« Voter turnout 79.4 percent | Main | (Partly) Car-free Royal Mile »
September 01, 2004
Edinburgh Dirty City
Outside our flat on a fairly average day Photo © S Holledge
One of the first things I noticed about Edinburgh, after I came here, was the litter. I live on a commercial / residential street. There are some well-known companies here, but none of their employees would ever actually go out and pick anything up. After Tokyo, this surprised me. The Japanese take responsibility for keeping clean the area immediately in front of their houses and businesses.
Alastair Jamieson had an interesting article about this in yesterday’s Scotsman. Edinburgh is compared with Copenhagen, one of Europe’s cleanest cities, which has an individual responsibility system like Tokyo. Edinburgh spends GBP 78 per head per year on street cleaning, whereas Copenhagen, comparable in size and population, spends GBP 17.
One thing that Jamieson didn’t mention: Edinburgh also has very few pedestrianized areas compared to other European cities. The Royal Mile is probably the only street of its kind in Europe that you can still drive up and down. Why is this?
thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1019302004
Posted by Simon Holledge at September 1, 2004 01:15 PM
Comments
I'm glad you found the article of interest. Incidentally, surfers who find they require registration to access the web page in the above link may skip the application process by entering username "capital@scotsman.com" and password "capital" if they wish.
Simon, I agree with your points except your comments about the Royal Mile compared to other European cities. While I concur that it is extraordinary to see sections the Royal Mile open to all traffic, I cannot think of many equivalent streets in Europe that are closed to cars. The Champs-Elysees in Paris, La Ramblas in Barcelona, the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and the streets in Gamla Stan in Stockholm are all accessible by car. Even the Stroget in Copenhagen is open to buses and delivery lorries - effectively the same restriction as that which applies to the central section of the Royal Mile.
Alastair
Posted by: Alastair Jamieson at September 1, 2004 04:01 PM
Alastair, welcome and thank you for your comments.
Cities with car-free areas that I have visited in the last few years have included Vienna (a large area of the Innere Stadt around Karntnerstrasse and Graben), Venice (a special case obviously), Amsterdam, and a number of small cities in France, Aix-en-Provence, Orange, Annecy and some towns in Périgord.
The best information I have found about historic European cities with pedestrianized central streets is the Wikipedia List of Car-free Places: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carfree_places
It is incomplete but it indicates that Britain is lagging behind continental countries in pedestrianizing pre-19th-century city centres. This must have an adverse impact on tourism.
Regarding your examples: The Wikipedia lists the Stroget in Copenhagen, the Gamla Stan in Stockholm, and La Ramblas in Barcelona as all being essentially car-free. The Champs-Élysées is a ten-lane highway (!) with ample pedestrian space on either side so I don't think it really counts, and I think the Puerta del Sol in Madrid is also large.
Anyway I hope you will agree that car-free streets (or those only allowing access for deliveries) are more relaxing for visitors, and easier for shopholders (and local government) to keep clean.
Posted by: Simon Holledge at September 2, 2004 12:12 PM