http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Revving-up-city-centre-traffic.6790491.jp
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Revving up city centre traffic ban"
(8 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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I was thinking that it would be odd that retailers on Princes Street would have objected to pedestrianisation when none of their trade could have legally come from passing cars (such as the owner of Honeysuckly Floristry apparently relies upon) but then remembered about all the people on the buses.
Wonder how pedestrianisation of the Lawnmarket would work alongside the ban on everything except buses, taxis and cycles going up Johnston Terrace. Can't imagine the inhabitants of Ramsay Incline being happy with everything having to go up there.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It seems to work for the main shopping streets in Glasow. People I know who enjoy "shopping" as a pass time keep banging on about how great Glasgow is for shopping. I mean its like a holiday going to visit a whole different Top Shop or H&Ms...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Princes Street is just a huge bus station right now. Pedestrianisation has to be done, it would be so much more pleasant.
Anyone interested in seeing a city fit for people rather than cars should lobby the Council to stop them backtracking on Gehl architects' excellent city centre plan.
Don't let drivers from the suburbs and out of town ruin our city!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Don't let drivers from the suburbs and out of town ruin our city!
Heaven forbid that the city centre plan should be based around the wants and needs of people who actually live in the city centre! I mean that would just be sensible!
Perhaps us city-centre dwelling cyclists need to demand the installation of bike racks in the leafy, bugalow-filled suburbs of Corstorphine so that we can cycle out of town and have somewhere to leave our bikes.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Perhaps us city-centre dwelling cyclists need to demand the installation of bike racks in the leafy, bugalow-filled suburbs of Corstorphine so that we can cycle out of town and have somewhere to leave our bikes.
Sounds like a runner. Bike racks ranked along both sides of all suburban streets, preferably blocking access to garages and with unsightly corrugated iron rain shelters to spoil the view and blotting out sunlight to gardens. Campaign web site: http://www.bike-parking-casting-shade-on-your-prize-roses.org.uk
Can't see any objections to that, can you?
Posted 12 years ago # -
I would settle for more bike parking in the city centre. I don't suppose that is part of the pedestrianisation plan in any way is it?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Princes Street is just a huge bus station right now. Pedestrianisation has to be done, it would be so much more pleasant.
While pedestrianisation in Glasgow has worked well, much of Edinburgh doesn't have the layout that allows vehicles to operate on one grid, and people on another, yet still occupy the same geography. I would love to see Princes St free of buses, but suggesting George Street as the alternative doesn't address what's probably the more obvious problem: too many buses amongst the cars and vans. And:
Don't let drivers from the suburbs and out of town ruin our city!
Car drivers from out of town are ruining the suburbs from the expansion of the CPZ. Car drivers living in the suburbs are ruining the city centre by shopping less locally.
Is the fundamental problem actually too many people all trying to travel to and through the same limited spaces? Edinburgh has a bus service bettered, in my experience, only by Brighton. But why does Princes St suffer so much from the confluence of routes, and what alternatives are there? The tram, if it ever arrives, is going to do nothing whatsoever to make it easier for citizens living north or south of the city centre, and will replace significantly few east-west buses that it will either be a financial disaster on passenger usage or it will spur a new growth corridor to the airport(ish), and encourage yet more people to want to travel into the city. But those growth areas are to the suburbs, which are now attractively served by huge supermarkets with huge car parks. Well I voted for congestion charging, even if no-one else did. :-/
Reducing the axle weight of buses might do a lot for the quality of our roads, and road quality is the reason that cycling in York always feels so much easier than in Edinburgh.
Building more "M/CS ONLY" parking spaces might be a way to encourage people onto smaller modes of transport for when cycling is too slow, too tiring or too weather-susceptible. Little Vespas are all the rage in Italian cities, and doesn't CEC already want to have that continental flavour?
Posted 12 years ago #
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