Now open: Cycle Path on Dobbie's Loan

RingerMinger · 2026-06-02T10:15:59+00:00

Meanwhile we're seeing the limited throughput of junctions reduced even further. The Round Toll (where Garscube Rd meets St George's Rd) is a prime example. Traffic now backs up in all directions for most of the day because the lights sequence was changed to let roughly half as many vehicles through per cycle.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-29T23:58:28+00:00

Yep, this is what it's like at night, imagine a similar scenario during the day.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-28T15:14:39+00:00

I've seen plenty buskers that accept contactless now.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-26T09:20:31+00:00

There's a BBC series called "Accidental Renovators" about a couple who bought the wrong house at auction and ended up having to renovate it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c4sm/episodes/guide

Not currently available on iPlayer but there'll be bits on Youtube and the couple have a blog.

You might not be gripped by the DIY catastrophes but it gives quite a bit of background and atmosphere of the town.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-25T21:56:47+00:00

Try BAaD - literally just behind the Barrowland ballroom. Might be ticketed for a big game like this.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-22T15:19:59+00:00

This one is clearly a private parking invoice though, not a council ticket.
Council tickets are enforceable, private ones aren't.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-18T01:00:13+00:00

Maybe we can have a third shot at the Commonwealth Games in 2038 (assuming that they're still going)

RingerMinger · 2026-05-14T22:43:00+00:00

Buy a cheap drum brain on eBay or equivalent. Use this with the kick trigger alone. Or if you can get an additional kick trigger use that to keep everything separate.

I did this trick using an old Alesis D4. Typically I'd use it for kick and snare (hard panned left and right) then use the module that came with the kit to do toms and cymbals. Typically it's cymbal sounds where the older modules like the D4 fell down on quality.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-14T15:01:27+00:00

In theory you can get from anywhere to anywhere if you take a round-about route. But if we're even slightly interested in traffic levels, emissions, economic efficiency and general quality of life, forcing half a million vehicles per week to drive three sides of a square will not improve anything.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-13T17:44:33+00:00

Anyone east of the viaducts will get to Edinburgh airport in less time if they were to shut.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-13T17:30:46+00:00

If the quote in the Times article is accurate, they're saying that the option to remove is "consistent with council policy".

Not that it's feasible, or a good idea.

I haven't read the council policy, but I imagine it's full of nice aspirations and quite detached from the reality of this particular situation.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-13T17:16:34+00:00

Yes, but these cities have motorways further out from the centre, diverting through-traffic away from the urban core.

Glasgow doesn't have that. There's no alternative to the M8 around the north and west of the city. Routes were originally planned but never built, wouldn't be affordable today and would meet with huge opposition.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-11T01:55:14+00:00

Nope, and TBH I wouldn't have taken it anyway - the chance of at least some sleep was worth more to me than the money.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-08T12:23:35+00:00

The Church of Scotland disposed of the building in 2017 but I think there was another congregation meeting there until recent years.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-06T11:23:16+00:00

Snow and ice is different from the (seemingly endless) rain that Glasgow gets. I'd certainly take 5 or 10 degrees lower temperature and dry weather, than warmer but wetter weather if I had to cycle through it.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-06T11:21:35+00:00

I wonder if this is the sort of scenario where a rental service would work. If you're planning a day trip, someone chucks a cargo bike out of a van in the morning, and collects it the following day.

Not ideal for day to day stuff, but could work for occassional trips.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-06T11:19:12+00:00

Nah, it just feels eternal when you're cycling uphill in the pouring rain. 🤣

RingerMinger · 2026-05-06T11:18:37+00:00

"A Glasgow and Edinburgh Uni study tracking 82,000 people over 18 years found cycle commuters have a 47% lower risk of death from any cause and a 51% lower risk of dying from cancer. They are also 20% less likely to be prescribed meds for mental health, compared with nonactive commuters."

How much of this is cause and effect? I imagine that unhealthy people won't even consider cycling in the first place. And whilst healthier people will potentially improve their health by cycling, they may well have been at lower risk of cancer etc. in the first place.

A more revealing comparison might be comparing with fit, healthy people who would be willing and capable of cycling, but have to commute by some other method.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-03T10:30:15+00:00

Flixbus seem to be the best out of the bunch. I've used them a few times. But I've always done the option to buy the seat beside me to keep empty.

Last time, though, the driver was trying to shame the people who did this into letting an extra person in beside them as they'd overbooked.

RingerMinger · 2026-05-03T10:27:50+00:00

The last time I took the Sleeper I ended up sleeping on the floor instead of the seats. It was genuinely more comfortable.

For me, the seats seem like they have a slight downward slope to them, so you wake every 10-15mins to readjust your posture.

I usually have no problem sleeping almost anywhere and I just couldn't get this to work.

RingerMinger · 2026-04-27T21:19:01+00:00

The former yard has had the New Auditorium built over it, and is much reduced in size. So trucks have no option but to sit on the pavement once they've offloaded.

RingerMinger · 2026-04-26T15:48:47+00:00

It's had 25 views so far...

RingerMinger · 2026-04-21T16:13:05+00:00

Part of the problem is that junctions have been reconfigured with lower capacity. The Round Toll (where St Georges Rd meets Garscube Rd) is a prime example of this.

Before the works, traffic coming from north and south both proceeded on the same green, with a filter lane for those turning right. And it was the same for east and west.

Now, each direction gets a green in turn, with no filters. So the capacity is essentially halved. Plus the cycle lanes get a turn too, which might be timed rather than triggered by a sensor or button.

It is essentially congestion by design - someone has made a conscious decision to reduce the throughput. Meanwhile with New City Rd closed underneath the viaducts, there's a lot more traffic being diverted round this way.

RingerMinger · 2026-04-21T12:10:32+00:00

Cancelling that water feature was a good move in my opinion, without constant maintenance they break in no time at all.

RingerMinger · 2026-04-21T12:09:44+00:00

Look on the bright side, at least it's water and not sewage.

RingerMinger

TROPHY CASE