I'm confused. You see, in Edinburgh, the things that cause traffic congestion in Edinburgh are, in no particular order: bus lanes; cyclists; built-out bus stops; not being allowed to park wherever you want (?!); buses; cyclists again; wide pavements; cycle lanes; the Council's anti-car strategy; ASLs; and finally, cyclists.
But the Royal Mile is devoid of most of these things. There are only 3 sets of lights. There has been no roadspace given over to cyclists or buses. It would appear that, in the mornings at least, stopping wherever you want is perfectly acceptable. The pavements remain narrow where they were narrow, and are only wide where they cannot steal space from the motorists who pay for the roads.
So why, the last few mornings I've ridden it, has there been utter chaos crossing the Bridges? Hmmmm? Could it possibly, maybe, be down to the number of motorised vehicles, and people parking stupidly, and people seeing they can't pass ahead, but adding to the queue anyway and blocking traffic coming the other way?
This morning was great (two mornings ago a scaffolding lorry and a tourist coach had stopped almost opposite each other outside the Scandic Crowne and completely blocked the road to all but two wheels, that was genius), but this morning it was purely down to weight of numbers. Nothing moving. Nowt. Traffic coming downhill west of the bridges was blocking the road because they were queuing alongside stopped minibuses waiting for tourists, so the traffic heading uphill couldn't pass (save for two wheels).
I got to the George IV crossing without a single vehicle passing. Waited at the lights for a whole sequence without a single car coming up behind me. Got to Johnston Terrace without a car appearing. And irt was only while stopped there photographjing a fox, for a good five minutes, before one of the minibuses involved in the original blockage (that already had all its tourists) came past.
But of course, it's someone else's fault the road was blocked... Isn't it...
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