You just love to see Tory councillors gurning away about these boats spoiling "their" roadside. Now that the issue has had national publicity, can we look forward to more boats being parked up there? I do hope so.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Today's Rubbish Parking...
(908 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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The 'fourth boat' - albeit hidden under a cover - looks like a wooden thing of beauty.
Posted 3 years ago # -
So, we-re looking at around £50m to provide free parking at three hospitals - effectively a tenner for every person in the country, roughly four times the national spend on Spaces for People. On top of the £5.6m paid for "free" parking at these sites between April 2020 and March 2021 (plus whatever it costs in the interim).
Sticking my neck out here, but I reckon the NHS could have found something more useful to spend this money on at the moment.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Free parking is a big vote winner
Posted 3 years ago # -
How many free public transport journeys to/from the hospital could £50m have covered? I'm guessing here but think it might be more than the number of car journeys which have just been subsidised.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“Free parking is a big vote winner“
Might be votes in public hanging(?)
Posted 3 years ago # -
@chdot, Bring Back Stoning, was popular in the good old days
Posted 3 years ago # -
Ehhh, induced demand sucks and all that, but I think "letting hospital workers and people visiting sick relatives park for free is bad, actually" is probably not the hill we want to die on, strategically speaking.
It can be annoying but optics do matter. Right now most people who aren't fiscal conservatives or just reflexively against anything the SNP do are going to see this move as a good thing, and they're not going to be interested in the technical arguments why it probably isn't.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“It can be annoying but optics do matter.”
True
BUT
“Right now most people … are going to see this move as a good thing, and they're not going to be interested in the technical arguments why it probably isn't.”
Quite likely and a real part of the ‘real’ problem -
‘Of course I want to save the planet, but perhaps not just yet and certainly not if it inconveniences me’.
If Morningsider is vaguely correct, the ‘economics’ are fairly absurd.
Sure there are some ‘special circumstances’ re hospital workers. (We’ll ignore the whole business of whether the RIE is in a sensible place.) Shift starts ‘before public transport is working’, ‘staff on low pay who can’t afford to pay for parking’.
Perhaps, to both.
Is this REALLY the best way to address those and other issues??
MANY years ago Lothian Health employed someone to encourage staff relocating from Lauriston Place to think about ways of getting to the new site. As I recall, they had employed someone enthusiastic, fresh from a similar job in Canada.
I think they came to realise that enthusiasm, ‘common sense’ and nice leaflets wasn’t going to be enough.
It took years for Dalkeith Road to become vaguely suitable for cycling (much campaigning by Spokes). The route from the Innocent had STEPS. The most direct, FLAT, route was blocked because of fears of theft or vandalism by the residents of Greendykes. Some might have been more interested in a convenient way of getting to a new job…
Posted 3 years ago # -
It's not so much about it being the best way, it obviously isn't, and it's not about limiting ourselves to "leafletting and common sense", it's about picking our battles to best effect.
It would be better if fewer people drove in general, and it would be better if fewer people drove to the hospital in particular, but we have to weigh up if fighting the latter right now in this way will help or damage efforts to achieve the former, and frankly I think setting ourselves up in opposition to heroic NHS workers, sick people, and the families of sick people will make us look bad in the eyes of the public at large regardless of how right we might be - it's just handing the opposition a stick to beat us with.
The opposition are of course going to try and find things to beat us with regardless and will make some up if none are forthcoming, but there's no need to *help* them. It's like Extinction Rebellion - in general, peaceful direct action is a useful tool, but that stunt where they delayed trains when people were trying to get to work was a complete own-goal because it targeted the same people they're trying to persuade and made that more difficult.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“it's about picking our battles to best effect“
Not disagreeing with that.
Suspect there won’t be too many people/orgs arguing too loudly against this.
It’s just another thing on the list - A9 widening, Sheriffhall roundabout, etc.
There will always be advocates for all of these, some because of a ‘business as usual’ agenda or just local electoral advantage, but even without analysing the degree of “emergency” about Climate Change, Govs (this is not primarily about party) politics) need to have a much better view of priorities than looking for a good headline or a few extra votes.
Politicians need to work harder on advocating things that might well be expected to be unpopular - seat belts (bad example of course as it might have worsened things for pedestrians), smoking in pubs even ActiveTravel.
It’s still unclear how much ‘the public’ is ahead of politicians on ‘the environment’ and to what extent there is a willingness to go along with something different/(maybe) better.
Posted 3 years ago # -
More parking also a vote winner
Posted 3 years ago # -
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consider increasing the number of spaces to cope with demand.
“
And consider widening all the access roads too??
I’m sure they’ve considered improving the bike parking a few times. Too expensive no doubt.
How about free buses instead…
Posted 3 years ago # -
What bit of "it doesn't matter how much free parking you have, there will never be enough to cope with the insatiable demand" do they not get?
Honestly, they're so hard of thinking in this country, I'm no longer proud to live here
Posted 3 years ago # -
I’m sure they’ve considered improving the bike parking a few times. Too expensive no doubt.
They got some Spaces for People funding to build more secure bike parking last year. Not sure if/where it's been installed.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“They got some Spaces for People funding“
Great!
(Which “they”? Consort, or whoever it is currently?)
Posted 3 years ago # -
The press release at the time said it was to NHS Lothian: https://www.elhf.co.uk/20201103-secure-bike-storage-rie/
Whether NHS Lothian then immediately paid it to Consort/whoever, I have no idea.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“
Staff at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary have been warned buses may no longer call at stops on the hospital campus at Little France because parking congestion is causing delays of up to 45 minutes.
“
Posted 3 years ago # -
What about patients and visitors who want to get there by bus?
Oh, silly me: they only ever arrive by car, obviously.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I’ll put this here as it’s about parking rubbish.
It’s unclear if there is ‘concern’ about parking space reduction.
This is of course laughable as views have been polluted for a long time!
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The community council says the hubs – each with seven large bins – would ruin the famous views of the New Town.
“
Posted 3 years ago # -
I'd probably like to hear the council's side on that news item, having heard a few tales from people(most of them "New Town residents" - the idea these CCs automatically represent the views of the area is a farce) with the misfortune to have interacted with the NTCC.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“
Ms Miller said a temporary car park with 250 extra spaces was due to open before the end of the year. But she said: “That’s drop in the ocean. That will not solve the problem.”
“
Well yes.
So - infinite parking with instant access??
Even with a space waiting for everyone without the need to drive around looking for it, I still can’t see how there would be enough access road capacity to make this ‘seamless’, especially as there must be ‘shift change peaks’.
If this is about staff it must be fairly easy to devise a booking system where regular/essential users book ‘their’ space/time slot AND confirm they will be using it (or not) each day - small ‘price’ to pay for FREE parking.
Other people wanting to park will also book a space/time slot (if available) and know where it is.
Of course bike and bus users should still get priority.
I really don’t understand this -
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"I'm pro green but in 10 years everyone will be driving an electric vehicle anyway because they're doing away with petrol cars. Surely by the time they build an extra car park we're going to be half way there.”
“
Posted 3 years ago # -
devise a booking system where regular/essential users book ‘their’ space/time slot AND confirm they will be using it
A significant financial business based in western Edinburgh uses this approach. The rota, albeit worked out in excruciating detail long in advance, has the advantage that employees have certainty over parking day to day, week to week, and can thus plan their alternatives, for there is no onstreet parking available, at all, for people to ad hoc it.
Posted 3 years ago # -
"A significant financial business based in western Edinburgh uses this approach. The rota, albeit worked out in excruciating detail long in advance, has the advantage that employees have certainty over parking day to day, week to week, and can thus plan their alternatives, for there is no onstreet parking available, at all, for people to ad hoc it."
I think I know the one you mean - indeed if so I worked for it 20 years ago. Back then, those who wanted parking could get it 4 days a week - I have the impression that current headcount would be lower than back then so probably a sign that more people are driving to work...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Wow the layout of the RIE roads really is terrible. Fancy not having a set of roads for emergency access, buses, delivery vehicles etc and separate access points to the carparks! Would've prevented this issue at a stroke.
Presumably it's not just the buses being delayed by the parking hordes so removing the buses from the site (what a *total* own-goal) will only address some of the problems.
They could probably still fix some of these issues (maybe using some of that 50 million they found down the back of the sofa) but it would require some additional bridges across the Burdiehouse Burn.
Might even be sensible to have some kind of revenue stream to pay for this sort of active management... :)
Posted 3 years ago # -
Won’t help with RIE parking/buses -
“The report said traffic modelling suggested a 6 per cent increase in traffic on Old Dalkeith Road coming into Edinburgh, but that would be balanced by a decrease in traffic adjacent routes.
“
Posted 3 years ago #
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