Drainage-things? Doing some rewiring before putting down a new surface? That path never floods but bits of the Links do, so maybe a bit of help for that. Notice they're adding some drainage to the Ladyboy-ravaged bit of the Meadows at the moment.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"LEITH TO PORTOBELLO CYCLE ROUTE IMPROVEMENTS"
(231 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Went along the Seafield Road route with No.1 son on his own bike last weekend. Wasn't that bad: bit of a delay while waiting to cross Seafield Road (twice) between bridge and prom; path on opposite side rather too narrow. Otherwise manageable.
It will be another fortnight before we head that way again (No.1 son away camping at the weekend) so maybe they'll have finished widening/resurfacing by then? Can but hope...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Heading towards Porty, it looks like you can't get on to the Prom ramp from Seafield Road, but you can, it's just well disguised by Heras fencing and steamrollers. I was confused earlier this week and carried on down the road, which wasn't enjoyable.
Posted 10 years ago # -
The Seafield Road to Seafield Place junction is the one with the bodged bit of infrastructure leading you round a busy corner on the pavement, is it not? Possibly mentioned upthread, or maybe another thread (too lazy to go look).
The blue sign relating to this got a mention in the CTC Cycle magazine (two issues ago), the implication being that it was part of some bad infrastructure.
Seemed fair enough to me, but in the next issue of the mag there was mention of feedback from a number of Edinburgh cyclists who had defended it saying it was all jolly good.
Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong place, but it seemed a bit odd to me.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@cb I put a picture on Flickr of it a while ago when it was first unleashed, criticising it for being confusing and leaving the job unfinished ("we spent all this money on the path at either side, but couldn't be bothered providing a proper crossing and link between the two").
Like many bits of "infrastructure" in Edinburgh though it will probably get people defending it as "better than nothing" or "less cr*p than it used to be".
Posted 10 years ago # -
In the CTC magazine a certain magnificent octopus gets credited with the photo. Tho in fact he or she is called The Magnificent Octopus. My undestanding is that our own kaputnik is very closely related to said l'octopus magnifique
Posted 10 years ago # -
If you're heading west along the road then there is indeed an odd cut the corner of the pavement arrangement to turn left on to Seafield St. If you're over the other side on the shared use path then there's a toucan crossing (admittedly possibly the world's slowest). I go along here most days. I've not found any probs using the shared use pavement; it doesn't seem to be used much by pedestrians. Generally I'd say the route does a reasonably good job of connecting 2 traffic-free bits (Porty Prom and Leith Links) in a way likely to be acceptable to less traffic-confident cyclists. The current widening of the shared use pavement doesn't so far seem to include the bridge bit which is a shame, hope they'll do something to improve visibility at least.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Tarmac laid and rollef along Leith Links from school-edge past allotments to the slope. Not.much wider but much smoother than before, though the edges are a bit at-risk-of- vehicles.
IMAG1233 by wingpig, on FlickrThree or four bits outside the school marked with the word 'TACTILES' in blue paint, awaiting more of these:
IMAG1234 by wingpig, on FlickrCan't yet see any new 'CHICANE' markings yet but the existing double-pair are still there.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Ah. Wrong tactiles for bikes. Is this meant to be a proper-CEC-bike-path / shared use?
Posted 10 years ago # -
This is CEC Family Network Route 10, I reckon.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Route 10
Posted 10 years ago # -
@wingpig are all the tactile slabs lacking the central median?
Council seems pretty obsessed with these just now, despite the fact they don't actually do anything useful when installed like this.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"despite the fact they don't actually do anything useful"
Well - apart from slowing down the pesky cyclists, they are supposed to mean something to people with poor eyesight.
But if they don't accord with rules/specifications are probably counterproductive(?)
Posted 10 years ago # -
This is the only set yet laid. The others are just blue paint markings and incisions in the surface, but will presumably be done fairly swiftly now that the school has broken up.
Posted 10 years ago # -
NOT AGAIN?
It's not just the central median lacking (they're not using them anywhere), but those look like round-topped, not flat-topped tactiles.
Posted 10 years ago # -
This is brilliant. We should call it Tactile Bingo.
How has it come about that a bunch of local cyclists has better knowledge than the Council's own engineers and contractors? We should get a few Argos-style laminated copies of the guidance and hang them on nearby fences when the works begin.
Posted 10 years ago # -
How has it come about that a bunch of local cyclists has better knowledge than the Council's own engineers and contractors?
Because the guys doing the work are neither cyclists nor visually impaired, don't really understand what they are doing and/or simply do not care.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Well - apart from slowing down the pesky cyclists
Not if the correct slabs are laid in the correct way! (Which is why I can't fathom why they bother with them. They're designed not to impede cyclists, and the visually imparied side-slabs only work when used with a raised central median, which we have no examples of...)
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Not if the correct slabs are laid in the correct way!"
Perhaps.
I suspect most riders will slow down/be cautious (especially in the wet).
Posted 10 years ago # -
My preference is to cross the median prior to the slabs to cycle over the perpendicular furrows, this slows me down and I do not fall off. I take care re pedestrians or bikes coming the other way.
These slabs work for visually impaired people if part of a path or pavement route but I am not sure there are many visually impaired people on the sections highlighted where they are I presume intended to slow bikes before fence/gate/ pinch point.
Slabs for visually impaired at traffic lights have stud pattern rather than furrows?
Posted 10 years ago # -
there are 3 basic kinds of tactile paving:
stud or 'blister' paving indicates a crossing point
narrow, rounded corduroys should be at the top of a danger spot - eg stairs, train platform etc.
wider, flat-topped corduroys are for use on shared use paths. they should be laid tram-track style on the bike side, so that you can pass unimpeded.
Correct examples can be seen on NMW (after our complaints got the original layout removed and corrected).
Posted 10 years ago # -
That is my issue, I find tram track style and indeed tram tracks to be something to cross at 90 degrees. If I cross these slabs in the way intended I often get a little skid thing happening, particularly in the rain. Also what is the point of them if they do not impede you? The visually impaired person would find it easier to distinguish between their slabs and flat Tarmac rather than parallel and perpendicular grooves, I would have thought
Posted 10 years ago # -
The visually impaired person would find it easier to distinguish between their slabs and flat Tarmac rather than parallel and perpendicular grooves, I would have thought
But if they happened to be walking on the flat tarmac side then they wouldn't notice that there was a ground-based message.
Posted 10 years ago # -
wider, flat-topped corduroys are for use on shared use paths.
OK I thought these were to be used on segregated (in the paint sense) to delineate between the bike and walking sides, and only with a raised central median, and when this median is for the length of the segregation.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@ps, yes if they had strayed across the median to the cycle path, this is a logically valid point.
I do not recall ever noticing a VI person on the Stenhouse path. However in busier places in town or maybe leith links this might be a possibility?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@gembo. A lack of VI people isn't a reason to avoid designing for them. We'd all be up in arms if (when) politicians avoid including cycling infrastructure because there are no cyclist using the existing facility.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@kaputnik yes. you are right. i was using shared use loosely. and yes, median point. would be good if someone could get council to justify repeated failure to put in median strip
Posted 10 years ago # -
@acsimpson, the problem is that the order of the paving is reversed (as far as I see it).
After a particular episode on the north meadows path I've taken to always crossing onto the pedestrian side to ride over these "tram track" sections. As the Council itself keeps drumming into us - cross the tracks as close to 90 degrees as possible.
I'm sure that 99.9% of the time it's fine to ride parallel to the tracks, but I can't be bothered to take a fall to prove that it sometimes isn't, when it's so easy just to put the bike a couple of feet sideways.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@acsimpson
I would actually be concerned to see a VI person on stretches of the Stenhouse path. Up to 1km of bare Tarmac at a time, no defining features, save occasional rumble strip. Not expert but think they would need some help to find bus stop etc.
Will continue to slowly cross median and take rumble strip at 90 degrees to the furrows.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Path now open from slope to school. Gaps hacked for more tactiles but no new ones laid.
Interview-campervan blocking two-thirds of the path on the Porty side of the two wee bridges over the crematorium entrance.
Posted 10 years ago #
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