Fabulous title for report on recent Spokes meeting!
http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/2013/04/cars-down-bravery-not-yet-up
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Cars down, bravery not yet up"
(9 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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"
•There is no such thing as transport policy any more (?)
•Clarity has disappeared from the debate… “New Deal… to … “Integration”… to “Choice”… to “Modal Agnosticism”… to motherhood and apple pie
•Ministers are enormously nervous in revisiting the concept of sustainability in any meaningful sense
•Reducing the need to travel has (almost) vanished as a policy objective
•Some problems remain resilient/intractable e.g. transport/land use integration
"
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Key Challenges
• More match funding
• Getting the big projects right
• Keep cycle lanes clear of parked vehicles• Securing 7% of Transport budget for 2014/15
• Improving perceptions of cycling as safe, convenient and inclusive
• Maintain a positive image
From Jim Orr's presentation.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Iain Docherty claims that retail sales have fallen 30% and that out-of-town shopping centres will suffer first due to 'peak car'.
Has anyone seen any anecdotal evidence of this?
There are many vacant units on Shandwick Pl (which I attribute to the recession & internet shopping as well as the businesses themselves either being marginal or not diverse, as opposed to the tram works). But are there a similar number/proportion of vacant out-of-town units?
Posted 12 years ago # -
IIRC the claim wasn't that retail space requirement is down 30% but that it is projected to fall by 30%.
Posted 12 years ago # -
That makes sense. Instead of out-of-town shopping centres, we are seeing big logistics/fulfilment centres for companies like Amazon spring up (the latest in Halbeath). Also big sheds for courier companies near airports. All fuelled by the internet shopping/mail order boom.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I found Ian Docherty's address really thought provoking - a holistic view of transport.
Posted 12 years ago # -
a holistic view of transport
I thought it was more than that. It wasn't really about transport at all: it was about making places liveable and enjoyable, where transport is simply a means to an end. For many of the enthusiastic 'us', (planners, bikeists, commuters) transport and infrastructure is the end.
We need to make the transport solutions suit our spaces, not make the spaces suit our transport.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Quite right Arellcat. Certainly making our spaces suit our transport i.e. cars has destroyed cities as livable environments whether in traffic jams in Bangkok where drivers take chemical toilets with them or in the vast sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles and Auckland. I was interested that he referred to Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs being a pioneer in the view that knocking down old neighbourhoods for 8 lane highways is a poor idea.
Posted 12 years ago #
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