OSM cycle map of Shandwick Place, Edinburgh diversion

For the next five months Shandwick Place in the west of the centre of Edinburgh is closed for work to move the utilities for when the trams are going to be introduced in a few years time.

The council, TIE and Lothian Buses were quick enough to produce alternative routes for cars and buses, however their alternative route wasn't suitable for cyclists.

On Friday they provided some written instructions without any maps, which they had done for the car drivers and bus routes.

See below for a map with the council's route drawn on top of Andy Allan's rendering of the OpenStreetMap cycle data.

Photos from my trip to France (OpenOffice.org conference and Apple Expo)

Please take a look at http://www.byphotos.com/album/4050544 which contains all the photos from my trip.

I know some of them have not been rotated.

It was the first time I can remember being in London. Over a decade ago I had been round the M25 on the way to Dover, it was so long ago, I can't remember, mind you I would probably have been sleeping at time.

There are some pictures of the trams and trolley buses in Lyon in there, if anyone is interested.

I found it quite good at being able to catch the sunset whilst on the Eurostar on leaving France.

How about the Trolley bus instead of the Edinburgh Tram

See my letter to the Evening News at: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155522006

Edinburgh Trams

Why not use hybrid trolley buses as an interim measure, until there is enough money is available to fund the laying down of the tracks.

I would say that using hybrid trolley buses instead as it would be more flexible. They don't always require electric to run, and they don't need the expensive tracks.

The Museum of Transport in Glasgow has a trolley bus from the 60's, so it might be an idea taking a look at it.

City Centre Bus service to be axed to make way for the Trams

According to the Evening News - End of the line for bus routes once trams start to run in city . Bus companies are going to have to cut the bus services to the city centre. If the right routes get cut then it won't be a bad thing as the current probem with the city centre is that there are far too many buses there. So many they are holding each other up! If this goes ahead I just hope that the buses that get taken off from the city centre will be put on to the routes avoiding the city centre!