http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Tag: Princes Street - Recent Posts en Wed, 13 May 2026 01:53:47 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366956 Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:17:40 +0000 the canuck 366956@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"but the lights do work and nobody seems bothered if, as I did for a long time, you assume the lights aren't working and just creep through into a gap anyway."</p> <p>I tend to behave as if I'd stopped/parked a car there, what would I do next? Ah yes, wait for a safe gap and pull a Uey to go East on Princes. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366863 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:53:29 +0000 pringlis 366863@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Yeah, I'd say it's fine - just pointing out the sign so that it's not a surprise on arrival. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366862 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:38:13 +0000 gembo 366862@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Yeah vaults, but on new street is maybe side door to them?</p> <p>Waverley very rough occupancy rate of building and also probably racks at front</p> <p>Monday 5-10%<br /> Tuesday 30-50%<br /> Wed 30-50%<br /> Thurs 30-50%<br /> Fri 0-5%</p> <p>Racks have 8 spaces?. Last thurs afternoon i took the last space in terms of not needing to share A rack e.g 4th actual space. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366861 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:28:09 +0000 Arellcat 366861@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>maybe spying an old east west tunnel?</em></p> <p>The old Waverley Vaults?</p> <p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/6kR93z"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/3657/3506384813_f7e93d31fd_z.jpg"></a></p> <p>There is a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1179/174581307X236184">good archaeological paper</a> from before the vaults were demolished, in part, when Waverley Court was due to be built. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366860 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:17:28 +0000 pringlis 366860@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The racks at Waverley Court have a sign up saying they're "for the benefit of visitors to Waverley Court". I doubt you'd be pulled up for using them, and apparently the building is half empty at the moment, but just so you know and can gauge how comfortable you feel about that.</p> <p>FWIW I used the racks at Edinburgh Castle this week while visiting Camera Obscura, which I imagine are meant to be for the benefit of people visiting the castle, but they're always empty and are the only decent racks around there! I figure using the racks supplied by public bodies is at least vaguely justifiable. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366858 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:47:57 +0000 jonty 366858@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I was going to ask if anyone had experience with it then realised I needn't bother! Thanks. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366857 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:26:54 +0000 gembo 366857@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@jonty there is cycle parking in New Street car park but ypu would really need to know where it was to find it. West side of the car park nearer the station, level -1 I recall. Easier to use the racks outside Waverley Court and walk east to new. St then down to The Ladder, admiring the weird neon art under the railway and maybe spying an old east west tunnel? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366856 Wed, 01 Mar 2023 11:28:38 +0000 jonty 366856@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Only in Edinburgh could we close a very central road to through traffic, giving an excellent way of accessing the very centre of the city by bike on a lower traffic route, and then make it so unwelcoming that cyclists avoid it.</p> <p>I certainly don't feel hugely welcome on a bike at the end of Waverley Bridge but the lights do work and nobody seems bothered if, as I did for a long time, you assume the lights aren't working and just creep through into a gap anyway.</p> <p>I think layout is still as here - <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/FwmgMA4qaMhNHSvE8" rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/maps/FwmgMA4qaMhNHSvE8</a> - wouldn't want to promise you could get through the concrete blocks but I think the gaps are wider than they look.</p> <p>I don't tend to use Waverley Bridge now - my classic North Bridge bypass is accessing the Royal Mile by turning right off South Bridge or St Mary's St then left down New Street (taking care that you have not acquired an invisibility cloak when leaving the cycle contraflow section), left along Calton Road and left up Leith Street. You'd then be able to use the cycle exception to turn left on to Regents Road. There are permanent temporary traffic lights on Calton Road and slow lights when accessing Leith Street. </p> <p>More boutique options include tackling the Roubaixesque climb up the street called Calton Hill to take you direct from Calton Road to St Andrews House, or using the cycle parking which I've just noticed allegedly exists in New Street Car Park and walking up Jacob's Ladder. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366851 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:51:24 +0000 gembo 366851@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A torpedo is an enormous recumbent in red <strike>Fibre glass</strike> carbon fibre, it don’t do pavements alas. Under @arellcat power many think it has an engine but it does not. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366849 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:17:03 +0000 the canuck 366849@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>barriers at the High St--the ones on the street are a bit more narrow than is useful (I don't know what a Torpedo looks like and Google Images isn't happening), but I've often just gone up on the pavement to go around them--carefully obviously, because there are often tourists staring at the sky.</p> <p>I've turned right from Waverley Bridge on to Princes St, the lights go red and there's usually a massive gap. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366842 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:51:59 +0000 gembo 366842@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>They were putting what looked like further chicanes on the road past Waverley,I’m do go through them to turn left heading north and right from Princes St. heading south but not the other ways.</p> <p>Agree with Morningsider could overshoot then turn right from George st onto west side of St Andrews Sq and head down to Princes St. but then you know all that. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366841 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:37:13 +0000 Morningsider 366841@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>How about: Mound-Hanover Street-George Street-St Andrew Square-West Register Street-Princes Street-Waterloo Place?</p> <p>Slightly round the houses - but not too much additional height loss/gain. Not sure how the torpedo would handle the cobbles on West Register Street. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366839 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:26:09 +0000 chdot 366839@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Waverley Bridge to P St legit</p> <p>Signs out of date </p> <p>Ground signs for ‘cycle lane’ seem to have disappeared </p> <p>Lights work still </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=21260#post-366837 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:05:28 +0000 Arellcat 366837@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I have a meeting in the Scot Gov's St Andrew's House in the next few days, and I'm actually annoyingly confused how to get there from the south!</p> <p>I can't go down North Bridge, obviously.</p> <p>I don't know if the torpedo will fit through the barriers at the High St to get to Cockburn St to reach Waverley Bridge.</p> <p>I could go down Market St for Waverley Bridge, but don't know if I can turn right onto PS because that exit also has barriers, and I don't even know if the traffic lights are working.</p> <p>I don't really want to go down Queen's Drive, because that loses me too much height and means I have to crawl up Abbeymount and Regent Road. The torpedo is not a mountain goat.</p> <p>I can't turn right onto PS at the foot of The Mound.<br /> cycle.travel actually suggested I turn right using the pedestrian crossing. I mean, really?</p> <p>Lothian Road seems to be the only option remaining, and that means dicing with a million buses and taxis, and a tram or two, plus navigating the hellscape of the east end. Charlotte Square to George St is bad enough in rush hour and would leave me with the equally bad South St David St to reach the PS left turn.</p> <p>Frankly I can't be bothered when it takes so much planning to go half a mile. Maybe I should just ride my motorbike and be done with it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94533 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:18:13 +0000 cc 94533@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Arellcat I'd go down from PY to the Meadows then head along North Meadow Walk towards Gilmore Place and then straight to Sighthill on the canal towpath.</p> <p>I agree about Princes St. With the incompetent botch of the Princes St tram lines wrt cycling we seem to be travelling further away from Jan Gehl's vision of a pleasant Edinburgh rather than towards it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94532 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:14:53 +0000 Baldcyclist 94532@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"<br /> I suppose hardened petrolheads would see it differently. "That's the way it should be," they might say. "Parking in front of the shop, rather than walking from miles away."<br /> "</p> <p>It may indeed be horrible, but it appears to be what people want to do. How many High streets (Princes St included) up and down the country have been destroyed by out of town retail parks which offer parking a plenty? Drive up, fill up the car with groceries/clothes/toys/whatever, drive home. All done in a couple of hours, must admit I like the convenience of that sometimes too.</p> <p>The city may be a nicer place devoid of cars, but it is not a better shopping experience, and that must have some effect on the 'niceness' of a place too, unless of course charity shops, cash generator, and kilt shops are your bag. &lt;\ Devils Advocate&gt; </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94531 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:47:28 +0000 crowriver 94531@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I suppose hardened petrolheads would see it differently. "That's the way it should be," they might say. "Parking in front of the shop, rather than walking from miles away." </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94528 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:26:35 +0000 chdot 94528@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixtiesedinburgh/8103735874/sizes/m/in/photostream"></p> <p><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8051/8103735874_acf882665f.jpg"></a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94526 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:44:06 +0000 Arellcat 94526@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Speaking of Princes St, after today's PY visit and about to mosey on down the road to work, I thought about my route towards Sighthill and its environs.</p> <p>In the past I would have cycled up George IV Bridge, down The Mound, done an illegal left onto Princes St and hightailed it towards Haymarket, Dalry, Gorgie, Balgreen and out along the A71. Today I realised just how much I wanted to avoid Princes St.</p> <p>I just couldn't be <em>bothered</em> dealing with all the buses, the taxis, and not coming a cropper on the endless parallelism of wet tram rails. I couldn't be bothered with the risk of the stupid pinch points, the constant cycle of overtaking each other to be first to the next red light, the need to keep one eye on my mirror, one eye on the rails and one eye on the next vehicular obstacle.</p> <p>I might have stopped on Princes St to visit the shops to buy more Christmas cards, but I didn't. I wound my way through the old RIE to Lauriston, Fountainbridge, Slateford and Chesser, and then back onto the A71.</p> <p>If I visit Princes St again anytime soon it isn't going to be by bike. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94521 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:26:33 +0000 Min 94521@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That is really quite stomach churning. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94476 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:21:10 +0000 cb 94476@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The other day when clearing out some old stuff I stumbled across some old Lothian Region Transport consultation notes* for the 1987 (I think) proposal to widen the pavements on part of Princes Street.</p> <p>It was a bit incomplete but the consultation feedback from residents/businesses etc were interesting.</p> <p> - Lots of people (presumably Spokes members) suggesting that the road should pretty much be replaced with bike lanes. (Response: no chance!)</p> <p> - Quite a few folk suggesting that the pavement work should be postponed until the City Bypass was completed as that would solve all the city centre transport woes (chortle).</p> <p> - A couple of Clubs/Associations representing car owners responded in a remarkably Mr Toad-esque manner. (I think they, or at least one of them would be more measured these days).</p> <p> - The best was from the George St traders assoc (or something like that), who were desperatly worried about the impact on parking on George St which was already woefully inadequate!</p> <p>Something else interesting was discovering that there were no Ped Crossings on Castle/Fredrick/Hanover Sts on the Rose Street axis.</p> <p>*This sort of stuff was the scrap paper of my youth. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94463 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:39:11 +0000 wee folding bike 94463@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Two tone Cambridge/Oxford beside it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94461 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:26:05 +0000 cc 94461@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I see what you mean. But at the same time I'm getting misty-eyed seeing cars from my very early boyhood! This Ford Classic is the very first model of car I remember - we used to have one when I was tiny:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixtiesedinburgh/6932834035/in/set-72157629360808506" rel="nofollow">https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixtiesedinburgh/6932834035/in/set-72157629360808506</a></p> <p>When my Dad took delivery of it he discovered that they'd forgotten to bolt the engine into the engine bay. Dagenham quality that was, don't get them like that any more. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9115#post-94453 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:58:29 +0000 kaputnik 94453@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>If you've a spare 5-10 mins, worth flicking though <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixtiesedinburgh/sets/72157629360808506/with/6786889498/">this photo set</a> on Flick of Princes Street in the late 1960s / early 1970s, which show in great detail just what a car drivers "utopia" it was with no traffic calming measures and on-street parking.</p> <p>Horrible! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=6#post-54665 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:44:56 +0000 steveo 54665@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I think its the hills being south. To me hills are north of here! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=6#post-54644 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:47:02 +0000 cb 54644@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"I'm always making that north/south error in Edinburgh. I think it's something to do with the map-derived assumption that "up = north", so moving uphill from the coast feels like heading north. "</p> <p>I'm with you on that. I've always struggled with north and south in Edinburgh and I'm sure it's hill related too! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=6#post-54640 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:41:00 +0000 kaputnik 54640@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@laidback </p> <p>funnily enough was walking through Bristo Square at the weekend and we watched the skateboarding and BMXing yoofs practicing their stuff. We both agreed that it was far better that they were out doing that rather than sitting at home on Xbox or hanging around in bus shelters or Primarks. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=6#post-54638 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:38:07 +0000 SRD 54638@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>PS - ever been to Egypt? I always get this backward when talking about 'up the nile'. to a northerner, it feels like it ought to be north, but of course it is south, and the delta/med is north.... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=5#post-54637 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:37:42 +0000 LaidBack 54637@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>Further thought on the 'Cyclists Dismount' sign original topic.<br /> </em><br /> <strong>'No skateboarding'</strong> signs appear when enough people skateboard in a location.</p> <p>A 'Cyclist dismount' sign is a sure indication that there are enough cyclists using the street to need a discouragement. All in all a healthy sign reflecting increasing cycle numbers!</p> <p>More helpful would be a sign encouraging cycling (with care). Princes St must rate as several times safer than George St - only pedestrians and workers + vehicles with warning lights. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=4242&page=5#post-54636 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:36:13 +0000 PS 54636@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'm always making that north/south error in Edinburgh. I think it's something to do with the map-derived assumption that "up = north", so moving uphill from the coast feels like heading north. That, or I'm just plain dumb. </p>