I visited Edinburgh very recently, and was yet again struck by how pretty the city is – and how drivable. Most old British towns and cities tend to be quite easily clogged up with traffic, but despite its grand old age and its largely Georgian layout, Edinburgh seems to have side stepped the kind of congestion that brings some other places to a halt.
That’s not to say that rush hour isn’t a challenge, but it appears that Edinburgh town planners in the 1700s had some notion that one day, the capital city would need plenty of road capacity.
It was in fact a young man of just 22 years called James Craig who helped shape the Edinburgh we see today. James won a competition to design the New Town in 1766 and he delivered an ordered, rigid layout that was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and notions of rationality. Fortunately for the people who live (and drive) around Edinburgh these days, and for visitors such as myself, the overall look of the New Town is largely unchanged, with the principle street of George Street following the natural ridge north of the Old Town and Princes Street and Queen Street on either side of it.
There were no such things as hatch backs or saloons or annual breakdown cover way back in 1766, but James Craig seemed to have foreseen time when inner cities would be crying out for vehicle space. So if you’re ever enjoying a road trip in the Edinburgh area, take a moment to thank Mr. Craig for all his street planning genius – shame it can’t be found in the rest of the country!