I should apologise to anyone who is a bit fed up of my feed becoming a 'safer cities / safer Edinburgh' blast recently. I've got pretty caught up in not wanting people to die or be hurt. That'll be continuing for the foreseeable, though...
I'll still be sprinkling in pictures of the cats, maybe some cartoons and drawings, and anticipate by the middle of the week to have a new twitter feed set up to carry the weight of the #enough vibe. Not that this feed will abandon the safety message of course.
But this feed complicates matters by making people think this is ALL about cycling. And not just people like John McLellan incorrectly writing that 'E' started because of 'cycling accidents'. Because it's me, folk who know me have (understandably) assumed.
Whereas I'm at pains to observe that we need to start with pedestrians. Sort out their needs, make it safe and easy to move about when (get this) you're disabled or elderly or three years old. And work back from there. Then cyclists, for the exact same people.
Drivers, and I say this as a driver, though one with a conscience who tries to avoid using the car in the city as much as possible, come way down the list. Not just demonstrably unnecessary single-occupant able-bodied plenty-of-other-options use.
The type of use which creates the need for more and more parking, removing the ability to park from the people who NEED to use the car, and stealing space from those who arrive by bus, or bike, or on foot.
But also things like 'final mile' deliveries. Smaller vehicles, needing less space, posing less of a threat by their sheer bulk. We tolerate huge trucks on narrow streets, amongst unprotected human beings. Which just seems crazy.
Often an argument used against cycle lanes is 'Edinburgh is an old city, the streets are too narrow to fit a cycle lane'. You know what, bikes, and people, are a lot skinnier than a giant Scania truck.
Edinburgh risks being left behind, as people come to the city, and really start comparing it to other places they can and do visit. Places with pedestrian boulevards, cleaner air, space to move and live. And administrations who don't think zero road deaths is an impossible aim.
