Dave in 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿May 11
This Is My Glasgow

A spiral ramp leading up to a pedestrian walkway over the M8 in the Anderston area of Glasgow. This is needed because the motorway, built in the 1960s, sliced this community in two. As a result, land which used to be occupied by homes and businesses has become a dead space, now occupied by a spiral of concrete, and has been for the last 60 years.

Cont./

#glasgow #anderston #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment

May 9 at 5:45pmWeb
Show threadThis Is My GlasgowMay 9

Such economically inactive dead spaces, often created by planning decisions made decades ago, can be found all over Glasgow and, in my opinion, they are one of the major challenges the city faces as tries to find ways to balance its books in the 21st century economic environment. Unfortunately, I cannot offer any easy solutions to this situation.

#glasgow #anderston #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment

Show threadTim Ward ⭐πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ”Ά #FBPEMay 10
@thisismyglasgow Remove the motorway?
Show threadChristo. London, EnglandMay 9
@thisismyglasgow
I've often wondered why Glasgow put motorways through densely populated area rather than a large circle around the City
Show threadThis Is My GlasgowMay 9
@Christo_459 It was originally meant to be part of a ring road around the city centre, but it was never completed. Part of the idea was to make it easier for people from the suburbs to get into the city to work, but at a massive cost to local communities, and indeed a massive loss to Glasgow's coffers as its population shrank and it lost about half its tax base to suburbs which don't pay taxes to Glasgow. It was not a well-thought through idea.
Show threadChristo. London, EnglandMay 9
@thisismyglasgow
Such a shame. It's so in people's faces
Show threadkim_harding βœ…May 10

@Christo_459 @thisismyglasgow You should see the plans that were drawn up for Edinburgh, but abandoned because they had run out of money, destroying Glasgow.

The plans are available at RCAHMS and on their website (when it works, currently showing a 500 error)

Show threadThis Is My GlasgowMay 10
@kim_harding @Christo_459 πŸ‘πŸ™‚
Show threadChristo. London, EnglandMay 10
@thisismyglasgow @kim_harding
πŸ‘‹πŸ»πŸ˜€
Show threadWenMay 10

@kim_harding @Christo_459 @thisismyglasgow Yes, I remember talking to a friend who was an archivist in Edinburgh some years ago. She said that people would not believe what was planned - and indeed some of it was mind boggling.

That does not excuse the destruction of fine Glasgow architecture though.

And as a southern aside, the muppets who took apart Bradford need a good doing too.

Show threadSteve LoughranMay 10

@Christo_459 @thisismyglasgow all forward looking Uk cities had ambitious plans to run motorways through their centres
- London: ringways, of which the M25 is only the outer of the three; I think the A40 westway is a relic too
- Bristol inner city ring road, linking to the M32 and with an interchange built over the harbour.

These would have destroyed what people like about these cities today.

Glasgow not only built a motorway through its centre: they still do it. The M77 though pollok estate? 1980s? Whatever goes past Uddingston -early 90s?
All i i know is what whenever I made a sporadic visit to grandparents, there were always new motorways replacing the nice green areas.

Last UK relic of the cargo cult of "motorways bring economic growth"

Show threadSteve LoughranMay 10
@Christo_459 @thisismyglasgow update: not necessarily the last relic, the Β£1+B Newport tunnels bypass was the grand welsh plan, but its cost too high. Hopefully that won't be resurrected.
"Congestion costs" are always overestimated and reinforce a hierarchy -pedestrians and cyclists minutes are valued less than drivers. And why should commute time by car have any cost value at all? You choose that time and that transport mode and you impose a cost on others.
#ukpol #Transport
Show threadSteve WoodsMay 10

@Christo_459 @thisismyglasgow Bristol did the same. The M32 cuts through the city like a scar..

The viaduct shown now needs Β£300-400m spent on repairs.

Show threadTheriacMay 10
@thisismyglasgow
Glasgow's motorways are a good example of how a far distant thing has long reaching effects.

In the 1920s, in the US, car companies realised that their products could be involved in expensive law suits involving pedestrians. Between them they dreamed up Jaywalking.
It went like this - say something generic about saving lives, dress everything up as a safety campaign with lots of hand wringing to the tune of "think of the kids" to get organisations like the Boy Scouts and Girl guides onside handing out leaflets along kerbsides and you look like a grassroots organisation. Persist for a decade or so, and you end up with Jaywalking laws in the US, putting legal responsibility onto pedestrians not to get in the way of cars.

While we don't have the same facile legislation in the UK, the idea of roads should not be, as they had up until that point, mixed traffic but to be prioritised for cars with enforced separation of pedestrians, becaming enshrined in "modern urban planning".

Jump forward to post-WW2 Glasgow looking at how to deal with housing issues, picking up on "modern urban design" and you get the car-centric approach of motorways cutting through the city, housing schemes on the outskirts and new towns within easy driving distance.
Show threadChuffΒ²May 10

@thisismyglasgow

I think this was weirdly common everywhere, you can see this throughout the US as well, just look at Interstate 55 in St Louis which cuts through the city, and there are some where the clearing was done and the road was never built. For a while there, its like there was no price too high to pay for putting roads through.