CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
But we're faced that, like everywhere else, the reason for the chicane at all, and the one-way regulation, is the hazard from motor vehicles. Could they stop up Caanan Lane just east of the zebra crossing? Or would that lead to a lack of turning space for drivers?
I'm much in favour of chicanes for motorists, where you really have to crawl through the gap. It works at Newbridge, and by gum it works in Watford.
We're hoping that with the road having been closed for 18 months or so with no major impact on traffic, we've proven that Canaan Lane doesn't need to be open to two way traffic at all. So we're proposing as part of our school travel review that the reinstate the cycle lane, and put a modal filter in at the Morningside Road junction with a dedicated turning area outside Falcon Court.
I had another chat with the planner today, and he's unhappy removing both chicanes due to the risk of a car driving up the path which is fair. Options are to
1) remove the second chicane, further up the path, and leave the one in line with the wall for now. It's better than we have now for accessibility and throughput but still not ideal.
2) put a bollard 180cm from the left which makes it pretty much hard up against the wall. That'd narrow it enough a car can't get up, and give us the maximum space but look pretty odd!
1) is most likely short term as it's easiest to get actions, so can probably do it next month.
It's a shame they didn't consider this while rebuilding the short wall, as we could have had a 300cm wide opening with a bollard in the middle and 150cm each side.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
@pringlis - if the path is 205cm wide then the chance of getting a car up it is pretty much zero. A modern 3-door mini is 193cm wide, a Nissan Qashqai is 208cm and a Land Rover Discovery 222cm. It would also require a car to turn on a dime on a Zebra crossing and pass between two hefty stone walls.
I know drivers will try and park anywhere, but I reckon the designer is being over cautious here. Still, I suppose removing one of the barriers is better than nothing.
There's just no way anyone would drive up there.
Such a shame the opportunity was missed to make the entire path much wider. It could be wider all the way up to Falcon Road if the will were there.
Will the Canaan lane pupils eventually go in at the front of the school (or to the west) or is the intention to keep sending them round the back?
There are only two years + nursery in there at the moment, and once the school gets up to full capacity it could get much busier.
Longer term most pupils will be going in the front, once Deanbank Annex has reopened. That's going to cause its own issues as the pavement in front of the school just isn't wide enough for that volume of children exiting at once. Canaan Lane will likely need to be completely closed to all traffic at school dropoff/pickup time.
That path will still be busier than pre-Canaan Lane PS, as it has plenty of St Peters children and there'll be an increase in the number of parents/siblings/buggies leaving school after dropping off. As you say there was a real opportunity to widen it and it seems to have been missed. The council own all the surrounding land - Canaan Lane PS/St Peters PS/the field at St Peters, the playpark - so making more space should have been straightforward.
What does Scott Arthur say??
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One of things I hope to do is accelerate the work on improving the active travel routes to schools. We will define the problem with school communities, and then co-design a solution.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/CllrScottArthur/status/1532057668571254784
I used to use a cut-through from Iron Bridge (Southall -GWML) via Harrow & Kenton to Apex Corner, which included several 7'6" deterrent chicanes with vehicles up to a twin wheel transit van - never any problem if you slowed down and knew the width of your vehicle
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We've been told of new dropped kerbs on Moredunvale Road at Old Dalkeith Rd, Canaan Lane Woodlands House, Yeaman Pl x 2, Lauriston Pl. I'm sure council would be pleased to keep you updated!
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https://mobile.twitter.com/LivingStreetsEd/status/1560255498741587968
Heh, the new ones on Canaan Lane are a mess. They were meant to regrade the road at the same time but haven’t so it’s not really dropped.
https://twitter.com/johnrobson87/status/1552722024489189377
Dropped kerbs are meant to be flush with the road, with a 6mm tolerance. These kerbs exceed that by a factor of ten.
Oh, and they are literally next to the entrance of the Royal Blind School.
The people responsible for the design, installation and sign-off on these should hang their heads in shame.
Noticed yesterday that the particularly nasty chicane at the Cramond Road South crossing has been replaced with a bollard.
It's very not obvious why even a bollard was required, but it is a huge improvement anyway.
The bollard is weird, it does mean there's still a constriction (noticed that in an earlier streetview two older ladies can be seen waiting for each other to navigate the pinch point) but yes, much better!
The old chicane wasn't even that old, if you look at streetview's earliest photos you can see the original, which was better in many ways.
Looking at this year’s StreetView it’s clear that the bollard isn’t in a particular sensible place, not least because it’s a shared path so any idea that bikes and pedestrians should be separated is superfluous!
Once again, it makes you question CEC’s PROCESSES…
Looking at the StreetView images, it’s clear that the crossing could, still, be SO much better.
The process is bizarre - there are two gates/chicanes in Morningside that have been removed in recent weeksand are seemingly about to be restored!
The gate at the Cluny Gardens entrance to Blackford Pond was removed and replaced with a single bollard. That bollard has now been removed and there are two temporary chicanes, presumably to be replaced with permanent double chicanes.
The chicane at the path to St Peters on Canaan Lane was removed but the headteacher has asked for it to be reinstated. With this one no-one at the council can say who removed it in the first place, as they'd previously been asked to keep it until the Canaan Lane layout at the Woodburn Terrace junction was restored. It's a tricky one as it goes straight onto a zebra crossing and they are worried about kids running onto it. At least with replacement one they may move it back a little.
Looking at this year’s StreetView it’s clear that the bollard isn’t in a particular sensible place, not least because it’s a shared path so any idea that bikes and pedestrians should be separated is superfluous!
I wonder if it's there because without it then there may a temptation for cars to drive up the path? They can't put it in the middle or it wouldn't leave the necessary space for a double buggy/wheelchair so they've offset slightly?
I'd say it's unlikely any bulbous modern car could get along there. The original Mini possibly, but how many of them are left?
I think it's far more likely that the thought process was around slowing down cyclists approaching the road.
Might be interesting to see what any traffic reports say about this -
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Plans submitted for residential conversion of The Priory (originally Canaan House) off Canaan Lane by Smith Scott Mullan Associates - 8 homes within refurbished existing building (some later extensions removed) & 3 newbuild townhouses: bit.ly/45PetUw
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https://twitter.com/edinburghssc/status/1718954616140808320
And scope for ‘planning gain’…
Council officer has confirmed that the bollard was installed as a way to slow cyclists. Also says they're working on widening the path to 3m.
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Lovely bollard at the path along Braidburn Path opposite the BraidBurn Park entrance on Oxgangs Avenue.
I don’t know who changed this but thank you! Previously a tricky business to cross the road and squeeze through the gates . Small thing; big impact!
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https://twitter.com/cyclesouthedin/status/1719041948290355247
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There seems to have been quite a few of those changed out recently across the city, it’s such an access improvement.
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https://twitter.com/julieduchess/status/1719103014932234269?
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