CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years 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.
"LARGE parts of Edinburgh city centre are likely to be given over to pedestrians in the next two years as part of efforts to boost the heart of the capital in the run-up to the tram system starting.
Sections of the Royal Mile, George Street and Chambers Street are set to be transformed under radical efforts to make the city more people-friendly."
But where will all the cars go?
Hurrah!
Planning leader Ian Perry has pledged the council will be much “bolder” than in recent years following criticism by the Danish design guru Jan Gehl said that his recommendations for the city had not been acted on.
Good for him. Nothing like a famous person embarrassing the council to sting it into action,. eh?
Hopefully, when they say "pedestrianise" they mean pedestrianised but with clearly defined paths for cyclists - which would be good to show a positive approach to cycling, establish a clear east-west route and to reduce conflict with pedestrians.
Royal Mile and George Street I can see, but I'm a little surprised about Chambers Street. There must be a plan to create a plaza to allow visitors to the museums to mingle with regular attendees at the Sheriff Court.
Sounds promising! But we need to let them know we like the idea!
Send your councillors a quick message :D
I'm worried politicians read the comments on articles like that :)
My message:
A really quick email in response to hearing that several roads in Edinburgh might be pedestrianised. This sounds fantastic! Especially George Street, this might have the extra benefit of providing a safe route East-West across town for cyclists, a real hole in the cycle network as it stands.
The only comment I'd make is, I hope cycling is permitted, and maybe cycle paths painted/indicated through the pedestrian areas to minimise conflict, etc?
Yours sincerely,
Maybe I should tidy it up - but I think it's good to let councillors know when we think they're getting it right :)
Wierd, I was just saying to my wife yesterday that the council need to make a bold statement before people take non-car use seriously - like making George Street half ped, half bikes.
Now, must spend more time imagineering that lotto win !
I keep saying to my girlfriend that they should pedestrianise the area here within the blue line:
Obviously keeping the bus access on Princes street though!
@lionfish
Great idea just sent one to Nigel Bagshaw and Lesley Hinds
Chambers street is effectively the car park for the museum, courts and university. I assume they will be encouraged to use the more expensive NCP sites off the Royal Mile instead?
I seem to remember that was a proposal to remove the parking from Chambers Street last year. The EEN ran a story about it with a poll and they (the EEN) were shocked when the poll showed ~70% support for the removal of the parking.
"70% support for the removal of the parking"
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=3505#post-36663
It will take a great deal of pressure to get the section of Planning Dept which deals with this to take cycling seriously in Princes St or George St. For example, see some of the history re the Gehl report.
Note too that the Scotsman article doesn't refer to Princes St at all, and it only talks of 'parts of' George Street. I suspect the relevant section of the planning dept is thinking of widened pavements/cafes in some stretches, with nothing for cycling except perhaps a bit more bike parking. That is certainly what they were talking about a year or two ago, and the Scotsman article doesn't suggest any change to that.
There are councillors and officials who'd seriously like to see much more done to improve cycling conditions in the city centre, even at the expense of cars, but in the past they have been in the minority or unwilling to speak up strongly. I'm not convinced that has changed until we see some actual plans, timescales and funding which prove it!
Victoria and Cockburn St are hardly major cycling routes, though obviously any car restrictions there would be welcome.
Chambers St - this is nothing new, it's in the Council's Southern Arc plan which there was a massive consultation on a year or two ago, but if the chambers St project is in fact going to come on stream soon that must be good - again the devil will be in the detail.
So overall, nothing new that's really good for cycling in the central area (particularly Princes St/ George St) is likely to happen without a great deal of continuing pressure to get more councillors to be really serious about cycling provision.
@chdot I seem to remember there was a thread on this forum about the EEN story and poll about removal of parking from Chamber St, which might have had some influence on the poll being so much in favour of the removal of parking... ;-)
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts