CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years 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.
There's several pelican crossings that I treat as toucan crossings simply because there's no reason why they shouldn't be and every reason why they should. For example, the crossing from Craiglockhart Dell to the Water of Leith walkway at the Blue Goose or the abortion of a crossing at South Gyle Access.
Like steveo says above, to hell with them.
yup - went that way last night and pressed the button. The massive line of traffic came to a satisfying halt and "wheee" off I went.
Until better infrastructure is provided at this junction, and you know, a way for me to see the cars coming under the bridge towards the my exit then this IS a toucan crossing...
The tram logic regarding cycle crossings seems to be "if it wasn't there before, we don't put it in", I've pretty much got this in writing for them regarding the crossing at South Gyle Access. They don't seem to recognise that a cyclist pushing their bike across is wider than one riding it so you can't address an issue of a crossing being significantly narrower than the recommended minimum by getting people to get off and push!
Idiots. Idiots. Idiots.
I suspect that - as has been noted previously - until the trams project is finished and CEC adopt the entirety of the path, none of these (clearly stupid) crossings will be altered to Toucan.
South Gyle Access is not a single phase - someone is going to be knocked over as many people may look up and only register the Green Man on the other side. Very, Very dangerous.
One question - is it technically mandatory to get off and push at a Pelican?
I have never seen anyone dismount at South Gyle Access.
News flash from cycle forum meeting:
The Balgreen crossing is intended to be a toucan. Will need 'redetermination' and is planned for later this year.
Your not trying to tell us the Trams folk messed something up?... Idiots.
"Will need 'redetermination' "
How much??
"Redetermination"
I'm fluent in management-speak but that's a new one for me!
I have no idea what 'redetermination' means, which is why I used their words, not mine.
I think it just means TROs.
No, trams ppl apparently did not mess up. The unit that has been put in is 'toucan compatible'. So when the TROs etc done, they will adapt it to being a toucan.
Seems to have been intended all along.
... and meanwhile it's perfectly OK to kill people there by putting in a grossly inadequate and unsafe crossing for months?
Yes, definitely idiots.
I can't see how a two stage crossing could be toucan compatible...?
I can't see how a two stage crossing could be toucan compatible
It's not. The 2-stage is at South Gyle Access, not Balgreen, and apparently they've no intention of making it Toucan.
To make it [the one at Balgreen] a Toucan, all* that needs to be done is to change the faceplate of the button press box from showing an icon of a pedestrian, to one of a pedestrian plus cyclist.
That 'part' should cost less than £10 and take about 5 mins to change. I have no idea why they can't do it right away.
*Maybe they need to add some unsightly, superfluous and cr*p shared-use signs as well... Oh and why not add a few automated bollards into the mix just to put costs up a bit? And some LED lights...
@kaputnik: ah OK, thanks. Sorry for the confusion
The crossing from Craiglockhart Dell to the Water of Leith walkway at the Blue Goose
This one is sort of justifiable as I think that section of the dell is technically off limits to bikes - there used to be a sign up to that effect at the entrance, I don't know if it's still present (despite me running past there every week...I'll pay attention next time!). Between the mud, rocks, roots, stairs, dogs and people in that part it's not exactly a prime cycling route anyway. Better to go by the canal viaduct or a short hop along Lanark road to the bridge at Redhall and carry on that way.
Certainly the other end of that route at Chesser into Saughton park is a proper toucan, as is Saughton park to the back of Balgreen.
'Redetermination'
We must pre-plan an synergistic paradigm shift in blue sky thinking away from this utilisation of communication.
@allebong I also run that way reasonably regularly and have not noticed any "no cycling" signs. I agree with everything you say about the paths there.
This one is sort of justifiable as I think that section of the dell is technically off limits to bikes
News to me. I've never seen a sign anywhere in the vicinity and have been cycling that way for years without anyone raising any eyebrow. I don't see under what legislation cycling would be off-limits.
Not an ideal route, I agree, but I prefer it to carrying my bike up all the staircases to the canal and then having to squeeze past people on the viaduct.
It used to have signs up beside the Trout but they probably came down with the outdoor access legislation.
Its not the best place to ride but it is certainly more convenient for the rest of the WOL path then joining the canal for a few hundred metres or riding up Lanark Road and crossing the road twice.
Seems my memory is a bit faulty as while I can remember the no cycling signs that were removed years ago, I've only just recalled seeing the info boards scattered throughout the place that mention 'responsible cycling welcome' etc, complete with silhouette of a cyclist.
You can get from Lanark Road to the WoL path without crossing Lanark Road twice if you turn off Lanark Road the access road to Redhall Walled Garden and then take the first right down to the allotments. There's a path running round the allotments that you can follow to the lane that goes under the first bridge on the WoL path. There's a short flight of steps up to the WoL path.
It's round this bit here, following the dotted line on the map:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.919366,-3.2547963,324m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e3
When I started typing this it seemed like a good alternative route from the WoL Visitor Centre to old railway path...
"There's a short flight of steps up to the WoL path."
Or -
http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/39419997
Or -
http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/39420007
CS doesn't seem to know the ramp off this bridge.
I normally cross Lanark road then recross on the 'flyover' - the surface is marginally better and there are no steps
I have seen mountain bikes/hybrids scooting down CHdot's route and if you take the walled garden route you can always have a look at the first house in edinburgh with a grass roof
http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/39420007CS doesn't seem to know the ramp off this bridge.
I'll take a small diversion on my way home this afternoon and have a look at adding this ramp to OpenStreetMap.
"I'll take a small diversion on my way home this afternoon"
That would be good!
I assume ramp is still there!
Is not just an informal one, but is narrow and pretty steep.
The road surface leading to the bridge is pretty rough.
Enjoy the Gowans -
"f you take the walled garden route you can always have a look at the first house in edinburgh with a grass roof"
Don't know about "first" -
The original building (quarry manager's cottage) is in the middle, the rest is about 15 years old -
Due to the horrible turn of weather I ended up putting my head down and will check this out another day.
It's pretty grim out there.
Saw the posts about 'redetermination' and just want to shed some light on it. It's a legal order similar to a TRO that allows cycling on defined bits of pavements. In the case of the Balgreen crossing it will make it legal to cycle across it between the new path and Baird Drive. Once this is done the buttons can be changed.
@kokomo thanks for the clarification. What a massive amount of faff to do something so blatantly obvious. At this rate of change it's no wonder it will be 2028 before they get the Cramond to Portobello shore route done.
If only they doubled the A9 so slowly, piecemeal and inefficiently! Keith would never stand for that.
The Balgreen tram stop pedestrian crossing has still not been 'redetermined' and converted to a Toucan.
This is despite promises from CEC that it would be done by the end of last year. See: http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=11250&page=3#post-142457
All it needs is the face plates of the button push to be changed. It really is a 5* minute job. And CEC have an underspend on the cycling budget (revenue)
Why haven't they done it?
*The physics of space and time operate differently when Council workies are involved.
Why haven't they done it?
They probably did an audit and discovered that crossing Stenhouse to Balgreen would leave cyclists in the middle of the footway with various kerbs and planters in the way of a convenient route onto Baird Drive, and that every cyclist treats the crossing as a Toucan anyway, and it's really not that big a problem in the grand scheme of things, and we'd really rather concentrate on getting the flagship stuff finished first.
When you get cheek about using a pedestrian crossing as a cyclist, you simply point them to the sign on the pole that tells cyclists to 'use the crossing'.
I'd assumed that was put up after the 'redetermination' as the most cost-efficient solution?
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts