Although it's certainly not a complete solution, it does look to me like an improvement which can be implemented quickly and is likely to somewhat reduce the number of crashes. I very much doubt the council would claim or expect that it is a complete solution - have they said that?
For the longer term, they have promised to investigate the Spokes Haymarket proposal [Bulletin 118] as part of the Roseburn-Leith east-west route, but the Spokes proposal only makes sense as part of a major restructuring extending well beyond Haymarket - it could not be implemented in isolation.
No solution will please everyone. For example, the spokes proposal, with extensive segregation, is likely to slow down faster cyclists unless they instead choose to remain on the road, and has been criticised on those grounds. On the other hand, hopefully it would give a lot more people the confidence to go by bike.
Yes, the fact that the council is using coloured surfacing (rather than chips) suggests that they do regard this as a dangerous location. Spokes has fought hard and without success against chipping in general but the council has always maintained that chips are a necessary balance between visibility and economy of maintenance, and that actual red surfacing would be used at particularly hazardous locations - this looks like it will be the first such example.
Spokes gets a lot of reports of bike tramline crashes at Haymarket, and we can't help noticing that many are to experienced cyclists who regularly use the junction and are astonished that they have been caught out. These quotes and incidents are frightening and convince me that the kerbside route is the safest route for most people, now that the Council has eliminated the taxi-parking problem.
Obviously the main problem was failure to consider cycling (or indeed peds or buses) when the tramline layout was decided; but we all, and the council, are now stuck with that layout.
Obviously too, the council's current immediate proposal has various problems, some of which have been pointed out above, but are there better suggestions? - either rapidly implementable or longer term - which are likely to reduce the number of crashes and be acceptable to a wide range of cyclists??? If there are good ideas which are widely acceptable then it would be good for them to be discussed and passed to the council.
posts
