Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Listening Test 4 (Questions 11-14)

CHAIRPERSON:

Right. Next on the agenda we have traffic and highways. Councillor Thornton.

COUNCILLOR THORNTON:

Thank you. Well, we now have the results of the survey carried out last month about traffic and road transport in the town. People were generally satisfied with the state of the roads. There were one or two complaints about potholes which will be addressed, but a significant number of people complained about the increasing number of heavy vehicles using our local roads to avoid traffic elsewhere. We’d expected more complaints by commuters about the reduction in the train service, but it doesn’t seem to have affected people too much. The cycle path that runs alongside the river is very well used by both cyclists and pedestrians since the surface was improved last year, but overtaking can be a problem so we’re going to add a bit on the side to make it wider. At some stage, we’d like to extend the path so that it goes all the way through the town, but that won’t be happening in the immediate future.

The plans to have a pedestrian crossing next to the Post Office have unfortunately had to be put on hold for the time being. We’d budgeted for this to be done this financial year, but then there were rumours that the Post Office was going to move, which would have meant there wasn’t really a need for a crossing. Now they’ve confirmed that they’re staying where they are, but the Highways Department have told us that it would be dangerous to have a pedestrian crossing where we’d originally planned it as there’s a bend in the road there. So that’ll need some more thought.

On Station Road near the station and level crossing, drivers can face quite long waits if the level crossing’s closed, and we’ve now got signs up requesting them not to leave their engines running at that time. This means pedestrians waiting on the pavement to cross the railway line don’t have to breathe in car fumes. We’ve had some problems with cyclists leaving their bikes chained to the railings outside the ticket office, but the station has agreed to provide bike racks there.