CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

"Severe weather warning"

(7355 posts)

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  1. ejstubbs
    Member

    Snow and ice here in Fairmilehead this morning.

    Driver of a small hatchback pointlessly spinning her front wheels on our road for a good 10 minutes at least. Polished the ice nicely but didn't make any progress. Would have gone out to assist but was in my goony. I assume she finally got help from another driver who couldn't get past as she was basically blocking the road, or else she reversed the all of 15 yards back to a turning on to a more level road. Happens every time we get conditions like this on a weekday morning, almost guaranteed to be people avoiding the Fairmilehead traffic lights by rat-running along Caiystane Crescent to get on to Oxgangs Road, oblivious to the fact that our residential roads are very low on the Council's gritting list. My sympathy meter reads very low in such circumstances, I'm afraid. (I often wonder how difficult it would be to implement an LTN round here.)

    Posted 5 months ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    “I often wonder how difficult it would be to implement an LTN round here.“

    Easy, apart from some objections(?)

    It’s SA’s ward.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    Seems to be -3 in most of Edinburgh.

    Proceed with caution.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  4. ejstubbs
    Member

    Zero degrees here when I got up this morning, now showing two degrees. Noticed a number of rooks hanging about, which we don't usually get here - refugees from out of town (e.g. the large rookery by Harlaw reservoir) coming here for a bit of a warm?

    Posted 5 months ago #

  5. jonty
    Member

    I'm often surprised that the Caiystane Crescent rat run wasn't sorted in the 80s or 90s. Surely it was much worse before the bypass was around? I suppose right turners wouldn't have had so much oncoming traffic to deal with before then. The Buckstone estates on the other side were designed to block that corner cut, and Swanston Avenue has a time-based turn restriction which at least shows acknowledgement of a problem. Plenty of other similar junctions, like the top of Craiglockhart Avenue and the Dreghorn Link roundabout, have modal filters which I'm fairly sure date back to last millennium.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  6. ejstubbs
    Member

    @Jonty: If by the Dreghorn Link roundabout you mean the modal filter at the top of Oxgangs Farm Drive then I think I remember that going in while I've been here, which would have been since 1998 when I first moved to Edinburgh - living near Belford Bridge, when Hunter's Tryst was a place of mystery and wonder - or since 2004 when we moved to Fairmilehead when obviously it would have been more local & familiar. But I may well be wrong...

    My neighbour over the road used to say "it's not a rat-run, it's just a road" - but he was far too nice an old boy to argue with about it. Given that he'd been living there pretty much since the estate was built in the early 1960s, when there probably wasn't nearly as much traffic, I suspect that he'd just got used to it slowly increasing over the years (the old "boiling a frog" metaphor). Now that a number of the older residents (including him, sadly) have passed on and young couples/families with young kids are moving into the area, there may be more anti-rat sentiment to be drawn upon. Given the numbers of youngsters I see being walked down to the relatively new Pentland primary school from round here, it wouldn't surprise me if a quiet streets initiative could attract support.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  7. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Oxgangs Farm Drive was stopped up in the early 1990s I think, no later, but maybe earlier. I sometimes used it when cycling between Comiston and Redford Road and back again, and I'm sure the bollards were already in place in 1994. But as a family, in the 1980s we frequently drove that way, mainly going downhill, because it avoided the big T-junction with Oxgangs Road North/Redford Road.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  8. Morningsider
    Member

    I remember during the late 1980's that LRT route 17 ran up Oxgangs Farm Drive, turning left at the top to reach it's terminus on Redford Road. I don't think that route lasted more than a couple of years - once competition from the Eastern Scottish City Sprinters died down.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  9. SRD
    Moderator

    Meadows paths weren't re-gritted last night. very slippery, especially NNW west bound, where the puddles are very frozen.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  10. Morningsider
    Member

    Yes, it's bad out there. I avoided the Meadows today and stuck to the main roads. A colleague came off on an ungritted street in Newington - nothing serious, but shows how icy things are.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  11. ejstubbs
    Member

    Still icy patches in Fairmilehead, at Cameron Toll and by Blackford pond at midday today. Low sun also making it difficult to see in some places heading southbound.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    Tomorrow

    “

    2 We’ll see 25-30mm of rain in eastern parts of the Central Belt, and our specialist weather forecasters are looking at where we may need to put in place speed restrictions on sections of the East Coast Main Line south of Edinburgh, and between Cupar and Leuchars.

    “

    https://twitter.com/networkrailscot/status/1734203154730795473?

    Posted 4 months ago #

  13. pringlis
    Member

    Absolute rivers of water this morning down all the Greenbank/Meadows Quiet Route and Comiston Road. I was walking on the school run and noticed that every single gully on the route was blocked up. I've reported some of them multiple times but no luck. Rain doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon either.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  14. nevelbell
    Member

    Does anyone remember a few years ago when the council spent a small fortune 'resolving' the flooded paths on the NEPN? It was all rivers and ponds this morning.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  15. SRD
    Moderator

    to be fair, the bus route I rode in on this morning was all rivers and ponds too.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  16. fimm
    Member

    I cycled from the station to the office this morning with no issues beyond being a bit damp (I was less wet than I'd anticipated) while one of my colleagues who drove in was complaining about a road being closed.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    “Does anyone remember“

    All getting hazy…

    Presume you’re primarily referring to the bit by Craigleith Station?

    That was spectacularly inept as water still drifts across the path - and freezes when any grit/salt gets washed off.

    How hard can it be to have a path with enough camber to keep the water from running along/across the surface?

    Ditches are of course problematic/potentially dangerous, but in the relatively few places where there is a significant problem it shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with.

    Plus a few BIG holes full of stone as soakaways.

    In the olden days of course most of the NEPN was railway lines with well thought-out/maintained drainage.

    In some places there are still deep ditches with a lot of water at times (eg Ferry Road Path towards 5 Ways).

    The other main place I remember with a significant problem was the path when it got near to Silverknowes. I think that was sorted.

    The other ‘regular ponding’ was around Drylaw.

    The direct problem was surrounding land/grass being higher than the path. Again, some work has been done.

    The area has significant problems with drainage. Gardens of the houses to the right of the photo flood - with sewage.

    A problem CEC and SW are ‘trying’ to sort.

    The land on the left may become a wetland/SUDS.

    The path in the pic WAS supposed to be getting surfaced as part of the new (housing association) development. But, money.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  18. Frenchy
    Member

    Frostier than I was expecting out there. Woman in front of me fell off her bike turning off a road onto a cycle path, and I very nearly did similar crossing the side road opposite Dobbie's, which is icy rather than frosty.

    Dry, calm and quiet though.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/26/uk-drivers-warned-about-very-windy-and-wet-weather-due-to-storm-gerrit

    Posted 4 months ago #

  20. Frenchy
    Member

    Utterly miserable out there today; think today was the shortest morning dog walk we've ever had.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  21. gembo
    Member

    GERRIT UP YE

    Is the headline in the Daily Gembo

    Posted 4 months ago #

  22. LaidBack
    Member

    No trains north of Perth and Dundee.
    A9 closed at Ballinluig.
    Flooding could get worse as lots of wet snow melting

    Posted 4 months ago #

  23. mcairney
    Member

    Had a 'fun-filled' journey back up from Castle Douglas today. The roads round there and up to about the Abingdon turnoff on the M74 were badly flooded. By the time we got to 'civilisation' i.e. Bathgate the weather improved and there was even some blue skies to be seen around Edinburgh.
    Conditions look even worse in the North-East. Hopefully things improve enough so I can get out on the bike and burn off some of the Christmas dinner over the next couple of days!

    Posted 4 months ago #

  24. gembo
    Member

    Made it to the LBS today, strong wind assist, beat Mrs Garto in. The motor tho she did go into the Jet Garage for petrol.

    His Mattness was working on it later when we drove by. so I might have to go back for it……

    Posted 4 months ago #

  25. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24012461.storm-gerrit-scotland-road-closures-traffic-updates/

    Posted 4 months ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/27/uk-weather-christmas-travellers-warned-of-storm-gerrit-hazards

    Posted 4 months ago #

  27. LaidBack
    Member

    Aquaduct on A93 at Bridge of Cally - damage to parapet again.

    Image from Cally FB group by Rowan 27/12 23. A93 on bridge flooded (again). Need bigger drains?

    Posted 4 months ago #

  28. SRD
    Moderator

    that's crazy! river okay up where you are?

    Posted 4 months ago #

  29. mcairney
    Member

    Interesting reading though I think it glosses over some of the unusual weather (esp high winds) throughout the year even during the warm spells https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2023/12/28/2023-in-weather/#:~:text=As%20well%20as%20being%20much,quarter%20more%20rainfall%20than%20normal.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  30. chdot
    Admin

    “
    Not only was the bridge flooded, early afternoon the bridge’s brickwork cracked at the end nearest the Post Office (A924 to Kirkmichael). The water flooding the bridge was gushing out that crack like a mini Niagara Falls. Traffic was stopped until late into the night.

    “

    https://twitter.com/WolfmannotJack/status/1740285380111294861

    Posted 4 months ago #

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