About a week ago the bike lanes in Gilmerton Rd were repainted with shiny bright white lines, and I wonder what other people think.
My impression is that the repainting makes an already bad situation worse, more unpleasant and dangerous.
This goes beyond the general issue that painted lanes are not optimal. The specific problem in Gilmerton Rd is that the road surface is really bad along long stretches and deeply cratered especially in the area of these bike lanes (top layer of the tarmac coming off in patches, sunken drains, long cracks etc). Normally I have to cycle at least on the line, often further out, just to avoid deep road defects that would throw me off. It's not a matter of a few potholes here and there but of long sections just worn down.
The problem with the re-paint: Until now, the markings were so faint that they were hardly visible so that they were universally ignored by cyclists and drivers (i.e. most drivers normally didn't seem to notice when I cycled much more centrally).
Now they are bright and visible and within a few days I already had drivers signalling me I should be in there, as they don't realise how bad it is. Less assertive cyclists might be tempted to hopple over the craters. The bright visible lines have considerable psychological impact and encourage too close overtaking, as they signal to drivers where "cyclists should be".
The lanes may just be ok if the surface was smoother, but apparently there are no plans to resurface Gilmerton Rd (except a bit around Ellen's Glen).
I appreciate that the road teams had the best intentions and perhaps had to refresh the paint as the lanes were already there, but in my opinion it was better when they were not visible and I would have preferred to remove them completely if the lanes can't be resurfaced and designed properly.
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