CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Broomhouse Path - how to access / exit at Stenhouse Drive end

(61 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by threefromleith
  • Latest reply from threefromleith

123

  1. Snowy
    Member

    Yup, the tactile strips are dreadful. For a few months I've been going over them on my skinny tyres and they actually felt reasonable...if it's dry, and as long as you hit them straight on and don't need to take avoiding action for a dog or be-headphoned pedestrian doing something daft. Because you're locked in.

    Then for the last couple of weeks I've been on my knobbly tyred MTB, and the strips have become a real nightmare. Knobbly tyres (I have Mountain King 2.2s) are badly prone to 'tracking' the rounded tactile ridges - it's not quite like the tramlining effect on skinnies, rather the knobblies seem to 'grab' the ridges and it makes the whole wheel swerve upexpectedly - and that's when I hit them straight on!

    The 'flattened' tactile strips seem to suffer from no such issues.

    Let's be very clear - someone is going to be badly hurt when these rounded strips cause them to lose control. This is not aesthetics. This is a safety issue here and now. I seriously hope that when the path is 'adopted' or whatever needs to happen, this is a high priority.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. threefromleith
    Member

    I really dread to think what they'll be like with a light coating of frost, or - worse still - ice. Will we be able to sue the council for damages if we've pre-warned them that these things are lethal for cyclists on a cyclepath?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. Tulyar
    Member

    The correct design for tactile strips to be used on cycle paths is defined in downloadable DfT guidance on all types of tactile paving.

    It is a flat topped pad 30mm wide with a 6mm step above the rest of the surface, and a 70mm gap between each pad. This design was arrived at approx 20 years ago through testing at TRL for DETR (CLT3) with key names Gordon Harland (TRL) and Fred Offen (DETR) but to dat - after at least 5 years of asking through various avenues the papers/research documentation cannot be found.

    Not time to load the extract for CCE but someone can look it up and post it please.

    The new Connect 2 route in Glasgow still has the wrong type of tactile paving as well. It shows a poor regime somewhere in the process, of design (not being properly precise about the specification of tactile paving), and supervision of the contract (that is when the design specifies the standard to be used, but the contractor still uses the wrong materials)

    In Devon a few years ago a cycle crash on tactile paving saw a very expensive programme of replacement over a substantial number of sites.

    Any pictures folks of the locations and units used? Any claims will be better supported if the faulty locations are positively recorded with CEC and TRAM with dates and times, perhaps as a public record of the notification by posting each location with datestamp/scaling.

    Scaling-wise use coins or other items with known regular dimensions can be referenced. eg 5mm thick = 2 x £2 coins.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Spotted 2 workmen sawing up some of the kerbstones yesterday.

    A dropped kerb has now appeared at the east end, alongside the filter lane up to the ASL.

    No use for anyone going westbound.

    Not really the best solution for anyone going eastbound.

    I guess they'll say "we've done something" now.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. BenN
    Member

    Looks like the dropped kerb has been installed just west of the lights at Stenhouse Drive / Saughton Mains Street, such that it leads directly into the ASL filter lane.

    I am really uncomfortable with this, as the right lane is a right turn only, cars tend to whiz through this junction to beat the lights a foot from the kerb - there is simply no space here for bikes to join the carriageway unless traffic is at a standstill.

    All moot soon anyway hopefully when the new cyclepath opens next to the tram. It was actually open at the Broomhouse end the other day, so I wizzed down it all the way to Balgreen Road, only to find the barriers still up. The workies looked on as I cycled nonchalently through the construction site, advising them that they should probably close the other end - their response? Not their responsibility. As a review, the path is smooth, straight and (probably too) fast. Look forward to seeing it when it is well trafficed, rather than just me!

    Edit - looks like Kaputnik beat me to it!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    "not officially opened"

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. Nelly
    Member

    Anyone (threefromleith?) Know if the crossing just east of edin park station is done yet? They had laid most of the rubber by Wednesday, but I was off sick Thur and not up to cycling today.

    It actually looks a good surface, not just some bodged up cement.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. shuggiet
    Member

    @Nelly Crossing not open yet when I passed this afternoon. Just looks like the rubber there still.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. threefromleith
    Member

    Was off on holiday last week and don't cycle in on a Monday - I'll find out tomorrow morning!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Cones were still there this morning. I think.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. threefromleith
    Member

    Cycle crossing east of Ed Park station is still not finished - it was blocked off this morning by a track-laying machine parked on it.

    The drop-kerb at the west end of the path was coned-off last night and looks only partially-finished.

    On the plus side, the red-light cameras at the Broomhouse Drive junction are active again. A blatant piece of RLJ-ing by a driver this morning resulted in a flashing worthy of a drunken celeb falling out of a nightclub in front of the assembled paparazzi :-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. Coxy
    Member

    Hooray for red-light cameras!!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Good news on the cameras. Is that for the left turns out of South Gyle Access? Because the "temporary" crossing is so far back from the lights, it's just too tempting for vehicles to go through on red.

    When they re-instated the bus lane it took about 2 weeks for cars to stop using it, I think there must have been some enforcement as it is now rather religiously avoided.

    Noticed a lot of traffic monitoring cameras on tall, extendable poles around South Gyle Crescent, Access and Broomhouse Drive last week, assume they were trying to work out some new sequences to "reduce pollution" by improving and increasing traffic flow at the expense of pedestrians and cycles. Now I have my headcam I can finally work out just how much time I waste on the Broomhouse Path waiting to cross roads where all priority given to 4 wheels.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. Dave
    Member

    Doesn't the Broomhouse path run alongside the tram?

    So surely it passes over all the busy roads on bridges built at almost zero extra cost when the tram infrastructure was being put in place?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. Uberuce
    Member

    *with some regret, shakes Dave to wake him from what appeared to be a pleasant dream*

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Admittedly they built 1 of the 3 bridges for this section with a cycle / pedestrian lane on it. Unfortunately they built that one alongside an existing cycle / pedestrian bridge!

    Two of the bridges were pre-existing from "Fastlink" guided bus days. I've thought about them as I pass each day and there's probably just not enough room to fit a cycle / foot path on the existing bridges - however one of them I'm sure it could be done quite easily with plenty clearance. But a big opportunity was missed when the remaining 2 bridges were built at South Gyle Access and Edinburgh Park and It's not outwith the bounds of possibility to cantilever something out from the bridges.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. wingpig
    Member

    I'm sure they'll never do anything like that, if only to prevent tram-passenger-bemusement being caused by seeing cyclists racing trams from Balgreen to Gogar out of the tram window.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I'm sure they'll never do anything like that, if only to prevent tram-passenger-bemusement being caused by seeing cyclists racing trams from Balgreen to Gogar out of the tram window.

    York Place to Airport, 33 minutes. I'm sure a bike can do that even without a nearly complete segregated route and traffic light prioritisation that the tram gets.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. Uberuce
    Member

    There's a Strava segment along the route called 'faster than a tram between Stenhouse[I think] and Broomhouse?'

    Posted 11 years ago #

  20. steveo
    Member

    I'm sure a bike can do that

    Google reckons 45 mins at ~11mph.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  21. threefromleith
    Member

    Good news on the cameras. Is that for the left turns out of South Gyle Access? Because the "temporary" crossing is so far back from the lights, it's just too tempting for vehicles to go through on red.

    Unfortunately not - it's the crossroads (near the first tram bridge over the road as you head west towards the Gyle).

    Agree with a need for something at the Macro bridge - not only are they driving past the lights and across the ped crossing to get to the old stop line (which no longer exists), some are going through the reds and continuing past the missing old stop line and never stopping at all. It's as if a red light doesn't apply to them..... But that can't be true as we all know it's only cyclists who RLJ ;-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. threefromleith
    Member

    Drop-kerb at the Stenhouse end has been finished, and there's a sprayed outline on the road which looks like it might be the site for a little island to divert cars away from the pavement and shelter us from behind as we join the cycle lane on the road. On second thoughts, it could just be marking the potholes that need filled right beside it. Protecting cyclists would be just TOO thoughtful of them.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    "Drop-kerb at the Stenhouse end has been finished"


    Start of "Broomhouse Path"


    Emd of "Broomhouse Path"

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. Nelly
    Member

    Chdot, the crossing 2 lampposts down in your 2nd photo - thats the only 'safe' place to access the path going west imo - pity it is technically 50 yards short of the cycle path at that point!

    Still not convinced about the drop kerb, too many cars racing for the lights for my liking, prefer to use the ped crossing when the lights go red for the main rd.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Meanwhile, in Dublin, this simple and achievable solution was used to issue of getting cyclists off a cycle path and onto a road at a junction...

    Posted 11 years ago #

  26. AKen
    Member

    Watch for cars turning left without looking though! (If you're cycling along Swords Rd in Dublin, that is.)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Simple picture demonstration of why it will never work. If you were to queue up at the dropped kerb waiting to enter the red filter lane once the bus had vacated it, what's the bets any of the traffic would let you in? Or would you have to wait "your turn".

    Nobody is going to use something like that when 20-or-so metres further on there's a much better, if more makeshift, solution.

    Somewhat amusingly, the coach had gone down the bus lane at previous junction, thereby "undertaking" all the queuing traffic. It arrived just as the lights changed and as the traffic to the right moved off. The private hire cab that found itself being edged out by the coach ended up doing a screech-to-a-halt stop (tyre skid sound and horn caught on camera) as the lanes got just a bit too narrow for both of them. Coach probably in the wrong, but cab should have read its nicewaycode and not tried to mix it up with a bigger, heavier vehicle.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  28. dg145
    Member

    I dropped onto the road at this new access point this morning, I think much to the surprise of the cars already waiting there at the red light.

    They had, however, probably inadvertently, left the short new cycle lane vacant enough for me to join the road.

    There have been other times - particularly when the traffic has been moving - that I've opted not to join the road there, but instead carried on (illegally?) to the next crossing point (as Nelly mentions above).

    It's another one of these clumsy solutions.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  29. dg145
    Member

    On a similar subject - and you can tell me if I'm doing something very bad here - in the morning, heading in to work, I join the Broomhouse Path at the junction with South Gyle Access. In order to get there I hop off the road and onto the (not shared use)pavement on SG Access at the dropped kerb about half-way down the road (after the bus shelter).

    I do this because the only other point of access would be to do a sharp left turn off the road at the pedestrian crossing at the junction of SG Access and Bankhead Drive. I judge this to be a bit dodgy because I'll either have a bus hammering down behind me if the lights are green, or be turning into cyclists and pedestrians waiting to cross.

    I'm on the (non shared use, but wide and generally quiet) pavement for about 100m, and generally have no problem. However, this morning there was one jogger who passed me and was clearly mouthing something that I didn't quite catch but got the impression it wasn't a cheery 'good morning, fellow path traveller'.

    Now, I know I 'shouldn't' be on that short stretch of pavement but am I 'wrong' to be doing it?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  30. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @DG145 the honest answer is that there is actually no safe and fully "law compliant" way to get on and off the path from South Gyle Access, which is a strictly motor-vehicle only zone with regards to the planning. Path designers imagine that people only want to go from Edinburgh Park to Stenhouse and then find some way onto the road. You will note that there's also no easy/safe way on and off the path at any of the other road junctions.

    This. Is. Edinburgh.

    Posted 11 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

123

Reply »

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin