CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

6mph on Canal

(69 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by Kenny
  • Latest reply from Greenroofer
  • This topic is not resolved

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  1. gembo
    Member

    The canal signs all get ignored. Occasional jolly barge an or water bailiff may give an opinion but won't do anything. The speed limit ones however on suburban streets could come with added polis to enforce

    Posted 9 years ago #
  2. Dave
    Member

    I'm not sure what any of you mean by "enforceable". It seem to be used as meaning the same as "active enforced" whereas what it means is that if it were to be policed it could be enforced by some kind of sanction.

    To me, an enforceable sign is one which has some basis in criminal law, i.e. you could be prosecuted if you contravene it.

    We have signs in our office toilets about washing our hands. These are not enforceable (which is not to make any comment on how advisable it is to avoid poisoning yourself by not washing your hands).

    In contrast a red circle 20mph sign is enforceable. It's not relevant that the police choose not to enforce it in practice.

    As far as I'm aware, even if the canal were actually a road, the speed limit signs themselves are non-enforceable simply because they don't comply with the mandatory regulations for the size, location, and frequency of signage. They don't need to, since the landowners are free to put up whatever they like on their own land, and more luck to them.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  3. Greenroofer
    Member

    @Dave. This is presumably why the signs at each end of the Slateford aqueduct are not red circles with bikes in, but instead are blue rectangles with some text. The signs they replaced even used to say 'please dismount', but they've got a bit sterner with the recent upgrade.

    I had a discussion with another cyclist on the aqueduct a month or two back. He said 'but there's a sign, so you should dismount. If it said 10,000V you wouldn't touch it'. I didn't have the heart to point out that if he obeyed every optional sign he saw, he'd be continually eating, drinking and buying things and going to places that he didn't want to...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  4. LaidBack
    Member

    Here's a sign I found. I was looking for the old red circle sign but it's here.

    If you joined canal along the way you wouldn't see this.


    NCN 75 Canal Advice by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr

    Plus the cut through is back at Gibson Terrace.

    NCN 75 Canal to Gibson Terrace by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr

    Posted 9 years ago #
  5. Dave
    Member

    I had a discussion with another cyclist on the aqueduct a month or two back. He said 'but there's a sign, so you should dismount. If it said 10,000V you wouldn't touch it'. I didn't have the heart to point out that if he obeyed every optional sign he saw, he'd be continually eating, drinking and buying things and going to places that he didn't want to...

    Fast forward to my inevitable dotage, and while I'm slipping away on my death bed thinking deep thoughts, there's absolutely no way I'll be wishing I'd paid more attention to every strident little sign that ever there was.

    In fact, if I find myself on my death bed and I never once fell in the canal and had a great laugh with the footage afterwards, I will be sorely disappointed.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  6. neddie
    Member

    I love how that new temporary path dumps peds (& cyclists) out in the middle of the chicane.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  7. Chug
    Member

    I love how that new temporary path dumps peds (& cyclists) out in the middle of the chicane.

    it's the way the half-open chicane forces you against the wall and even at walking pace you can get a nasty surprise if someone steps out (as do they).

    Posted 9 years ago #
  8. chdot
    Admin

    One of the chicane gates seems to be 'open'

    Would make sense if the other was too.

    At least the path has been surfaced. Is it flags/slabs?

    If so hope they are properly laid.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  9. Greenroofer
    Member

    @Laidback - that sign is frankly ridiculous. A cyclist following it to the letter would be better walking: it's a direct contradiction of the NCN sign below it and the John Muir sign beside it because there's no way that sign could seriously be used on something that's meant to be a cyclepath.

    If cyclists coming in opposite directions meet, do they have to give way to each other? How does that work?

    It's also in the previous style of British Waterways signs: the newer Scottish Canals ones are in a different font and layout. Maybe it's just been forgotten...

    Posted 9 years ago #

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