some thoughts here. nothing profound.
http://deceasedcanine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/why-are-developer-built-links-so-dire.html
apologies if I didn't appreciate how dire the springside 'zig-zag' was in previous discussions
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Crossing the western approach
(14 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Going over it - at the west end of Rutland Square, there's a wee extension to the south west, between the Standard Life building and the mirror finished building. There's a path that leads a sculpture of some chap on a horse, and then to the bridge over the western approach road.
Get off and walk again, it's a tighter zigzag than Springside.
It's easier to find if you start from Festival Square, and head past All Bar One, and look out on your right for the arch.
I can manage Springside on the Croix and Chameleon...but definitely not on the 'bent, even pushing it I have to lift it round corners.#
Edit - I've just had a look on google earth and you have to go up on to the pavement from the Rutland Square end...even better integration...not
Posted 11 years ago # -
Mirrored Finished building is Balfour Beatty I believe.
It has steps up from Rutland Sq but is flat from there to Festival Sq. My GF used to live in a shared flat with one of the Architects - Gleeds.
Posted 11 years ago # -
SRD - it's all due to he fact the Western Approach was previously a railway with very limited crossing opportunities and the fact that new development has changed travel patterns.
The Telfer subway is probably over 120 years old and never designed for cyclists. The Springside zig-zag is designed to meet the requirements of wheelchair users - standards require ramps to have a very shallow angle which can be tricky to accommodate without taking up huge areas, see Kelvindale railway station for the best example of this. The bridge from Festival Square is tricky to find and of limited value, in my opinion.
I've never found the Western Approach a major obstacle - just one of those things you find in an old urban area. My main call for the route would be for a nice segregated cycle lane - lots of room for it and I can't see it being too expensive to build.
Posted 11 years ago # -
SRD - it's all due to he fact the Western Approach was previously a railway with very limited crossing opportunities and the fact that new development has changed travel patterns.
There used to be a gantryway across around the location of Dewar Place, but I don't think it was public access but carried utilities. You can see in the retaining walls from the Gardiner's Crescent bridge the filled-in gaps in the masonry.
As Morningsider says, the only other public crossing between there and Dundee Street was the Telfer Subway. Telfer Subway was originally also the public access to Dalry Road station. You can see a concreted part inside the otherwise brick-lined tunnel on your left (heading from Fountainpark to Dalry), with a lintel above. That was the location of the steps up to the island platform (one face of which remains alongside the road).
There's a significant grassed stretch alongside the road between Morrison Link and the subway. A proper segregated foot/cycleway along there would be ace (particularly if they rebuilt the "slalom" properly.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Morningsider - i do understand about it being an ex- traintrack etc. I still think we could do better. much better.
the point I was trying to make (an obviously didn't succeed in making) was out of three crossings, none is any good.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I still think we could do better. much better.
Indeed. It's a lengthy barrier to north-south travel here. Considering it has NEPN on one side and canal on the other. It's still seen as a bit of motoring free-for-all I think, a rapid route to zoom into town (or rather, to get past Fountainbridge a bit faster than you otherwise would and then hit the same constrictions at either end).
There used to be an "issue" with people unwilling to use the subway getting off the bus and walking across the road. So they put up big fences. So people walked down the verge and around the fences instead. So they made the fences bigger and longer and put up warning signs.
I don't think that piece of road has any long term place in a vision for modern Edinburgh.
Posted 11 years ago # -
thanks kaputnik, that reminds me - my opriginal plan for that post was to link to the plans to link canal etc. oops.
but you see, this is exactly my point. there is no way the Telfer subway can take any larger numbers of cyclists.
Posted 11 years ago # -
there is no way the Telfer subway can take any larger numbers of cyclists.
A proper N-S route through the middle of the currently vacant Springside lot (where the temporary allotments are) would be perfect, with a Toucan crossing of WAR and a segregated lane along the large verge.
On subject of canal access, interesting new paths going in at the back of the horrificly ugly new student village on the site of the old Brewery distribution yard, connecting Gibson Terrace to the canal. Think the hoardings both blew down and were being taken down. But they appear to be down now! Finishing touches still not completed.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I have to adopt the "forgive me father for I have sinned" hat now - on Saturdays, going to the Farmers' Market, before they re-opened the Haymarket, I used to go up Dalry Place and then zip along the WAR, and coming back, I just reversed the route, as I couldn't face the Springside zig-zags with loaded panniers.
As I'm normally there before 9am, the WAR was deserted...and the police never gave me a second glance.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"any long term place in a vision for modern Edinburgh"
??...
Posted 11 years ago # -
A good post I thought, highlighting the general rubbishness of these through routes.
At one level I'm glad that I can get right through the Telfer route without dismounting. The bumpy ramp at the top is pretty awful to cycle up, but... they'd never get away with building that today surely and we'd end up with something either not cycleable or about 600 zigzags up a shared use path.
When these things make up a small percentage of your journey you tend to find you can live with it.
However I think that with the way Edinburgh's plans for a family network are going we will find we are spending too much time on these slow and cumbersome sections.
The horse statue near the Rutland Bridge is by
Eoghan Bridge appropriately enough."His work [...] crosses [...] geographical boundaries"
...like the WAR?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Thanks SRD, you make good points. I kind of enjoy the stupid zig zag as a test of balance but yes it is utterly crap where it could actually have been easy and intuitive to use if anyone who cared had been involved in the design.
The other way over the top of the DeathWay is Gardner's Crescent (google maps) but I find that a horrific road even in a car, so I certainly wouldn't cycle on it, plus it dumps you into Morrison Street - again, horrific.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"His work [...] crosses [...] geographical boundaries"
That's one BIG horse!
Also, following on from kaputnik's post can I be the first to say...
WAR!
Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothin'!
Posted 11 years ago #
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