Ding ding round 2 (and another long post by me...)
Murray Estates have put in a planning application for 1,500 houses filling in the plot of land between the Bypass, Gogar Station Road, the A8 and the Edin /Glas railway.
Multiple views are available on the use of the greenbelt for housing, but as the plans are set out, all the traffic from these houses will be entering and exiting onto Gogar Station Road (GSR).
There is some good chat in the Transport Appendix 5 about how they will be encouraging non-vehicular transport options...
Walking and Cycling
A number of external and internal interventions were identified as part of the Transport Appraisal and these will be incorporated into the indicative development framework
proposals including the following:
External
Retention of and the upgrade to the existing Right of Way which has an access point with the site on Gogar Station Road and the underpass from Edinburgh Park
Pedestrian/cycle access points on the northern boundary of the site to link in with the National Cycle Network running along the A8 towards Edinburgh and also to the Edinburgh tram halt at RBS Gogarburn, existing bus stops and the planned Edinburgh Gateway where both rail and tram services can be accessed;
Connections to the existing off road foot/cycle path running under the A720 in the south east corner of the site, providing access to Edinburgh Park Rail and Tram Halts and also the National Cycle Network along the Union Canal;
Introduction of a new pedestrian/cycle link under the A720 possibly in association with a bus only link;
Pedestrian/cycle access points in association with the two main vehicle accesses onto Gogar Station Road; and
The introduction of additional shuttle traffic signals on Gogar Station Road to assist in reducing traffic speeds and improving road safety at locations where this road narrows.
Internal
Upgrading of the existing right of way running from the Gogar Station Road to the underpass providing access to Edinburgh Park;
A core pedestrian / cycle route network running through the site ensuring full permeability;
Pedestrian/cycle links to the primary school and neighbourhood facilities from the locations throughout the site; and
Pedestrian links from the various parcels of development to bus stops located along the development core road.
All sounds good, but I think they are missing (at least) 6 key points.
1. North Section of GSR
At the North end of GSR it crosses the Gogar burn with a set of traffic lights, which also serve the RBS service yard. This is where the Northern entrance to site will be. They will change the lights to be 4-way (although the application quotes 3 way),
To the North of here, GSR is only 5.10m wide with a c.1m wide pavement hemmed in by high walls. This will become a key route for a lot of the traffic, including all those residents walking to the Gogarburn Bus & tram stops.
They are also planning to make the junction between the RBS access road & GSR traffic light controlled, with the only pedestrian crossing on the North leg of GSR.
I just don't think this area has been thought through for everyone. Particularly pedestrians, but also queuing traffic which could snarl up the whole thing - we already have the occasional problems on this stretch with existing traffic flows.
Any traffic queues will make it very hard/impossible for cyclists to make progress in line with Movement Hierarchy, prioritising cycling.
2. Gogar Roundabout
An access point will be made near to the Gogar Roundabout for Cyclist & Pedestrians to access/exit the North East corner of the site, an onwards to bus, tram & train stops. However, nothing is being done to make crossing the Gogar Roundabout easier for either the A8 Sliproad or the Bypass.
These are frightening roads to cross, even for fit people and will be a huge barrier to anyone actually using this route to access public transport .
3. Railway bridge
At the SouthWestern corner of the site is the narrow Railway bridge on GSR. The approach to the bridge from the North is narrow (5.25m road + c. 1m pavement), with the bridge itself only 3.35m wide and has no usuable pavement for pedestrians to cross.
A little further South again is the other narrow Gogar Burn bridge which will be getting traffic lights (which is a good thing, as can be scary just now). It also doesn't have a pavement.
Again, no evidence of how these will be made cycling/walking friendly. The uphill approaches to the railway bridge will be particularly unpleasant with impatient vehicles behind.
They may use a counter argument that by opening up the access routes to the Southern bypass underpass, cyclists can use that route to access the canal, via Hermiston Gate / Cutlins Road, but that is a much worse route for cycling compared to the wide shared path up GSR over the motorway to the canal on a steady gradient.
Once it has finished you could go all the way through the new estate towards the Southern underpass, then use the existing railway bridge nearer to the bypass and then rejoin GSR just South of the southern Burn bridge, and up the hill.
But that is a bit of detour and I assume wouldn't be available during construction.
4. GSR road itself (between bridges)
It was a long battle to get the cycle lanes put into GSR and they seem to be working well in slowing traffic down and encouraging wider overtaking. And even then couldn't be put in on the whole length due to width constraints.
However, their effectiveness will be much reduced if there is the forecasted increase in traffic volumes. From their models, traffic volumes during AM/PM peaks will increase c.50% going with RBS commuters, but possibly more significantly by 100% coming towards you.
So more overtakes and more likely to face oncoming traffic...
A lower (enforced) speed limit and/or a separated cycle/shared path is really required here as well as street lighting.
The pavement is also very narrow so won't be very pleasant with the increased volumes of traffic - including the wide construction traffic.
5. Parking
No major employers will be based on the site and therefore, there is not expected to be much demand for car parking other than at the primary school.
They obviously haven't been round South Gyle on a workday.
As well as the bypass underpass opening up options for Edinburgh park workers, the current regeneration of RBS Gogarburn will see many more staff trying to get to it with the same car parking. GSR is currently double yellow because it was being used as an overflow car park. Most of the excess parking is currently going to the airport P&R and walking the mile back (or taking the bus), but that would quickly change to a convenient housing estate closer by and increase traffic.
6. Traffic Flow models
They have produced some detailed traffic models to show the impact it will have on surrounding roads. I'm no expert on these but it would seem to have undercooked the impact.
It is assuming that out of the 1,540 properties being built, they would only need to do 1 trip per property, with 80% leaving & 20% arriving during the morning peak.
And of these trips, only 45% would be as a car driver.
I'm not convinced by the figures.
They also have part of their model based on all Northbound GSR traffic turning left(West) onto the A8, whereas in reality they will use the RBS Snowflake bridge to head East towards town. Not sure how much this undermines their findings.
So in summary, I will be objecting based on these - anything I've missed.
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