Traffic scheme confusion

Like many, I was irritated by the traffic scheme which was imposed on the Cluny area of Morningside a few years ago.

I have been told in conversation with locals that the scheme was designed by a consultancy in London who never even came to see the place itself when they were designing the scheme.

To anyone who lives in the area, it is clear that it increases pollution by slowing the traffic down and diverts cars onto quiet side streets which were never designed for them.

Main roads have been blocked off for no discernible reason as well, but I hear that the scheme may soon be scrapped and not before time.

Now, another trafficrelated matter has arisen in Edinburgh. Apparently, researchers have concluded that the 20mph limit in parts of the city has reduced the number of people injured in collisions compared to neighbourhoods with a 30mph limit.

I hate to rain on anyone's party, but how many of the researchers have actually driven in Edinburgh? None, I would suggest.

I am sure that many readers will be as puzzled as me when it comes to anyone observing the 20mph limit. No one obeys it. Bus drivers don't. Police cars don't. Traffic doesn't. Cyclists never obey any traffic instructions, of course.

The consequence is that the researchers’ conclusions are nonsense.

What they may observe is that drivers in 20mph zones are simply driving according to road conditions, which we are all supposed to anyway. It does not mean that they were driving at 20mph.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Even in recent years we have had strident demands that the city council rescinds its totally justified policy on restricting short term lets