four friends

Busy at work. I had a succession of students come and ask about dissertation projects. Good fun.

Went along to the Picardy Place consultation in the City Art Centre. I can see why the design ended up like this: it is maintaining current traffic levels. However, someone mentioned through traffic. Surely, if through traffic is no longer convenient they will go elsewhere. OK, causing congestion there. Maybe, or people just stop driving through town.

We (council, government, myself) know active travel is good: it makes us happy, keeps us fit, reduces air pollution. We also know we need to kick our fossil fuel burning habit and we know that Edinburgh is going to grow. More people more traffic. The only way all these issues can get resolved is by reducing motor traffic massively. And as a bonus we get a more pleasant place to live in, where the kids can get around on their own without having to fear they get flattened.

So we know the status quo must change. Politics is about coming up with a vision for the future. There are plenty of people who want a change. This is a chance to start doing things differently.

A four way motorway through the city, really?