CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

So yesterday I was ready to jack in commuting...

(24 posts)
  • Started 8 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from slowcoach

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  1. It's what lead to the Hitler video really, channelled the annoyance into something more fun (Hitler = fun, who knew?).

    It was partly my own fault taking the route home through the centre of town (though it IS my most direct route). But then I started thinking, but why would that be my 'fault', it just shouldn't be that way.

    It's also partly down to the fact that after 7 months of working from home I'd forgotten how choked and aggressive the roads are at rush hour (especially as it gets to festival time).

    In the one commute there were:

    Clogged junctions with cars at sixes and sevens, often on narrow bits of road leaving no safe or logical place to cycle by;

    Impatient close passes, or shifting of position without looking properly;

    The completely closed cycling infrastructure on George Street;

    A bus tailgating as I cycled up to a junction to turn right (that one will be going to Lothian Buses);

    Pedestrians wandering aimlessly in what little cycling infrastructure there is, vehicles in ASLs, 3 point turns ahead in narrow roads without checking the way is clear, macho must-get-in-front cyclists, and just general.... unpleasantness.

    I've a complete video from the bottom of Lothian Road, along George Street, up North Bridge, and down the Royal Mile to the Parliament, which I'm going to upload in its entirety some time tonight, just to give a reflection on the city centre of Edinburgh for cycling.

    It's abysmal. Truly abysmal. I couldn't care less what the Council thinks about what has been 'achieved' or how hard people are 'trying'. They are failing, pure and simple. I'd rather they were honest and said it was all hot air when they talked about cycling, or just had the balls to make some tough decisions and annoy a few people in the short term to turn this city into what it could be. Because at the moment Edinburgh is a motorised mess.

    And relax.

    Until the commute at 5.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. Morningsider
    Member

    The city centre is a cycling black hole, which I generally try to avoid. Try not to let it put you off though. Things are definitely improving, albeit at a glacial pace.

    Also, I don't see many happy motorists or bus users about - I think the layout of the city centre's roads doesn't actually benefit anyone.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. SRD
    Moderator

    About how I felt when I wrote this. http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=14611 Only I didn't do anything funny and clever with my anger/horror.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. gibbo
    Member

    It's abysmal. Truly abysmal. I couldn't care less what the Council thinks about what has been 'achieved' or how hard people are 'trying'. They are failing, pure and simple.

    Well said.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. neddie
    Member

    Just be thankful you weren't stuck inside one of those cars.

    You were free. Free to get off and start walking. Free to turn around (if you so choose)...

    Car occupants are trapped, they can't just 'get out' and abandon the car.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. gembo
    Member

    IT will be quite hard for me going back on the roads all the way when term starts. In the summer I cycle bit of road down to Heriot Watt, then canal it to Lochrin then cowgate to office. Has been mostly enjoyable, today absolutely no hassle from man, woman or beast. Some mild peril from man with slefgehammer knocking down most of the wall where the Boroughmuir new build impacts on the canal.

    If dry I would also go WoL Path to canal. Lovely. BUt muddy now.

    Starting back on a busy commute at festival time is bad. Traffic chaos abounds.

    What to do is buy yourself a bit of kit in the Vulpine sale. You can get a Chris Hoy jersey for £34.99 - looks nice. Or other non-Hoy bargains still around.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  7. Min
    Member

    Car occupants are trapped, they can't just 'get out' and abandon the car.

    It was their choice to trap themselves in the car in the first place. No sympathy. Although I might start giving them some when they stop trying to kill me.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Wilmington's Cow

    Do not despair. You could be in Stirling. Or Falkirk. Or...horror...Aberdeen. Morningcider is semi-correct. The city centre is to be avoided....unless you can change your mind set. Approach it not as a set of roads but as a surrealist sculptural theme park and your ire will ebb. And remember that whatever irritation you feel would be multiplied a thousand times were you to be at the controls of an automobile.

    Courage, comrade menshevik.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  9. wingpig
    Member

    It's very irritating that there are now at least eight potentially massively frustrating parallel evening-routes from west to east within a mile of each other, all of which have to be approached in a sort of let's-check-it's-as-bad-as-it-looks-to-be mindset to avoid frustration. The juddercobbles of St Colme/Heriot Row, multi-lane-undiscipline on Queen Street, THE WAY IS SHUT on George Street, bus/tram logjam on Princes Street, cobbles versus buses versus tourists from castle to parliament, MGIF-to-the-stationary-car-ten-feet-ahead on the Cowgate, the imminent jam along Lauriston Place when busesful of Tattoo-performers need to get up George IV and the disrespect for the cycle symbols painted on NMW. Any route I might potentially consider a quick/direct way home is such a delay-stuffed pain in the face that I accept I won't have a fun ride home unless I swing wide and go twice the distance for very little increase in overall time.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  10. Min
    Member

    The city centre is to be avoided....unless you can change your mind set.

    Or where you live or your place of work.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  11. I see someone on Twitter thinks it's tedious SRD ;)

    What Min said - I work in the city centre, so avoiding it isn't really an option, and what wingpig said, pretty much any route has its pitfalls at the mo.

    Bah. I'm just out of the habit, so instead of feeling smug compared to those in cars it was just annoying yesterday. But yes, bus is a nightmare (going home at least, again, city centre, so slow and buuuuuuusy), and the car is a non-starter - hate the few times I've got to drive in.

    Aberdeen for cycling? Last time I did it earlier this year it was 8-10pm and dark, so I avoided the worst of the horror. I'd hate to have to contemplate rush hour cycling.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  12. AKen
    Member

    If dry I would also go WoL Path to canal. Lovely. BUt muddy now.

    Been going this way home the past couple of days. Not too muddy at the moment - at least as far West as Currie.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  13. (and I do sometimes think that having no provision is better, certainly in terms of lowering frustration, than having provision thrown in without thought that you're then expected to use, and not using can cause ire in others...)

    Posted 8 years ago #
  14. gembo
    Member

    @AKen

    Walked it on Saturday from Blerno to Juni Green and back. Was quite muddy in places (more muddy twixt Blerno and Currie for sure) Not horrendous and if canal not there I would be on it like an Easter Bonnet. Some years when it is dry it is very, very nice. Indeed this spring it had dried out a few times and I was there and was thinking if stays dry today I might go back that way.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  15. gembo
    Member

    Cycled it tonight following an AKen suggestion. Lovely, drier than Saturday. Not overgrown like the towpath which needs a trim for sure.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  16. wee folding bike
    Member

    So… does nobody else actually like cycling in cities?

    I'll cycle round London, Glasgow or Edinburgh for fun. London is most fun because it's bigger and I don't go there as often.

    I'd have gone for a wee needless spin round Glasgow this afternoon, bike was in the trunk, but the Uni Cafe was shut which complicated my luncheon arrangements.

    I did go for a ride along the Regent's canal in July but only because I'd never done it before and because it let me pick up a couple of Madness landmarks.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  17. gembo
    Member

    Quite like George St but has a big pub in the way just now. Arthur's seat nice, not too many volcanos in middle of cities. Like going along the Clyde. Either direction, either side

    Posted 8 years ago #
  18. gembo
    Member

    Raining now so probably back on the towpath tomorrow

    Posted 8 years ago #
  19. wee folding bike
    Member

    The Clyde could have been so much better if bits of it hadn't been sold off to private developers. You can only do some bits of it.

    The Riverside museum has been there for four years now and it's still a wasteland on either side.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  20. ih
    Member

    @wee folding. I cycle round London (70% of time) and Edinburgh (30%) for fun and practicality. A key difference between the two cities in my view is that in London I have never thought that any cycling infrastructure was so bad that they just shouldn't have bothered, whereas in Edinburgh, well, please look at @Wilmington's Hitler utube clip and that's how I feel. Edinburgh makes so many claims for cycling and then messes up.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  21. wee folding bike
    Member

    I tried the super highway round Limehouse last year. It's a bit all over the place.

    In the wild west we had that bus shelter outside the police HQ.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  22. In fairness wfb, I do normally enjoy cycling in the city. I've been trying to work out why Tuesday just felt so miserable, and it was just one of those days with lots of daftness on the road, and it being start-of-Festival busy, and me not having commuted properly in rush hour for months.

    I've cycled in London a few times, and really enjoy it (save for not knowing where I'm going and having to consult a map every five minutes). Not ridden there since the Superhighways went in (magic blue paint, but signed and no need for a map?).

    I'll come round to this urban nonsense again (and yesterday's ride home was fun, avoiding Princes Street, George Street etc).

    Posted 8 years ago #
  23. Charlethepar
    Member

    I commute to and fro through the centre every working day (Lochrin, Chambers Street, Bridges, Leith Walk). I find the chaos mostly amusing. Yes, you have to be really assertive to survive, and yes it's hopeless in terms of getting normal people to cycle. But, I have to confess to enjoying the struggle, particularly as its the motorised bozos who are really stuck.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  24. slowcoach
    Member

    @ih- cycling round London (70% of time) and Edinburgh (30%) - that doesn't leave much time for anything else? Are you like

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Player

    http://tinyurl.com/po8nh88

    "The man who lived on his bike" in Montreal?

    Posted 8 years ago #

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