Leeds' creaking transport network is a regular headache with delays on our city's roads and why this has to change now - Laura Collins

On the very day that your Yorkshire Evening Post called for action over the city’s creaking transport network those using the city’s bus services were faced with delays of over two hours.

Friday evening’s peak time traffic gridlock was the perfect storm after an earlier climate protest, Black Friday shoppers and those commuters simply trying to get home from work.

It’s becoming a bitter pull to swallow.

This isn’t simply a one-off. It’s becoming a regular occurrence.

The city centre is the jewel in the crown for Leeds - but how are we supposed to attract people into it when they are stifled by the transport network?

Now that Christmas is upon us this should be the prime time for ensuring that people spend their hard-earned money right here in the heart of Leeds.

However, if there is little confidence in being able to get in and out of the city centre what impact could this have on footfall?

This title said it last week and will say it again this week. The YEP is simply exasperated with reporting on the chaotic backlog of queues that our city’s drivers, bus passengers and cyclists are languishing in week in, week out.

And this is clearly an issue that resonates with you, our readers.

You told us about the struggles you face trying to get a parking space in the city centre and sometimes the alternative is parking on the outskirts of Leeds and travelling in by train.

You also told us that perhaps a solution to unlocking the gridlock is to reduce the number of cars on our city’s roads by enforcing congestion charges.

Others voiced their concerns that they did not have faith in the public transport network and felt the only option was to jump in their car. And some of you told us that with the rapid expansion of Leeds you felt that the city’s infrastructure network was creaking at the seams and left unable to cope.

This is an issue that will not go away while Leeds remains one of the biggest Western cities without a mass public transport system.

Your YEP will be pressing the city’s transport chiefs on what they are going to do to propose a solution.

But this needs to be in conjunction with you, those people who use our city’s roads every single day.

That’s why today I’m calling on you to tell us how it could be solved and we’ll put those ideas to those in power.

Email your suggestions to [email protected] and we’ll make sure we start to really start to take the pressure up a gear to drive home the real need for change.