The Pedestrianisation of Glasgow City Centre

[NotThePars]

Not just a great conversational topic but a possible reality? Glasgow City Council's opened a consultation on plans to permanently close off George Square to traffic in a move which could piss off local businesses and renegade bin lorry drivers. What do you think? Personally I'd happily see this happen and would extend it to cover the rest of Sauchiehall Street and the surrounding streets of Central Station.

 

 

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

They do say it will help people in wheelchairs.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

[kmc dafc]

Access to DIXONS!!!!!

[ICTChris]

Anti-Harry Clarke racism IMO

Edited August 15, 2018 by ICTChris

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, ICTChris said:

Anti-Harry Clarke racism IMO

He’s became an anti? Congratulations and glad to hear the transition was successful, Harry

[ICTChris]

How do you get that fat?  Does he eat a special diet so all his weight goes straight to his disgusting flabby turkey neck?

[Dindeleux]

17 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Not just a great conversational topic but a possible reality? Glasgow City Council's opened a consultation on plans to permanently close off George Square to traffic in a move which could piss off local businesses and renegade bin lorry drivers. What do you think? Personally I'd happily see this happen and would extend it to cover the rest of Sauchiehall Street and the surrounding streets of Central Station.

 

 

The work on Sauchiehall Street to minimize traffic has started already........they are planning to move it down to single lane with wider footpaths.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/work-begins-72m-sauchiehall-street-14129481

 

[Dindeleux]

5 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

How do you get that fat?  Does he eat a special diet so all his weight goes straight to his disgusting flabby turkey neck?

I'm going to guess that Mr Clark hasn't spending too much time out of the house the last few years.

 

I will get hammered for this (again) no doubt but I still have a little bit of sympathy for Harry Clarke.  He has obviously made a poor error of judgement which has resulted in a horrible accident and the deaths of some innocent people but he didn't set out to do what happened and I'm sure that some of us have driven when we shouldn't have - still hungover, on medication etc.

[GordonS]

31 minutes ago, Dindeleux said:

I'm going to guess that Mr Clark hasn't spending too much time out of the house the last few years.

 

I will get hammered for this (again) no doubt but I still have a little bit of sympathy for Harry Clarke.  He has obviously made a poor error of judgement which has resulted in a horrible accident and the deaths of some innocent people but he didn't set out to do what happened and I'm sure that some of us have driven when we shouldn't have - still hungover, on medication etc.

I have some sympathy with how he got into the situation. I have none at all for how he behaved afterwards.

[GordonS]

I'd like to see what they do in many Dutch towns and city centres. They divide them into four quarters, you can drive into each quarter but not from one to another. It shifts through-traffic while still leaving access for those who need it. Glasgow is a perfect city centre for getting rid of traffic, the transport in and out of it is excellent and there's a motorway round three sides of it for those passing by. Ideally I'd like a huge chunk of it to be for blue badges, deliveries and buses only, with a lane on every street rebuilt as two-way bike road. 

[Dindeleux]

5 minutes ago, GordonS said:

I'd like to see what they do in many Dutch towns and city centres. They divide them into four quarters, you can drive into each quarter but not from one to another. It shifts through-traffic while still leaving access for those who need it. Glasgow is a perfect city centre for getting rid of traffic, the transport in and out of it is excellent and there's a motorway round three sides of it for those passing by. Ideally I'd like a huge chunk of it to be for blue badges, deliveries and buses only, with a lane on every street rebuilt as two-way bike road. 

Can you explain what you mean?  I was driving in Amsterdam a few days ago and didn't notice any kind of restrictions like you've mentioned........or is it so well done that I haven't even noticed it?

[Cerberus]

Paved off places usually do downhill fast.

The only thing that bucks the trend of high street shops closing is shopping centers with easy parking and nice, modern shops.
Sauchiehall Street is a dump. Tons of neds, pigeons, litter, dirt, horrible wee shops.

I hope George Sq won't turn into the same but I guess it will.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

How do you get that fat?  Does he eat a special diet so all his weight goes straight to his disgusting flabby turkey neck?

His head looks like it is literally made of lard.

[GordonS]

26 minutes ago, Dindeleux said:

Can you explain what you mean?  I was driving in Amsterdam a few days ago and didn't notice any kind of restrictions like you've mentioned........or is it so well done that I haven't even noticed it?

I don't know if Amsterdam does, I don't think so. Cities like Houten and Groningen do, I think Utrecht has a version of it. It's called filtered permeability, I've had a quick rummage online for stuff but couldn't find a good example. Basically you block off roads to cars so that they can drive into and round an area, but have to come back out the same side. But bikes and sometimes public transport can go straight through, so most short journeys become much quicker to do by bike or bus than by car, and it reduces the number of cars in the area. It also stops rat runs. There are a few streets like this in the centre of Glasgow but not many.

17 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

Paved off places usually do downhill fast.

The only thing that bucks the trend of high street shops closing is shopping centers with easy parking and nice, modern shops.
Sauchiehall Street is a dump. Tons of neds, pigeons, litter, dirt, horrible wee shops.

I hope George Sq won't turn into the same but I guess it will.

I don't agree at all, the most valuable bit of shopping street in Scotland is Buchanan Street. George Square is always busy with locals and tourists, and the surrounding businesses would probably do even better without three or four lanes separating them from the square. Practically no-one drives to those places anyway. The pedestrianised bits of Argyle and Sauchiehall Streets are much more successful than the bits with roads. 

I don't think you can compare it with places like Clydebank shopping centre, if that's what you're thinking of.

[The Moonster]

1 hour ago, Dindeleux said:

I'm going to guess that Mr Clark hasn't spending too much time out of the house the last few years.

 

I will get hammered for this (again) no doubt but I still have a little bit of sympathy for Harry Clarke.  He has obviously made a poor error of judgement which has resulted in a horrible accident and the deaths of some innocent people but he didn't set out to do what happened and I'm sure that some of us have driven when we shouldn't have - still hungover, on medication etc.

I fail to see why a guy who had a history of black-outs decided it was a good idea to drive a lorry. You can argue that he needs a a job like everyone else and thus he can be given sympathy for keeping quiet, I would argue that he was hardly a rocket scientist and could probably have done any number of jobs that wouldn't put the public at risk.  His actions after the crash mark him out as a complete wrong yin so I find any sympathy for him quite distasteful. He's a c**t.

[Dindeleux]

2 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Paved off places usually do downhill fast.

The only thing that bucks the trend of high street shops closing is shopping centers with easy parking and nice, modern shops.
Sauchiehall Street is a dump. Tons of neds, pigeons, litter, dirt, horrible wee shops.

I hope George Sq won't turn into the same but I guess it will.

My home town (Kilwinning) completely died as a town centre when they closed off the main street to traffic.

[Dindeleux]

2 hours ago, The Moonster said:

I fail to see why a guy who had a history of black-outs decided it was a good idea to drive a lorry. You can argue that he needs a a job like everyone else and thus he can be given sympathy for keeping quiet, I would argue that he was hardly a rocket scientist and could probably have done any number of jobs that wouldn't put the public at risk.  His actions after the crash mark him out as a complete wrong yin so I find any sympathy for him quite distasteful. He's a c**t.

Yeh the stuff after the crash to be fair I didn't really think about when I made my post.  

[Archie McSquackle]

Not sure how they could completely pedestrianise George Square and still maintain access, particularly to Queen St. station. It would be quite straightforward to pedestrianise the two short ends first of all though.

[vikingTON]

11 minutes ago, Dindeleux said:

My home town (Kilwinning) completely died as a town centre when they closed off the main street to traffic.

Erm yes - it was definitely making a pedestrian zone of one street and not 'being a complete and utter cowp in the first place' that was responsible for that.

12 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

Not sure how they could completely pedestrianise George Square and still maintain access, particularly to Queen St. station. It would be quite straightforward to pedestrianise the two short ends first of all though.

There would still be access from Cathedral Street side of the station - there's no need to provide access for all traffic given that's already in the city centre and barely 50 yards from Buchanan Street subway station. 

Other than for early morning deliveries etc (which still occur along Buchanan Street)  there's no need for road traffic in Glasgow city centre. It's no wonder that the city council is trying to solve the problem as the regularly illegal levels of air pollution from road traffic will result in them getting sued by those with chronic health issues in the not too distant future.