CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

How to fit a bike lane on Princes Street

(10 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from crowriver

No tags yet.


  1. Form the Princes Street Wikipedia entry:

    "Another problem has been that upper floors are often used for storage, rather than as office, retail or living space. At an early stage in post-World War II designs for the street, a "high level walkway" was planned, as a further shopping frontage for the first floor level, in lieu of the other side of the street. However the walkway as built was never more than a number of isolated balconies and in practice the Royal Bank of Scotland was the only business to maintain a frontage at this level for any length of time; that branch of the bank closed early in the 21st century, leaving the upper walkway largely forgotten."

    Upper walkway would probably allow the existing ground level pavement to be narrowed. Job done. Where do I collect my consultancy fee?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  2. spytfyre
    Member

    Genius - until someone falls... Then someone sues

    Posted 13 years ago #
  3. I would imagine included in the plan was a fence or wall of some sort ;)

    Posted 13 years ago #
  4. wingpig
    Member

    You could have a net like they used to have outside the Starbucks in the Waterstones, in which dead and decaying pigons could frequently be seen dangling.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  5. custard
    Member

    I was reading about that walkway the other day.
    The walkway on the RBS building(when it was there) was walled in and could (in theory) be cycled safely

    Posted 13 years ago #
  6. chdot
    Admin

    "I was reading about that walkway the other day"

    See second pic.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  7. cc
    Member

    I was surprised to see a very familiar-looking first floor ugly concrete walkway actually joined up and in use when I visited Hong Kong some years ago. Same architect perhaps.

    Seriously though, it's easy to fit in bike lanes - narrow or eliminate motor traffic lanes, simples.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  8. Kirst
    Member

    They could give us the whole gardens as a bike lane!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  9. kaputnik
    Moderator

    The walkway on the RBS building(when it was there) was walled in and could (in theory) be cycled safely

    The building you are referring to includes the A-listed "The New Club" by Alan Reiach, 1966. I don't think the ex-Royal Bank offices (part to the right, that shares the walkway) are included in the listing

    Apparently the interior of the club parts rescued the original interior of the original baroque building, so is completely unlike the modernist exterior.

    The idea for the first-floor walkway was part of the 1954 "Princes Street Panel guidelines". There are a few other bits of it. BhS was built to the specification, but with the "walkway" part only forming the overhanging sign, I suppose they might have converted it later on.

    I learnt all this from google.

    I prefer the following "solution" to Princes Street;

    buses, taxis and trams to fight it out on Princes Street. Bi-directional segregated cycle lane to be installed on George Street giving rapid and safe east-west transit through town. Single lane each way can be maintained on George Street for deliveries and taxis etc. Centre parking lane to be removed as surplus to requirements (big empty multi-storeys nearby at Kings Stables Road, Omni Centre and St. James Centre. Or they can take the tram!)

    I prefer the George Street idea as more practical given that it's now going to be impossible to re-locate the tram lines. I'm also of the theory that it benefits most people wanting east-west transit through the city centre, anyone wanting to get to the shops can turn off relevant side street (Castle, Hanover, Frederick, etc.) and park up there.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  10. crowriver
    Member

    Simple: just implement Gehl architects' master plan and stop using Princes Street as a giant bus station!

    Then there'd be plenty of space.

    Posted 13 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin