CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Aberlady "cycle lanes"

(11 posts)
  • Started 10 years ago by kaputnik
  • Latest reply from crowriver

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  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Heading out on weekend towards North Berwick, noticed just after the dogleg turn at Aberlady that the council have helpfully painted a gutter lane in either direction as far as the junction for Myreton Motor Museum.

    Noted also that for about 100m either side of Luffness nature reserve that a combination of the verge and/or footpath and the cycle lane was being used for parking. I may have been overloud in repeating within earshot of various persons unloading dogs from their cars that it's a waste of money to paint cycle lanes if they're just going to be used as parking spaces.

    A kind of pointless gesture given there's no enforcement / obligation not to park in them here, and the verge is usually parked out on a day when it's not rainy or baltic. But I suppose EL Council can say in their 2013 "sustainable transport" return that they've been "building cycle lanes".

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. DaveC
    Member

    ... and yet stray just a foot out of these cycle lanes and drivers toot at you and gesture you have to ride 'in the lanes'!!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. amir
    Member

    There used to be white lines along the side of the road - I wonder if these have been rubbed out or covered by the recent resurfacing. However I can't find a reference to these any more in the Highway Code.

    They used to be accompany by a no stopping sign. You get vehicles stopped on the side of roads in inappropriate places, usually to answer phones nowadays. At Aberlady, you often get cars on the pavement - not nice for the pedestrians.

    Anyway back to the Aberlady lanes - I thought that these were wider than usual but often the best line for a cycle is outside the lines. It is interesting that the length of cycle lanes is so restricted - is the road "too narrow" in other places?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I would say that the road's actually fairly wide here.

    Lanes were definitely brand new as the contractors chalk lines and marks were still visible underneath the paint.

    Looking at streetview, there used to be a solid white line between kerb and road, does that mean "no stopping"? There is no longer any inside solid white line, just the dashed line for the lane.

    perhaps it's all a clever ploy by EL Council to allow removal of the solid white line, allow parking at Luffness and simultaneously claim to be improving cycling facilities!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. amir
    Member

    That's what I am saying - I think the solid white line may have become redundant as I can't see it in the online highway code.

    Of course the councils are rarely brave enough to have mandatory lanes.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. Roibeard
    Member

    Sorry guys, the solid white line is the "edge of carriageway" line.

    Highway Code Road Markings

    In most cases these do not denote a mandatory cycle lane of minuscule width...

    Robert

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. amir
    Member

    Oh well. Can you remember if this has changed? My memory tells me that it used to mean no stopping - and there were dashed lines over entrances to permit access.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Apparently it's called an "edge line", official diagram number 1012.1 TSGD 2002.

    Looking through previous posts, here's the explanation from Arellcat;

    The solid white line is Diagram 1012.1 (TSR & GD 2002) and is to mark (a) the edge of the carriageway available for through traffic other than at a road junction, an exit from a private drive onto a public road or a lay-by, (b) the back edge of a hard shoulder, and (c) the edge of a footway where it passes over a railway or tramway level crossing. Diagram 1012.1 is not associated with parking restrictions.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. neddie
    Member

    Haven't seen the lanes, but could they at least provide some 'virtual road narrowing' & therefore traffic calming effect?

    (Like those ones on the Dutch country lane, in the aviewfromthecyclepath blog, that someone posted on here not long ago)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @edd1e_h the problem is that the "lanes" are being used as parking spaces, therefore forcing cyclists out into the "middle of the road" and I am sure will cause more aggro from the "nice run down the coast" brigade who insist on tailgaiting cyclists all the way down the coast road (when there's a taxpayer funded A1 dual carriageway that they could use.) and then passing them on the double solid lines through Longniddry bents.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. crowriver
    Member

    I usually turn off at Aberlady to use the minor back roads, at least on the way out, as I find the coast road too busy with leisure drivers. Probably all ferrying their dogs to nature reserves (now that is a waste of money: the ferrying that is).

    Posted 10 years ago #

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