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News on LTNs? (Leith/Corstorphine/East Craigs Connections/Oxford)

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  1. HankChief
    Member

    The pole the bus gate cameras are on has been vandalised...

    https://twitter.com/hank_chief/status/1683011670224805888

    Posted 1 year ago #
  2. Morningsider
    Member

    This is the almost inevitable conclusion of people in leadership positions, MSPs, councillors, newspaper editors, and so on whipping up a crowd with cries of "undemocratic", "illegitimate" and "discriminatory". It is a green flag to the lunatic fringe to take matters further.

    I'm sure a parade of those who spoke at the anti-LTN public meeting will decry this action, but they can't simply wash their hands of the results of their actions. This is also on them.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  3. Arellcat
    Moderator

    When did people become so emboldened, so entrenched in their right to act as they like? The backlash against LTNs is not normal, but it's happening and it's being allowed in the same toxic environment that has provided for other backlashes in recent years. It's a melting pot of instant news, instant circulation of views, a celebration of fakery and quackery, pure capitalism, and directed hate unchecked in both media and politicking and encouraged in the darker parts of society.

    I don't recall any of this kind of utter vandalism when we had the George Street remodelling a few years ago, or the maligned Edinburgh circulation plan thing before that.

    I don't recall any of this kind of utter vandalism when a road is part-closed so that we can build houses or student flats, or to mend a main road in three different places at once. With these, they are temporary, a means to an end, that people can generally agree with because for them there is no loss of face, no infringement of 'mah human rights' (for which read, 'mah car's human rights').

    But now we put up a bollard, install a camera, paint a sign on the road and we tell people they can no longer do something. We watched and did nothing as people tore up plastic bollards for SfP; and we watched as people turned left off Leith Walk. And for them, vandalism is somehow an acceptable mechanism by which to protest, reinforced by a trophy hunter mentality that celebrates David against Goliath.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  4. HankChief
    Member

  5. gembo
    Member

    The angle grinders will be quaking in their boots now.

    The Geordie hearse drivers were nicked. Conspiring to cause criminal damage and affray Same applies to the Corstorphine Cutters.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  6. Morningsider
    Member

    @Arellcat - Goliath was the huge, heavily armoured champion of the Philistines. Which somehow seems appropriate for the current champions of SUV driving.

    I know in today's topsy-turvey world, drivers seem themselves as David - the handsome, fleet footed youngster fighting for an oppressed minority. That really just goes to show how mad current discourse has become.

    The less well known part of the David vs. Goliath story is that Goliath taunted and challenged the Israelites for 40 days - demanding they send out a champion. David finally did his stuff with a sling and then used Goliath's own sword to chop of the fallen giant's head. We can but hope...

    (Pedants please note, I'm not encouraging decapitation in any physical sense).

    Posted 1 year ago #
  7. HankChief
    Member

    Make of this what you will...

    Those oppose to the LTN 'condemning' the criminal damage on STV...

    https://twitter.com/STVNews/status/1683499256768856064?s=20

    Posted 1 year ago #
  8. Stickman
    Member

    Have any of the local Lib Dem councillors, MSP or MP made any comment? I thought their local leader Kevin Lang might have spoken up in favour of the trial that he voted for.

    Seems Scott Arthur has been left to defend things himself - fair play to him, he is doing that.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  9. HankChief
    Member

    There is a quote from Cllr Davidson in this article

    https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-low-traffic-neighbourhood-wont-27386634?fbclid=IwAR2ggw5SowUrGk3peVGxXxqmbYue2Ocep11IcSNIqaWZzA1wGqtVSqtWvoM

    Just don't expect it to say anything of substance

    Posted 1 year ago #
  10. steveo
    Member

    Ahh, I wondered why the signs had been painted out. I wasn't sure if that was vandals but bloody hell.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  11. chdot
    Admin

    Mr Cole-Hamilton claimed the meeting called to discuss the hotly debated potential introduction of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) in East Craigs, was given the go-ahead by then Justice Minister Humza Yousaf – now First Minister.

    https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2023/07/cole-hamiltons-special-dispensation-is-not-so-special-after-all/

    Posted 1 year ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

    Isn’t it extraordinary that the Tories scent blood over that most prosaic of innovations, the ponderously named low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) – and yet the idea that a few bollards and barriers strewn across residential areas should still become their main line of electoral attack is just further proof that the Tory government has abandoned any attempt to demonstrate serious intent.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/31/rishi-sunak-cars-prime-minister-ulez-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-keir-starmer

    Posted 1 year ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    A clue to what is driving Sunak can be found in a recent event I attended in Edinburgh. It was hosted by the anti-ULEZ (Ultra Low Emissions Zones), anti-LTN (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods), anti-anything that makes sense campaign group Together. It was billed as a public meeting to find common ground but it was actually a campaign rally designed to use the notion of lost freedoms as a wedge issue to maximise insecurity, fuel distrust in politicians and disrupt the growing consensus that we are currently hurtling to hell in a fossil-fuelled handcart.

    https://shelaghy.substack.com/p/sunak-cries-freedom-for-drivers

    Posted 1 year ago #
  14. Stickman
    Member

    The second phase of work to improve walking and cycling routes in an Edinburgh neighbourhood will begin in the coming weeks.

    Edinburgh Council confirmed that the work is set to commence on August 21 with the changes set to focus on widening footways and reduce crossing distances as part of the Corstorphine Connections project.

    With phase 1 having come to an end earlier in the year, notification letters have been sent out to locals informing them of the works with temporary traffic disruption to be expected during the construction.

    A road closure of Corstorphine High Street is to be implemented between Ladywell Avenue and Manse Road from Monday August 21 for three weeks. The closure is for Monday to Friday with the road opening as normal at the weekend.

    https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/busy-edinburgh-high-street-closed-27487015

    Posted 1 year ago #
  15. Dave
    Member

    Cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them...

    Posted 1 year ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

  17. Stickman
    Member

    The anti-LTN group has a deputation to the Transport Committee. Can basically be summarised as “we don’t want this and we’re going to take it to court”.

    https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/b23637/Deputations%2017th-Aug-2023%2010.00%20Transport%20and%20Environment%20Committee.pdf?T=9

    Also the Keep Edinburgh Moving crowd will be making another appearance in connection with Braid Road.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

    Someone or other has been putting a LOT of work into the submission.

    summarised as “we don’t want this “

    Well yes.

    It’s easy to question/marvel at all the info/opinions they have assembled, and this may be correct -

    Only about 20% of people think that motor vehicle traffic is a big problem. Whilst nearly half of people think that traffic is a something of a problem,

    SO

    70% think traffic is a problem (or possibly 50% if “big” and “something” have been combined)

    AND YET

    The author concludes -

    this is to be expected in the suburb of a city

    So - ‘not that bad, not worth doing anything about’…

    Posted 1 year ago #
  19. gembo
    Member

    I hear there is a counter deputation to the deputation.

    I don’t hear what AC-H is about?

    Posted 1 year ago #
  20. chdot
    Admin

  21. Morningsider
    Member

    Wow - the submission from ACE (the anti-Corstorphine LTN group) is a master class in how not to present your arguments to politicians. Wordy, pompous, repetitive, and very, very long. Not helped by their "evidence" of opposition to the LTN being gathered at an anti-LTN meeting and from an anti-LTN Facebook group.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  22. acsimpson
    Member

    Good golly, 33 pages. Are they hoping to filibuster the committee into not making any decisions?

    Posted 1 year ago #
  23. neddie
    Member

    Yeah, I took one look at the submission from ACE, realised they had no argument and it was just a load of nonsense, and I DIDN'T READ IT.

    I suspect most councillors will do the same

    Posted 1 year ago #
  24. gembo
    Member

    Reports to,council should be two pages max

    Posted 1 year ago #
  25. chdot
    Admin

    In 1966 The Times reported on a new traffic management scheme in Westminster aimed at halting the rise of motorists zipping through the residential back roads of Pimlico. Similarly, forty years ago, the residents of Bushwood in Leytonstone successfully campaigned to reduce what they called “rat running” through their residential area, securing what transport experts call “modal filters” that transformed their neighbourhood

    https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/economic-growth/regional-development/transport/2023/08/low-traffic-neighbourhoods-success-story

    Posted 1 year ago #
  26. Stickman
    Member

    Excellent deputation from Blackford Safer Routes at TEC today. @neddie dealt superbly with a rather patronising question from Cllr Munro (she started off by dismissively saying “it’s great that you have the time to cycle”).

    Although, as we always say, it shouldn’t be up to individuals to make the case for the Council’s own policies and targets.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  27. Morningsider
    Member

    Thanks to @neddie and co for fighting the latest battle in the forever war to protect the Greenbank-Meadows LTN.

    As for the "have time to cycle" comment. I have always found this a really odd attitude in a city like Edinburgh. When my kids were young and needed carted/chaperoned to nursery and then school, I could never have done it by any means other than bike. It's not even a matter of speed, although bike is quicker than car or bus at peak times. The real benefit is reliability. I always knew how long it would take me to get from work to wherever I needed to be.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  28. acsimpson
    Member

    I assume it's all part of the Transport Scotland blinkered mindset where cycling is for leisure rather than transport and therefore done in ones spare time.
    As you say for many of us it's a form of transport which is often done to create more free time (which we can then spend on leisure cycling).

    Posted 1 year ago #
  29. neddie
    Member

    If only Cllr Munro knew that cycling was the fastest way to get about the city...

    Posted 1 year ago #
  30. jonty
    Member

    I was just thinking - I often find I don't have the time to not cycle!

    Posted 1 year ago #

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