The Devil's Kitchen: Toll Free...

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Toll Free...

Posted by Devil's Kitchen at 2/22/2005 09:16:00 PM

So, the good residents of Edinburgh have rejected the idea of congestion charging; and how do I feel on this burning issue? Well, I don't have a car, but I also generally object to giving government bodies more control over anything; essentially, I had no strong opinions either way.

However, I would like to point out the following issues:

Q) What is congestion?
A) Long queues of slow moving vehicles.

Q) What do "traffic-calming" measures - narrowed roads, chicanes, sleeping policemen, etc - do?
A) They slow down traffic, thus creating long queues of slow moving vehicles.

Q) What have Edinburgh City Council been spending their road budget on?
A) Massive amounts of traffic-calming measures.

Q) Has this caused congestion?
A) Yes, quod erat demonstrandum.

Q) Is it conceivable that ECC have been deliberately installing traffic-calming measures in order to create - or at least inflate - congestion in the city centre, and thus emphasise the problem and force through the congestion charging so that they can carry on with their grand scheme for trams (or plug a big hole in their finances)?
A) If you can possibly credit the city councillors with "joined-up thinking" of that deviousness, yes.

So now that they have lost the charging vote maybe, just maybe, ECC will stop digging up all the roads, putting in yet more traffic lights, more one way systems, chicanes, and damn ugly bits of isolated pavement on pretty, cobbled Edinburgh streets.

Posted by Devil's Kitchen at 2/22/2005 09:16:00 PM

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