CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Spokes petition: Princes Street for People

(19 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by crowriver
  • Latest reply from lionfish

  1. crowriver
    Member

    Princes Street for People

    We request the Council to make Princes Street a place where people can move about, relax, shop, and enjoy this marvellous street in peace and safety; and where pedestrians, cyclists and trams co-exist well.

    In particular, we request that Princes Street is freed of all motor traffic.

    The Council can then develop the kind of Princes Street envisaged in the council's Jan Gehl report ...

    • safe, welcoming and attractive for pedestrians and cyclists
    • inclusive, catering for people of all abilities
    • encouraging tourists to linger, shop, tell their friends, and return
    • retaining public transport accessibility, by tram, nearby buses and possibly a free electric shuttle-bus
    • with a high-quality 2-way cycle route linking adjacent cycle networks to each other and to the shops and pleasures of Princes Street
    • increasing shop footfall, competing with Glasgow's pedestrianised streets
    • developing a 'cafe culture'
    • with garden and castle views uninterrupted by motor traffic
    • not dominated by traffic noise and air pollution
    • and eliminating the tramline cyclist crashes and injuries now occurring regularly.

    The overall aim is a Princes Street with the sense of 'place' which it deserves as Scotland's premier street - where people come and spend time, safe and welcoming for active travel by foot and bike, and enabling Scotland's iconic street to achieve its full potential for residents and visitors alike. A vision in Edinburgh - but a reality already in many European cities.

    Sign here:

    http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory_record/212684/princes_street_for_people

    Also made the EEN:

    http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/transport/princes-street-could-ban-all-traffic-except-trams-1-2762441

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. mgj
    Member

    Cafe culture; have they seen the weather today?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. Claggy Cog
    Member

    Aye, I won't be signing it. Not, in my opinion, worth saving, it is beyond that having been absolutely trashed in the past few decades, the tram debacle being the icing and the cherry on top of the icing on the cake! It is no longer iconic and neither is it a top shopping area. Not entirely sure how they think that tramline crashes will be eliminated, they may reduce but imagine swerving to avoid the pedestrian running out in front of you!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    @Claggy Clog I'd hope that "with a high-quality 2-way cycle route linking adjacent cycle networks to each other and to the shops and pleasures of Princes Street" would mean segregated.

    That said, I'd still rather see George Street as the pedestrianised street with bike access/segregated lane. It's a nicer street (IMHO) architecturally and already has the bars and restaurants that in summer can indulge in that cafe culture (plenty cities with similar climate to ours around the world can manage that - I don't think anyone would expect to be sitting out in January in any of them).

    Leaves Princes Street to the trams and buses, and Queen Street to the cars. But is the above worth signing because that particular utopia of a pedestrianised George Street is pie in the sky and a partially segregated Princes Street is the best we can hope for?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. cc
    Member

    I've signed it. It's certainly well worth getting motor traffic off Princes St. The shopping isn't going to improve unless we do this. Without motor traffic it should be a lot easier to retrofit safe cycling routes with the tram lines, as there'll be a lot more space to play with. (Retrofitting should of course not have been necessary, but ThisIsEdinburgh.)

    Re weather: Edinburgh is a fairly dry city, it doesn't rain that much. And this is January for goodness sake.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. Claggy Cog
    Member

    @WC, which "with a high-quality 2-way cycle route linking adjacent cycle networks to each other and to the shops and pleasures of Princes Street" are being referred to exactly.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Well I'm assuming Spokes want the 2-way cycle route put in - I'm pretty certain they're not referring to anything that is in place currently.

    EDIT: especially since there isn't a 2-way cycle route there at the moment. It's aspirational.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. Claggy Cog
    Member

    @WC I think they are referring to linking the north and south Edinburgh network paths. The idea being that Princes Street is preferred going straight out along Shandwick Place and not entirely sure of the meeting up via Waterloo Place. The city fathers will never and are not considering an option regarding improving George St and therefore Spokes are encouraging you to sign the Princes Street, "best fit" option. I am not signing for any second class option...They have really thought this through...Shandwick Place is awful, and won't be traffic free...cannot see what the problem is coming off George St using Charlotte Sq, Queensferry St, Melville Street, etc to West Coates, out to the Roseburn path rather than Shandwick Place, Morrison Street, Dalry Road route. North St Andrew Street down Dublin Street to the Rodney Street tunnel works well for me, preferring to give Leith Street, Picardy/Greenside Place a miss.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. Roibeard
    Member

    Don't mock the cafe culture too much...

    Copenhagen has reportedly extended its cafe culture by two months through improved streetscape/reduced motorised traffic (ref?)...

    [Edit - actually I can't find the reference, pretty sure it was blogged somewhere, but I may have got it very wrong...]

    And the Copenhagen and Edinburgh climates don't look all that different. If anything Copenhagen has wetter summers (!) but drier and colder winters.

    Robert

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    "Copenhagen has reportedly extended its cafe culture by two months"

    Nope wrong....

    "
    In Denmark, notes Copenhagen architect Jan Gehl, improvements like these have expanded the season of “good” weather from six to ten months.

    "

    http://www.pps.org/reference/winter_cities

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Claggy Cog
    Member

    There is some suggestion that there is no direct access to Waverley from George Street, not sure that I see this as a problem...I cannot see the council agreeing to the whole length of Princes Street being traffic free, including the section at S St Andrew's/David's streets or Waverley Bridge being shut to traffic, and indeed wonder if they are even considering shutting the Mound and Hanover Street, I think not. If access to Waverley station is a major consideration surely access via Princes St is more sensible for those coming from W Edinburgh, too, there being a direct route, and this is for all citizens including most likely car drivers carrying large bags etc. I think that argument a little spurious. Or perhaps the plan from S Edinburgh is that people accessing Waverley via the top of the Mound, and turning right down Market Street, down N Bridge left onto Princes Street to Waverley Bridge, up Leith Street from Leith Walk, how about W Edinburgh, along Morrison Street, up Johnston Tce, onto the High Street, down the Mound, Cockburn Street or N Bridge.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. Claggy Cog
    Member

    @Roibeard, drier and colder is fine! I am liking the drier bit considerably. Tell me is it less windy? That is a major factor as far as I am concerned!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. Claggy Cog
    Member

    How can that be, traffic free equals a four month extension to "good weather". Mother Nature does count for nothing then? We are so powerful we control the weather, that'll be a first! Please, if this is the case tell them to do something about here.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    "How can that be"

    Click the link and read - not about traffic free.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. neddie
    Member

    Now 257 signatures.

    Keep going people!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. cc
    Member

    HWMBO went to Uni in Copenhagen and remembers it as having exceptionally bitter wind in the winter, much more chilling than here. Also, back when they suggested taking cars off of Strøget they got all sorts of climate-based jeers to the effect that Denmark wasn't in the Med and Danish people needed to stay in their cars to keep warm. Nevertheless they went ahead and it's been a huge success ever since 1962 or so.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. crowriver
    Member

    they got all sorts of climate-based jeers to the effect that Denmark wasn't in the Med and Danish people needed to stay in their cars to keep warm.

    Which I am sure would be the reaction now, fifty years later, in Edinburgh.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. crowriver
    Member

    577 signatures.

    Still time to sign, until 28 April...

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. lionfish
    Member

    Thanks for the reminder cr!

    Posted 11 years ago #

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