♻️Public transport/cycling isn’t good enough…
♻️ it needs to improve before I leave my car…
♻️there’s no funding to improve it…
That’ll help address these.
IMPACT ON Nottingham so far:
✅raised £75m
✅ringfenced levy has delivered transport improvements that have helped attract inward investment
✅ reduction in congestion & commuting by car
✅city hasn’t needed to introduce low emissions zone yet
IS IT FAIR:
There could be impacts. No doubt. But in basic terms, the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to drive.
And it’s the most subsidised transport.
The less you earn, the more likely you’ll suffer from road violence, pollution or congestion (eg bus delays)
IS THE STATUS QUO FAIR?
Residents & business already pay for (largely) well off folk getting free parking
🚗🚗UK’s most congested city
🚗💥collisions
🚗🎧noise linked to early onset dementia
🚗💨200 early deaths per year from pollution
🚗👩👩👦👦kids not walking to school
Why wait?
This is anecdotal, but shows the impact.
🗣 “this is unfair, it would make me walk or get the bus to work, rather than drive 2 miles. That’s inconvenient and costly!”
Yes. Exactly. But so are the longer term climate and ill health implications of short, avoidable car trips.
Should Edinburgh overlay a workplace parking levy with a low/no emissions zone or congestion charge?
The planned 2006 £2/day charge to pass one of the boundaries would have raised £50mn a year had it been introduced.
By now, the city might have raised an extra £850mn to spend on public transport.
Possibly above a billion if adjusted for inflation.
Almost two decades later, Edinburgh has ambitious car km reduction targets backed (in principle, although sadly not in practice) by 4/5 council parties.
But without measures like a congestion charge to both cut traffic AND raise funds for public transport, those will be missed.
🌳⬆️more trees
♟️⬆️more bollards
🌷⬆️more greenery
🚶⬆️walkable neighbourhoods
🚃⬆️prioritise public transport
🪑⬆️more places to sit
👂⬇️less noise
🚗⬇️fewer (but not no) cars
France is consistently adding green to grey spaces.
And it does so not as an exception, but at the point streets are resurfaced - often filtering them too.
Rather than planters, #Edinburgh needs to add proper rain gardens and greenery as well as…
…street trees.
Trees are either lacking or don’t feature enough in #Edinburgh plans for George Street, Teviot Place, Dalry, the recent tram routes, the West Edinburgh link etc.
#Edinburgh designs are grey, late-1990s designs and not welcoming or climate-friendly.