CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

XR Scotland closing North Bridge April 16th

(117 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by unhurt
  • Latest reply from edinburgh87

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  1. jonty
    Member

    Interesting discussion about what level of disruption is justified (and useful) during protests - one which I'm sure has been had countless times in the past.

    Coincidentally, another group of people are discussing causing much more serious disruption to bus services at the moment - bus drivers. If they do go on strike, it won't be the first time - however, it would seriously rile passengers, many of whom will have never experienced one before. The drivers know this but are still pressing ahead - they obviously reckon it might just work. In fact, the outcomes of recent labour struggles suggest it's probable they will achieve some of the goals of their protest beforehand and it won't need to happen at all.

    Clearly, the general struggle against climate chaos is different from a much more tightly focused labour dispute. However, I think it's quite interesting to consider the parallels - sometimes causing a little bit of disruption isn't as damaging to the cause as it might intuitively appear.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. jdanielp
    Member

    Just to clarify that critical masses will be aiming to arrive to an already closed North Bridge, just in case the concern of cyclists being the ones to actually close the bridge is a concern to anyone. The bridge will remain open to cyclists, pedestrians and emergency vehicles throughout the closure.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. Trixie
    Member

    I'm all for a bit of disruption to make a wider point but I feel this is the wrong road to occupy. The majority of inconvenience will be to those on buses. They aren't the problem.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. neddie
    Member

    XR do bridges (as opposed to other roads) - I'm sure they have a reason for that (?)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. jonty
    Member

    I think the difficulty of finding a high-profile city centre road where the majority of users aren't on buses kind of proves a point, doesn't it?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    Climate Change is a serious issue that is largely ignored or dismissed altogether by those who should know better.

    Any protest, even a bad one is better than no protest at all IMO.

    Get the item on the agenda THEN be clever about how you move it forward. The really sad thing as it takes direct action like this to get it in the headlines.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. wingpig
    Member

    Three police vans poised on Calton Road underneath Waterloo Place.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. jdanielp
    Member

    In theory, those police vans may just be there to 'help' the protest out and keep protestors 'safe', but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    Police van with a dozen or so cops in it was blocking the exit from my work car park (Holyrood Gait) a few mins ago. Spotted another 8 police officers hanging around on North Bridge 15 mins ago too.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. wingpig
    Member

    Forty or so (a few in those baseball costumes with peaked caps) on NB and the corners of Princes Street and the High St.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. 14Westfield
    Member

    BBC reporting over 120 folk arrested at the London XR demonstration- will police Scotland try and stop the Edinburgh XR from settling in?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    They posted on Twitter:
    We are aware of a planned demonstration in the city centre this afternoon and will provide a proportionate response. We have a duty to prevent crime and disorder, balancing the qualified rights of protestors with the rights of the wider public under ECHR

    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    https://twitter.com/scotlandxr/status/1118144523165732864?s=21

    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Plugin

    Posted 5 years ago #

  15. jonty
    Member

    Pop-up safe child-friendly infra :)

    https://i.imgur.com/tRqRnVv.jpg

    Posted 5 years ago #

  16. unhurt
    Member

    Pics one brother sent me make it look like the police are doing a nice job of blocking the Bridges on behalf of XR.

    The purpose of protests like this is to draw attention to the issue by causing peaceful disruption in visible, high-profile places. There's nowhere you can block a road that won't cause inconvenience to some people - no perfect location that's also highly visible, central, easy to "control". Bridges are a good choice for this - no side-roads in & out. Oh, and everyone knows exactly where it is, unlike "meet on the junction of X street and Y terrace but not on the bus route". Anyway if protest is to be judged successful only if it's non-disruptive I think we might need to redefine the whole concept. And then give up. (My very limited experience of organising with 2018's PoP is that it's very easy to critique every single decision into dust - and if you try to take account of every possible criticism you will soon enter decision paralysis stasis.)

    (Just seen someone on Twitter arguing that this isn't like the Suffragettes, who were dignified in their protests, and had a lengthy and vocal boggle...)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  17. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    Yeah, I retract my "does anyone else think this is a generally bad idea?" statement from yesterday. Still seeing plenty of people on Twitter saying "the police should arrest them" and similar complaints about the disruption it's causing - which is the point.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  18. jonty
    Member

    It's tough to read of course. But if everyone wholeheartedly agreed with the need for take urgent and radical action there protest wouldn't actually need to happen.

    edit: Interestingly, I recently started blocking Edinburgh transport twitter moaners. I've only blocked a handful but am seeing none of the negativity you describe. Maybe it's fewer folk than you think...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  19. neddie
    Member

    A charming individual on Twitter suggested "driving a snowplough" through them, not even realising the irony of his own Tweet: that there won't be much use for snowploughs where we're headed...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  20. Frenchy
    Member

    Went past in both directions, but wasn't able to stay particularly long.

    Looked to be going well. Lots of dancing and music, and police seemed to know what they were doing.

    South Bridge was lovely and quiet.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  21. neddie
    Member

    @jonty.

    You never want to block (unless it keeps you sane). Know your enemy and all that. I've only ever blocked one person, a London cabbie who put me on a "cyclist s***-gibbons" distribution list.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  22. 14Westfield
    Member

    Posting from twitter show an impressive cycling contingent
    https://mobile.twitter.com/shellie/status/1118153999553847296

    Posted 5 years ago #

  23. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    @neddie - Yup, I reported that particular tweet. Twitter take a dim view of the particular expletive he used.

    I'll pootle along for a looksie myself around 6pm.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  24. jonty
    Member

    @neddie: that used to be my philosophy, but then I realised that depression and malaise are the only winners of a Twitter flamewar, writing supportive words is far more pleasant and more important, and I win no moral victories by watching the same people go 'hurr hurr cyclists' at every opportunity.

    I suppose 'keeps me sane' covers that - in between my bursts of just not touching Twitter at all.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  25. sallyhinch
    Member

    Made the Radio 4 news bulletin at 4

    Posted 5 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    https://twitter.com/andycatlincom/status/1118179746217713664

    Posted 5 years ago #

  27. LaidBack
    Member

    Some of the disruption moaners could have been forewarned if the news media actually had told people that the streets were closing.
    CEC is going to close streets sometime soon so it's no big deal. Edinburgh lived with main streets closed for years. XR probably don't want to be considered a regular supplier of pedestrianisation as we pay planners and politicians to do that sort of thing (In theory!)

    As far as costs are concerned the country has been in grip of the right wing anarchists not in charge of Brexit - much greater than any minor costs from one street closure.

    Forth One says that the event is going so well that they may stay till 9pm.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  28. jdanielp
    Member

    I popped away to run an XR errand and came back to the line to the south of the bridge having been pushed back from the High Street junction to the middle of North Bridge. Not yet sure how that happened. Bridge still shut.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  29. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    @LaidBack I got embroiled in a pointless Twitter argument with someone claiming that the protest is illegal and was not planned. Despite it being advertised on social media for a week, and despite police being there 90 minutes ahead of it starting and not arresting anyone or even asking them to move. He also linked to a Lothian Buses tweet saying:
    although it was publicised in the news that the protesters were going to close North Bridge, there was no guarantee that they were going to occupy North Bridge specifically
    So they knew it was happening, even if they weren't certain where it was happening (Which I find hard to believe, since I've not heard anything to say it was happening anywhere other than North Bridge).

    Anyway, I'm off to take a look now...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  30. EdinburghCycleCam
    Member

    People do indeed seem to have been pushed back to the middle of North Bridge, with no obvious reason why - the road is completely clear to the high street where there's a "road closed" sign and couple of police cars, and there's almost no traffic for as far along as Surgeon's Hall.

    Traffic isn't even that bad - Abbeyhill was busy (Presumably folk using the Royal Mile instead of North Bridge), but Leith Street and the East end of Princes Street seemed to be fairly light traffic, with police there since the traffic lights have been turned off.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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