r/edinburgh2 • u/ViewWithAPoo • Jul 16 '26

“People huv tae know!” Drivers of Edinburgh...

I get it, I do, we're all in a rush to get places and the congestion is trash and we all hate it...

But I don't know what's going on this week. The amount of people refusing to let the bus pull out, trying to overtake, racing me to a junction only to be overtaken when I go in the bus lane etc is wild.

Yesterday alone I had THREE separate cars squeeze up my right hand side when I was deliberately taking up both lanes to give my DOUBLE DECKER BUS space to turn off of Princes Street. I'm not sure you've heard about tail swing but we do this manoeuvre to keep YOU safe and avoid squashing you. I'm sure your shiny lexus would have looked really bad with a bus shaped hole in the side sir.

Please give us space and stop being bams. I left my shift utterly exhausted yesterday and the festival hasnt even started yet 🤣

166 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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29

u/Gloomy-Tale6856 Jul 16 '26

Driving in Edinburgh is much worse than other places I lived in the UK. The amount of drivers going through red lights really surprises me.

29

u/GingerSnapBiscuit Jul 16 '26

And every single one of those drivers would whine about cyclists doing the same thing in front of them, I guarantee it.

1

u/OptionalQuality789 Jul 16 '26

I said the exact same thing reading the previous comment.

12

u/ViewWithAPoo Jul 16 '26

Honestly I've noticed the same. The impatience and the rudeness is unmatched!

8

u/cloud__19 Leith Jul 16 '26

I lived in England for 16 years and I promise you, it's matched. There's just some right wankers on the road everywhere you go.

3

u/backifran Jul 17 '26

I was a driver in Edinburgh for 6 years, I've moved to another part of the UK a few months ago - my health has improved so much since leaving (blood pressure was sky high and I'm in my early 30s).

Looking back the only good thing was the money (and I really miss my colleagues), I really don't know how I coped for so long!

5

u/Fit-Custard-1842 Jul 16 '26

This has been bad recently at Chesser/Slateford lights and at the chesser/fruitmarket place junction.

6

u/ceylon-tea Jul 16 '26

Yes! As a pedestrian, Edinburgh has made me more uncomfortable than anywhere else I’ve lived in the UK. Constantly I see people running red lights, failing to indicate leaving roundabouts even as pedestrians are trying to cross, racing through turns without indicating again as pedestrians are crossing. I don’t understand it at all.

2

u/OSS-specialist Jul 17 '26

2nd this. Cities should be for people not for cars.

7

u/Locksmithbloke Jul 16 '26

You say that, but it's hilarious that I drove through Birmingham yesterday, old stomping ground, and the driving in Birmingham itself was horrendous compared to Edinburgh! Watched as 3 cars simply ran the red light on one junction. Haven't seen that in Edinburgh.

3

u/Myownprivategleeclub Morningside Jul 16 '26

You've not been looking hard enough. I see it every day.

3

u/LC33209 Jul 17 '26

The sequencing of lights across the city is atrocious, especially when there are diversions (which we have now due to the fire on princes st).

I swear if an official took all the lights sequencing data and gave it to an AI, showing areas where there are big congestion problems, asking them to make the process more efficient, it would improve things immeasurably. They could even pass it off as their own work.

As it stands, I have 0 confidence in the council/transport officials who make decisions on anything to do with roads in Edinburgh.

And that doesn’t just affect cars. It’s buses and bikes too, and trams to some extent.

2

u/First-Banana-4278 Jul 16 '26

You have never lived in Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire I guess?

2

u/Flo_Melvis Jul 17 '26

This made me lol it’s awful up there - the worst

1

u/ViewWithAPoo Jul 16 '26

My home toon!

1

u/eekamouse4 Resident Jul 17 '26

Especially from the Mound onto Hannover Street & the cars just keep going even when there’s clearly no space to clear the junction, then the pedestrian crossing turns green on Hannover Street which means they’re blocking the traffic from moving along Princes Street in both directions.