🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <31976796.4E03@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>, Ira Woodhead
<ira@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> writes
>In any case, the task at hand is weaning city drivers of their habit.
>Buses, trams and cycles are the obvious alternatives, given that we want
>to go faster than walking speed. Imagine all the money that goes into
>roads and cars going into such an integrated system? It would be cheaper
>by far. Unfortunately no one would make big bucks, so protest and
>confrontation is in order. 

Edinburgh has been mumbling on about various forms of public transport
for ages. Personally I think the whole thing is a complete shambles. The
council spent a lot of money thinking about a tram system, simialr to
the Newcastle Metro. That was shelved. Then Cllr (?) suggests building a
BUS link out the the airport - that stinks in both senses of the word. 
The Scotsman used to announce a new review about every two years. I
remember all those column inches of good intentions being forgotten
about a week later. The trouble with Edinburgh is that nothing will
happen unless a rocket is put up the backside of the council - look at
how long it took to fill the gap sites, demolish Goldbergs and the
Festival Theatre (20 years approx waiting for that to happen !!!!).

Since moving to London, I won't say the U-ground and busses are perfect,
but they do get you about fairly rapidly, on a mean subsidy may I add -
that is a tube pass costs a fortune: about 60 quids per month for Zone
2. And what's so good, is that from Charing X road for example to
Holloway, where I am there are night busses every TEN minutes at least,
all throughout the night - I never need to think about taxis. Contrast
Edinburgh's awful evening and non existent night service. The Council
should think about building a tram system again, like Manchester,
Bradford and Glasgow (going into the planning stage now), then traffic
would move around much more efficiently and there would be less
pollution (surely ?). The filthy black dust which accumlated in my Sth
Clerk St flat was something else, not to mention the constant noise of
farting busses and thundering lorries.

Neil

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Neil Tingley                   Furtwaengler FAQ from r.m.c.r contributers at:
neil@music.demon.co.uk         http://www.netlink.co.uk/users/music/ & links to
London, UK                     G.H Gould and others "more about me" menu.
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