Interesting. Was talking to someone about growing up in East Kilbride - he said he was 'never off the bike' - rode it to school & everywhere, but 'you grow out of it, don't you' (he certainly looked as if he could do with a bit of cycling...)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Infrastructure blog
(36 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Not sure I even like my conclusions....
Even if it is never used, I say build it. Build it like Livingston!
http://baldcyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/even-if-it-is-never-used-i-say-build-it.html
Posted 10 years ago # -
We moved to Livingston after leaving Glasgow. As a teen I walked more often than cycled. Blog there does mention the underpass question and it was sometimes safer to run across a busy main road than use these!
My main use of my bike in fact was to get out of Livingston! It wasn't all bad of course. Good observations on how the path network there should have made cycling the obvious choice. The fact that it encouraged walking instead is no bad thing.Posted 10 years ago # -
Some of the paths in Livingston are quite narrow and would require some negotiation if you met another cyclist (rare). Whereas the paths in Stevenage are a bit wider IIRC. The schools all have carparks for the teachers' cars but walking rates to school should be far higher than certain parts of Edinburgh but people will drive to school then drive on to work when it would seem quicker to let the kids walk themselves?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Some of the paths in Livingston are quite narrow and would require some negotiation if you met another cyclist
The footpaths on either side of the 'roundabout' road are narrow. I can't think of any other main 'core' paths that are less than 3m wide?
when it would seem quicker to let the kids walk themselves?
I remember being taken to school for the the first week or so in P1, after that I was on my own. Must admit I don't know what people do now in Livingston, but it does still seem that the school entrances for the most part are no where near the road network.
An architect replied one of my tweets, apparently Livingston is built on the ;Radburn housing layout'
http://www.radburn.org/geninfo/history.html
"
The primary innovation of Radburn was the separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. This was accomplished by doing away with the traditional grid-iron street pattern and replacing it with an innovation called the superblock. The superblock is a large block of land surrounded by main roads. The houses are grouped around small cul-de-sacs, each of which has an access road coming from the main roads. The remaining land inside the superblock is park area, the backbone of the neighborhood. The living and sleeping sections of the houses face toward the garden and park areas, while the service rooms face the access road.
"Yep, that sounds pretty much like Livingston.
And when we think of places in the Netherlands which are regarded as cycling friendly 'new towns', say like.... Houten, yep Radburn, or a more modern version of it.
http://greenwayneighborhoods.net/Why_Greenways_with_Cul-de-S.html
Posted 10 years ago # -
I've noticed recently that there are plenty of people doing as I do, i.e. bringing a bike into Livingston in the morning to get from the station to their work; but not many people cycling to the station and taking a bike to Edinburgh (or leaving it at the station - there are more bikes outside my office than there are at Livingston North station).
Posted 10 years ago #
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