CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
mind thon last big climate protest in edinburgh
george iv bridge, there was a barrier up the middle of the road
on one side the single occupant diesel family war wagons heading cross town down the mound, and on the other the childrens crusade on a day off school march for greta to holyrood
for the 50 minutes duration, neither side acknowledged the existence of the other, it was like besźel and ul qoma
that for me was cognitive dissonance writ large, on both sides
John Finnie MSP was up against head of Inverness Chamber of Commerce on radio this morning.
Making good point about how the massive upgrade on A9 around Luncarty / Bankfoot should mark a halt until rail line is doubled in more places.
The pathetic sales levels of subsidised EVs will not make any real environmental impact - fabled electric highway keeps being seen as mitigating additional tarmac and concrete.
Electric trains and trams far more effective - oddly enough technologies that have been around for decades.
Electric buses? Notice the six all electric buses in Edinburgh have not been on streets for ages. Technical issues?
Haven't noticed this, but I now work off the bus route that seemed to have them all.
UK seems generally rubbish with electric/hybrid buses, e.g. all the electric motor issues with the new routemasters.
meanwhile whole cities in China have converted over to them.
All new non-electric buses/ taxis/private hires should be banned in the city, with a 5 year 100% phase out of the current fleets.
If the dualling of the A9 is halted by anything it will be the combined resources of the good burgers of Dunkeld, where the autobahn is squeezed between the Tay, the village, the railway and Birnam Hill. The French would put it on stilts through Glen Garr but we shall not.
I fully expect the London government to build a North British Freeway straight from Glasgow to Inverness on stilts. Stilts are the future.
The northbound lanes of the already-dualled section of the A9 in Glen Garry is on stilts. A85 to Oban is on stilts in Loch Awe after Cruachan. But no, it will not be «L'Autoroute Blanche» to Chamonix.
The Pass of Killiecrankie!
Also for the avoidance of doubt I did mean Glen Garr, not Glen Garry.
IWRATS, Glen Garr and google maps don't seem to get along. It puts it somewhere south of Kilmarnock (as a water bottling facility).
However if it's where trailforks seems to suggest would a tunnel not be more suitable? That still wouldn't stop the French.
Bankfoot to Rumbling Bridge. Stilts and then tunnel under the col?
Put the tunnel on stilts.
Now Transport Scotland will be interested.
At the excellent Greenroofer talk it emerged a red line over which he must not cross is the idea of removing any parking spaces.
Universal UK rule.
‘They’ don’t like change, ‘privileges’ removed.
No real leadership to persuade or insist.
Elsewhere ‘economic forces’ have meant more offices instead of parking.
@gembo
Those parking spaces have near sacred status. I have seen adult humans change colour like cuttlefish when their place in the space hierarchy is threatened.
Also those spaces are extremely expensive. The shareholders may well wonder if that money was spent in their best interests.
Are ‘we’ still shareholders??
By way of anecdote, I drove (yes, yes...) up to the Strathpuffer last weekend and the A9 was basically deserted north of Pitlochry (as is almost always the case). The existing levels of dualling offer ample passing for cars vs lorries and, of course, the average speed cameras have vastly improved the safety of the road.
It is noticeably more 'chilled' compared to when I spent my RAF career (2000s) driving up and down the thing to the Moray Coast, via Grantown. I holds my hands up, I was one of the worst offenders for flying past big lines of traffic in my youth in my fast car.
There is absolutely no business case for dualling the A9 (let alone the A96). It is simply not busy enough and the destruction of the Tay valley would be environmental vandelism, especially in the current 'climate energency' rhetoric. Just looking at the destruction of the area north of Perth that has recently been dualled.
Of almost more impact than the dualling is the requirement for grade separated junctions that dualling brings. Enormous bridges for unclassified roads going in all over the place and it's only just begun. Total waste of resources when sustainable infrastructure could be delivered with that money.
Yep. The worst part is that the blanket dualling commitment means that there's seemingly no prioritisation by safety benefit or environmental destruction - it's just whatever scheme gets spat out of the planning/objections/tendering pipeline first.
I was one of the worst offenders for flying past big lines of traffic in my youth in my fast car.
It was possible to ride the A9 very fast on a motorcycle. I'm told.
So depressing seeing our "leaders" talk green but act tarmac grey all the way. Stop. Building. More. Motor. Infrastructure.
Seems like a lot of politicians and voters don't actually believe the climate emergency is an actual, real, tangible "bad things will happen and lives will be broken" emergency but more of a "it'd be nice to do better on this but not if it a looks likely to mean I can't go everywhere in my personal metal box on wheels, fly whenever I want, and eat red meat 14 times a week".
“
“The finance minister has said she has an open door, so hopefully she will listen to our proposals.”
However, we understand that SNP ministers would be highly unlikely to entertain such a move, aware of the potential political fall-out in the affected communities.
The chances may have receded even further now that Highland MSP Kate Forbes is expected to lead the negotiations for the government, in the wake of the shock resignation of Finance Secretary Derek Mackay on Thursday.
“
Mandarins at Tarmac North Britain are Not For Turning. Note the mis-use of that word "balance" again - memories of Picardy Place shenanigans come flooding back...
I suppose we'll all need to "balance" rising sea levels, climate instability, food security and mass extinctions against the God Given Right To Single Occupant Driving. Tough one, eh folks?
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A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “We need to balance the extensive changes required to meet a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions with our duty to ensure that Scotland has high-quality infrastructure to meet the needs of all our residents, businesses and visitors.
“We remain committed to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness and the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen, underlining our commitment to connecting Scotland’s cities with a high quality transport system that will generate sustainable economic growth.”
---
@crowriver
BAU
Equals
Business As Usual
Equals
Balance
Equals saying things about climate and environment but not doing anything
“sustainable economic growth”
Nice concept, probably impossible without ‘sustainable energy’ and full recycling (or at least regeneration) of all materials.
Would help if measurements were rejigged so that GDP was ditched or (somehow) altered to include non ‘economic’ factors including health/wellbeing and REBALANCED(!) things like more miles driven being on the plus side of the equation.
“saying things about climate and environment but not doing anything”
And, perhaps worse, factoring in/relying on future ‘technologies’ like ‘carbon capture’ that will reduce (existing) atmospheric carbon faster than any (successful) planting of BILLIONS of trees.
Extinction rebellion youth do not drive but maybe most live in cities?
Time for Scottish Govt to revisit the dualling of remote rural roads:
Road schemes may face Heathrow-style court action
I'm not sure the word 'remote' is helpful.
While I do not underestimate the hazards of livestock rambling freely on any road, it would appear that "road safety" as envisaged by all the public bodies, private contractors, members of the public, etc. cited in the article in fact means "the God given right to blast along at 60mph regardless of what may be on the road ahead".
The fact that the hapless owner of the livestock is now to be prosecuted merely reinforces the perception that the most heinous crime against "road safety" is to dare to inconvenience motorists such that they need to take care of their own wellbeing more than they feel is reasonable.
It's a bit similar to the prevalent attitude that cyclists on A roads are "dangerous" or compromise "road safety" for other road users.
I was cycling up near Brora a few years ago and was a bit apprehensive about there being cows with young calves on the road. Normally I wouldn't be worried but some of the calves were getting rather curious and putting me in between it and mummy with almost zero escape routes for me.
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