http://m.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/anger-as-key-road-shuts-for-third-time-in-a-year-1-4004972
Don't live in this area - maybe one of the locals can comment on the OUTRAGE?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
New hospital built; drivers complain
(34 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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TRAFFIC CHAOS!
I would have thought with the road closed there would be the opposite of traffic chaos.
Posted 9 years ago # -
You would have thought George Watson College might have used this as an opportunity for a big push for active travel to school, instead of apologising to parents.
Posted 9 years ago # -
My heart bleeds. Not. Something about that school seems to attract a certain type of driving, perhaps best characterized as "out of my way, peasant!"
Can't say I noticed much TRAFFIC CHAOS during the sewerage works. Indeed it was rather more pleasant than otherwise as the temp lights prevented the parents from hooning up the road in their usual entitled fashion and discouraged use of the rugby club carpark as a dropoff point (with attendant inept manoeuvrings).
On an unrelated point hopefully Morrison Construction can fill in some of the epic potholes that have appeared outside their site while they are doing work on the road...
Posted 9 years ago # -
Headline: "key road shuts"
Article: "key city road will be partly closed"
The temporary lights provided an opportunity to (fairly) safely filter to the front of the queue, something that isn't always achievable at the Colinton Road junction.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
Now contractor Morrison Construction has announced that it will be shutting a section of the same road – which runs through the George Watson College campus
"
Interesting spin by someone.
Or 'busy rat run clogged with cars delivering children to a school that happens to have playing fields on the other side and has installed a pedestrian bridge to remove need(?) for parents to stop on this road.
Posted 9 years ago # -
How is this a "key arterial route" exactly? Or even a "key road"? It's nothing of the kind. Unless you are a parent dropping your darlings off at Watson's, that is.
I suppose "handy rat run for Morningside motorists to get to the West End" doesn't make for such an appealing strap line...
Does EEN churnalist J Connell live in Morningside? I think we should be told.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I agree that the parking near Watsons is pretty poor, though mainly on the blind corner as one approaches Balcarres Street or comes down the bike lane from Morningside Drive which then gets blocked by parked cars and vans. The cars here are always parked so I suspect it is non-Watson traffic. Also, please refrain from the unthinking tiresome inverse snobbery about Watsons parents and their "little darlings". I have had plenty of close shaves when passing other schools, private or not. It seems to me that ignorance and a sense of entitlement attaches to all sorts of people/parents who drive.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I think I said darlings rather than little darlings (most kids will be teenagers), and cannot recall expressing any snobbery, inverse or otherwise. Simply it's factual that the road is used by Watson's parents, the quotes from the Watson's bursar and former school governor, Tory councillor Mark McInnes confirm that.
Also worth noting that pupils at independent schools are far more likely to be driven to school in a private motor vehicle than those attending state schools: transport statistics bear this out, including the 'Hands Up' survey of school children conducted annually across Scotland.
"43.8% of independent school pupils said they normally travel to school by car compared to 21.6% of state school pupils."
I make that more than double the % of pupils coming in parents' vehicles. That's the national figure, for Edinburgh the comparison is even more stark: 45.5% of independent school pupils arrive by car, compared with just 8.7% at state secondaries and 18.9% at state primaries. Even nursery schools have a lower car driving rate at 38.5%. This may reflect distance from school but it's still worth noting the disparity.
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/scotland/what-we-do/schools-and-universities/hands-scotland
Posted 9 years ago # -
Crowdriver-apologies for misquoting you-"darlings" it is. Was actually aiming my comment at an earlier post. Interestingly when I look at Scottish Gov figures and figures from the independent schools themselves for total pupil numbers (i.e. primary plus secondary c44,900 state school pupils in Edi comprising 26,900 primary and 18,000 secondary; c11,000 in independent schools) and applying the percentages you quote, I calculate 6650 state school pupils normally travelling by car and 5005 independent school pupils. Lies, damned lies and statistics I am sure.
I totally agree with the general theme about school runs, parking etc. I just get a bit fed up with people taking cheap shots at independent schools (NOT you) as if the standard of driving or the attitude of drivers is in any way different to that which we all experience more generally.Posted 9 years ago # -
By and large, I like to think of myself as an equal opportunist misanthrope
However those range rovers aren't cheap, and neither are the school fees
So i'm happy to generalise wildly and regard these parents as elitist morally bankrupt shareholders for the banking sector and arms industry
It provides some background colour for my day
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Lies, damned lies and statistics I am sure."
Looked at another way, 54% of state school pupils walk to school (54.3% secondary, 53.5% primary), compared to just 17% of independent school pupils. So if we take your figures that's 24,246 state school pupils on foot versus 1,870 independent school pupils.
Cycling: 2.9% of independent school pupils ride to school; 1.3% of state secondary and 6.2% of state primary school pupils ride. So that's 319 cyclists in the fee paying sector, 213 council run secondary wheelers and 1.668 government funded primary poolers.
Lothian Buses have something to celebrate, as 31.4% of state secondary school pupils (5,652) hop on a bus; 16.4% of independent school pupils (1,804); and 3.6% of state primary school pupils (968).
This does of course mean that 62.1% of independent school pupils use motorised transport; Whereas only 54.2% of state secondary and 22.9% of state primary school pupils do so. (All % including taxis).
On the other hand 67.5% of state primary school pupils use active travel modes (7.8% on scooters/skates); 55.8% of state secondary school pupils stretch their legs on the way to school; and only 22.6% of independent school pupils do so.
Other modes include "park and stride" i.e.. driving part of the way, walking the rest. Independent schools lead the way here, at 12.5%; state primaries have 9% travelling this way; state secondaries 2.6%. This last mode is rising year on year, and perhaps will grow further as parking restrictions around primary schools start to come into force.
Put another way, this means the motor car plays a part in 58% of all journeys to private schools (6,380), and motorised transport in 74.4% (8,184). This compares to 27.9% (7,505) and 31.5% (8,473) for state primaries; 11.3% (2,034)and 42.7% (7,686) for state secondaries.
Or that's 15,919 cars on Edinburgh's streets twice a day ferrying children to and from school (even if some of them walk from round the corner). Nearly 32,000 round trips daily, presumably most of them less than 5 miles.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Must admit I drove along Myerside Road today. I could have gone via Morningside Road or Glenockhart Road but both would have added a mile on to my journey and probably have added an extra 10 mins.
So yes parents will be inconvenienced, but so will other drivers and bus passengers (38). It's part of a road NETWORK - although there isn't much of a network in that area.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Myreside road was part of my "how do I get to ERI when I'm in labour" route :)
Posted 9 years ago # -
Other modes include "park and stride" i.e.. driving part of the way, walking the rest
is there any criteria for this - surely all motorists can claim to 'park and stride', even for a relatively short walk up to the destination
Posted 9 years ago # -
In my experience of answering travel surveys, 'park and stride' (or indeed any journey involving more than one mode of transport) wouldn't be picked up so the stats around this kind of thing may not be accurate.
Don't some independent schools put on buses?
Presumably an average trip to an independent school will be further than to a state school so you'd expect walking %s to be smaller (and probably cycling/scootering etc).
Posted 9 years ago # -
"is there any criteria for this"
I think the difference is that the car doesn't drop the pupil off at the school gates, but rather parks round the corner somewhere, maybe quite a distance away.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Presumably an average trip to an independent school will be further than to a state school so you'd expect walking %s to be smaller (and probably cycling/scootering etc)."
Yes, I did mention this upthread.
It's also quite possible that parents paying fees are more inclined to chauffeur their kids to school than let them rub shoulders with the great unwashed on the bus.
Having said that I regularly see pupils from the High School of Dundee on the train travelling to north east Fife. Whether they then catch a bus at Leuchars/Cupar I couldn't say.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I was always quite surprised by the number of St George's pupils who would travel Waverley to Haymarket by train.
Not sure what they did after that. Walk, or catch a bus?
Would have thought that a bus all the way would be quicker (and cheaper).
Posted 9 years ago # -
I think there's a remarkable number of people that take that train journey @cb. Unless I'm missing something and it's suddenly free for inner-city travel that seems an extraordinary waste of money.
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's certainly free if you get off before the ticket inspector reaches you (depending which platform the train is leaving from - manned ticket barriers are a major obstacle to such things).
Posted 9 years ago # -
The Borders & local East Lothian trains terminate at Waverley. It's perfectly possible that many people have inclusive through or season tickets to Haymarket.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"It's also quite possible that parents paying fees are more inclined to chauffeur their kids to school than let them rub shoulders with the great unwashed on the bus."
As someone who went to a fee-paying secondary school in Manchester (albeit one with a very aggressive social inclusion policy), I can't say I noticed this. Vast majority arrived on public or private buses.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Murun B, good point and did occur to after I'd posted.
£2.60 or something like that for a single between Waverley and Haymarket. Have done it on one or two occasions then got the tram back, but this has been as an exciting activity for a two year old.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"As someone who went to a fee-paying secondary school in Manchester (albeit one with a very aggressive social inclusion policy), I can't say I noticed this. Vast majority arrived on public or private buses."
This IS Edinburgh though. 20%+ of school age children (higher % at secondary level) attend a fee-paying school, the highest rate in the UK. The Sustrans stats may not be comprehensive, but they are all we've got: they show 58% travelling by car to independent schools, even if some are dropped off a bit further away than the school gates.
"About one in 20 children in Scotland is educated at private schools, although the figure in Edinburgh is closer to one in four."
http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/private-school-fees-soar-in-scotland-1-3533180
Posted 9 years ago # -
Crowdriver-do people who catch the bus not wash? Can't say I ever noticed.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Having said that I regularly see pupils from the High School of Dundee on the train travelling to north east Fife. Whether they then catch a bus at Leuchars/Cupar I couldn't say.
A few years ago I noticed a lot of Heriots pupils getting off the North Berwick train. They're probably all at uni by now.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The great unwashed
Meaning
The common, lower classes; the hoi polloi.Origin
This rather disparaging term was coined by the Victorian novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He used it in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford:
"He is certainly a man who bathes and ‘lives cleanly’, (two especial charges preferred against him by Messrs. the Great Unwashed)."Posted 9 years ago # -
Edward Bulwer-Lytton was also famous for his novel Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, as referenced extensively by David Bowie on his legendary track Oh! You Pretty Things.
Which brings us back neatly to the 'little darlings' motif.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"The book was quite popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word "Vril" came to be associated with "life-giving elixirs". The best known use of "Vril" in this context is in the name of Bovril (a blend word of Bovine and Vril)."
I'm quite partial to Bovril, though I do not self-identify as a member of a subterranean master race.
Posted 9 years ago #
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