Leith Car Free Day 2009

We're pleased to announce details of our planned Car Free day, where we're going to pedestrianise The Shore for the afternoon. You can download the poster below by clicking here. All help in promoting the event much appreciated.

As you can see, we've laid on some interesting stuff to watch and get involved with, but really we'd love it if everyone just came down to enjoy the street with no traffic on it - bring a pot plant, a deck chair and a pack of cards and read the sunday papers. Bring some chalk to decorate the road. Fingers crossed the weather is good!

Leith Primary School has kindly agreed to host a 'bike dressing' workshop on the Friday afternoon prior to the event. If you would like to attend this with your children, then please contact us. Whilst we're going to provide materials that you can use to dress your bikes up, if you can bring stuff to decorate your bike with then we'd appreciate it! Judging for the Bike Fancy dress will take place at about 3pm on Car Free Day.

If you would like to volunteer to help us run the event we'd also love to hear from you. 

This event has been organised to coincide with European Mobility Week. There's lot's of other things happening in Edinburgh during the week. You can find out more from the dedicated website: http://edinburgh-emw.info/

One of the events that inspired us to organise this Car Free Day, was the similar event that's been run in Portobello for the last three years by PEDAL. This year the Porty event is happening at the same time as our event, so with a huge amount of help from the Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk, we're going to be encouraging people to travel by foot, or by bike, between the two events. Special maps have been made and prizes will be given to people who manage to get to both the Leith and Porty Car Free events and collect the special clues laid along the route. 

We should also say a big Thank you to The Leith Marketing people of Irn-Bru advert fame, who have been fantastically supportive of this event too. Not least by lending us their boat for the day.

Comments

[dock st resident]

what an absolute joke! not happy about this stupid idea. will be complaining, especially as a resident, this is the first i have heard of it,

[Ally]

Hi, We know it's going to inconvenience a small number of local residents and for that we'd like to apologise in advance. However, access to alll the surrounding streets should still be possible.

[dock st resident]

it just would have been nice to have been told about it rather than hear on the grapevine. Thank you for being so informative to the residents.....not

[Ally]

We did advertise it on our website, and the Greener Leith Social as soon as we could. We also consulted with local businesses some weeks ago. We've been promoting it on Leith FM and it's featured in an article in the Leither. I'm just about to go and deliver some letters to residents on The Shore. We could have done some of these things earlier, I agree, and I'd like to apologise once again for any inconvenience the day will cause to local residents. However, we don't have a huge marketing budget, and we rely on volunteers to help run the event. Therefore, we've struggled to personally get the message out to every local resident who'll be affected. If we run this event next year, we'll certainly take your feedback on board. If there's anything else we can do to make the day go smoothly for you, please contact us directly through this website.

[Kenny]

I am with the Dock Street resident. I live just off the Shore and this is the first I have heard of this. I am for working to a greener environment but surely springing something like this on us with little notice is not going to win you much support. The only reason I heard of it was I happened to glance a notice on a bus stop saying that it would not be in use on Sunday.

[Grant]

Well, I live on the Shore & advance notice or not, I think it's a great idea. Come on, Leithers - it's ONE DAY out of your life; relax and enjoy it. I'd see the point of complaining if it was a permanent closure or for a week... one day isn't the end of the world, surely?

[Jeff]

I live on the Shore and not only have I known about this for weeks I am very excited for it.

What's worse? Inconvenienced by one street not having cars for 5 hours vs the inconvenient truth of cars killing the planet? Hmm, tough one.

So to my dear neighbours I say lighten up, get your old BMX Chopper out and come on down and grab a smoothie, play some footie and have a fun day in the glorious sunshine*

Good job Greener Leith, good job indeed.



*Blame Michael Fish if that one doesn't pan out....

[tp]

I think it's a real shame that 'moaner of Dock St' and Kenny are apparently so determined to keep driving their cars up and down The Shore on a Sunday that they are so bitter about this. I think it's a fantastic idea - the public space that roads occupy shouldn't be denied to those of us who don't own cars, especially as it is just ONE DAY out of 365! How much inconvenience will it really cause? Probably none in comparison to the fact that I cross this road four times a day, and almost every single time get inconvenienced by selfish car drivers who are too lazy to bother indicating which way they are turning! How much notice do you really need?! What plans have you got that are more important than the rest of us enjoying our PUBLIC space for once?

Anyhoo, on a positive note - why don't Dock St and Kenny come out and join in. You might actually enjoy yourselves, meet your neighbours and fellow Leithers in the flesh, rather than stuck in a line of traffic sitting in your lump of metal... This is something that is called FUN!

Well done Greener Leith on arranging this - I appreciate that you have managed to arrange all this on a limited budget!

[Leither]

Brilliant idea - must admit I never heard it was happening until I passed a sign on a lamp post but fully behind it all.

Get a grip you moaners - lol - I mean, a few hours of not getting to park your car outside your flat - believe this joke is you.

[AJR - Timber Bush]

I live in Timber Bush and, even though we had little notice of the event, I agree that it's a great idea, inconvenience aside.

[Tom]

Just back from a lovely wander along the Shore - what a great day, folks! Brilliant to see people enjoying the street and kids playing in the open space, rather than just queues and queues of traffic!

[Iain McGill]

Enjoyed yesterday lots - the football was fun - I still think my team was robbed - and enjoyed fishing the odd stray ball out of the Water of Leith

[Davie Thomson]

Shutting a street for 5 hours to promote community efforts is minimal compared to the Tramworks. Waken up to the beauty you have in your area of leith....history, restaurants and brilliant mix of archictecture. What is lacking is the appreciation and participation in making Leith more vibrant and community activity. Use the Shore as a place where there can be monthly farmers markets, fish markets and open air tables for eating out.

Imagination, enthusiam and participation can make the difference. Moaning?...no comments

[Katriona Kennard]

Hi ,I'm all for Car Free Days, however the first I heard of this day was when I called the police to report my car as stolen/missing/AWOL. I parked on Sandport bridge on Friday night and was unaware of the Car free day. Imgine my surprise on Monday morning when my car wasn't where I left it? I was late for work because I had to collect my car from several streets away. Please call car owners if their cars have been moved or put signs on bridges and surrounding areas next time, thanks.

[Ally]

HI Katriona,

Several people have let us know that the signs that the council put up in advance of the day did not reflect the extent of the parking restrictions that were enforced. In fact the traffic wardens on the Sunday morning told us they got the signs wrong. We're really sorry about the inconvenience, and we'll let the council know that they need to improve their signage!