Are Scots More Dangerous Pedestrians?
When I was in Scotland, I saw an article in The Scotsman entitled Scotland is ‘deadliest place to go for a walk’
Here’s the first paragraph.
Scotland has Europe’s worst record for pedestrian deaths in towns and cities, campaigners claimed yesterday, as new official figures showed the total soared by one-third last year.
I don’t know but as a careful pedestrian, who always waits for the green, I found that in Edinburgh and Glasgow, I’d wait and found when it went green, everybody else had long gone.
So perhaps Scots do walk more dangerously!
Buses, Buses Everywhere!
I’d arrived home on Saturday night to a lot of chaos due to road works on the Balls Pond Road.
But today, it was still chaos as these pictures show.
At least though the police weren’t about, as on the Saturday night, where they were giving a wonderful demonstration of how they have forgotten their point-duty skills. They may have kept the cars moving, but it took me and a few others about ten minutes to cross the road, before a gap appeared.
The Disused Circular Railway In Paris
Surprisingly, I’d never heard of this railway that connected the main railway stations in Paris, but there was a piece on it, on BBC Breakfast this morning. If such a railway had existed in say London or New York, it would have been the subject of books, documentaries and probably as famous as the sewers of Vienna, immortalised in The Third Man.
I think the next time, I visit Paris, I’ll find a tour or an expert and do an explore.
Back Home Via Bolton
I didn’t go directly home, but broke the journey to see Ipswich play Bolton at the Reebok stadium, which is very close to Horwich Parkway station. This meant changes on both legs at Preston.
I would have preferred to come home via Manchester, but because Manchester United were playing Stoke City, I couldn’t get a train ticket at a reasonable price.
This resulted in having to rush my second change at Preston, as the London train had already arrived, when my local train came into Preston a few minutes late.
But the train was in London at the scheduled time of 20:15.
I’ve talked about the problems of getting gluten-free food on Virgin at weekends, so I didn’t really bother, as they had one gluten-free ham salad sandwich in the Marks and Spencer’s at Glasgow Central station.
And of course, it’s impossible to get any gluten free food in a football ground.
If I’d gone home by Manchester, I could have eaten in Carluccio’s in Piccadilly station. And probably a couple of other places too!
Glasgow Central Station
Glasgow Central is a large impressive station, that has been refurbished quite recently.
The station has a large well-lit waiting/meeting area in front of the platforms, which is a bit like having Kings Cross Square under the station roof!
Too many stations don’t have enough space for waiting and meeting, but Glasgow Central is not one of them.
Walking Around Glasgow City Centre
I had an hour or so before I needed to get to Glasgow Central station, so as it was fine, I walked around looking at the buildings.
Glasgow is easy to navigate, as it has lots of wayfinding liths, just like London.
As you can see, some are megaliths and have a lot more than just a simple map and a few words.
Without doubt liths are the way to go.
This was illustrated, when I came across a group of students and a local, who were discussing in detail, the direction the students needed to go.
In my view, Glasgow’s liths may only have one problem, except for the misplaced Tourist Office.
And that is on Friday, with all the rain, they didn’t stand out, as the colours were too subtle. Perhaps, that is why London’s liths have yellow tops.
Riding The Clockwork Orange
My mother visited Glasgow in the 1930s and first told me about the Glasgow Subway. I know little of her trip or was it trips to Glasgow, except that she went by coach. She also told once, how a lady on the coach, put her hair in curlers to go to sleep. I don’t think I ever saw my mother with her hair that way!
Why she went, I have no idea, but the trip to Glasgow was probably the only vaguely exotic place I ever her talk of going.
My host at dinner last night, had told me that a station on the Subway was about fifteen minutes walk from my hotel. So to explore the city centre, before I took the train south, I walked to the station at Hillhead. An illustration of how times change was the Waitrose opposite the station. Only a few years ago, their furthest north store was at Newark.
I took the train to Buchanan Street station, which was close to the main stations and shops.
Although, the stations all seemed to have a lith with a map and information outside, I don’t think I ever saw a system map inside a station or on the trains.
But then as it is effectively one line going continuously round in circles clockwise and another doing the same in an anticlockwise direction, it is about as far in concept from ninety-nine percent of the world’s metro and subway systems, as you can get. So perhaps a map would just confuse people unfamiliar with the system. I suppose that in my journey from Hillhead to Buchanan Street, I could have taken any train in either direction. This is a bit like London’s old Circle line, before they broke the circle and made it a spiral.
Cash Machines Behind Barriers
By now, I’d determined that I needed to get a taxi to my hotel and as luck would have it not only was my phone out of juice, but so was my wallet.
So as I needed money for the taxi, I needed a cash machine and where are both of these found? In a station! But as the picture shows the only ones I could find were behind the ticket barriers.
Cash Machines Behind Barriers
Luckily, I was let through and got the money for the taxi. As it was the driver didn’t take credit cards, so I definitely needed that cash.
Wandering Glasgow In The Rain
I followed the map to the Tourist Office, but as the pictures show it was closed.
In fact, I found out later that it had been moved, but that the maps on the liths hadn’t been updated. Is this a problem with this type of city navigation system?
In the end, the liths got me out of trouble, as I knew that there was a Carluccio’s in West Nile Street, which the maps led me to. I was able to dry out and use the wi-fi to fid out where my hotel was located and have a much needed lunch.
Welcomed To Glasgow By A Lith
On arriving at Glasgow Queen Street station, I was met by this obvious lith.
Welcomed To Glasgow By A Lith
From the map, I was able to locate the tourist office for more information.
The Anonymous Widower 