IT’S an issue everyone has a view about.

All this week, the Daily Echo is looking at traffic congestion and what can be done about it.

We’ll be hearing from policy-makers, traffic officers, campaigners and businesses. But first, it’s the turn of readers to share their experience of congestion and what they think should be done.

Claire Wilkinson said children should walk to school, reducing congestion and helping to tackle child obesity.

“Children used to go to the school that is closest to them. The government needs to make sure that schools are equally equipped and all offer great education,” she said.

Maria Cupper, of Charminster, said her bus journey from Poole to Charminster could take anything from 60-90 minutes in the evening rush hour, with the stretch from Upper Parkstone to Westbourne the worst.

“I feel it is not the motorist that is solely to blame here, though I don’t doubt there are some making short trips when they could have walked. In my view, the main cause for congestion lies with the local authority who persist in allowing over-development in an area whose infrastructure clearly cannot cope with more car owning residents/students and poorly thought out road improvement schemes,” she said.

Her suggestions included instant, automated penalties for blocking box junctions; a new bus station in the Square; and small-scale, London-style underground network.

David Butcher, of Redhill Crescent, Bournemouth, said: “Most interesting to read that the utilities are responsible for most of the roadworks. I wrote to the Echo some years ago saying that my guesstimate was that 90 per cent-plus of the wretched potholes in our roads are the responsibility of the utility companies, yet the council has to repair. Why not pass the cost on to the utilities who make vast profits from us, the consumers?”

He suggested buses caused congestion when they stopped to collect passengers. “If they could be afforded, bring back old-fashioned conductors – anything to speed up loading of passengers,” he said.

But Graham Maccers denied local roads were at capacity. “We can endlessly go round blaming roadworks, online shopping or council planning, but it comes down to simple numbers,” he said.

“Too many cars add up to road space being taken up, with no way to escape all the other people in cars. Back before people could afford cars, they got a bus or had a bicycle. Now people can afford cars, they have them. That leads to people working further and further away. By giving mobility to people, it’s taken it away again.”

He said the car was “the worst use of road space ever invented”, and that the roads needed more buses and a Dutch-style cycle path system.

“Cars have become too easy to get hold of, too easy to operate and are going to end up bringing the entire country to a standstill,” he added.

Robin Davies of Portarlington Close, Bournemouth, suggested creating a task force of people relevant experience.

Suggestions included joining Wessex Way to Dorset Way with a dual carriageway bypass; opening the underpass a the Travel Interchange to all traffic; charging developers when they use roads or pavements while building; and introducing congestion charges at peak times.

“Naturally the council staff will say they have considered all of this and more, and doubtless they have, but we still have the problem and it’s getting worse. More drastic, and inevitably controversial, approaches are now required,” he said.