Improving the city of Southampton

Many of this forum are going to be actual, born and bred Sotonians. Some will have hit the cross bar and have be West End or Eastleigh or whatever, and others will never have set foot in the city at all. Regardless, we’re not discriminatory types around here. Whatever your physical association with the city, we’ve all got a connection.

Those that have walked its streets will know that it is not a perfect city. No place is, really, but Southampton seems to have a habit of making a lot of things harder than they need to be. Transport would be the obvious candidate, as the regular reports of gridlock in the city would suggest, but there’s more to it than that. I get the impression that Southampton has gotten to a certain size and almost doesn’t know what to do next.

I’ve seen enough moans about the city, so I’m seeking to achieve a different tone here, plus I’ve never really been a fan of moaning about something without having a couple of ideas about how to solve it.

How can Southampton (the city) be improved?

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Remove half of the traffic lights.

Widen Thomas Lewis Way and The Avenue.

Fully develop (or at least attempt to finish) the Town Quay/Ocean Village area. Actually this could extend right 'round to the stadium…

Make more of the city’s heritage (in whichever form is plausible/financially affordable). An injection of culture wouldn’t go amiss in any form.

I actually love living here. For all the city’s foibles nowhere else has ever felt so much like ‘home’ for me. Often I defend it like I would a sibling - I’m allowed to chat shit about it, but don’t you dare!

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Looks like they are getting ready to start the hotel in Ocean village. Hope they get on and put some good restaurants in there.

as for traffic lights, I am convinced the person who designs the road network in town is related to someone who owns the company who makes the lights, either that or he has lost his compass and can’t draw circles anymore

On the transport/congestion side of things, the council needs to ditch the belief that it can be possible for everyone to drive right into the centre with no concomitant traffic jams - it isn’t possible in Southampton or any other city. Widening the roads in would merely move bottlenecks around; the best approach is to reduce the number of motor vehicles. You can only do this by improving public transport and making life better and easier for pedestrians and cyclists.

Other than that, I agree with everything you’ve said (except that I’m no longer a resident of Southampton, living as I do on the dark, eastern side of Hampshire).

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You definitely need more Polish shops.

My last trip home I had to walk at least 300m before I was able to stock up on Old Krupnik & Kilbasa. Really frustrating.

Oh and an exit onto the M27 from the top of The Avenue FFS.

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I am spolied where I live. We have two main drinking areas up here, and they are not far apart,. and more importantly, there is stuff in between. The walk from town to Ocean Village/Oxford St area is too far. There is no joined up drinking. So I am not super excited about Ocean Village right now.

We’d do better to grow the city organically and prosperously back down to Town Quay. Then you’ve got some decent stuff on the way to Ocean Village. Can’t believe we haven’t done more with Canute Road.

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Fair to say, and the council should take responsibility to reduce that amount of traffic (ideally without buggering the inner-city system any further).

I guess my angle was more one of safety/clarity than considering congestion - both roads are too wide to be a single lane and not really wide enough to allow 2x2 on each carriageway. So I suppose my actual suggestion would be to widen them and paint the lanes in, or pinch them in slightly.

I’m on board with keeping traffic off the streets. Increasing capacity is only ever a short term fix, and can actually lead to problems long-term. The M27 was supposed to be the panacea to the region’s motorway problems, but has actually ended up being the enabler of a lot of growth outside the city, many of them making daily demands on the transport infrastructure.

Time to start looking at the Solent City conurbation as one big area, I reckon. I think we need to spend proper money on lasting infrastructure, such as mass transit, to bring many of the smaller towns into Southampton’s permanent orbit without the bottlenecks that are presently jamming everything up. Couple of new tunnels or bridges wouldn’t go amiss either, especially on the west side of the city.

Generally, I have a 2 minute walk to the South Western, a 20 minute stroll to St Marys and shop online. I only go into town if I really want something to moan about.

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Originally posted by @Goatboy

Generally, I have a 2 minute walk to the South Western, a 20 minute stroll to St Marys and shop online. I only go into town if I really want something to moan about.

So apart from the vast fleet of delivery vehicles sent out to service your whims, you’re not part of the problem? :zipper_mouth:

Move Southampton closer to my present location please. There is already a Portsmouth in Ohio, and I am reliably assured by an unbiased party that even this one is a shithole (His words)

I realise that it would involve some minor changes in lifestyle, like being legally required to imprison young ladies in your house for up to ten years, and shooting people that you might not normally want to shoot…But they are only minor sacrifices.

There are plenty of places around here that easily accomadate New Southampton. At the moment, these areas are mostly used only by animals eating/fucking eachother and people trying to shoot them while they are trying to eat/fuck eachother…Actually, forget it. It sounds just like another Portsmouth, Ohio.