Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

REBECCA BAIRD: From pavement parking ban to 20-minute neighbourhoods, Dundee is in policy gridlock

When it comes to the debate-driving topic of transport in Dundee, perhaps we should all slam the breaks and get some perspective.

David Cook has had his car damaged on Balunie Drive. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson.
David Cook has had his car damaged on Balunie Drive. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson.

Let’s see if we can get this straight.

Dundee’s adoption of the pavement parking ban, which (rightly) aims to tackle irresponsible parking, is actually leading to instances of it.

I wish I could say I was shocked, but I’m not.

This week, The Courier reported that folk up Balunie Drive are now parking Noah’s Ark style up the street, two by two.

This is apparently because the ban means they cannot park on the street’s grass verge, which served as good-sense makeshift parking spaces until the policy came into force.

And now residents are finding their cars are being damaged due to their now-irresponsible (yet legal) parking making the road too narrow for safe passage.

This is the first little gridlock in Dundee’s maze of nonsensical logical junctions.

The solution proposed by many is for these people to park further away from their homes, and avoid doubling up on either side of the road.

That sounds obvious, but what happens when that street overspills into another, and then those residents are forced to find new parking places, and so on?

There’s a chronic lack of residential parking in the city, which wasn’t addressed before the implementation of the ban. These unhappy former pavement parkers are the predictable consequence of that.

Better, then, to not use a car at all and go places on foot or on public transport. That’s if local buses could be relied upon to keep a schedule and not break down.

Or if we lived in – oh, she’s going to say it – 20 minute neighbourhoods.

’20 minute neighbourhood’ is sensible, not scary

Here, I’m referring to the somehow-highly-contentious proposal that citizens should have all their essential services, such as GPs, schools and shops, within 20 minutes of travel, either on foot or by public transport.

This is an entirely sensible idea which has been hilariously co-opted by conspiracy theorists as threat of localised imprisonment, as if people will hit some sort of governmental force field when they try to leave their assigned zones.

Don’t threaten us with a good time, right folks? And pick up a tin hat on the way out.

Jokes aside, the 20-minute neighbourhood does seem like the most practical way to get folk ditching their cars or using them less.

And that in turn would ease the angst of those affected by Dundee’s chronic lack of street parking space.

It would also support the carbon-cutting ideology behind the newly-implemented Low Emission Zones.

And if the much-grumbled-at active travel plans for the city centre come to fruition, we’d almost have a cohesive approach to travel and transport. Imagine!

So riddle me this – if the city is squeezing motorists with policies which encourage reliance on local amenities and public transport, why are we still centralising services?

Centralising services is driving backwards

As planners and parking attendants dream of walkable neighbourhoods, GP surgeries are collapsing and being absorbed into bigger practices which are 50-minute walks across town.

Local primary schools are being closed and merged into purpose-built super-campuses.

And centralised policing mean that neighbourhood cop stations are a relic of the past.

Park Avenue Medical Practice building for sale
The Park Avenue Medical Centre closed earlier this year. Image: Shepherd Chartered Surveyors.

Saving money by swiping walkable services only to rake your citizens over the coals with parking fines for the cars they require to get from A to a now-further B? That’s a bad look.

From where I’m standing, it looks like authorities are running motorists off the road and then leaving people high and dry on the pavement.

Suddenly, public services are running perpendicular to proposed transport policies.

The result? A total traffic jam of priorities.

And what do traffic jams lead to? Road rage.

Transport isn’t vehicles – it’s freedom

It’s no wonder that Dundee residents are frustrated with their leaders. And it’s also no wonder that transport is such a hot-button topic, because it is the biggest impactor of freedom.

And our policymakers have a duty to ensure that everyone living here has freedom of movement – whether that’s pedestrians deserving clearer pavements, drivers needing affordable places to park, or public transport users being able to rely on their services.

However, we as citizens need to be willing to get on board when it comes to travel improvements.

LEZ markings on Meadow Place in Dundee. Image: James Simpson/DC Thomson.

We must accept that as city dwellers, our long-term goal should be to have fewer vehicles, more communal transport, and localised, fit-for-purpose services.

But until we have that, our leaders need to realise that unless they plough money into researching human teleportation, their citizens will come with cars.

So we need a place to put them, other than the pavement.

In short, DCC – build more parking, then keep working to make it unnecessary.

There’s some nice roundabout thinking.

Conversation