Not for profit planning
  • Home
  • Services
    • Accessible transport
    • Inclusive streets and public realm
    • Strategy and planning
    • Governance
    • Policy development
    • Culture and heritage
  • News and events
  • About me
  • Blog

Who gets access to the kerb?

3/25/2021

3 Comments

 
Picture
This blog describes a scene I watched recently where a taxi driver picked up an elderly passenger. Although a small incident in itself, I think it illustrates a fundamental problem in reconciling active travel infrastructure with good access for disabled people, which deserves much wider discussion and deeper thought.

Right now, the City of Edinburgh Council is consulting about the future of its temporary ‘Spaces for People’ schemes. As in many places, a range of measures have been installed to aid social distancing and encourage active travel; typically pop up cycle lanes, widened footways and roads closed to motor traffic. There seems little doubt that public opinion is polarised, with many people and businesses seeing them as half-baked measures frustrating everyday movement (especially by car) and others seeing them as an essential step towards a more sustainable future. 

There is also little doubt that some schemes are a cause of deep concern for many disabled people. A ‘poll’ carried out by Disability Equality Scotland last September (bit.ly/3pcIoS2) found that 71% of respondents said that their life had been made more difficult by Spaces for People (compared to only 10% who said it had made life easier). 

I was walking along Morningside Road in December last year when a taxi pulled up almost beside me. It stopped just at the entrance to a segregated pop-up cycle lane, blocking it entirely so I paused to see why he did this. The taxi driver left his cab and began looking for his passenger. After perhaps a minute, he walked on and turned the corner into Church Hill Place, returning a few minutes later accompanying a very frail lady using a walking frame, I would guess in her late 80s or 90s. They made their way slowly to the taxi and the driver helped her in, before then driving off. 

This scene was unsatisfactory for everyone involved: the passenger had to walk a significant distance despite her very obvious mobility difficulty; the cycle way was blocked and unusable for the time the taxi was stopped; the taxi driver spent longer on the job than he would no doubt have liked.
Picture
Picture
So what would the solution be? Other than perhaps ensuring that the driver had better instructions on where exactly to pick up his passenger, I cannot see that the driver could have done anything different. He couldn’t realistically have left his taxi in the single lane blocking traffic (including buses) for 5 minutes. He appeared to park as close to his passenger as he was able to. 

Access to the kerbside is essential for many disabled people to travel - not only by taxi, but also by community transport services and especially for Blue Badge holders (who number over 200,000 in Scotland) whether as the driver or passenger. The introduction of extensive (39km) new segregated cycleways during the pandemic presents a real challenge for people who need access to the kerb. On the other hand, intermittent cycleways which stop and start to permit loading and parking at regular intervals are clearly also problematic, pushing cyclists back into motor traffic flows. 
I don’t know how best to reconcile these competing needs. But the issue does need serious, constructive discussion as contested access to the kerbside presents some fundamental challenges which are surely only going to grow further.
3 Comments
Joyce Ros
3/26/2021 05:19:53 am

Micro management of streets to benefit one sector will always cause damage to another sector of the population.

Streets were designed for through traffic, towns were meant for mass movement. Trying to work against design will not easily work.

People trying to ruralise towns and cities are often implying that city life is undesirable. Many however find the movement and rhythm of life in cities stimulating in spite of health and other issues.

The feeling for some is that ideology is driving change instead of observation of need. I write from a city where the exclusion of cars is fueling gentrification, creating privatised use of space, especially cafe terraces, loss of footfall not always beneficial (shop closure).

Generalising urban models has consequences. In Barcelona for example, the Cerda plan of street ordenation, a bit like the New Town, is the trademark of the city, and diluting its essence is a factor not seen as negative by Green planners.

Tampering with tradition is risky, it has unforeseeable consequences. Personally I'd like to see a less brutal approach than the current popup solutions, above all prioritising the elderly, the population of the future.

Covid will change for ever the structure of our lives in ways as yet unknown. Perhaps now us not the time for drastic measures.

Reply
Robin Wickes
3/31/2021 07:00:45 am

Yes David, it's a thorny issue. A very common new road layout in Edinburgh is where there's not only a mandatory cycle lane along the edge of the road, with bollards protecting it, but also a double yellow line on the cycle lane with single blips on the kerb indicating that loading is allowed outside the rush hour. But where on earth is the loading/unloading vehicle meant to park? It's been suggested that it should park on the carriageway - ie outside the cycle lane. But that would be foolhardy - very dangerous and highly disruptive, A good solution might be for parking (and loading) to be kerbside with cycle lanes running outside the parking area. You can see this kind of layout on Chesser Avenue. It seems to work well, although it clearly involves some risk for cyclists in that they're vulnerable to cars entering and leaving the parking area.

Reply
john zarecki
4/2/2021 03:34:42 am

The SfP project was touting as benefiting walkers, wheelers and cyclists and as covid mitigating. However,most often the pavements are not widened as they were in Morningside. Instead we see cycle lanes, not shared space but dedicated cycle lanes. The concrete sleepers have led to floating bus stops and parking. I saw one wheelchair user left unable to access a bus. They had to negotiate a kerb, got to the bus, which could not rest it's access ramp, as it had no kerb to rest on. The only winners have been cyclists, walkers and wheelers have been left by the wayside. And we all get old.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

     “I hate the way everyone responsible for urban life seems to have lost sight of what cities are for. They are for people” Bill Bryson, Neither here Nor there, 1991 p61

    Welcome to my occasional blog: mostly this is about making public places inclusive and attractive, but I may touch on other policy and governance topics…


    Archives

    November 2022
    January 2022
    May 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.