I WAS interested to read Keith Bruce is unaware of Glasgow City Council's active travel plans for the Finnieston and SECC area ("The Hydro alone has not brought about the Finnieston effect", Herald Arts, December 27).
Let's look at what Glasgow City Council has already done, in their view, to encourage active travel, ie walking and cycling, in the SECC area: It has redetermined the footway outside the Hilton Garden Inn to be open to cyclists as well as pedestrians, so for some years now it has been legal for cyclists to join pedestrians on this relatively narrow footway outside the hotel.
It has also redesigned the road system to acccomodate the new multi-storey car park by implementing a one-way gyratory system, completely ignoring the wish of cyclists to proceed north on Finnieston Street without making a huge detour around the car park and also putting extra hurdles in the way of pedestrians trying to follow the same route.
So now, to make it "easier" for cyclists, its solution is to redetermine the east footway of Finnieston Street from the expressway down to the Clyde Arc Bridge to be two-way for cyclists and pedestrians. This footway is only two metres wide and already has a number of road signs on it. And the council's response when Go Bike, the Strathclyde Cycle Campaign, has suggested better facilities - a contraflow, northbound lane for cyclists past the car park on Finnieston Street and cycle lanes using part of the current roadway outside the hotel: "A contraflow lane was considered but could not be accommodated without significant impact on traffic accessing the SECC."
Thus we see the council's priorities: traffic is motor traffic and must not be impeded, whereas those of us who choose active travel are not considered as "traffic" and should really stick to the cycle/pedestrian bridge from Exhibition Station into the SECC complex - or travel by car.
Go Bike and other active travel campaigners have some way to go to achieve our aim of making Glasgow a pedestrian and cycle friendly city.
Tricia Fort,
Convenor, Go Bike! The Strathclyde Cycle Campaign,
PO Box 15175, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article