CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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Here's a question that has been bugging me...
If we want to reduce air travel, should we not be anticipating an increase in holidaying in the UK.
(Accepting that you can ferry/train to the continent).
Not everyone will want to holiday via sustainable travel methods, so we should expect to see many more motor vehicles in our hillier/prettier locations.
Is the NC500 any worse than driving to a remote location and then driving miles each day to attractions that aren't that close...
@HankChief
Excellent question. For me the key thing is this curve. If it doesn't level off and begin to drop then I think horrible things may well happen.
How should we arrange our lives such that the curve levels but people are willing to cooperate and not just find a way to carry on burning fossil fuels?
Obviously society has to become much more egalitarian. If rich people continue to fly to the Maldives, we the punters will likely not knuckle down to our travel restrictions.
One might propose a Nordic hutting culture where people own or share a hut not too far from their home and that becomes the focus of their leisure. This requires a totally different pattern of land ownership and land use. Imagine the Southern Uplands rewilded and criss-crossed by forest trails, peppered with dachas.
I was also thinking that we need to make our own lives and localities much more attractive. Life in Scotland shouldn't be a grim survival exercise carried out to afford four weeks abroad each year. We should put our backs into generating local joy of all kinds.
Mad dream: an electric coastal railway encircling the whole country except Knoydart which must remain an enclave.
Lots of questions there.
Of course there is the construct that some people are travellers, the rest are tourists.
There is a minority view (increasing a bit) that (all) ‘flying is bad’. In Government terms, there’s a view similar to ‘don’t upset the hard pressed motorist/voter’ - ‘don’t tax the hard worker’s holidays’.
Both examples of failure if they believe CC is any sort of emergency.
With things like the NC500, driving is obviously a key factor, but underlying it is too many people being encouraged to visit places that don’t really have the facilities and/or spoil the ‘remote/isolated’ experience.
In terms of “Not everyone will want to holiday via sustainable travel methods” -
To some extent true but there is the talk (other thread) of inadequate cycle facilities along the A9, the related fact of millions spent on the road but not on removing the singletracked bottlenecks on the parallel rail line.
This is the latest tourist initiative -
Life in Scotland shouldn't be a grim survival exercise carried out to afford four weeks abroad each year.
Those people must be making hella cash, yo. Between midges and the onslaught of unskilled drivers, I've no desire to do the NC500 now.
an electric coastal railway encircling the whole country except Knoydart which must remain an enclave.
They could even rebuild the Wick and Lybster Light Railway.
“Mad dream: an electric coastal railway encircling the whole country”
Sane dream - better rail infrastructure/experience on existing east, west and central routes north of the central belt.
Journey times are ‘too slow’ - though ‘need for speed’ is a different problem.
Anyone about to suggest that maximum road speed (even on motorways) should be 50 (or less)??
The idea of electrifying more of the ECML (to Aberdeen) seems to have vanished.
Now there is slight talk of batteries and hydrogen.
There’s clearly not enough trains/seats/bike capacity on the west coast routes.
One problem is ‘railways have to make money, roads don’t’.
The problem with the NC500 (and any other location sufficiently remote) is that locals and tourists will start demanding upgrades to the roads. Any before you know it, the whole thing will be a traffic-inducing dual carriageway all the way round...
After five years of restoration led by Fife Coast and Countryside Trust (FCCT), the historic 64-mile Fife Pilgrim Way is officially opening today.
You may also be interested in:
Drunk knife man fought staff in McDonald’s Kitchen
Mmmmmmokay.
“This requires a totally different pattern of land ownership and land use.”
And planning laws and attitudes to Green Belt.
I’m not advocating any sort of build anywhere policies.
You might also be interested in http://fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/Fife-Pilgrim-Way_68.html
The route mapping is grim. You can't tell what's going on and if it's ridable or not.
If you could get off-road from Culross to St Andrews that would be a fantastic long day out.
But you look at this kind of stuff and just think nah mate I'll figure it out for myself.
Any before you know it, the whole thing will be a traffic-inducing dual carriageway all the way round...
Devil's advocate: If this induces modal shift from flying to driving, it could still be a good thing.
Instinctively I doubt there's much in it once you take into account the construction.
The idea of electrifying more of the ECML (to Aberdeen) seems to have vanished.
Transport Scotland are currently looking for ideas for Strategic Transport Project Review 2.
They seem to be keen for more active travel and public transport projects this time round.
I can send you contact details, or happy to submit ideas via PoP/Spokes.
So what we really need is a resurgence of Butlins* etc so that people can stay in the UK but leave all the quiet spots to the discerning visitor...
(*No offence intended to any CCEr who enjoys Butlins...)
I remember when Butlins at Ayr first took delivery of a rollercoaster*. An actual rollercoaster! Such wonders† of the world we were living in!
* A Pinfari Zyklon ZL42. It was dismantled in 1999.
† TBH, the chalets were past their best even in 1989.
Butlins defunct. Haven Holidays now. Heads of Ayr Butlins had a motor racing circuit (go karts) a cinema, a funfair, bed bugs etc As children you roamed freely without parents. I remember watching a terrible Roger Moore/Richard HArris/Richard Burton movie set in South Africa at about 10pm one night. My granny was at the bingo, I was still in primary school
"Anyone about to suggest that maximum road speed (even on motorways) should be 50 (or less)??"
Not such a mad idea. When I were a lad in the States, for a few years they lowered the maximum speed limit on dual carriageways/freeways/motorways to 55 mph, to save fuel primarily. This was during the brief period when governments were taking such things seriously, but probably for different reasons.
During this period the motorway fatality rate dropped significatly. When the full 70mph was reinstated, the fatality rate went right back up again. But that wasn't widely advertised, and anyway other peoples's death and mayhem on the road seems like an acceptable price for shaving a few seconds/minutes/hours off your journey.
“Not such a mad idea. When I were a lad in the States, for a few years they lowered the maximum speed limit on dual carriageways/freeways/motorways to 55 mpg, to save fuel primarily. This was during the brief period when governments were taking such things seriously, but probably for different reasons.”
Remember it well.
All the more surprising that it was in car dominated America.
for a few years they lowered the maximum speed limit on dual carriageways/freeways/motorways to 55 mpg
I like this typo.
@Frenchy - fixed. It took me a few seconds to spot myself ...
A different type/scale(?) of tourism -
“
Organisers are instead urging fans to take the train to North Berwick and use the free shuttle bus service provided by East Coast Buses.
“
(Will the trains cope?)
When Mr fimm and I went to the Open at Muirfield/Gullane we used the train. There were marshalls and a queuing system at the station for the return journey - basically they filled a train up and sent it off. I don't remember if extra trains had been put on for the occasion.
@IWRATS the FPW maps appear to show a considerable amount of the route running on roads (presumably pavements) at least as far as Dunfermline. I'm sure you could do better than that.
We drove a short stretch of the NC500 at the weekend: Gill's Bay ferry terminal to Melvich (due to a family connection) with a short diversion to Dunnet Head, purely as part of our return journey from Orkney. Have to say that I didn't notice any particularly poor behaviour on the road, apart perhaps from one rather unnecessarily close pass on a fellow riding a pannier-festooned touring bike. (The motor vehicle involved was a fairly mundane mid-size hatchback, not a prestige grand tourer or anything like that - quite likely a local in fact.) Was actually quite heartening to see how many cyclists were doing the route, though most of them were riding light and obviously using support vehicles. The majority seemed to be going west-east - is there a reason for that?
I certainly didn't see any evidence of the police crack-down reported in the rubbish driving thread.
“
In addition to the colourful crockery, diners can enjoy panoramic views across Loch Glendhu and an ultra-local menu that this week includes hogget from Drumbeg and Ullapool crab. Boosted by a recent refurbishment and extension, as well as the hotel’s proximity to the phenomenally popular North Coast 500 road route, Lister has been reaping the rewards of Scotland’s high-end and sustainability-conscious tourist boom.
“
The NC500 is a travesty. The idea of car touring holidays harkens back to the environmental ignorance of mid 20th century and is wholly unfit for these days of an unfolding environmental catastrophe.
https://aye.tf/2019/06/14/north-coast-500-an-alternative-view/
This. In spades.
Assynt still very empty from September onwards.
Taxing campervams is a good idea.
The Achiltibuie campsite is looking at 24 hour staffing to thwart those showing up in middle of night to use their facilities for free including chemical toilet emptying.
Achmelvich campsite is a little suburb of Glasgow in July.
Pubs in the outer Hebrides offer free parking if the campervan people eat in the pub.
There are a couple of regular camper vans that dot around the pentlands I often wonder if they are the main residence.
The pentlands also has inconsiderate camping without campervans.
Large chunks of unwashed humanity have discovered the great outdoors. Just by putting on a pair of plimsolls and having a go. The lessons in how to camp given by scouts/guides, boys brigade/girls brigade, woodcraft folk etc not accessed.
So extracting revenue all in all does seem to be the Way forward?
"The NC500 is a travesty. The idea of car touring holidays harkens back to the environmental ignorance of mid 20th century and is wholly unfit for these days of an unfolding environmental catastrophe."
Good article, though somewhat weakened in force by the author's other musings being centred around long-distance car-driven hill-bagging? Not sure that is environmentally much better? (Disclosure: I have done plenty of the same in the past).
We spend a summer week in Poolewe every year. In reality, while busier than they used to be, the main two-lane roads are still not that busy, even for cycling. No doubt the long singletrack roads in Assynt and Sutherland struggle with the NC500 traffic. Camper vans are an absolute plague - all viable free parking spots fill up from lunchtime onwards with vans planning to stay overnight.
Kylesku hotel is a nice spot, though I'm not sure all North highlands hotels going max luxury is a sensible or viable move (I think the only way to make a small fortune in hotel proprietorship up there is to start with a much larger fortune, unfortunately). Aultbea Hotel closed with a moonlit flit by the owner earlier this year.
Incidently we saw more cyclists there, both touring and leisure, this year than any other year.
"A wealthy businessman was criticised by a sheriff for treating the world-famous North Coast 500 like “a playground” and mowing down two German motor-cyclists in his Porsche.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson was angered by comments 49-year-old engineering company boss Craig Coote made to social workers that the jury only convicted him because he was English and drove a Porsche.
But she stopped short of jailing Coote because of the effect custody would have on his employees and family. Instead she ordered him to pay the two cyclists a total of £11,000 compensation for their injuries and ordered him to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work."
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17884689.north-coast-500-driver-jury-racism-claim/
Who calls motorcyclists 'cyclists'? That's just poor writing.
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