The Edinburgh Reporter October 2021

8 NEWS
Menacing
parking
Kirsty Lewin
Collecting Edinburgh memories
Store horses show their stripes to highlight road safety
Pavement parking in
Porty is the norm
Selfish drivers hogging pavements
block right of way for pedestrians
By KIRSTY LEWIN
DO YOU EVER PARK your car on
the pavement? Perhaps just for a few
minutes while you run across the
road for a coffee? Or you’re in a rush
on the school run and you haven’t
got time to park around the corner
and walk the last hundred metres
or so.
Or you store your car on the
pavement because you live in a street
without enough space for all the
residents’ vehicles? Perhaps you
think it doesn’t matter. Everyone
does it, right? And anyway,
pedestrians can just walk around
cars, or squeeze past. It’s not like it’s
doing any harm.
Except it is. I live in Portobello
close to two streets that are plagued
by pavement parking. If you are
blind or partially sighted, use a
wheelchair, or push a buggy, you
cannot use the pavements in these
streets. You are supposed to,
according to some residents, walk or
wheel up the middle of the street
instead. And many people do walk
up these streets. But you can’t do that
safely or confidently if you are blind
or partially sighted or using a
wheelchair. What do you do if you
meet a car head on? What if the
drivers don’t slow down?
Several years ago, I had to use a
wheelchair for a few months while
recovering from an injury. My GP
was on Portobello High Street. I
couldn’t take the shortest route there
THE PHOTO from
Edinburgh Collected
shows how the St
Cuthbert’s Association
horses were used in
local campaigns across
Edinburgh. Dating from
the late 1950s, when car
ownership was on the
increase, this campaign
“Road Safety Matters”
shows a horse dressed
as a zebra to represent a
pedestrian crossing of
the same name.
Notice the Belisha
because I couldn’t use the pavement.
Instead, I would take the longer
way round.
Recently my elderly neighbours,
both in their 90s, told me they also
had to take this longer route. Neither
had the confidence to use their
walking frames in the middle of
the street.
Pavement parking also damages
pavements.
Pavements are not designed to
carry the weight of a vehicle. When
drivers park on pavements,
maintenance costs increase, and we
all have to pay for that.
beacons at either end of
the cart and its striking
black and white livery.
The cart is adorned with
slogans aimed at
motorists and
pedestrians alike. The
photo was taken at the
junction of the High
Street and Cockburn
Street in the Old Town.
Do you remember this
campaign?
Museums & Galleries
Edinburgh submitted
the photo which is taken
from the
commemorative book
“Pictorial Record of
Ceremonial Occasions”.
Edinburgh Collected
is a place to share,
explore and discuss your
memories of Edinburgh.
Everyone can browse,
or you can sign up to...
• Upload your own
memories
• Save your favourite
memories in a
scrapbook.
Edinburgh Collected
With the council already
struggling with budgets, this is an
extra cost none of us should have
to bear.
Scotland has banned pavement
parking, but the legal ban may not
come into force until 2023. We don’t
need to wait that long to free our
pavements from vehicles.
Next time you are about to park
on a pavement, or on tactile paving,
or across a dropped kerb, spare a
thought for the people who need that
infrastructure just to make ordinary
everyday trips.
Will you be making someone
is managed and
maintained by
Edinburgh Libraries, run
by The City of Edinburgh
Council .
All the material added
will be used to expand
the city’s digital heritage
collections, adding to
the material held in the
Central Library, which is
already the most
extensive collection
about Edinburgh in
existence.
edinburghcollected.org
using a wheelchair wait until
you return?
Will you be forcing someone with
a child in a buggy into traffic?
Will you be preventing a partially
sighted person from going out in
their local streets?
Do the right thing. Find a legal
place to park on the road. It might
feel inconvenient, but considerate
parking is good for all of us.
If our pavements are safe and
clear, we can all get around more
easily and confidently.
And who wouldn’t want that for
our local communities?