r/Glasgow Tools

I agree completely with this.

The primary reason people don't want to hang around the streets you're thinking of (u/tag1989) in the city is because they're shite, grey, smoggy, vehicle-ridden places, where there's no space to feel relaxed, sit and eat or drink, or idle along without worrying about oncoming vehice traffic.

Buchanan Street is fully pedestrianised, lined with trees benches, uninterrupted access to side streets. Not a car to interrupt you, save for a brief wait at the the St Vincent Street crossing point.

It's one of the most valuable and busiest shopping streets in the whole of the UK.

Conversely, imagine putting a 2-lane road down the middle of Silverburn, or Braehead. With parking spots outside every shop. Right around the food court too. I'm guessing you wouldn't be for that, as you know instantly in your gut the difference that would make to the experience of being in those places. But we don't treat city centres the same way - why is that?

The idea that successful and thriving city centres depend on private vehicle access has been shown to be bogus across the world. In much of mainland Europe, you'll find the picturesque shopping and leaisure quarters in the city centre, built around plazas and pedestrian streets, have limited private vehicle access.

I say limited, not totally prohibited.

Ghent has led the way with its strategy of **"filtered permeability"**. In plain English, this is basically identifying a core zone (hypothetically a city's old town centre), and making it impossible for through-traffic to pass across it. You can still enter on one side of the edge of this zone in a vehicle, and go to wherever you need to go near that "side" of the zone, but you cannot cross into another corner / side of the zone and exit out the other side.

This was achieved in Ghent with a combination of pedestrianised streets, one-way loop systems which brings traffic in one quadrant and out the same quadrant, and good old fashioned bollards - allowing bicycles and mobility vehicles through to the absolute core of the centre, while stopping private vehicles.

It's been copied in many other Belgian and Dutch cities, to the effect that their city centres are hospitable, lively, and bustling with activity. We can do this too! The council has plans along these lines, which I think they'll be bringing in slowly over the next 2 years. I strongly believe we need to support this change to improve our city centre and make it a better place to live, work, shop, and just simply spend your time.

u/scontter