http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: ‘Residents want council to tarmac over cobbled streets because traffic noise’ en Sun, 31 May 2026 09:23:32 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355790 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 20:49:47 +0000 urchaidh 355790@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@the canuck - they tried that to some extent on Brighton Place in Portobello. There are 1.5m strips of flat top setts on either side of the carriageway. They're not too bad to cycle on, better than the setts for sure.</p> <p>Have only tried cycling on them Porty bound. The other side is always covered in parked cars. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355787 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 20:42:52 +0000 the canuck 355787@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Cobbled streets do my nerves in. On the bike in the rain or cold, I'm convinced I'll skid out.<br /> In the dry I'm convinced my tire will get caught in a gap and I'll be thrown off.<br /> Vehicles sound much louder, so I'm convinced everyone is speeding.</p> <p>They look gorgeous. Maybe we could get paved cycle lanes for 1.5m on each side? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355786 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 19:06:06 +0000 crowriver 355786@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Rob, indeed the rise of the urban SUV is part of the arms race against traffic calming measures - mostly speed bumps but also poorly laid setts.</p> <p>I certainly notice a fair few drivers (of SUVs or ordinary cars) on setted streets trying their best to get above 30mph - and when they do try and push it, it is of course much louder than if they just went with the flow. On the plus side, you can hear them coming from afar so any evasive action can be well planned. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355785 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 18:16:30 +0000 gembo 355785@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>They flee from me that sometimes did me seek<br /> With naked foot stalking in my chamber<br /> I have seen them gentle tame and meek<br /> That now are wild and do not remember<br /> That sometime they put themself in danger<br /> To take bread at my hand and now they range<br /> Busily seeking with a continual change</p> <p>Thanked be for time it hath been otherwise<br /> Twenty times better but once in special<br /> In thin array after a pleasant guise<br /> When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall<br /> And she caught me in her arms long and small<br /> There with all sweetly did we kiss<br /> And softly said Dear heart how like you this?</p> <p>It was no dream I lay broad waking<br /> But all is turned through my gentleness<br /> Into a strange fashion of forsaking<br /> And I have leave to go of her goodness<br /> And she also to use newfangledness<br /> But since that I am so kindly served<br /> I would rain know what she hath deserved</p> <p>Thomas Wyatt 1535 </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355783 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 17:58:56 +0000 gembo 355783@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>They love pave in northern France </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355782 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 17:48:23 +0000 Yodhrin 355782@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Perhaps that's why you're surprised? Us "newfangled" types seem a lot more likely to be riding an upright utility bike on an errand than fantasising about racing on the sort of bike you stand up and glide with. </p> <p>I'd say there's a reason they stick with tarmac in the Netherlands unless it's a "shared space", where they use flat-laid brick. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355781 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 17:31:52 +0000 gembo 355781@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@531 lot of love for cobbles on here, this newfangled dislike is a surprise though you do need to stand up on the pedals and glide over them for sure. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355780 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 17:05:15 +0000 Rob 355780@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Increase in SUVs may be limiting the speed reduction and increasing the noise. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355779 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 16:59:34 +0000 531 355779@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'd wager that cobbled streets easily keep speeds down to around 20 mph. I don't think the little round signs with numbers on them do nearly as good a job. I know I am an outlier but I for one love the cobbles, especially in the rain, as on my steel bike I can I imagine myself racing Paris Roubaix in the glorious days of Mercxx. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355768 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 12:17:27 +0000 gembo 355768@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The book in my head set in Lisbon (Estrella Breaks) involves everyone in Lisbon breaking legs, a crutch shop and lot of ex colonial laborers banging rhomboid shaped cobble stones into pavements which in the rain become very slippery, </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355767 Sat, 16 Oct 2021 11:55:22 +0000 Rosie 355767@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>As someone from a cobbleless society I used to find cobbles/setts quaint and picturesque. Now I hate the dangerous, slippy, tooth-loosening things and would dig every one out with my own hands.</p> <p>I know they can be cut and laid properly so they are smooth but I can't see that kind of work being carried out, and it would be very expensive. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355759 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 22:29:37 +0000 edinburgh87 355759@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@yodhrin - no skin in the game now but when I lived in Stockbridge I’d have been inclined to agree with you! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355754 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 19:55:22 +0000 crowriver 355754@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"why now?"</p> <p>WFH; socials in gardens instead of bars, cafes; having a lie-in instead of commuting.<br /> In other words the complainants are actually home for a change and have noticed the setts are a bit noisy when driven on.</p> <p>Probably/possibly. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355749 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 17:29:36 +0000 gembo 355749@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@yodhrin, why now?</p> <p>Vast swathes of comelybank are cobbled and no one has kicked off?</p> <p>Just seems odd to me that this is being raised now </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355730 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 13:31:33 +0000 Yodhrin 355730@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Look I'm as much a supporter of the War on Cars as anyone, but "old" and "superior" are not synonyms. Cobbles look nice, but even done properly I don't expect they stand up to big heavy vehicles even as well as tarmac. Even in the best case scenario for removing traffic there's still going to be residential access, delivery vehicles, taxis, buses too in many places, and they're only going to get heavier when they go electric. That means frequent repairs, and if you have to do something expensive frequently enough attempts to cut costs are inevitable, and so we get cobbles not done properly which makes them even worse.</p> <p>I'm a heavy sleeper, but back in the flatsharing student days I lived with folk/had folk round who'd get woken up in the night by cobble noise, even when cars weren't speeding.</p> <p>By all means pedestrianise the city centre and make it look all picture-postcardy, but outside of that I don't see any specific value in preserving cobbled roads just for the sake of it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355729 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 13:12:34 +0000 gembo 355729@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Comeleybank has a big amount of cobble and has done for centuries. Why not keep the cobbles and remove the traffic? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355723 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 12:22:10 +0000 Tulyar 355723@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>We might actually repair setted streets properly to the original specifications when these are dug up by utility contractors</p> <p>Prior to the 'restoration'(sic) of Cockburn Street it had some excellent smooth, flat top setts laid in a really tight bond on a stable base. The replacements had uneven coarse top surfaces &amp; are crap to ride over compared to the original</p> <p>Far too often the 'cod heritage' delivery is loose laid causey stones, with the gaps filled by brushing in dry mix mortar, which then falls out, along with the stones </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355717 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:38:07 +0000 Yodhrin 355717@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Can we tarmac over the cobbled streets in Leith for the sake of my poor bum? The route through from the path by the water to the links is so bad I'm afraid it'll damage the bike. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20760#post-355715 Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:15:28 +0000 chdot 355715@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“ </p> <p>Residents in a conservation area in an expensive part of Edinburgh want the council to tarmac over their cobbled streets because they say speeding traffic is causing too much noise. </p> <p>“</p> <p><a href="https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/residents-in-edinburghs-comely-bank-conservation-area-want-council-to-tarmac-over-cobbled-streets-because-traffic-causes-too-much-noise-3419841" rel="nofollow">https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/residents-in-edinburghs-comely-bank-conservation-area-want-council-to-tarmac-over-cobbled-streets-because-traffic-causes-too-much-noise-3419841</a></p> <p>Yes well but </p>