Just got back from the consultation. Some points:
1. The current designs are significantly scaled back from previous versions in that the northbound cycle lane ends at Spey Terrace rather than Pilrig Street. This is a change that was made in the last two weeks, apparently after initial feedback and concern about conflict with pedestrians at the corner of leith walk and pilrig street. They said
a) It's not possible to get a separate bike phase across Pilrig street because this would take up too much time in the junction phase
b) It's not possible to let (slower) bikes cross Pilrig street with the pedestrians on a toucan because of conflict
c) It's not possible to continue the segregation to Pilrig street for left turning cycles because of pedestrian conflict.
It's notable here that there didn't seem to be a problem with pavement width between Spey terrace and Pilrig street, although it's a little tight, it was only problems with the corner and the junction. So if a solution for the junction could be found, then they had no problem with segregation continuing to Pilrig.
2. I was wrong in my earlier comment about no one having priority at side lane crossings, in the majority of the crossings cars from the side road have priority (those little white triangles mean give way in Holland so I got confused). Some people from the council were open minded about putting give way to the cars also, as is done at one of the junctions, but were also scared about this causing the council to get sued (for reasons that weren't clear to me).
3. One guy was open minded about replacing the give way to side roads on the side track with some kind of 'caution cars' sign, so that it's still clear that the bikes have priority but they're warned that some car drivers might not respect this. The majority of people from the council were very negative about this, talking about litigation, didn't seem to think it was possible (or really consider it). This is somewhere where 'we', with our infinite knowledge of traffic regulations and design manuals, could educate the council and reassure them that giving cyclists priority at side roads will not open them up to litigation for negligence.
3. Surprisingly lots of people were quite open minded about the idea of closing Brunskwick Street at Leith Walk, or at least making it one way, and agreed that it was a rat run with people just looking to miss out the roundabout. They started saying 'cars will just go elsewhere', but I was able to convince them that this elsewhere was on Leith walk then London road, i.e. missing out the rat run as they're meant to. Told people about how wonderful it is having Montague street closed at one end at the moment and how kids have been playing in the street, they all liked this story. Then a more senior more negative guy came over and said that everything was about balance and the whole scheme wasn't just about bikes and we had to think about 'other transport users' (cars) too.
Nearly everyone on the council team was nice, they emphacise that they're open minded about changes, but they seemed to regard a lot of things as not possible or too ambitious.
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