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. @lmacinnessnp @SJWebber_PHW @melaniemain @adamrmcvey A thread attempting to debunk the claim that the removal of street parking to create safer Covid-19 spaces for people is destroying the ecomomy of Morningside.
This claim bothered me so much, that today I schlepped along the entire length of road between Holy Corner and Morningside Station to do some maths. So what did I find? Well, there are 147 places where you can buy pretty much anything from baths to books. That's quite an ecomomy.
So how many street car parking spaces have been removed? Well I counted them for you and it's 28. Interestingly, there are only five spaces removed the entire east side of the road. Loading and disabled spaces are untouched. That doesn't mean much with some more analysis....
Let's assume that each car space is used productively during an eight hour shopping period and that each visit is an hour. So that's 224 visits by car that aren't now happening. So what does that mean? Well, let's say each visit results in a spend of £50 (seems reasonable?)
By my maths, that's £11,200 lost in income. But wait, let's assume that spend is spread out evenly across all shops. That's £76 per shop. It won't be an even spread, but it works right? If you park on the street, you have to carry what you buy back to the car.
I know this doesn't allow for high-value purchases or accounts for the supermarkets, but I'm building a simple model, so I think that's OK.
So that takes us back to the main argument, which seems to be that the entire economy of Morningside depends on an average spend per day of £76 per shop from these 28 spaces. Now I know the loss of £76 might be a big deal to some shops, but not all.
But really, what this says to me is that it's disingenuous hyperbole to blame the removal of 28 car spaces on the decline of the Morningside economy. Morningside has bigger challenges - the direct impact of Covid-19, rents, consumer habits and the economic headwinds generally.
To suggest that giving people a safer space to spend their money is contributing to the decline of the economy is perverse. Like all congested city centre shopping spaces, Morningside will need to adapt to leverage the way city spaces will change over time.
