Readers' letters: Sheriffhall flyover will only shift bottleneck problem

" The roundabouts at either end of the bypass will become even greater bottlenecks”

Flyover will only shift bottleneck problem

With reference to your recent article relating to the Edinburgh City Bypass Sheriffhall roundabout project (News, August 12).

It does not take a genius to work out that if you have a bottleneck problem in the middle of a 12-mile section of road and attempt to solve it without addressing the potential effect at either end, you will simply be moving the problem somewhere else.

The proposal appears to be to create a flyover at Sheriffhall, which in isolation is a great idea but unless the traffic can freely enter both the M8 in the west and the A1 southbound in the east you will simply have major and worse bottlenecks at either end.

The current roundabouts at either end of the bypass will become even greater bottlenecks than they are currently.

For example, by late afternoon every day now, despite the delays at Sherriffhall, the traffic is crawling from around Hillend westbound towards Hermiston Gate by midafternoon and therefore it’s obvious if you remove the bottleneck in the middle you have to have a solution for either end.

However, I am sure Leslie Macinnes and Edinburgh City Council will have this matter well in hand, but I am not holding my breath given their track record to date - Spaces for People, trams etc. This is another disaster in the making I fear.

Eric Anderson, Duddingston Edinburgh.

I wish to self-identify as a young pensioner

The Scottish government seems to be prepared to accept self-identification regarding sex, so I hope they will also accept self-identification regarding age.

For too long people have been trapped in the binary distinction between young and old. Why should the accident of birth which is recorded as the date stamped on one's birth certificate become a prison which closes people off from the age they would like to be and with which they identify? Surely people should be free to choose their own age, rather than have others take that crucial decision for them?

A person whose registered birth makes them 15 is not making a frivolous choice if they decide to be 75. Clearly that person finds life as a 15-year-old simply intolerable and the best way to help them is to allow them to become 75 immediately, rather than have to wait for six decades. An ex-15-year-old will be in better physical condition than the average 75-year-old and so they will be able to make better use of their retirement and their pension.

No doubt a period of transition will be required as society adjusts to the consequences of self-identification. It is possible that more people will choose to be older and retire, rather than younger and have to work for a living. That is only to be expected.

In the meantime, however, we should all be cautious and refrain from burning our birth certificates until we have definite instructions from the Scottish government.

Les Reid, Morton Street, Edinburgh.

Open travel still offers Covid threat

Today's figures show another 1500 covid cases in Scotland at a 7.4 per cent rate, which is far above the 5 per cent rate the WHO say is a pandemic.

Yet, football stadiums are full with 50,000 people every Saturday and Wednesday and pubs and nightclubs are packed.

At the same time four health boards have cancelled all routine operations. Surely the Scottish government have to cancel their plans to allow people to fly to Scotland from Europe without quarantine to stop further outbreaks.

David Watson, Leith.