Ghostrider Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 ^ Apparently so. Yup, even bikes weren't tolerated once upon a time, been there, done that, back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windwalker Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Totally disagree Windwalker,the street used to be lots and lots busier with far more folk ,vans ,buses and lorries . You must have been going arround with your eyes closed.Well we will just have to agree to disagree, but I can mind walking over the street on a Saturday without constantly having to squeeze against shops to let vehicles pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Cluness Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 I think what we need to consider why we need to go to the shops on the street, and how much time we have to do that. Things have changed and i think due to time we have spare we then 'nip to the street' far more than we did in the past. Usualy just 15/20 mins, do what i need and get then get heck out of there. for me its usualy at lunchtime.i dont have time to park ages away and time to donder down to the shops. I personaly go to the bank, postoffice, chemist. most months then a small selection of the others once in a blue moon. i have never spent an entire afternoon or morning tralwing through them all just for the sake of it or even for xmas shopping ive never done it. So fo me and many others i need to get in, park and get out within 15/20 mins. They took in the short term parking spaces but i have notest the same cars there every day, all day, hogging the spots and stopping their customers getting to their shops. i persume its staff cars from the businesses on the street themselves. There is nothing available on the street that we the public cant get anywhere else localy or on the net. so why should we put wir sell out to get it there to get things? It's not for the plants places outside the shops or for the rubbish service you get in some of the shops. You can meet more folk you know going through the supermarkets than on the street, and your warm and dry and you can get tones of free parking just outside the door. i can never remember any time where we have never had not to dodge cars on the street and as an adult i have been here 30 years. When was the time when you didnt have to? Vans to the shops and disabled cars have always had access and i persume they will always have acsess to the street. Next time you there you will find most of the cars from the cross to the fort have a handy blue badge in them, so that wont stop. or they blinking should! so whats wrong with parking under andersons windows or outside the chemist? as long as its very short time i have no problem at all, i see people stopping all day outside high level which blocks the free flow of cars which will end up stopping everyone getting there at all, spoiling it for everyone, So please stop parking there if its you doing it. i once brought the parking subject up on the living lerwick page and as usual they did nothing, subjects like this wil bring out the smart arses who say we all have to walk as we are getting fat, its not about excersise its about the time we have free to 'nip to the street'. I did note the person that shouted me down on that occation was then spotted by myself going around the cross in their car the following week so it was, do as i say, not as i do there. I recently phoned living lerwick about asking the shop staff to stop blocking all the short time spaces as their customers couldnt get to the shops or banks. living lerwick have done nothing as far as i know. one final nots about the slabs on the street being broken, i have been informed its the trucks and essy kert that does it not the actual cars.we might try to ban cars but blue badge cars (of all sizes) will always get on the street so you will se no difrence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capeesh Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 I agree the cars on the street are annoying, especially if you have a pram or young children.It would be great if it was pedestrianised but it could have a negative effect on footfall with people avoiding the street altogether, maybe they could make parking free on the pier to compensate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 I only go to the street when it is unavoidable and, I DO NOT give way to traffic. I don't deliberately hinder anyone driving along but, I don't hinder myself either.... If they (motorists) want to drive along the street faster than I can walk then, they are a danger to everyone and shouldn't be there in the first place.. Some parts of the street are so narrow that there is no way to let anyone pass other than to squeeze yourself into a shop doorway and let vehicles pass inches from you. I often wonder if some of the "drivers" that I see on the street have the judgement abilities required to avoid injuring someone. Delivery vehicles have something of a "right" to be there but, most others are just "ignorant" of the fact that parts of the street are supposed(?) to be closed to traffic at certain times of the day.As for "Blue Badge" holders, they should be "cut some slack". I see a few but, not that many. Can't see any way that there would be free parking on the pier as it is owned by LPA and not the SIC. Likewise "beneath Anderson's windows" is out as well as it is private propertry. Anyway, LPA shut the pier on a "whim" to accommodate buses for cruise liners.. No problem guessing where their loyalties lie.. Great shame because it's not as if "bussed out" tourists are going to be spending in the town anyway.. Seriously, if anyone has a great problem with traffic on the street then, just a suggestion, do as I do and don't give way to it. If enough people did this then a lot of the unnecessary traffic might eventually stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogling Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 There are only 4 Disabled Parking spaces on The Street:2 spaces outside the Royal Bank at one end, and 2 spaces opposite the Fort Chip shop at the far end. People are only issued with a Blue Badge if they are unable to walk very far at all for whatever reason, or if they have to use a wheelchair, so if you need to go to the Bank of Scotland, or want to go to Conochies, you don't have any option but to drive along the street. I and a lot of other disabled drivers used to try and avoid driving on the street where possible, and if you needed to go to Boots or a premises near there, you went up the bit at the Clydesdale Bank {Burns Walk?} Since that got bollarded off, all Blue Badge holders have no option now but to drive along the full length of the street, including the perilous 'Swanson's Bottleneck', just to get to Boots. Vehicle access is restricted to Blue Badge holders only between 11.30 and 6.00 from the Cross, but a lot of other drivers ignore that, thinking they can go in and park outside the Bank of Scotland - but we've no Traffic Warden to prevent that now. Because the street and an awful lot of the premises in Lerwick are inaccessible and awkward for wheelchairs, I hate to admit that I rarely go there now and just shop and do banking online. I do understand a lot is to do with the geography/topography and some of the premises simply cannot be made accessible. But it is so much less hassle staying at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorrie Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Odd, really, as I was on the street in Lerwick yesterday and it was fairly buzzing. The nice weather had brought fowk out, cars were trundling slowly past and giving way to pedestrians, natives and tourists were mooching about quite happily, the shops looked good with flowers all about, no-one was somersaulting over the alleged canyons in between the paving slabs and all looked well with the world. Take a trip to some of the hell-hole town centres in the rest of the UK and you might actually see just how well off we really are compared to many towns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunna ken Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 So when did things change, regarding vehicles on the street? Only a couple of years ago I remember a bit of a hoo-haa when the council introduced pedestrianisation which meant delivery vehicles were only allowed on the street before 11am and after 6pm, and only emergency services & disabled drivers being allowed on there during those times.Has that changed? I have to say I've never encountered many vehicles, if any, when I'm "in ower" on a Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post shetlander Posted July 29, 2015 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 (edited) I suspect Fraser that if more spaces were made available on the street, you'd get even more folk driving through looking for them, adding to the problem that already exists. I get your point about being able to 'nip in' to wherever but I can bet that plenty of drivers spend more time dawdling along the street desperate to find a space there than the time it would take them to park a bit further away and walk. In my early minding of going to Lerwick (30 odd year ago) there was no upper swimming pool car park, no Market Green and no pier. There'd be, what, at least 150 odd spaces between them? None of them are too far from the street for any able body to walk from and in the years I've been driving, I've never had any problem parking in Lerwick. What has changed in 30 years is that the ability to park practically at the door of Tesco, the Co-Op or the Toll Clock seems to have bred an expectation among some drivers that they should be able to do the same everywhere else. I don’t consider myself to be a 'smart ass' but after livin’ awa’ where folk think a lot less about having to walk to get from A to B (probably having had to pay for the privilege of parking at A in the first place), the 'aet' that some Shetland drivers are in to get parked right at the door of wherever they're trying to get to never ceases to amuse me. Edited July 29, 2015 by shetlander Scorrie, Fraser Cluness and Ladylady 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Cluness Posted August 1, 2015 Report Share Posted August 1, 2015 (edited) I don't think they need more parking I think they need to get the cars that park in the short stay spaces all day every day not to do that. That would be a start. We have to remember although we didn't have all that car parks in times past, we didn't have as many cars to park in the first place. We also need to remember the car culture has changed us all. When I come to the street if I don't find a free parking space either under the fort or near the Clydesdale bank, then last chance under Andersons windows I just don't shop at all on the street and I know lots of other people the same.Thus the street venders need to sort the miss-use of parking spaces, and I would be bold and say its the banks and shop staff hogging all this spaces and stopping their customers getting near the short time parking to 'nip to the street'! I have no problem at all having blue badge cars on the street as they can go anywhere. I did suggest to living Lerwick that they could have 3 zone times on the street, say 9 - 11 anyone and everyone, this is for pick up and drop of only to shops homes and offices. 11- say 3 then blue badge only, then 3 - 5 then no cars at all regardless. This is a (after school) time perhaps parents can go to the street with buggies etc and know that they will be no traffic at all thus completely safe. It was only a suggestion but one that makes the street access work for everyone. as a blue badge car can be a hazard just as much as a non blue badge to everyone in the area. The 3-5 time will also be good for disabled people who cant get out of the way of a car so easy, but can 'do' the street. one thing for sure they are dead towns that have died after blocking out the cars and tons of stories on the internet of the cars being let in again to bring the town alive again. As I said before we live in a car culture now its nothing like it was in the past so there's no point harping on about it, that times have gone. Edited August 1, 2015 by Fraser Cluness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Cluness Posted August 1, 2015 Report Share Posted August 1, 2015 just out of interest have they every actually been anyone ever hurt on the street by a any car, van etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted August 1, 2015 Report Share Posted August 1, 2015 I have been aware of a couple of 'minor' incidents down the years but, honestly, I think that there have been more serious injuries cause by drunks than motor vehicles but, notwithstanding that, the street is just not a suitable place for motor vehicles AND pedestrians. If a suitable alternative cannot be found to the inherent laziness of most motorists then, the street is "dead". I don't buy the convenience/inconvenience argument simply because what is "convenient" for one group of users (motorists) is inconvenient for the other (pedestrians). In evolutionary terms, most motorists are "retards" who have forgotton how to use their legs and expect to be able to drive up to any door they see fit too. I suppose that "education" is probably the answer but, in the short term, enforcement of any legislation might help as well. Scorrie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Cluness Posted August 2, 2015 Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 what legislation may do if p everyone off and they will go elsewhere, as I said in a previous post, there is nothing on the street we as customers cant get elsewhere, thus no one actually really needs to go near the street at all. so make it harder for us lazy folk then no one will actually need the shops there and no matter how many pot plants they put there it will make no odds. we need to learn from streets south that have cut the cars and have since died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted August 2, 2015 Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 You obviously believe that the needs of the "mighty motorist" overwhelm the need for common sense and, presumably, you would want to park right outside the door of the Post Office, Camera Shop, Conachies et al. if it suited you. Would you drive door to door as well? The street will not die for the lack of a few motorists because motorists are not (in the main) "footfall". If it does die then, it will die for other reasons. You would do well to remember that quite a lot of the city centres on the mainland have pavements that are wider than parts of Commercial Street and the "anti parking" legislation was used, mainly, as a fund raiser for cash strapped local authorities. Public pressure from shop keepers and others over the "extortion" was what got most of the restrictions removed. There is plenty of parking available to those willing to spend a few minutes walking so, there is no point "spitting the dummy" because you may not be allowed to drive to within a few feet of your destination. George. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorrie Posted August 3, 2015 Report Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) what legislation may do if p everyone off and they will go elsewhere, as I said in a previous post, there is nothing on the street we as customers cant get elsewhere, thus no one actually really needs to go near the street at all. so make it harder for us lazy folk then no one will actually need the shops there and no matter how many pot plants they put there it will make no odds. we need to learn from streets south that have cut the cars and have since died. What's killed off town centres in the rest of the UK is the buying power and centralisation into large stores of the large national companies and the customers mantra that cheap is best. Private retailers struggle to cope with dealing with the nationals retail prices less than they can even buy in at. Taking on Tescos head on is never going to work. You're right about about "making it harder for us lazy folk", damn right too.The town centre certainly doens't need lazy, whinging and selfish car drivers who think they have the God-given right to clog everywhere up and become a danger to the rest of us.If you let the Street become a free for all, all that will happen is that all you lazy folk will jam up the street with your effin' cars to get to the bank/leccy shop/post office and then drive straight out to Tesco wailing about the price of goods on the street being too high and that there's nowhere to park so you can shop there (even though I've never, ever had a problem parking within 200 meters of the street). Have a nice day. Edited August 3, 2015 by Scorrie Berserker and George. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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