Coventry out and about

I'm not sure civilised is the right word, but it is proven that psychologically people feel more confident and powerful when physically raised above others. Statistically there is a greater margin between tall and short people in terms of positions of prominence, power and high financial rewards than things like race or sex. (There are exceptions obviously but the people involved tend to be unbelievably ruthless and callous) The argument for cars below, pedestrians above has long been my view. I've no problems with grade separation, but cannot fathom why almost every time they choose cars above. I can only only assume it's cost - a tunnel/cutting for vehicles is going to have to be much wider than one for people, so it costs more. But for me the advantages of people on top far outweigh the cost savings. People are more able to make the most of the views as they travel at slower speeds, they need sunlight and open air, many find tunnels cramped, claustrophobic and unwelcoming and you could possibly even make the bridges etc cheaper because the weight and force of the humans on it would be less than vehicular traffic.

I meant 'civilised' in that it's uncivilised, in my view, to have pedestrians using squalid tunnels. La Corbusier's 'City of Tomorrow', an influence on Coventry, actually had 'central' roads underground with car parking beneath city centre housing. The problem is roads and our obsession personal transport. Whether you stick them down below or up above you have problems.

One of the things I have noted while travelling around Coventry is the amounts of space we devote to the car. Just look on Google Earth at the car parks at Cannon Park Shopping Centre or the Ricoh. And, that's repeated time and time again. Then we have the ring road of course - devoted to the car. Few modern houses come without space to house at least one car too. Build a factory or office block and you need to also create a car park usually bigger than the workplace.

The space the ring road takes up is immense, especially around the bigger junctions, and totally out of proportion to its size. Cycling around this weekend I was shocked at how dilapidated and decaying it is.

I was discussing the ring road with my daughter when she went on the sky ride at the weekend. I hadn't realized that they only shut one side for the ride as I had wondered how they managed the traffic. I now see that traffic can still go round one side but she also reminded me that my dad drove round Coventry until he was 87 in 2003 and he hardly ever used the ring road. He used the routes he had always used pre ring road and could get round most of the areas of Coventry without going anywhere near the inner city.

I don't think modern houses having space for cars integrated is a problem. I think it can be a good solution, though I do find it annoying that many integrated garages are actually so narrow they aren't actually practical to be used for storing a car and end up as sheds/storage areas. I think in potential flood zones they could be extremely useful - ground floor used as a garage means people aren't overly affected by flood water invading their homes and destroying their possessions, and the car would be damaged out on the road anyway. It's more secure and if the cars are off the roads you can have narrower streets. Plus if we find a better solution at least these spaces can be converted into another room in a house. Big areas set aside for parking are more troublesome. Imagine if we did find a solution and car parks were no longer needed - the amount of space that would be unused would be astronomical (though personally I would see it as an opportunity as it would provide lots of brownfield sites for housing. I certainly find them more user friendly and efficient than the older solutions. Driveways and parking on the road outside the house take up huge spaces and/or block traffic flow. Entries to garages at the rear take up space, are often very narrow to negotiate and can be a hive for anti-social activity. Even more annoyingly are places with front-access garages built behind the houses. Places like Styvechale have them. But the space at the side of the house isn't big enough to drive a car through, so the entire thing is useless. A member of my family lived a house with one, and not a single person in their neighbourhood used it to park their car in. I'd even prefer secure MSCP's for every street than things like that - it'd certainly be a more efficient use of space. Plus if you REALLY want to see space set aside for cars look at American cities in GoogleMaps, especially around things like football stadiums. They are just ridiculous. We went to a NY Giants game while they were building a new stadium - in the car park of the current one! And there was still car parking left for thousands of cars. It took us ten minutes just to walk across the car park.

This is why I think now is probably the best opportunity we'll get to rethink it. Before long a decision will have to be made for a long term solution, one of which will undoubtedly be to completely rebuild the ring road section by section, and if we do that we're stuck with it for another 50-60 years. Part of the reason it takes up so much space is the grade separation, as the slip roads have to be long enough so that the gradient isn't too steep. As you know I've said elsewhere, I'd also consider changing the layout of the junctions, splitting them into half just accessing the ring road, the other half just accessing the city centre.

Hi all Your mention of car-parks has reminded me to say that the land adjacent to the Ricoh railway station, where talk had been for it to be a park & ride facility is now off the agenda. The land has been acquired by the company that own "Wasps". On a fabulous weather day like today, I have completed my chores at home early, so that I can clear off into the blue yonder, but as yet I don't know where. A chum has just phoned to suggest a breakfast somewhere in an hour, but that is about all at present. So, whatever you are up to, please enjoy. No rain until Thursday is the latest prediction. This retirement life-style is so demanding! How do we cope!

Hi Philip, With the splendid weather I'm off out for a wander too with no particular aim in mind - also on a countdown to when I can wander full-time - less than six months to retirement!

Hi Old Lincolnian Best wishes to you.

Hi all A few Thursday morning chores sorted, a small breaky with Pam, & I am about to go out & about, but not sure where. We need to watch out for heavy showers later & overnight whatever we are doing. I might head in the B'ham direction which means boarding the 10.28 Ninky-Nonk from the Ricoh to Coventry.

I was 'out and about' last night, with thousands of others who went to see Mogwai perform their soundtrack to a showing of Atomic (A film directed by Coventry-born Mark Cousins) in the new Cathedral. What a fantastic show and atmosphere, and great to see something so popular (My last 'gig' in Coventry was pretty empty.) A warm evening as well. Just goes to show you that when good things are put on, people will come and the city centre's businesses can benefit.

I was out and about again yesterday too - continuing my 'Streets of Westwood Parish" project. This is on the former Massey Ferguson site, now Bannerbrook estate. I was attracted by the trees. We had started the day over in the Eastern Green/Whoberley area. Anything south of the brook (the northern boundary of the parish) is fair game.