CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
...across George Square:
I presume they are there to protect the many pedestrians from drivers using vehicles to create attacks.
Viewed from the other direction at night, the straps on the right hand side of the picture (with the cones underneath) are virtually invisible, as they present with the thin edge towards the viewer.
Cyclists have been killed in the past by similar chains across paths/roads like this.
Anti-terrorist string?
Cyclist decapitation string.
Also found on George Street:
Certainly puts the Magdalene Bricks in perspective. That stuff is lethal.
It wouldn't be a surprise if somebody cut them for safety's sake.
@iwrats Already done on George St:
https://mobile.twitter.com/lollercake/status/897922230029504512
Completely unclear. They put them in and out, and they do the same with one way signs trying to prohibit eastbound traffic on the north side. In general there is this year again zero thought about how cyclists coming from the Meadows are meant to get to/from the north/east side of George Sq at Festival time. Some of us still have to work don't they know.
Lesley Macinnes on the case: should be removed imminently.
@edinhelp reply to Lesley: Police say shut up because terrorism.
May have paraphrased.
edited
Police: now proven to not know anything about safety either.
Irrespective of 'safety', were the G St. ones across the obligatory cycle lane?
Can two cargo straps really stop a loaded speeding van? If so makes you wonder what all this junk in front of the airport is for.
Given the twisted and bent state of the city's bollards we'll soon find out I suppose.
Where are the terrorists coming from at that end of George sq? The access is at the other end?
Yarn bomb the straps?
@gembo
Alarm bells are ringing in Cheltenham mate.
Oops, should have encrypted that. Was watching the film The Prestige the other night. Christian Bale writes in a code and the key is Tesla. Nikolai Tesla is played by David Bowie. Then yesterday at work I was proposing a theory about borderline personality disorder and multiple personalities. But then I said. Wait, I have to tell you I was watching the Prestige last night. The others at the meeting accepted this and said it was a good Fillm.
Cheltenham ladies college ready to yarn bomb?
@chdot - I don't think so - I think there was space to the side of the concrete block for cyclists.
@gembo
I once appeared on Reporting Scotland talking about yarn bombing and MI5 won't leave me alone now.
My brother's an expert on personality disorders if you need help with that theory?
Thinking about these 'block and ratchet strap' arrangements I'll bet they were invented by squadies short of concrete in Iraq.
Put them in front of a checkpoint and you have a lightweight improvised barrier where you can shoot anyone trying to undo the ratchet prior to an attack.
Hopefully that's not the arrangement here.
@IWRATS It's exactly same, replacing 'shoot' with 'flyer'.
I've perfected a look of unhinged disdain that seems to protect me from flyering, even in the High Street.
As cars are such a risk, surely the most sensible thing Police Scotland could do is to ban them from the whole city during the Festival ...
... then forget to let them back in...
Lots of bins removed at stations etc, so there is precedent...
Cars, vans and lorries are mass weapons of destruction. Can be hired with one piece of photographic I D The number of deaths caused by drivers per year is somehow acceptable. However, jihadi drivers might be unacceptable and might lead to things like the centre's of cities being car free.?
That would be a strange way to bring about city centre pedestrianisation but you may be right. I fear they would just switch to unprotected targets.
For comparison, last year there was a loosely slung metal chain in the same place.
I only remember this as, when passing one day, a young chap tried to nonchalantly leap over it before getting his feet tangled in the chain and falling flat on his face.
This morning the straps were coiled neatly away but there was a no entry sign, ignored not just by me (because really?) but also by the delivery lorries coming up the slope. So really if I were up to no good I would just have to wait for a delivery to come through, because deliveries are king.
It's security versus théâtre de sécurité as ever. Like at airports where all the mass shuffling, banter prosecution and shoe-removing is designed to give an impression of action rather than to actually prevent anything.
If you've ever been subject to actual security it looks nothing like the theatrical version and is frightening rather than tiresome.
The lower string has now been replaced by a chain and a couple of traffic cones, so all is well and we are safe.
Indeed proper security is completely invisible and avoids all this daft pantomime
There are also free-standing crash barriers behind some of them - not to stop anything but does make them more visible... one of the straps has also gained a small strip of bunting!
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts