CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"500 staff waiting over five years for ERI parking permit"
(45 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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So the recently graduated nurse from West Lothian that spends £100 a month on parking her car couldn't just use the park and ride off the bypass and jump on the bus?
non-story
Posted 8 years ago # -
Its a stupid place for a hospital but its been there long enough now that people (staff especially) should be aware it a pain to get to, thus a right pain to park at.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@Nelly some of them will have mad hours that buses are not running frequently enough...
Posted 8 years ago # -
"So the recently graduated nurse from West Lothian that spends £100 a month on parking her car couldn't just use the park and ride off the bypass and jump on the bus?"
Assuming the 'no public transport at (some) shift times' is true, there should be more effort by ERI, SG and CEC/LB to resolve this.
Apart from anything else it ought to be cheaper for all concerned.
Of course 'nothing new here'.
It was years before parking was banned on ODR.
Before that (before the hospital was finished) residents of the nearby streets wanted parking restrictions. CEC didn't believe that people would park there...
Posted 8 years ago # -
No use to people from West Lothian, but is this really the only bus service using the expensive new 'bus road' from Greendykes?
Posted 8 years ago # -
the expensive new 'bus road' from Greendykes?
Plenty of car drivers using it.. Especially for free parking.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Might well be cheaper to sell the car and take the bus at normal hours and taxis at unsocial hours.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Might well be cheaper to sell the car and take the bus at normal hours and taxis at unsocial hours."
Too sensible.
Car 'essential'/status.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@chdot I can translate most of your code, but ODR has me stumped. #toomanyTLAs!
Posted 8 years ago # -
ODR = Old Dalkeith Road.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Alternative headline:
"500 staff made choices about living location and main mode of transport that have inconvenienced them for five years"
Or
"500 staff refused to consider moving closer to work or public transport routes for five years"
Or
"500 staff add to traffic congestion and air pollution over five years"
Posted 8 years ago # -
What this doesn't tell you is how these 500 staff have travelled to work over the last 5 years. Probably lots drive and park elsewhere, but some might have decided to get the bus or cycle. That is what restricting car parking spaces is actually meant to do - make the alternatives seem a bit more attractive.
Has there been an audit of who has a permit? Medical staff who work unsocial hours should get priority, 9-5 office workers (all essential - I'm not bashing them) probably not.
However, this is a prime example of how land use planning can lock-in poor travel choices for decades - it's a grim walk, cycle or bus trip for most people going there, which wasn't true of the old hospital (as evidenced by our favourite coffee meeting point).
Posted 8 years ago # -
Has there been an audit of who has a permit?
Uni staff who have children seem to automatically get a permit no matter how close they live to the Infirmary.Posted 8 years ago # -
"it's a grim walk, cycle or bus trip for most people going there"
Not least because it's at the bottom of three hills.
The hospital developers went out of their way to resist the possibility of people coming from the east (it would seem for fear of the nearest residents...)
There wasn't an open gate on the east side. The path that CEC built outside the fence was so deep in gravel that is was almost unrideable. (And the rest of the 'route' was through a field.)
No idea how many people walk/cycle via the grand new route, but it would seem that LB doesn't think that there are enough potential passengers to provide a proper bus service.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I can confirm that residential streets not even that close to ERI fill up with medics' cars of a morning. Probably visitors' cars too.
It's not a pleasant place to approach on a bike from any direction. You do see staff on Old Dalkeith Road cycling, but they're all young, fit and assertive.
Must be highly inaccessible by bus from many parts of town given the relative paucity of orbital services.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The new bus road from Greendykes has council buses running along it. My mum can get a bus from Portobello Road to ERI via that route.
My point about the nurse spending £100 a month on parking was poorly made, but what I was getting to was that £100 a month might not be bad compared to the alternative if the hospital had not moved.
e.g. if the ERI was still at the top of the Meadows, how would she arrive at work?
If she used the car it would cost her at least £2.60 an hour to park in a street - so for an 8 hour shift, some £20 per day and more like £100 a week.
Pretty sure if she was told her parking costs would be quartered by moving to the new hospital she would be delighted !!
Posted 8 years ago # -
When the eri was at lauriston place most people would not have taken their car due to bus links being much better. In addition if staff or patients had to drive due to unsocial shifts they could usually park for nothing. Putting Edinburghs main hospital in such a location was not made in patients interests but it has certainly been a cash cow for the Pfi companies. It's nothing short of a disgrace to have to pay such parking charges if you have the misfortune to have to go there when no buses are running.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"if the ERI was still at the top of the Meadows, how would she arrive at work?"
Train and walk? Depends upon exactly where in West Lothian she lives, but the main settlements are quite well served by rail...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Oh by the way, here's the bus guide for the RIE. There are bus services from most areas of the city.
Posted 8 years ago # -
If I were female, there is absoultely no way I'd be getting on a bus late at night. Public transport for shiftworkers is problematic if you are in any way vulnerable.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"If I were female, there is absoultely no way I'd be getting on a bus late at night."
We don't know what this particular nurse's situation was, except for living in West Lothian. Plenty of people use night buses to go to work, for example at the airport. As for the assumption that females are vulnerable, well that's another discussion.
Posted 8 years ago # -
It does seem a rip off and unlike most places many people could not cycle to hospital as unwell and old.
Yes the PFI does seem a bit overpriced, I suppose in part a result of the “golden rule” of shifting debt which has good international comparisons and EU pressure, on to lots of smaller liability contacts which does not around 230 billion in liability pfi. Along with the 30 odd billion a year unfunded liability on public sector pensions plus the state pension figure of top head about 70 bill a year, PFI may more be sloppy than the traditional debt built hospital as no ones discusses the long term cost, but if have to borrow then its clearer from the outset may be. A few years back when every talking head on tv would winge on about the national debt, liability got little mention. As bad as pfi is and its bad, not overtaken public pension liability yet but its accrued at a high rate. The state pensions pay as go also but
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/loans-credit/crippling-pfi-deals-leave-britain-222bn-in-debt-10170214.html
Government employee pensions: £1.2 trillion (unfunded: £0.9 trillion; funded: £0.3 trillion)
State pensions: £3.8 trillion (all unfunded) http://www.if.org.uk/archives/2031/ons-reveals-full-uk-pension-liabilitiesPosted 8 years ago # -
Plenty of people use night buses to go to work, for example at the airport.
Really? I work at the airport & I am struggling to think of anyone who uses the night bus to get there.Posted 8 years ago # -
Sure, most use the airport express (or tram) but after those stop running.....I've definitely seen folk doing it. Must be a small number working through the night or starting shifts between midnight and 5am, mind you. Similarly, though numbers at RIE are likely to be higher, still relatively small compared to those arriving/leaving when the day bus services are running.
Posted 8 years ago # -
You will notice from the "bus guide for the RIE" above that it is all LB services. Some of us live in Rural West Edinburgh & have little choice but to use First Bus or Stagecoach from here which makes it a real pain getting to the RIE. Even getting to St Johns is hard - you have to get to Tesco in S Queensferry or Kirkliston xroads in order to catch a hourly Horsburgh or First Bus service and then getting an hour's tour of West Lothian before getting St Johns.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"When the eri was at lauriston place most people would not have taken their car due to bus links being much better".
Really? In a "build it and they will come" kind of way?
Edinburgh has (IMO) a brilliant bus infrastructure compared to many cities.......and yet the city centre is still chockabloc with cars.
As to the (Nurse from) West Lothian question - my office is at Edinburgh Park, served with trains from the West, Fife, Stirling, trams and buses from the town and the park/ride at the airport. But it is the large multi storey car park - which is so popular that everyone still has to have a "no car day" every few weeks to accommodate demand - which houses the most popular mode of transport for people working there.
We often say that the UK needs great public transport infra to get people out their cars - yet when it is provided they still cant move their lardy arses from behind the wheel.
Which circuitously brings me back to the ERI - I believe it would have a parking "problem" wherever it was situated.
PFI may have a lot to answer for, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if they tarmacked over more ground to make more car parks, they would just fill up again like new lanes on a motorway.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Some of us live in Rural West Edinburgh"
Fair enough, but then you have the same issue getting anywhere in Edinburgh beyond the city centre or the route of the bus / rail services you can get to.
I'm certainly not defending the decision to site the RIE at Little France. It's very inconvenient for north east Edinburgh too, though at least there is a direct bus service from Leith Walk fairly nearby.
As for the nurse from West Lothian, it's an unfortunate situation but depending on her precise location, other alternatives are available. These are likely to be cheaper, but slower than driving and paying for a parking permit.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"We often say that the UK needs great public transport infra to get people out their cars - yet when it is provided they still cant move their lardy arses from behind the wheel."
This.
Likely to remain the case too until the user costs of motoring rise significantly.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"The new bus road from Greendykes has council buses running along it. My mum can get a bus from Portobello Road to ERI via that route."
Can't see any on the LB app.
Which route(s) am I missing?
Posted 8 years ago #
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