Well, it's a start....
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Cars banned from 4 city streets..."
(28 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
-
I read this article and couldn't believe the comments :(
Posted 9 years ago # -
Before even having read them I can believe them. Let me see.. CLOWNCIL ROAD TAX ME ME ME WIBBLE. Am I right?
Posted 9 years ago # -
The EEN Comment piece on this (not online yet) is remarkably positive and even says "Key is improving the experience for cyclists"
https://mobile.twitter.com/alistairkgrant/status/707529160240009216
Posted 9 years ago # -
Thank goodness for that opinion piece.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Min, the comments are all bizarre and centre around the "Clowncil", revenue raising and Lesley-bashing. I'm unable to understand how closing four streets to traffic to allow children to play is a bad thing.
Posted 9 years ago # -
this is just an in-group of chaps who think they're very clever and compete to out-do each other.
what do you think it would take to get the EEN to require full names for comment - hasn't the Herald recently gone that way?
Posted 9 years ago # -
@SRD Phew - honestly the comments were outrageous. I don't read many EEN articles so not too up to speed on the commenting etiquette or regular commenters. It's the usual suspects then?
I would be delighted to take them out on a bike ride. Might chill them out a bit!
RE full names, the Drum did that years ago in an attempt to stamp out trolling. Worked a treat.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Claire - commenting etiquette - DON'T READ THE COMMENTS!!!
;-)Posted 9 years ago # -
@fimm - the comments are why I don't read the EEN articles, haha! :)
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yes, don't read the comments is the unwritten third rule of CCE. :-)
Posted 9 years ago # -
There was me last week having a go at Alastair Grant and the EEN for their lack of support behind anything positive & for throwing their weight behind the anti-20 mob last year rather than doing the same for PoP.
The printed Opinion piece was a real, positive shock and hopefully the start of a change for the better in the Chipwrapper.
Pity they didn't publish it online alongside the article about it. Then again, they probably don't want their faithful frothers, ranters and knuckledraggers to know they now support car-free days, the reduction of cars on the roads, better public transport and safer cycling....
Posted 9 years ago # -
"don't read the comments is the unwritten third rule of CCE. :-)"
We 'let' one person read them so others don't have to...
Used to be a time when several CCEers took them on, but they are a lost cause.
There was a time when it was feared that they would be assumed to be representative of the 'silent majority' but now it's more like pity (or perhaps entertaining parody).
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's only four streets. Pretty timid really. Hardly worth making a fuss about.
I happened to be in Belgrade a few years ago during car free day. The entire city centre was closed to motor vehicles, even big urban motorways. Thousands of people taking a walk on the main roads, or cycling. Absolutely fantastic.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Thousands of people taking a walk on the main roads, or cycling"
Some places do it every Sunday.
Posted 9 years ago # -
A car free day would be a great way to acknowledge the upcoming Edinburgh Festival of Cycling. If we can close streets for bars, markets, fairgrounds etc then why not.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"then why not"
Because.....CHAOS. ECONOMIC SUICIDE. ROAD TAX. ETC.
Posted 9 years ago # -
There are some really bitter, cynical people overreacting in those comments. Its just a few residential streets for one Sunday, you'd think they were pedestrianizing George Street from the reaction.
The people objecting for financial reasons really need to pick their battles better.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Slightly OT but I still don't really understand why pedestrianising a premium shopping street would be anything other than good for the shops after an initial six months or so of people getting used to it. Seems to work in lots of other cities..?
(I'm not convinced by the "demanding real names" approach to improving online comment sections - good moderation is another approach, though it requires human input. And some people have genuine reasons - not connected to trolling - to not want their real life identities connected to their comments on the internet. If they are then more likely to just stop participating it just ensures a even greater dominance of a certain demographic [white, male, straight, etc.] in internet conversations.)
Posted 9 years ago # -
This forum is a pretty good advert for good moderation over requiring real names when it comes to civilised online discourse
Posted 9 years ago # -
Nah, CCE just has a better class of contributor.
Disagreement is one thing, rancid belief in a motorised status quo is another!
There have been people on here who think 'real names should be used', but I think it works fine the way it is.
I'm always amused when people change their names as they (presumably) regret their first choice of exotic username - or perhaps regret something they have written and want a fresh start.
Fortunately this doesn't happen very often as it could become very confusing!
There are a lot of people on here who know each other 'in real life' because of CCE - PY, "Spotted", PoP etc.
Others remain 'anonymous', private, discrete etc.
Personal choice.
(Not everyone rides 'distinctive' bikes!)
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'm pretty certain the civilized [1] discussion [2] here is heavily influenced by knowing folk IRL.
Robert
[1] for certain values of civilized
[2] based on the peculiar CCE form of discussion!Posted 9 years ago # -
"peculiar CCE form of discussion"
Compared with wot?!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Compared with wot?!"
I think other forums sometimes do weird things like have moderators remove posts considered off-topic.
Posted 9 years ago # -
There's a niche railway forum I used to read where it seemed like the worst possible sin you could commit, in the eyes of the owner, was moderate thread drift. You could probably curse the name of his own mother and get away with it, as long as you'd not hijacked someone else's thread to do it.
I suppose it comes from old-fashioned paper archiving where the feeling is that if something isn't filed in exactly the right place it'll be lost forever. Totally alien in world where full-text search is a thing.
Posted 9 years ago # -
From an EEN comment:
"Cities mean traffic, fumes, noise, hustle and bustle, 24 hour this and that."This is what we're up against. Cities have been designed around the car for so long, people are utterly convinced they can't function without the associated fumes and noise.
They can't even begin to conceive that we could have it another way, if we designed for it.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Fortunately they are fighting an unstoppable tide.
BUT
Attitudes like that have prevailed for too long and frightened politicians - not helped by the 'focus group' way of deciding policy.
Posted 9 years ago # -
This forum is a pretty good advert for good moderation over requiring real names when it comes to civilised online discourse
I like to think of this place as an excellent example of benign dictatorship trumping the inevitable entropy attached to po-faced democracy
Real-life single identities are hopelessly overrated in my view but admittedly that's just an experience filtered via a fragmented lack of structured family background
If 'real names' were ever required for peripheral contributions such as mine, then you can call me Howard Devoto
Vive la différence !
Posted 9 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
