Traffic congestion

[PC Stamp]

Edinburgh has to be one of the worst cities in the world for traffic congestion. The strangest thing about it though is it's rarely caused by traffic, That's just the myth that the Council would like us all to believe. It's actually caused by about every second street in the city being dug up or actually not being dug up in many cases but just ringed with plastic fences on the off chance it might get dug up. Then they stick a set of temporary traffic signals in so that you have to wait to negotiate your way round the plastic fencing guarding the imaginary works which aren't taking place!!

Oh and then we have the trams ... which are presently adding to the "congestion". In fairness at least those particular roads are being dug up albeit all in aid of a white elephant scheme that no one wants and which will only serve to hold traffic up even more when complete!

******g Council. If they'd just let cars be and let us use the roads in the manner which they should be allowed to there'd be no congestion! If they want to raise money and encourage us to be more green to save the planet then start petitioning their masters at Westminster or Holyrood to tax those effing 4x4/jeep/land/rangerover/glorified sodding tractors (which should be driven in fields as opposed to on the school run) to the hilt!!

And don't get me started on the now greater scourge than taxis which are private hire cabs!

:devil:

[Jack]

Agree with most of what you say but with the roads on Edinburgh in such bad condition through lack of proper maintenance and all these [ungreen] speed bumps then perhaps the need for a 4x4/jeep/land/rangerover/glorified sodding tractors in the city has never been greater!

I don’t have one by the way it was one of these random thoughts that went through my mind when I was near jolted to death as I hit yet another hole in the road.

…. and another thing. In London, even before congestion charging, some 19,000 sets of traffic lights were synchronised and controlled by computer to keep the traffic flowing.

In Edinburgh you get stopped at every bloody set of lights you come to.

Now I don’t know how much a similar scheme would cost in Edinburgh but it has to be better than some of the other crap our great cooncil has come up with.

[stu in nottingham]

It's a lot the same in most sizeable cities now though, mate. What really annoys me is the amount of one-way and traffic-calming systems. It seems every jouney I do these days incurs travelling 2-3 times the distance due to one-way roads. How can this be good for the environment I wonder.

Curiously I find driving in Edinburgh a bit easier than here in Nottingham but conversely the buses seem to take an absolute age to get anywhere in comparison to here. Maybe that's due to bus lanes primarily.

Traffic-calming is undeniably required in certain instances but in my view there is far too much of it these days. I wonder if the day will ever come when there will be a complete change of thought and the chicanes and humps etc start getting ripped up again.

[MyJo]

If they want to raise money and encourage us to be more green to save the planet then start petitioning their masters at Westminster or Holyrood to tax those effing 4x4/jeep/land/rangerover/glorified sodding tractors (which should be driven in fields as opposed to on the school run) to the hilt!!

I prefer the term "compact SUV" thank you very much :I'm waiti

and that b*****d Alistair Darling has already put our road tax up by about £100 and we've only got a two litre engine in our 'tractor' :wink:

[Chuckie]

Scooters are the way forward...
You can get from Portobello to Corstorphine in 15 minutes..
:wink:

[PC Stamp]

I prefer the term "compact SUV" thank you very much :I'm waiti

and that b*****d Alistair Darling has already put our road tax up by about £100 and we've only got a two litre engine in our 'tractor' :wink:

He should have added another "0" on the end! Spineless git that he is! :wink:

[Hibby D]

I hit a man-made pot hole in the road on Tuesday night - top of Leith Walk where they're doing something (**** knows what) to that roundabout at London Road.

£80 for a new tyre on Wednesday morning :brickwall

Someone said I should claim from the council but I wouldn't know where to start.

[Pete]

I hit a man-made pot hole in the road on Tuesday night - top of Leith Walk where they're doing something (**** knows what) to that roundabout at London Road.

£80 for a new tyre on Wednesday morning :brickwall

Someone said I should claim from the council but I wouldn't know where to start.

Our poor little meriva went over one of these pot-holes on the west approach road. ten minutes later we were confronted with a flat tyre!!

they're not pot-holes, they're bloody craters! It's always after it's been teeming down with rain these things appear. They're about a foot wide and a foot deep and nothing will be done about them unless this policy of filling them with coal tar ends.

every time it rains the holes re-appear!

[cad]

The upheaval that this work is putting the people of Edin through is terrible
Shandwick Place was done about 6 months ago now they are at it again nice bit of forward thinking there.
The bridge stops tolls but not before the build or upgrade the toll boxes for the collection of the money to the tune of so many millions.
Then you have Leith walk in its first stage ,moving the water pipes over I believe then the next stage is the electrical stuff for the trams.
You go one way to your work in the morning not knowing if you can go home the same way at the end of the day .
The amount of cars on the road NOT paying road tax in Edinburgh must be astronomical well going bye the terrible condition our roads are in they must be short of funds to repair them,
I guarantee everybody goes to work and there's that hole that's not been repaired en-route for 6 months, well multiply that by so many thousands ,
speed bumps for the sake of speed bumps , the list goes on and on
Am I the only one , but who really wants these trams , do you ??
.

[bigstu]

Aberdeen is a nightmare a lot of the time to! It's not a big place but it can take ages to get from one side of the city to the other just because of the amount of traffic lights! You get through one set & then have to wait at the next & they stay at red for so bloody long! If you try to drive across town at the busy times then it can take three times as long because of the volume of traffic & the fact that there are bloody bus lanes, they cause havoc! But whatever time of the day it is, a short journey can takes ages!

One thing I would say about the Aberdeen(shire) 'B' roads is that they are usually in a lot better condition than the ones in Edinburgh. The way they keep them in good nic is by closing a lot of the roads once a year & then resurfacing them. It's a pain while the roads closed but you feel the benefits the rest of the year. There are so many pot holes in the 'B' roads in Edinburgh! It's about the only thing that Aberdeen Council do right though, as you may have seen in the press recently the Council is in some state!

[stu in nottingham]

Aberdeen is a nightmare a lot of the time to! It's not a big place but it can take ages to get from one side of the city to the other just because of the amount of traffic lights! You get through one set & then have to wait at the next & they stay at red for so bloody long! If you try to drive across town at the busy times then it can take three times as long because of the volume of traffic & the fact that there are bloody bus lanes, they cause havoc! But whatever time of the day it is, a short journey can takes ages!


I have a very simple, straightforward drive into the city of Nottingham. It's four miles along a single main road.

Some years ago there were two sets of traffic lights in that four miles. There are now twenty.

As has been said here, non of them are calibrated. Hit one red light you're liable to hit them all.

[jabis]

Scooters are the way forward...
You can get from Portobello to Corstorphine in 15 minutes..
:wink:

you must be BUPA then,as i'm sure ambulance can get you to murryfield hospital in that time !
the amount of scooters that come right up the ass of a learner car has to be seen to be believed ! some learners WILL panic and hit the brakes,you will be bleeding in my back seat before i can say "OFF BRAKE"
go carefully chuckie :agree:

as for EDC .come the revolution :bye:

[Lucius Apuleius]

Edinburgh has to be one of the worst cities in the world for traffic congestion. The strangest thing about it though is it's rarely caused by traffic, That's just the myth that the Council would like us all to believe. It's actually caused by about every second street in the city being dug up or actually not being dug up in many cases but just ringed with plastic fences on the off chance it might get dug up. Then they stick a set of temporary traffic signals in so that you have to wait to negotiate your way round the plastic fencing guarding the imaginary works which aren't taking place!!

Oh and then we have the trams ... which are presently adding to the "congestion". In fairness at least those particular roads are being dug up albeit all in aid of a white elephant scheme that no one wants and which will only serve to hold traffic up even more when complete!

******g Council. If they'd just let cars be and let us use the roads in the manner which they should be allowed to there'd be no congestion! If they want to raise money and encourage us to be more green to save the planet then start petitioning their masters at Westminster or Holyrood to tax those effing 4x4/jeep/land/rangerover/glorified sodding tractors (which should be driven in fields as opposed to on the school run) to the hilt!!

And don't get me started on the now greater scourge than taxis which are private hire cabs!

:devil:

Oh dear Mr Plod, I feel your pain man. One question though, why do you think 4x4 driver should pay more tax? If you look at emission levels most of them are better than a normal saloon.

[Iain G]

Taking it a stage further, Edinburgh would be a much better place if the cooncil just ****ed off and left everyone to it :thumbsup:

[capitals_finest]

It's a lot the same in most sizeable cities now though, mate. What really annoys me is the amount of one-way and traffic-calming systems. It seems every jouney I do these days incurs travelling 2-3 times the distance due to one-way roads. How can this be good for the environment I wonder.

Curiously I find driving in Edinburgh a bit easier than here in Nottingham but conversely the buses seem to take an absolute age to get anywhere in comparison to here. Maybe that's due to bus lanes primarily.

Traffic-calming is undeniably required in certain instances but in my view there is far too much of it these days. I wonder if the day will ever come when there will be a complete change of thought and the chicanes and humps etc start getting ripped up again.



Totally agree. The councils idea of sorting out traffic congestion is to block roads off :brickwall:brickwall:brickwall Unbelievable. :bitchy: A great example is closing off the road next to glenogles swimming pool. It only concentrates traffic flow to certain roads causing more congestion. Also the need for traffic lights at the junction next to the Doocot at Ferry Road??? That used to be nae bother but now you have to sit and wait at lights :brickwall. I could go on and on.

The council are yam bassas :bitchy:

[Betty Boop]

Its punishment for not agreeing to congestion charges! :wink:

[Zimmy]

I hit a man-made pot hole in the road on Tuesday night - top of Leith Walk where they're doing something (**** knows what) to that roundabout at London Road.

£80 for a new tyre on Wednesday morning :brickwall

Someone said I should claim from the council but I wouldn't know where to start.

Tell me about it. :brickwall

[Hibby D]

Tell me about it. :brickwall

Okay then....:agree:

Well I was driving down the road minding my own business when all of a sudden....:faf:

[MyJo]

He should have added another "0" on the end! Spineless git that he is! :wink:

Hippy :greengrin

[RyeSloan]

I hit a man-made pot hole in the road on Tuesday night - top of Leith Walk where they're doing something (**** knows what) to that roundabout at London Road.

£80 for a new tyre on Wednesday morning :brickwall

Someone said I should claim from the council but I wouldn't know where to start.

Hmm they are taking it away to put in traffic lights....trams can't go round roundabouts!! Yeah of course traffic lights will cause increased traffic queues and pollution but you won't find that in TIE's tram promotionals.

You can claim from the council, although there is a few hurdles...check out their website.

As for Edinburghs roads....a total disgrace for such a 'rich' country, years of under investment and over investment in fashionable 'traffic calming' have left a terrible legacy that will probably never be propably fixed.

I see some of the traffic calming in and around Leith Walk is being removed with work associated with the trams...it's a shame the council wasted so much on unnessecary and poorly carried out work in the first place. The fact that a lot of it is not maintained and the streets are littered with bent posts, random signs and car destroying speed bumps with illegal gradients is something that really irks me!!:brickwall

[AFKA5814_Hibs]

Leith is a nightmare at the moment.

As well as the ongoing work on Leith Walk, you have Constitution Street shut between the bottom of Leith Walk and the Polis station, PLUS roadworks on the half that is opened, PLUS Duke Street made into a one way system, meaning you cannot drive directly from from the bottom of Easter Road onto Leith Walk/Great Junction Street. :brickwall

[davym7062]

Leith is a nightmare at the moment.

As well as the ongoing work on Leith Walk, you have Constitution Street shut between the bottom of Leith Walk and the Polis station, PLUS roadworks on the half that is opened, PLUS Duke Street made into a one way system, meaning you cannot drive directly from from the bottom of Easter Road onto Leith Walk/Great Junction Street. :brickwall

and its only going to get worse. if your heading to portobello in may the kings road roundabout is getting replaced. that'll take 5 months:brickwall

i drive a bus in this city its no much fun the noo:agree:

[derekHFC]

Would the congestion charge have made things any different? :worms:

Should we have voted for the congestion charge and if so, would there be less cars in the city centre?

The council don't want cars in the city centre. There are a number of decent park and ride sites around the outskirts of the town, which could be used.

The rail service is horrible and is a poor excuse for some of the great services that operate througout Europe. If we could get a decent rail system in place, people would use that instead of cars, but its all down to the powers that be as usual!!

[Bad Martini]

I get out to go into my car, it's due to be road taxed so I drive to the post office, buy the road tax and carry on my way. Wait, no petrol - I go to the garage, get some and heyho, I pay more ****ing tax. Whilst driving, a ruddy great ****ing pothole has burst my tyres and ****ed my engine management system. The parts are £300+ VAT (thats tax) and labour + VAT...tax tax tax. I pay all that, just in time to reinsure the car with Insurance Premium Tax and thereafter, I get the ****ing thing MOT'd which, is an unavoidable tax. In my rush to get to the garage, I exceed the speed limit on the bypass where no pedestrians or vunerable punters are allowed by 6mph and do 76mph, the ****ers send me a speeding fine which is, yes, YET ANOTHER means of raising revenue which is a................

TAX!!!

:brickwall:brickwall


Tax, tax, tax..............

With all this ****ing tax what do they do with it??? They dig up the ***** roads, fire in MORE obstacles and want the motorist to pay MORE ... congestion charges? Road tolls? They can GTF.

If they gave us roads that werent full of holes, speed bumps and cameras, we'd be a damnsight more responsive to "paying our way".

Government bassas.

ENDOF :brickwall:brickwall:brickwall:brickwall

[hibbie02]

I get out to go into my car, it's due to be road taxed so I drive to the post office, buy the road tax and carry on my way. Wait, no petrol - I go to the garage, get some and heyho, I pay more ****ing tax. Whilst driving, a ruddy great ****ing pothole has burst my tyres and ****ed my engine management system. The parts are £300+ VAT (thats tax) and labour + VAT...tax tax tax. I pay all that, just in time to reinsure the car with Insurance Premium Tax and thereafter, I get the ****ing thing MOT'd which, is an unavoidable tax. In my rush to get to the garage, I exceed the speed limit on the bypass where no pedestrians or vunerable punters are allowed by 6mph and do 76mph, the ****ers send me a speeding fine which is, yes, YET ANOTHER means of raising revenue which is a................

TAX!!!

:brickwall:brickwall


Tax, tax, tax..............

With all this ****ing tax what do they do with it??? They dig up the ***** roads, fire in MORE obstacles and want the motorist to pay MORE ... congestion charges? Road tolls? They can GTF.

If they gave us roads that werent full of holes, speed bumps and cameras, we'd be a damnsight more responsive to "paying our way".

Government bassas.

ENDOF :brickwall:brickwall:brickwall:brickwall

What he said!!!! :dummytit::dummytit::dummytit:

[McSwanky]

If they gave us roads that werent full of holes, speed bumps and cameras, we'd be a damnsight more responsive to "paying our way".

I don't know though, I reckon you'd find something else to have a moan about :wink:

Chill oot, big man. :greengrin

[hibbie02]

I had the misfortune of trying to drive in Central Edinburgh at Easter and it was a 'kin nightmare. Admittedly it is a long time since I regularly drove in Edinburgh, but it seems everywhere I want to go is blocked off or one way (in the opposite direction). Whoever came up with the scheme for Charlotte Square needs taken out and shot for stupidity!

Let me tell you about congestion charging. Down here in the smoke Uncle Ken introduecd this a couple of years back. This followed an intensive period of driving car drivers insane with unnecessary roadworks, traffic lights that go green for 3 seconds and diverting traffic into bottlenecks. Ring any bells? WHat is now happening is he is expanding the Congestion Charge area and has just introduced a Low Carbon Emmissions zone for the whole of the area inside the M25 to tax anything over the size of a Micra between £25 and £200 per day including lorries that deliver goods to businesses.

As for the grasping Government, they can stick their new taxes on my car. Unfortunately for the good PC I have a 4.4 litre X5, but I do not live in a large town. By introducing these new taxes, my car has lost so much value that I now cannot afford to replace it. There is no incentive for me to downsize now. It is all stick and no carrot. So I will keep my car and continue to gas the local squirrels and murder polar bears.

And breath.................

[Phil D. Rolls]

What causes congestion is cars. Consider the fact that a bus is the length of five cars (at most) yet can carry nearly 100 people, it would seem that the answer to reducing congestion is for people to take buses.

Have I got this right?

[Jack]

What causes congestion is cars. Consider the fact that a bus is the length of five cars (at most) yet can carry nearly 100 people, it would seem that the answer to reducing congestion is for people to take buses.

Have I got this right?

.... and so as to encourage folk to take the bus, in Leith and Edinburgh, they've put the prices up :agree:

[derekHFC]

.... and so as to encourage folk to take the bus, in Leith and Edinburgh, they've put the prices up :agree:

Compared to other places i've been to in the UK and in Europe, our buses are a lot cheaper than what you'd pay elsewhere. Fair enough, its a flat fare, but for some of the journeys you can make in Edinburgh for £1.10, it would cost you £2.50-£4.00 elsewhere in the UK.

[PC Stamp]

What causes congestion is cars. Consider the fact that a bus is the length of five cars (at most) yet can carry nearly 100 people, it would seem that the answer to reducing congestion is for people to take buses.

Have I got this right?

No. Buses contribute to the perceived congestion by ensuring that half the road is unavailable to cars because of bus/taxi lanes. I particularly approve of the all day versions. :rolleyes:

They then of course on many occasions tend not to use said bus lanes in order to annoy car drivers even more!

Not forgetting an honourable mention for many taxi drivers who weave in and out of them like they are on the streets of Monaco at Grand Prix time.

:wink:

[Phil D. Rolls]

No. Buses contribute to the perceived congestion by ensuring that half the road is unavailable to cars because of bus/taxi lanes. I particularly approve of the all day versions. :rolleyes:

They then of course on many occasions tend not to use said bus lanes in order to annoy car drivers even more!

Not forgetting an honourable mention for many taxi drivers who weave in and out of them like they are on the streets of Monaco at Grand Prix time.

:wink:

Very few all day bus lanes - a course in elementary time telling skills would not go amiss for many motorists (combined with primary one reading skills).

Taxi drivers can weave in and out because they are superior drivers. That is a little known, but nevertheless true fact.

[PC Stamp]

Very few all day bus lanes - a course in elementary time telling skills would not go amiss for many motorists (combined with primary one reading skills).

Taxi drivers can weave in and out because they are superior drivers. That is a little known, but nevertheless true fact.

Only because they had to suspend one of them due to the fantastical tram works otherwise there'd have been no road left on Leith Walk at all.

No excuse whatsoever for such as Calder Road & Slateford Road though.

[lyonhibs]

Scooters are the way forward...
You can get from Portobello to Corstorphine in 15 minutes..
:wink:

But you look and sound bloody ridiculous :greengrin

[Betty Boop]

Very few all day bus lanes - a course in elementary time telling skills would not go amiss for many motorists (combined with primary one reading skills).

Taxi drivers can weave in and out because they are superior drivers. That is a little known, but nevertheless true fact.Taxi drivers are superior drivers! You must be joking? :greengrin

[marinello59]

Aberdeen is a nightmare a lot of the time to! It's not a big place but it can take ages to get from one side of the city to the other just because of the amount of traffic lights! You get through one set & then have to wait at the next & they stay at red for so bloody long! If you try to drive across town at the busy times then it can take three times as long because of the volume of traffic & the fact that there are bloody bus lanes, they cause havoc! But whatever time of the day it is, a short journey can takes ages!



Years of inept councillors up here have seen the 'Oil Capital of Europe' stuck with a 19th century infrasructure. (No, not even 20th century, if you drive in to Aberdeen from the South you encounter your first bottleneck, a bridge designed for horse and carts.:brickwall)
In fact the councillors up here make the Edinburgh Council look like a model of efficiency. Be thankful, it could be far worse down there.

[Phil D. Rolls]

Taxi drivers are superior drivers! You must be joking? :greengrin

Well, given that they drive in city traffic for 8-10 hours a day, I feel that possibly they have more chance to hone their skills than those who only dirve once or twice a week.

Nothing clever about it, just a case of practice.