Monday, October 13, 2008

Traffic chaos

So. Tramworks are making Edinburgh tricky to navigate, as is well recorded. At the moment the Mound is closed, with traffic diverted down Market Street/Waverley Bridge, with some people going along East Market Street to get out that end.

The High Street is also closed between Jeffrey Street and - well the bottom half seems to be generally closed. Traffic is therefore splitting off either down St Mary's or Jeffrey St, with the latter often doubling back along East Market St to go down New Street and towards Holyrood.

And now, once again, there are coaches being used as replacements for certain rail services; coaches which lurk on both sides of East Market St until they're needed. This is a piece of road which is surely asking for an accident, whether just due to too much traffic or because pedestrians can't see the too much traffic for coaches.

I'm beginning to suspect the Illuminati (or some other giant covert ruling organisation) of some cunning plot to de-traffic the center of town. Perhaps they were disappointed in the failed Congestion Charge and are now making it so impractical to drive in town that people may give up and get a bloody bus. Almost everyone I know who needs to travel into/through/across town has had a good moan about their own personal Frightful Traffic Trauma, and there aren't many people left who don't resent the tramworks. Yesterday drivers were jumpy and careless; it's beginning to feel like LA with the seething miasma of barely-repressed rage in the air.

Something is going to snap.