CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Cycled my normal route to and from work this morning. Had my spikes on but tbh not entirely sure they were needed. Had to walk up Wester Coates Terrace to get on the path, but other than that, the roads and the entire length of cycle path from Roseburn to Leith was clear enough.
Commute by bike back on tomz. Might even dispense with the spikes on Tuesday.
The delivery lorry has just been to balerno big scotmid. Pensioners fighting in the aisles over bread while Wee Jock is squashed under a convoy of SUVs from the big hooses.
Possibly! We haven't run out of turnips, luckily.
Are there any miniature ploughs out and about? Leith Walk road surface has been ploughed consistently but pavement and cycle paths ignored. Passage of feet has cleared some snow from the footpaths but most cyclists just using the snow-free road and so the cycle paths remain snow-choked.
Is this the story elsewhere? I was at Haymarket and Tollcross and Grassmarket yesterday and roads in consistently better condition than pavements. Thin strip of usable pavement separated from road by giant pits of snow and snow-melt.
It would be okay if there were no cars but the cars are back in force, forcing pedestrians back off the roads and into the untreated areas.
@dougal - one went along St John's Road about 11pm last night.
“It would be okay if there were no cars but the cars are back in force, forcing pedestrians back off the roads and into the untreated areas.”
I’m sure CEC is, quite reasonably, concentrating on roads on bus routes - but is there any clearance happening at/around bus stops?
Saw this on Facebook. Trigger warning - contains a "drive" reference.
No flour in Scotland!
When will we see,
Sliced breid again?
No Mother’s Pride for
Your wee bit piece and jam
No cheesy toasties
(fur who?)
Wur tartan army
Just pictures of empty shelves
Aye blink again!
Those days are past now
But icy blast, it may remain
But we might still drive (how?)
Tae get tae Asda again.
And stand in queues there
(Whit for?)
Wur milk, breid an whisky,
And carry them homewards
To drink again.
Valleyfield St was bad yesterday. Route to NMW.
Minor stooshie starting on Facebook as the wee scotmid here couldn't get its delivery of fresh stuff due to cars being left blocking delivery!
Was out this morning with other parents at Abbeyhill primary clearing snow from adjacent footways, playground, ramps and steps. Shout out to the jannie and teachers who pitched in. Hopefully that'll be the school open tomorrow.
Also cleared a bit more on our street and steps up to London Road as they are getting slippy.
Thaw has started in earnest today, despite the sleet/snow. Reckon this will all be gone from city streets in a couple of days.
I was also press ganged to the school playground clearing, there were so many parents turned up it took about half an hour so we got stuck into the pavement outside too.
Improvised sledges spotted on B Links:
- Oven trays
- Baking trays
- Skateboards minus wheels
- Plastic sheeting
- Fruit crates
- Random bits of wood
- Road signs
- Ikea buckets
Trans rights:
Yellow snow, hmmm....
That’s impressive blocks!
Cut from snowdrifts or artisan manufactured?
Morrison's in Moredun, where I've never seen the car park even 50% full, have cleared almost every single parking space, but haven't touched the footways.
I was in earlier too. Couldn't believe the state of the paths. My wellies were justified.
It was quite amusing checking the stock levels. Plenty of veg but no milk or pizza and very low on ready meals.
“
The question some are asking is can Scotland afford to shut down for three days because of snow? This may be a rare occurrence – perhaps once every nine or ten years. But it could also happen again next year.
A Red Alert no travel warning is an easy to understand solution for the public. But for businesses – which stand to lose vital revenue – this is too simplistic. A better balance needs to be struck to allow Scotland to keep moving. It’s not only the government’s responsibility to help keep us safe, but also to ensure the economy can function.
“
What are they proposing? An emergency fleet of hovercraft?
Perhaps businesses could purchase in advance inflatable hotels so staff would never need to go home...
i guess the question is, would it cost more to keep the economy running and have "on standby" all the people and equipmented needed to do that once every 'xx' years , or is it cheaper to push the cost onto the businesses who in turn push up prices to us, or just take the hit....
extract from bbc post about nordic countries.
"We have a city owned facility with a public company that has 1,400 people and they work all the year round in different functions keeping the city clean.
"During the summer time they do other things like keeping the parks in good shape and some of them in the winter time are responsible for cleaning the streets from the snow and from the ice."
makes for interesting reading
BBC link
"A Red Alert no travel warning is an easy to understand solution for the public."
Well...
If it was "do not go outside" it would be simple, but when they say "travel" to the populace as an whole I assume they mean "...by non-specifially-adapted motor vehicle or disruption-vulnerable public transport". Technically, as neither my road nor footway had been scraped or gritted, it was not 'safe' for me to leave the house on Thursday and Friday, but simple non-motorised devices like shoes and clothes can cope with that.
“i guess the question is, would it cost more to keep the economy running and ”
“every 'xx' years”
“nordic countries”
“but simple non-motorised devices like shoes and clothes can cope”
Well worth some public debate on all this.
The nature of Climate Change is such that the weather is now (as predicted) less predictable.
What to do and who pays are key questions.
It’s partly about ‘culture’. In Nordic countries people expect/get better services and get/expect(?) higher taxes. In the UK people/business want/expect lower taxes - or is that’s what most politicians and some newspapers have been telling them for years?
In a motor dependent age some people expect things to be the same 365 days a year and some them don’t have adequate attire to cope outside heated home/car/office.
agreed chdot on expectations,
speaking to various people on travels around europe and nordic countries, the nordic countries from what i can gather is they feel they pay for what they get - ie Regions/Councils/Government ask for 'xx' amount to pay for the actual services delivered.
where as here - certainly me anyway, feel nothing is paid into local services and instead its all a big council/government plot to rake in money for themselves then and give us back the absolute minimum to placate us into thinking everything is now "fixed".
just my humble opinion.
Given the lack of outdoor cycling for the last few days, today's commute was quite enjoyable. The main roads were fine. KB campus was a bit mixed (no doubt further work is being done now). The temperature almost seemed warm (at 2 degrees) despite the rain.
a very splishy sploshy ride in this morning, so much standing water on A701 from the thaw, really need to get a new rear mudguard on...
The "cost to the economy" of a few snow days is a load of nonsense because most people will simply defer their purchases / service utilisations.
So maybe business "lost" £200m over 3 days, but how much of that will it gain back over the next couple of weeks? Probably most, if not more.
What about the increased economy due to snow/ice damage repairs?
What about the cost to the economy of crashes, injuries and deaths by promoting "business as usual" during snow?
A90 Path - Not ride-able in some sections this morning (due to knee high drift sections). Am considering Dalmeny Estate as roads looked clear at the main east entrance to the Estate - has anyone ventured there i last day or so?
The towpath between Slateford Aqueduct and Boroughmuir High School is a mess of snow and slush, although there were some MTB tracks weaving back and forth across it. It isn't overly slippy to walk on but it is relatively slow going. Hopefully the next couple of mild days will improve it.
Restalrig railway path was very slushy today, almost impassable on a bike in places even with Snow Stud tyres. I was grateful of the tyres though as I'd have been pushing for most of the length otherwise. Worse downhill as front wheel is deflected by ridges of half melted slush from footprints or bike tyre tracks. Thawing pretty fast though, better just a couple of hours later though it is much easier uphill on the deep slush sections with panniers full of shopping to give rear tyre extra traction.
At this rate the path will be completely clear in a couple of days' time.
Oh Seafield Street has finally been given a long overdue resurfacing. The cratered potholed mess is gone, and it's now beautifully smooth to ride on.
Seafield shared use path is clear of snow and ice but strewn with debris, care needed. Porty Prom east of there also strewn with debris, mostly seaweed and shells thrown up from the sea. Huge waves crashing over the Prom this afternoon, as the sea has quite a large swell and the tide was in full.
Away from main roads still quite a bit of snow, slush and ice around so I'll be using the snow tyres for a couple od days yet.
@misterbee
A90 Path
on sunday i took the view that tuesday's heavy rain forecast would see off the last of the drift
so WFH til wednesday
nevertheless i rely on heroic pioneers like yourself to keep me updated on prevailing conditions
looking forward to tomorrows installment
thanks in advance
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