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Sauchiehall St: Marketing vs Reality

Never trust the renders used to sell a scheme.

Sauchiehall St August 7th 2019.
( Update to his July 17th post )

Every time there is a compromise it has made things worse for pavement users.

Elmbank Street;
Before: Top Left
Render : Top Right
As Built: Bottom Right
Every change affected pavement users. No seats, more poles and street clutter. More cycle security poles though.
Promotional trees not there.
Removal of good safety barriers in hope that cars etc slow down and let people on the pavement cross safely. A city of pavement and public transport users is being redesigned by drivers and cyclists.At least they didnt put in that crazy non compliant super width zebra thing that is in the renders and included a controlled crossing that was shockingly missing initially .
However they replaced the safety barriers on the other end of the road when they did some realignment during this work so no consistency.
Remember there were not supposed to be shared surfaces in this work.

Dental Hospital:
It is tragic to still see the groups using this render to promote the scheme. They couldn't be bothered to include the bus stop at the Dental Hospital. Securing four bikes was a bigger priority than helping maintain access.
I have complained that the seats are very close to the cycle way. Making them unsafe for some people to use. People with prams, shopping bags, small kids, disabled people etc will find them unsafe.
Looking at them plus the pictures in the Dental Hospital images i do suspect that they may be installed the wrong way round. You can see three different orientations in the pictures , but if they were installed like the render they would have more space. Equally the plans could have been used but they seem to have been for ignored. Going by the appearance that they seem to have used the wrong plans for the end at Renfrew St i doubt they reviewed them.
This ends crossings have just been abandoned;
Getting to the crossing control is difficult for those that need it.

CCA:
It really is an unattractive brown smear of a mini road imposed on the street. Look at the promotional images compared to the built.It reeks of last minute panic to do something to differentiate the areas. In the plans the "Coloured Asphalt Surfacing" is only marked for use at a very small number of areas. Trying to remove snow/ice from that surface is going to be a mess.
You can see another variation of the seats
[Aug9 2019 Changed orientation of these images. Click on image for large version]

I will be excited when this sign finally gets moved .
...and as always assume all the corduroys tactiles are either oriented incorrectly or missing.

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