'City's a mess: best to leave the car at home'

Published on Saturday 27 September 2008 10:57

THE last time the Evening News advised drivers to stay well away from major roadworks, the result was an angry letter from city leader Jenny Dawe who blamed this newspaper for helping to destroy trade in the city centre.

Apart from the fact that it is not the Evening News which rips up roads without a thought for the consequences, it was only common sense to tell people that driving through already chaotic diversions was best to be avoided. We did not advise people to avoid the city centre, simply avoid driving through the West End. As it happens, the signs are that without cars Shandwick place might be a far better place to shop once the work is finished and the trams are up and running, but that is another matter.

Now the march of the diggers is about to reach the Canongate, with the road down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse closed for four weeks for resurfacing. Now that Holyrood Road is permanently shut because of the sprawling design of the Parliament's goods entrance and the partial closure of Queen's Drive because of safety work on Salisbury Crags, the effect in the East End will be total gridlock. Leith Walk remains a nightmare because of the tram work and so the access to East Leith and Portobello from the city centre might end up with a journey snaking down Calton Road.

At risk of annoying Councillor Dawe again, the only solution is for drivers to avoid the city centre because the few roads which are not dug up are being choked by the same number of cars, vans, buses and taxis trying to find their way along ever decreasing amount of road space.

The answer is to give public transport the best chance possible of getting people from one place to another in decent time and for shoppers and commuters to take to the buses. Those fit enough might even consider a bike.

As the Evening News letters page and comment streams attest, the city's road system is a disaster and the council seems powerless to do anything about it. Trams, water, gas and the roads department itself are combining to make Edinburgh one of the worst cities anywhere in the UK to take a car and there is little choice other than to make the best of it.

That doesn't mean boycotting the city centre entirely, far from it. And necessity being the mother of invention, more people might find that public transport has much to commend it. Unless, of course, you happen to be a mother with a bulky pram, in which case Lothian Buses don't want to know you.