Road Sign confusion in the centre of Edinburgh
Was out for a walk round Edinburgh city centre yesterday and it amazed me how many cars were driving where they shouldn’t be. Due to the tram works many streets have been made one way temporarily or have been closed altogether. Traffic signs in places are confusing – even for somebody that knows the roads.
It seems that most drivers are driving round in a daze. Some people seem to be following their satnavs rather than looking at signs that say no entry or road closed. It also doesn’t help that throughout the town there is a general lack of helpfull signs, and in certian places there’s an overload of signs.
I’m glad it was a Sunday and there wasn’t much traffic about. Otherwise there would have been more than a few accidents.
All this from a 2 hours walk round the Edinburgh city centre:-
Shandwich Place – at the junction with Coates Crecent there’s a “No Vehicles exept busses and taxi’s” – this didn’t stop a green VW polo from driving through. These signs are relatively small and easy to miss, especially when a bus is blocking the sign on one side.
Coates Crescent – This street is currently one way from west to east. Unfortunatly many satnav’s have this road as 2 way, which might explain why a merc drove through a no-entry sign and was driving east to west. Thankfully no cars were driving the other way at the time.
Canning Street – this street used to be one way approaching Shandwick Place. Left lane to turn left, right hand lane to turn right. Only now it’s 2 way – but some cars don’t seem to have noticed the change of lanes. Now the left hand lane is only for turning right!
Rose Street – car driving east to west when the street is one way west to east, also driving through the pedestrian zone in the middle. The car made it from Castle Street to Hanover street so must have gone through at least 2 sets of no-entry signs.
Princes Street junction with South Charlotte Street – Princes Street eastbound is only open for Busses and Taxi’s, with loading at night. Again following a bus a car drove through the lights and on to Princes Street. Unfortunatly for the driver there was apolice van behind them and they were pulled over. The police man obviously feered for his life and didn’t hold them for more than a minute.
Princes Street junction with South St Davids Street - like the west end of Princes Street the east end is also blocked to all vehicles except busses and taxi’s. Standing for 5 minutes it was amazing the number of cars that either whent through the no vehicles sign, realised at the last minute and turned left, or sitting at the red traffic lights, reveresed and changed lane.
High Street (Royal Mile) at Old Fishmarket Close – The high street at this point is closed to vehicles during the day. There is however a steep side street off the road called Old Fishmarket Close. This is a narrow street with plenty of signs saying the road ahead is closed during the day. Another merc must have though this didn’t apply to them as they drove up the close onto the Royal Mile. After driving up and down the pedestrian zone they eventually found there way out back down the close.
Posted in: Edinburgh Roads
My views from around Scotland