Yes, it's our old friends the taxi drivers, putting cyclists at risk as usual...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Fines for rogue cabbies to cut tram cycle crashes
(21 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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BTW, is it just me, or does anyone else read stuff like:
"The most important message for cyclists is to cross the tracks as close to a right angle as possible" (L Hinds)
and think the real issue is that the tracks are inherently dangerous, but the council is leaving it up to cyclists to deal with the danger, rather than fix it?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Absolutely, this has clearly been an oversight, and the solution is to blame cyclists who don't follow guidelines that are impossible to follow.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Surely there are design criteria to engineer out such potential issues. As in why design in such a narrow angle of crossing in the first place...
Posted 11 years ago # -
...following a visit to Haymarket by city transport convener Councillor Lesley Hinds on Thursday.
She said: “"The most important message for cyclists is to cross the tracks as close to a right angle as possible..."Are you sure she actually visited the same Haymarket? Right angles? Seriously?
Posted 11 years ago # -
In fairness she's not actually saying that cyclists should cross at 90 degrees, just as close to 90 degrees as possible. If that happens to be ten degrees than so be it.
Pah. Someone put a councillor on a bike through there!
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm qualified to instruct, I'll happily follow her through then critique her ride :-D
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm not sure I'd like to take the responsibilty for the life of a councilor, as taht judge seems to suggest one should...
Posted 11 years ago # -
"If people can't cycle over something as simple as a set of tram lines they need shot dead and their heart ripped out, this is my personal opinion as they are clearly retarded idiots"
Well that's a reasoned comment! ;)
Posted 11 years ago # -
In fairness she's not actually saying that cyclists should cross at 90 degrees, just as close to 90 degrees as possible...
... or you might die...
I'm joking about this to some extent, but that's because I have the luxury of not having to use these streets. (And I've decided that's my solution.)
For people who commute and have the choice between these streets or a long detour, it's not funny. The risk is very real and the council's lack of responsibility is likely to lead to either a death or a very serious injury.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Are you sure she actually visited the same Haymarket? Right angles? Seriously?
Relative to the line of travel, as determined by white lines painted on the road, as you cross the first (westbound) tramline heading west at Haymarket, the relative angle is 5 degrees. The second (eastbound) in 20 degrees. This is easily establishable from the TRO drawings, took me about 2 minutes.It's pretty much physically impossible to approach anything like 90 degrees, never mind even 40 degrees. The guidance from Edinburgh trams is that a safe crossing angle is no less than 60 degrees. That's some way off 5 and 20... Lesley and the rest of the council have their head in the clouds on this one.
It's so blindingly obvious that this was always going to be an issue that one can't but think they decided to just ignore it anyway and see how it played out when unleashed on the populace.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Posted 11 years ago #
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Three spaces for taxis at Haymarket is absolutely ridiculous.
Then again, This Is Edinburgh.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Following the London cyclists deaths inquest, I'd imagine that Council Officials may be sitting up and taking more notice....
Posted 11 years ago # -
I took a train from Haymarket this morning. I was a little early and on platform I noticed the new station will be next door to the old station. Not sure how that will affect the layout? As we were chatting yesterday, there used to be somewhere for motorists to drop off passengers, that does not exist anymore.
Big mess.
I will always detour where possible to avoid such chaos.
when the trams actually also appear the drivers are going to have to be forced to obey the layout, including the taxi drivers. Else it will be gridlock.
when I was a nipper I swam at Glenogle Baths and there was a woman there with one leg, she lost the other in a tram accident when she was a little girl. A fringe performer Jane Bom Bane wrote a song about her called The Edinburgh Mermaid.
Posted 11 years ago # -
gembo - this should give you an idea of the new layout of Haymarket station:
http://www.haymarketstationredevelopment.com/gallery
Graphics a bit shonky - but the roads outside the station aren't Network Rail's responsibility.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Thanks morningsider, would seem to be just the tram then that goes to the new bit. I hope the new taxi ranks that have been mooted further away from the door mean the the bit outside the door is purely drop off and no pick up?
Posted 11 years ago # -
It really does beggar belief that the huge new bridge has been constructed across the platforms, running all the way across to distillery lane, and the officialdom in charge decided it was too much effort to knock through the wall and arrange access from that side.
I also note that the view of the frontage of the "old" station has no cycles and no trams, tramlines or trampoles.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@ kaputnik
I may be behind the times on this one as I haven't followed the station upgrade plans closely, but as I said elsewhere, Distillery Lane appears to be a private private road so unless that has been resolved there sadly won't be an option for access from that road. I'd suggested that a cycle route via a bridge (or tacked onto the side of the station's covered bridge) could lead directly to Haymarket yards, thus avoiding the taxi rank dangers and providing a near-90 degree crossing of the tracks at Haymarket Yards.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Focus, no you're entirely right. My point was that they (Network Rail) discounted the idea from day 1 rather than explore the possibilities. A southern access for the station was never considered when they were designing the new one. It wouldn't have taken that much effort to have the status of the road changed for what after all is Scotland's 4th busiest station. It shows an embarrassing lack of ambition.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Agree 100%
Posted 11 years ago #
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