Time for an outing, and a return to flat-pack world, aka IKEA. Today’s mission: to secure thin shelves and cupboards for our bathroom, so we can order a mirror for the remaining space, and allow O to finish things off.
For those without a car, trips to IKEA take on…well, certainly not mythical status, but there’s a certain amount of planning that goes on. Today’s version was also to work out what we could feasibly carry back on the bus and still come out with enough items to make the trip worthwhile.
What struck me was just how tricky these big retail parks make things for pedestrians. We started off in an electricals shop nearby to suss out some kitchen appliances.
To make our way across from that to IKEA involved cutting across corporatised planting at the edge of one scheme, heading up a slope, and trying to avoid the cars boiling out of the IKEA carpark in order to get across that to the front door…
Mind you, this seemed easier than the pedestrian crush on Princes Street, where a certain section of scaffolding was resulting in people having to go off pavement, and into the bus lane…
I understand that out of town shopping expects you to have a car. I am properly grateful for any bus stops located near these areas. But at least big supermarkets have pedestrian walkways, or equivalent, in order to cross their car parks.
Lest I suggest that having four wheels makes it easier to buy more than you need, I too rely on others with cars when we have need of a bigger load from furniture places and the like. I twist arms here and there to have things collected from our place that we can’t get to the tip on our own. I respond well to the local council collecting recycling from my door step. And so on.
Thing is, so much of the UK is set up for having your own transport. While we bemoan traffic getting heavier in Edinburgh, I don’t see much sign of areas out of town being encouraged to work without cars.
I read in the paper yesterday of a new development in the middle of Edinburgh, which was trying to make it mandatory for tenants to do without cars. One of the immediate responses was to be concerned about car owners in neighbouring streets being squeezed out by newcomers agreeing to the ruling but then sneakily a) owning a car after all and b) parking on the side streets.
Nothing like community spirit eh?