CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years 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.
If you've a spare 5-10 mins, worth flicking though this photo set on Flick of Princes Street in the late 1960s / early 1970s, which show in great detail just what a car drivers "utopia" it was with no traffic calming measures and on-street parking.
Horrible!
I see what you mean. But at the same time I'm getting misty-eyed seeing cars from my very early boyhood! This Ford Classic is the very first model of car I remember - we used to have one when I was tiny:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixtiesedinburgh/6932834035/in/set-72157629360808506
When my Dad took delivery of it he discovered that they'd forgotten to bolt the engine into the engine bay. Dagenham quality that was, don't get them like that any more.
Two tone Cambridge/Oxford beside it.
The other day when clearing out some old stuff I stumbled across some old Lothian Region Transport consultation notes* for the 1987 (I think) proposal to widen the pavements on part of Princes Street.
It was a bit incomplete but the consultation feedback from residents/businesses etc were interesting.
- Lots of people (presumably Spokes members) suggesting that the road should pretty much be replaced with bike lanes. (Response: no chance!)
- Quite a few folk suggesting that the pavement work should be postponed until the City Bypass was completed as that would solve all the city centre transport woes (chortle).
- A couple of Clubs/Associations representing car owners responded in a remarkably Mr Toad-esque manner. (I think they, or at least one of them would be more measured these days).
- The best was from the George St traders assoc (or something like that), who were desperatly worried about the impact on parking on George St which was already woefully inadequate!
Something else interesting was discovering that there were no Ped Crossings on Castle/Fredrick/Hanover Sts on the Rose Street axis.
*This sort of stuff was the scrap paper of my youth.
That is really quite stomach churning.
Speaking of Princes St, after today's PY visit and about to mosey on down the road to work, I thought about my route towards Sighthill and its environs.
In the past I would have cycled up George IV Bridge, down The Mound, done an illegal left onto Princes St and hightailed it towards Haymarket, Dalry, Gorgie, Balgreen and out along the A71. Today I realised just how much I wanted to avoid Princes St.
I just couldn't be bothered dealing with all the buses, the taxis, and not coming a cropper on the endless parallelism of wet tram rails. I couldn't be bothered with the risk of the stupid pinch points, the constant cycle of overtaking each other to be first to the next red light, the need to keep one eye on my mirror, one eye on the rails and one eye on the next vehicular obstacle.
I might have stopped on Princes St to visit the shops to buy more Christmas cards, but I didn't. I wound my way through the old RIE to Lauriston, Fountainbridge, Slateford and Chesser, and then back onto the A71.
If I visit Princes St again anytime soon it isn't going to be by bike.
I suppose hardened petrolheads would see it differently. "That's the way it should be," they might say. "Parking in front of the shop, rather than walking from miles away."
"
I suppose hardened petrolheads would see it differently. "That's the way it should be," they might say. "Parking in front of the shop, rather than walking from miles away."
"
It may indeed be horrible, but it appears to be what people want to do. How many High streets (Princes St included) up and down the country have been destroyed by out of town retail parks which offer parking a plenty? Drive up, fill up the car with groceries/clothes/toys/whatever, drive home. All done in a couple of hours, must admit I like the convenience of that sometimes too.
The city may be a nicer place devoid of cars, but it is not a better shopping experience, and that must have some effect on the 'niceness' of a place too, unless of course charity shops, cash generator, and kilt shops are your bag. <\ Devils Advocate>
@Arellcat I'd go down from PY to the Meadows then head along North Meadow Walk towards Gilmore Place and then straight to Sighthill on the canal towpath.
I agree about Princes St. With the incompetent botch of the Princes St tram lines wrt cycling we seem to be travelling further away from Jan Gehl's vision of a pleasant Edinburgh rather than towards it.
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