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SUSTRANS FLOATS IDEAS FOR NEW PICARDY PLACE

Submitted by Editor on

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans has produced an ideas document containing radical proposals for Picardy Place, York Place and Leith Street. You can view them here.  

As revealed by Greener Leith yesterday, the document is particularly significant as Sustrans’ ability to part fund such improvements has gained it an increasingly influential voice with City of Edinburgh Council.

Key proposals in the document include:

  • Simplified crossroads at York Place to take traffic away from the centre of Picardy Place (and bring it closer to pavements on the north side).
  • Replacement of York Place tram stop by Picardy Place tram stop/bus interchange framed by ‘quality public space’.
  • Two-way cycle lane on the inner side of Picardy Place near the Playhouse and Omni Centre.
  • Development of ground-floor retail at the centre of Picardy Place, presumably with hotel above.
  • Enlarged pedestrian space outside the Playhouse Theatre.
  • Buses and bicycles prioritised on Leith Street, with wider pavements and car access to the St James Quarter.
  • Midstream island bus stops on Leith Street to reduce conflict between buses and cycle lanes.
  • Potential future redesign of space outside Register House in a traffic-reduced Waterloo Place.

Sustrans emphasises that this is an ideas document, not a technical drawing.

The document acknowledges that the proposals would probably reduce general traffic at the top of Leith Walk, Leith Street North Bridge and onwards across South Bridge. But they could also increase traffic along York Place, Queen Street, North St David Street, the east end of Princes Street, Calton Road, New Street, Royal Mile, St Mary’s Street, Pleasance, Regent Road, Easter Road, Abbeyhill and Queen’s Drive.

There are several aspects of these plans which Spurtle finds appealing. We are generally in favour of any city-centre proposals which prioritise public transport, pedestrians and cyclists over the private car. On the other hand, we are sceptical about schemes which merely redirect private traffic rather than encourage practical and attractive alternatives. Which effect these proposals would have we are unqualified to judge.

We fear that Sustrans aspiration for a quality public space framing the tram/bus interchange may be incompatible with squeezing more traffic past it.

Despite its historical precedent, we have mixed feelings about developing the centre of Picardy Place for retail and hotel uses (Breaking news, 9.12.13). However, we suspect that the pressure in favour of it from St James Quarter developer TIAA Henderson  Real Estate on City of Edinburgh Council is nigh-on irresistible. The fact that Sustrans also seems to acquiesce in this vision merely confirms our view of its inevitability.

What do you think of Sustrans' ideas? You can tell us by email: spurtle@hotmail.co.uk  or Twitter: @theSpurtle  or Facebook: Broughton Spurtle

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@theSpurtle I like it. And anything that gets the trams down Leith Walk is welcome. We've had the disturbance so let's get the benefit.

Gwen ‏@FoodieHistorian  3m

@theSpurtle until Waterloo Place is considered in proposals, I don't see how redesigning will help to improve the flow, esp buses.

@theSpurtle also a bit counterintuitive to improve at detriment to nearby(esp. Easter& Ldn Rds, most polluted in city)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22296926 …