Pot Luck on Roads

THE ROADS ARE IN A DREADFUL STATE.

However, it seems that the council’s new LLCs would rather spend our tax-quids on speed cameras and speed humps in parking bays than fix the pot holes!

It is no exaggeration, and there is often no opportunity to avoid driving into them because of cars parked either side of the road.

These photographs were taken at the Battlefield monument right outside the Victoria Infirmary (one of the two southside hospitals in Glasgow city).  I pity the occupants of ambulances that have to deal with these pot holes on a daily basis!

Mind you, according to a news story I read, the repairs are never done very well. It’s all one big money-spinning racket. We’re going to pot (holes) — and, yes, things are still getting worse!

Inconsiderate Car Parking

SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT INCONSIDERATE CAR PARKING.

In the photograph, the car is parked inconsiderately; it is blocking a service lane — which is not merely blocking access to rubbish and recycling bins, but also blocking emergency access to electrical, water, sewerage, and gas utilities, and to the fire service.

This may come as a surprise to our regular readers in consideration of all our posts on the subject of parking.

We here at GW see a difference between being considerate and being legal, and we back being considerate in the hope that restrictions get changed, and laws revised where required. It really is just a common sense approach. So it is just a fluke that the car parked in the above picture is both inconsiderate and illegal!

Being considerate is about thinking less about letter of the law, and more about people and health-and-safety.

You’ll know from older posts that I have no problem with cars parked up on the kerb to allow utility and emergency vehicles to use the roads.

When a car is parked up on the pavement, pedestrian pavement access may be restricted — but this is quite often the (partial) fault of the overgrown hedges or dumped rubbish.

In a traffic calmed area, filled with speed cameras, fences, one-ways, speed bumps and zebra crossings, pedestrians can move about a lot more safely than if the traffic was fast and heavy flowing.

That’s the compromise — we have reduced the amount of through traffic, reduced the speed of the traffic, insisted that rubbish be dumped on the pavement, allowed residential hedges to take up a large part of the pavement area, and let people away with dog fouling. This simply means pedestrians have to weave a bit through the obstacles of cars, hedges, dog mess and rubbish.

The alternative would be to allow “proper pedestrian pavement access“, meaning more restrictions and red tape — residential hedges would have to be regulated, dog-fouling enforced (CCTV?), rubbish would have to be dumped in back lanes again, and cars would have to be parked completely on the road — impeding emergency vehicle access, utility vehicles, delivery trucks and vans and so forth.

I think that this is why police and wardens turn a “blind eye” throughout  Shawlands, and quite right too!

Let’s face it; the high density of residents in block of flats means that emergency and utility vehicles must have access at all times.  The sheer number of resident means that car numbers will be high — and people need to park near their flats (they may be disabled, elderly, infirm or have shopping, babies and toddlers to contend with).

That’s why we can say that the car in the picture is in our opinion parked disgracefully, but that cars parked on pavements and between bollards is OK.

The Silly Road Sign

IS THIS THE SILLIEST ROAD SIGN EVER?

Just look at it!  It is TINY.  It is the size of a business card.

It says “No loading at any time”, but you’d need to either have outstanding eyesight, or park your vehicle, and walk up to the sign to read what it says!  It is also very high up; you would need to be fairly tall to read it comfortably.

Look at the size of the pole that supports this small sign!

It beggars belief that they couldn’t have fixed this sign to the WALL — what a lot of bother digging up the pavement to erect the pole!

It is completely daft, and goes to illustrate the lack of common sense by local authorities who spend our hard-earned council taxes on bizarre things like this.

When I first saw this, I imagined it was some expensive public work of art; that’s how ridiculous it seemed.  Yes, things are getting worse!

The Anderston Hippo Family

MANY THINGS MIGHT SPRING TO MIND WHEN ONE THINKS ABOUT THE ANDERSTON AREA OF GLASGOW, but I would wager that Hippopotamuses is not chief among them.

Nevertheless, when Anderston was deemed to require civic or public art, sculpture of a wee hippo family was thought fitting.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but the hippopotamus is neither native nor representative of the area in question.  I thought it best just to mention that lest readers of this blog jump to the wrong conclusion.

Things are getting worse when this sort of thing can happen, and when this sort of thing barely raises a quizzical eyebrow!

Stirling Maxwell Forest Park

GLASGOW originally meant “Dear Green Place” (so I have been told), perhaps that is why there is an obsession with public parks.

Usually at the centre of controversy is Pollok Park — which was was “gifted” by the Stirling Maxwell family to the people of Glasgow when they could no longer afford the upkeep of their historical estate. I think I may have found a solution to the present problem (see Apes in The Park) — I have found another park, it is small — but there are good transport links, and it’s handy for the shops, in fact it’s a stone’s throw away from Pollok Park.

It is called “Stirling Maxwell Forest Park” (as you can see from it’s grand sign — click on pictures to enlarge). Sure the park is small, but it does have a forest. Sort-of (if half-a-dozen trees makes a forest). Using my camera phone, I almost managed to photograph the entire park in one shot.

Hazardous Bus Stops

THIS IS TRAFFIC CALMING GONE MAD.

We have posted before to explain what so-called “Traffic Calming” is really doing to us, but what we have found here is stress-inducing and life-threatening… and all for no apparent reason.

To set the scene, we have a big, spacious dual carriageway with an island in the middle and two lanes either side. The pavements are wide and there are bus stops. This is all just a few metres for a big roundabout in the Corkerhill area of Glasgow.

However, the town-planners have decided (reasons unknown) that the traffic flow was far too good, and so has narrowed the road down to one lane going in either direction. The way this has been done is annoying at best — and dangerous at worst. Look at the pictures and decide for yourself (Click on the pictures to enlarge).

Now, at certain times of the day, vehicles innocently and correctly travelling on the inside lane will suddenly discover that the road has abruptly ended, so a queue will form to try to merge with the faster moving traffic on the outside lanes. The queue backs up to the big roundabout and chaos ensues. Brilliant.

Now, as though this was not enough, the town-planner has decided that — at the very narrowest point — to put a bus stop! This is Academy Award Winning Stupidity! And it is done on BOTH SIDES of the road AT THE SAME POINT!

This means that, in addition to the traffic merging problem and the traffic back-up to the roundabout, EVERYONE has to wait behind a bus while people get off and on — and wait while they pay, get their change and find a seat!

Things will continue getting worse if we sit back and allow such blatant stupidity run riot at the council. At least the “Daftest Bus Stop” we found last year was not at all like these — the daftest bus stop was on a special bus lane, caused no delays, did not congest traffic and was not dangerous. It was just silly to have a shelter so far away from the bus stop. The mess they have made at Corkerhill, on the other hand, fails to raise a smile.

The Future of Shawlands

PUBLIC NOTICES HAVE SPRUNG UP ALL OVER SHAWLANDS.

People are stirring things up — and I really do wonder why. What is the agenda — is there some secret conspiracy, a few people with vested interests? Hmmm.

The rhetoric of the poster suggests that things are getting worse, that Shawlands has seen better days, that it would be a good idea to have a Town Centre Action Plan and a Business Association. See for yourself; the Notices state:

PUBLIC MEETING TO DEBATE
THE FUTURE OF
SHAWLANDS
TUESDAY 29TH JANUARY
7.30pm LANGSIDE HALLS

Do you feel Shawlands has seen better days?
This is your opportunity to have your say on
what you think needs to be done. the council,
local Councillors and MSP Nicola Sturgeon will
all be there to hear what you have to say.
Does Shawlands need a Town Centre Action
Plan to further develop and improve our area?
What is happening with Shawlands Arcade?
Would a Shawlands Business Association help
businesses in Shawlands develop?
COME ALONG AND HAVE YOUR SAY

www.shawlands-strathbungo.org – www.g41.org.uk

Things are getting worse in Shawlands because things are getting worse in Glasgow — and in Scotland — and in the UK. For example, the new policy of putting household rubbish and shop wheelie bins on the pavement at the front of the property is not exclusive to Shawlands, neither is fly-tipping, dumping, litter, swollen hedges nor even Dog fouling.

Time and time again on this blog, we show that things are getting worse because of red tape, committees and interfering old busy bodies.

You cannot legislate for freedom, happiness and co-operation nor attempts to encourage understanding and respect for people, forgiveness, politeness or common decency.

• We do NOT need more red tape, more committees, more opinions, or more “say”.
• We do need less restrictions, less control, less red tape, we do need more freedoms, more quality, more personal responsibility.

The result of the last lot of stirring up was the addition of ugly double yellow lines at corners where people could not park anyway because of fences and bollards! (See New Restrictions in Shawlands) — what a waste of time and our council taxes! It has not stopped cars parking on pavements (which seems to be a bother for a few very vocal residents) — a problem that would simply be solved by adjusting the height of kerbs instead!

On this blog we often highlight the nonsense produced by town planners and traffic managers, (for example, The Wrong Way, The Daftest Bin, The Daftest Bus Stop, Traffic Lights Suck! and the so-called Traffic Calming schemes). We also show the lowering standards in design — such as the mess of the Clyde Arc Bridge, and our amazement in how poor quality building designs get planning consent and building warrants — such as The Most Horrible Building in Glasgow, The Bad & The Ugly, Ugly New Flats, and More Ugly New Flats, as well as Holy Balcony, and Waterfront Apartments Are Not Posh!

This is what council activity, red tape and public consultations gets you!

My opinion of Shawlands is worth at least a little consideration; I am very, very old, and have a long memory that still works pretty well. I can, for example, remember the queue at the Elephant Cinema for a Beatles film being so large it stopped traffic on Kilmarnock Road. I can remember the buzz of shopping on the world-famous Victoria Road with it’s fabulous Christmas lights — especially Pearson’s with that famous parrot! I can remember the trams, the chimney sweeps, the coal deliveries, and I reckon the last time I saw and heard the rag-n-bone man coming along Tantallon Road with his flat-bed truck pulled by a massive grey Clydesdale was in the early 1980s.

I would honestly say that Shawlands is roughly the same today as it was back then, no better and no worse relative to the bigger picture. What is true in my opinion is that things in general and in particular ways are getting worse, and we would do better to try to address the bigger picture than consider something like Shawlands in isolation. I say that we ought to fix the traffic calming, fix the problems with factors, and fix the rubbish uplifts — then the improvement to Shawlands would be incredible!

I can recall when Shawlands was cobbley, dirty and black with soot and grime. It was frequently foggy in winter and very, very smelly in summer. The trams disappeared along with the cinemas and the new shopping arcade and skyscrapers in Pollokshaws heralded good times, where the place was buzzing with boutiques and German Beir Kellers.

Later they got rid of the central parking, removed all the zebra crossings and started to block off all the side roads near Victoria Road. This killed off the Victoria road shopping area supposedly in favour of out of town shopping, but this just put pressure on the West End and Shawlands. There was a lot of demolition of slum tenements across the city, and a lot of out-of-town developments for offices, factories, shops and council estates.

However, despite these two areas being major shopping districts, property values in the West End increased much better than the south side because Shawlands had a serious subsidence problem due to the tenements being built on tin mines.

During the property price boom of the mid to late 1980s, there was a lot of power cuts, and a lot of problems with the cart flooding too. Shawlands began to fill the tin mines and shore up the tenements. At this time, the whole of Glasgow was regenerating with lots of grants — and it was all about stone cleaning, reroofing, new windows, rewiring and removing lead piping and old attic tanks.

Today, Glasgow is facing the next round of issues — the roofs are now over 20 years old, the wiring is needing redone, the windows too — the tenement stock is in need of attention once again. People bought their council houses back then, so there is a demand for public housing. There is also a serious need for new affordable housing for first time buyers, so they are building a lot of new (ugly) flats at Eglinton Toll and elsewhere. There is a re-appraisal of the high-rise skyscrapers Glasgow was once so fond of — many are marked for demolition (but which cannot be exploded due to the asbestos dust problem).

Shawlands MUST be taken in consideration of the greater city-wide picture — for example, the nearest hospital will be the Southern General as the new Ambulance and Diagnosis Centre will replace the ancient Victoria infirmary. The new motorway links, the expansion of the subway system, the Commonwealth Games and the city redevelopment and regeneration all will affect Shawlands just as much as has Braehead and, more recently, Silverburn.

I would suggest that the people of Shawlands fight for the removal of traffic lights, speed humps and parking restrictions to encourage shoppers and house buyers and to free up congestion. They should fight to have the rubbish put back in the lanes and back courts for uplift — out of sight of the street, they should fight for cleaner pavements, for more regular cleaning, better litter bins, more public toilets and so forth. Everyone should be demanding better — better flood defences, better telephone and television reception, better quality homes, better property management, better conveyancing, better customer services, better interest rates and better looking, better designs.

It’s common sense, improvement is all about better, and for things to get better they have to first stop getting worse. Shawlands cannot be improved in its own!

Kerbs

THE COUNCIL SPENDS A FORTUNE on fences and bollards in an attempt to stop people parking up on the kerb when all they had to do was make the kerb higher.

There are plenty of examples of high kerbs, especially up in the Park Circus area, but also on Paisley Road West (see picture) , the West End and in Giffnock too.

The high kerbs were originally to do with getting into and out of horse-drawn carriages.

If the council really was serious about putting a stop to kerb parkers, then they could raise the pavements or sink the roads — but then the bollard company might go out of business (I wonder if any councillors have vested interests in fences and bollards).

It’s a bit like the speed camera idea — instead of allowing cars that can exceed the speed limits, governments could quite easily pass a law so that no car could go too fast — but that would not bring in any revenue. Having high kerbs would solve a ‘problem’, but there is income to be had from ticketing offenders — and even moreso when there are double yellow lines.

New Restrictions in Shawlands

ROADS ARE SO BADLY DESIGNED AND TOWNS SO POORLY PLANNED THAT MOTORISTS HAVE TO RESORT TO PARKING ON KERBS AND PAVEMENTS.

My post from 18 May 2007, entitled Parking on Pavements explained this in more detail. In Shawlands in recent weeks double yellow lines have appeared at junctions which already have fencing and bollards, so quite what effect they might have is beyond me. [pdf of Shawlands’s Traffic Plan]

The yellow lines at other junctions seem to be there to make the council money — especially from people who park right up on the pavement.

• My earlier post of 26 April 2007 entitled Traffic Calming explains why the council has caused the parking problem in the first place!

OK, let’s look at the most ridiculous example — which I would guess would be a car completely or almost completely parked on the pavement — Is this a serious problem? Well I went out with my camera today to find out. Because of all the fences and bollards, it is no longer as widespread as it once was, in fact it is downright rare. But I found one and took a picture.

As you can see, even though the car is almost entirely on the pavement, there is no impediment to pavement users. In this particular case, I can see nothing wrong with the effect, but everything wrong with the cause (the design of the pavement). This car is not a problem to anyone — but now, sadly, there will be a ticket on the windscreen.

Look at the picture above. It shows a very wide Shawlands pavement that has been WIDENED. The old pavement kerb is now a rainwater gully. Note the fences to stop parking on the kerb, and note the dimpled surface for the partially sighted that is such a problem for skateboards, rollerskates, prams, luggage and anything else with wheels. This is appalling town planning! The pavement is far too large — better use should have been made of this — I include the picture to show how bizarre it has become in recent years.

It seems that, evermore in this country, we refuse to use common sense. There is no understanding or consideration any more, just road-raged angry people jabbing their fingers at the letters of the law.

Rather than adding double yellow lines so that the council can fine this person, wouldn’t it have been better to look at the underlying problem? This is a pavement of twelve feet — that is the same as the width of the road itself!

Is this car causing more of an obstruction than litter? I took a picture from a different angle just to make this point. Once you have imagined pushing a pram, walking a dog, or using a zimmer walking frame, I am sure you will agree that the cars are not causing as much of a problem as everything else.

I will say it again: the council is anti-car and anti-pedestrian. It is patently obvious; we have to put rubbish out the front onto the pavements, we have to cope with huge wheelie bins from the shops, and there are all the bollards, fences, traffic lights, zig-zags, speed bumps and now double yellow lines.

In conjunction with the double yellow lines, the council has removed about a hundred parking spaces at the back of the arcade, on Pollokshaws Road, in the picture you will see the new bollards on both sides of the road and the in-filled parking bay. This road is not terribly busy, and parking was never a problem — what a massive shame! Naturally, the cars that used to use this area have to go somewhere else — so it is no solution. All this just means that it is increasingly difficult to find a parking space and it is increasingly difficult to use the pavements too. Shawlands is being choked, and it feels more oppressive and claustrophobic nowadays — like the West End in fact. Soon we’ll all be buying resident’s parking bays, you mark my words.

The Most Horrible Building In Glasgow

JUST LOOK AT THIS HORRIBLE BUILDING … (click on pic. on the right to enlarge)

Can this be The Most Horrible Building In Glasgow? I would say it certainly is. The building (if it can be called that) is two blue boxes. It is NOT a temporary structure – even though it looks like building site portacabins or portaloos. This monstrosity has been there for a great many years, and now I think it is time to get rid of it.

Let’s consider for a moment the context of these blue boxes…

You may be on Sauchiehall Street or visiting the King’s Theatre, and you may well decide to take a stroll around the streets to admire the grand buildings from the time when Glasgow was proud and boastful as the second city of the biggest empire in history.

A stroll along Elmbank Street would show some lovely Grand Victorian Classical architecture, such as the old High School building — and you might notice, at the end of the road, the modern skyscraper mirroring the neighbouring buildings. This is a standard way to solve the problem of how to put a modern building into a classical context — just make it mirrored and it will reflect the old architecture beautifully! However, as you walk, you might notice something blue being reflected in the skyscraper down low at the trees — what can this be? You walk past the classical facade of the High School (where the Pitt Street Police Office can be seen through the arch), eager to see what is around the corner…

Now, I ask you — seriously — what on earth were they thinking? How could the planning department have allowed this to happen? Why BLUE? These two blue boxes are on Holland Street — but this is their best side, you actually see far more of them from Elmbank Street and reflected in the skyscraper.

Is it so that the building could be found by the public? Nope, this is not a public building — this is the building where the CITRAC traffic cameras are controlled!

In my opinion, I can just about live with the mirrored skyscraper, I am not really a fan of the 1960s tower block on Holland and West George (seen behind the blue boxes in the picture above) , but these blue boxes are definitely bad — they fail to enhance the environment, they create despair and bewilderment and they never can look good in any season or weather. These blue boxes upset passers-by and I can only wonder how the occupants must feel. The building is ugly in itself and even uglier in its context.

Things are getting worse when this sort of thing can happen! It is an insult to the people of this city. Pure and simple.