.

A spokesperson for the university said: “There will be no through route from one end of campus to the other.”

Many students feel let down by the notoriously bad bus service of the U1, coupled with the prolonged road works around the university.

English student Kezia Baddiley said: “I feel guilty for getting into my seminars late and getting evil looks from my new tutors.”

And for many students, the delays have had a detrimental impact to their studies.

Law student Stephanie Mackenzie-Denham said: “The delays are awful. I missed one of my lectures because I was stuck on Gibbet Hill Road for half an hour.”

The University advise students to allow extra time for their journeys. However, the increased times have been extreme.

This week politics student Connor Reisepatt had a 20 minute journey take two and a half hours.

He said: “I waited for over an hour by the Costcutter stop. Four U1s went past, all of which were full from the Maths and Stats stop. What’s that £300 spent on a bus pass actually going towards?”

This is following a statement made in February in which the ever-naive University said: “We don’t expect any significant disruption to traffic on campus.”

Cabinet member for public services at Coventry City Council, Rachel Lancaster, said: “I’m sorry that we won’t be opening the road in one direction next week.

“But I want to reassure people that we have thought long and hard about the advantages and disadvantages of keeping it closed and have decided that keeping it closed is the best option.

“We had initially thought that opening it in one direction would be needed when the students returned, but in actual fact the delay and disruption hasn’t been as bad as we predicted.

“We will continue to monitor this really carefully and if it gets beyond an acceptable level we will look again to open the road.

“This scheme is absolutely vital to the area, as the traffic levels coming through to the campus and around the residential areas continues to increase and we need the infrastructure to be in place to cope with rising demand.

“The network around the closure is just about coping and the advantage of the full closure is that our contractor will be able to finish the work more quickly.”

In addition to Gibbet Hill Road’s closure, the university’s Car parks 4 and 4a have been permanently closed. Car park 5 has also been permanently closed to all but service and authorised vehicles.

Additionally, the Library Road junction with Gibbet Hill Road has been permanently closed, and is now accessible to service and disabled vehicles only.

Until November, Gibbet Hill Road from Cryfield cottages to Scarman roundabout will be completely closed to all traffic.

Gibbet Hill Road from the car park 2 roundabout to Cryfield cottages, and around University Road until the area just before Health Centre Road, will be closed to traffic, with only buses, construction, service and emergency vehicles allowed access.