r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	Scunnered20
Comment	This may not be popular, but I need to push back on some of this. > I'd love things to actually change but I don't see how gcc can actually afford anything meaningful Sort of with you here. In the sense that the council, like nearly all councils, is hugely dependent on national funding and is nearly skint. It has to continually make hard decisions each year on what services to cut. The days of a strong Strathclyde regional council are gone, and large-scale projects only happen with national funding. > they have half assed the cycle lanes and most don't even connect it's just a vanity project. As you say, they don't have funding. They're prioritising what they can deliver and some of the more recent works are of very high quality. The pipeline for further routes is filling up all the time and we're beginning to approach the point where we have discrete networks in certain areas, where as before there were just separate disjointed cycle routes. The real impact will come once more gaps are filled in the next few years and these mini neighbourhood networks are joined up. Calling it a vanity project is harsh and a bit off the mark. > If they really wanted to do something for the public good the subway would go north to robroyston etc where the place has expanded massively and is still getting bigger, Two points here: First, subway extension is simply a non-starter, it's just too expensive. The eastern circle was costed at around £2.2billion in 2006 money. That's very likely closer to £4 billion or more today. It's just not very good bang for your buck, when you can spend that money on multiple tram lines, integrated subway-tram-train hub stations, bus priority routes along arterial corridors... [all of which is the actual plan](https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=26965). Secondly, somewhere like Robroyston unfortunately is probably the worst possible place to build a subway line. It's just too thinly spread out and lacks the density. This isn't a small point: it's fundamental to many of the problems the city faces today, all down to how it was designed post-war and how it's unfortunately still being designed. Building car-centric neighbourhoods on the periphery which will never be cost effective to serve by public transport. How we build the city is as important as how we service it, and indeed how we built it greatly affects how it can be serviced on multiple fronts.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/16aunn0/transport_in_glasgow/jzadlhr/
Created	Tue 5th Sep 2023 9:59pm
Status	normal ()

This may not be popular, but I need to push back on some of this.

> I'd love things to actually change but I don't see how gcc can actually afford anything meaningful

Sort of with you here. In the sense that the council, like nearly all councils, is hugely dependent on national funding and is nearly skint. It has to continually make hard decisions each year on what services to cut. The days of a strong Strathclyde regional council are gone, and large-scale projects only happen with national funding.

> they have half assed the cycle lanes and most don't even connect it's just a vanity project.

As you say, they don't have funding. They're prioritising what they can deliver and some of the more recent works are of very high quality. The pipeline for further routes is filling up all the time and we're beginning to approach the point where we have discrete networks in certain areas, where as before there were just separate disjointed cycle routes. The real impact will come once more gaps are filled in the next few years and these mini neighbourhood networks are joined up. Calling it a vanity project is harsh and a bit off the mark.

> If they really wanted to do something for the public good the subway would go north to robroyston etc where the place has expanded massively and is still getting bigger,

Two points here: First, subway extension is simply a non-starter, it's just too expensive. The eastern circle was costed at around £2.2billion in 2006 money. That's very likely closer to £4 billion or more today. It's just not very good bang for your buck, when you can spend that money on multiple tram lines, integrated subway-tram-train hub stations, bus priority routes along arterial corridors... [all of which is the actual plan](https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=26965).

Secondly, somewhere like Robroyston unfortunately is probably *the worst possible place to build a subway line*. It's just too thinly spread out and lacks the density.

This isn't a small point: it's fundamental to many of the problems the city faces today, all down to how it was designed post-war and how it's unfortunately *still being designed*. Building car-centric neighbourhoods on the periphery which will never be cost effective to serve by public transport. How we build the city is as important as how we service it, and indeed how we built it greatly affects how it can be serviced on multiple fronts.