CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

London, trains etc

(12 posts)

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  1. SRD
    Moderator

    Bit worried the forum might be broken - no new posts in 14 hours!

    a few observations about cycling in London:

    1. had an interesting ride from Kings cross to Russell Square. Most of it on oneway roads with painted on cycle contraflow lanes. striking thing was that there were no moving cars on it. so it worked well. briliantlyn fact.

    2. saw a fair number of borisbikes in use (but also a lot not in use). lots of just casual users, but also a high proportion in cyclespecific jackets and helmets, which I thoght was interesting. also one (presumably foreign student) cycling straight at me on wrong side of road, alongside fairly busy traffic. i said something like 'you're on the wrong side of the road' and she seemed quite honestly surprised/appreciative. hope she made it the rest of the way safely....

    3. intriguingly, on the train back up, all the other cyclists female. nice racing/touring bikes, spds etc. so serious cyclists - 3 in total I think. kinda cool demographic

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    "Bit worried the forum might be broken - no new posts in 14 hours!"

    Nah, everyone is out activizating (and thinking of the next thing to praise/complain/ask about…)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. crowriver
    Member

    The thing that has made the difference in central London is the congestion charge. Edinburgh nearly had one too, just imagine...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. SRD
    Moderator

    exactly. no poit to cars using those roads unless they needed access, and even then most people would not choose to drive there. so great cycling route. all happy.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    I voted for congestion charge in edinburgh but I was in a minority as I recall

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. crowriver
    Member

    There was no referendum in London. The then government in Holyrood basically imposed the need for a referendum on Edinburgh, which was then unsurprisingly lost. I mean, if you ask the average (driver) person to vote for having to pay more to drive into town, of course they are going to refuse!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. le_soigneur
    Member

    Ain't democracy a b*tch

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. fimm
    Member

    I remember being interested to see Boris Bike users who had brought helmets to wear.

    And I'm pleased to hear about the female cyclists (see Audax thread for reasons :-) )

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @crowriver, I remember attending one of the very early public meetings* when congestion charging was a proposal, alongside trams. Andrew Burns presented it. My memory might be wrong, but I think the 'need' for a referendum on CC was because CEC and/or Holyrood expected that the public would demand one, and so held one anyway. Which they lost.

    * at the usual place on Victoria Terrace; might've been a Friends of the Earth Scotland hosted thing.

    I voted for congestion charging, too. I remember many people being somewhat suspicious of the CC border for the way it conveniently sidestepped the Scottish Parliament and cut across the Horse Wynd/Abbeyhill route for cross-town traffic.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. cc
    Member

    London sounds unexpectedly good then!

    As I recall, the thing which really killed the Edinburgh congestion charge was the outer ring. If they'd started with just a city centre charge zone they might have won. No such luck: This Is Edinburgh.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. gembo
    Member

    The outer ring certainly lost even more votes but I guess they went for trying to get the displacement caused by the inner ring out as far as the park and rides?would have been a great scheme but a complete vote loser so they got out of it by having a referendum. Not exactly democracy in action, more dirty politics.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. crowriver
    Member

    Not exactly democracy in action, more dirty politics.

    Precisely. Referendums are used very rarely in the UK, usually on major constitutional matters (eg. Devolution). Why have one on a congestion charge? Did they have a popular vote before introducing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge? Parking meters? Bus lanes? Lower speed limits? No, of course not.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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