I've recently started using this road a lot - taking my little one from home in Davidson's Mains to our childminder in Cramond, then reversing course to cycle in to work (and then the reverse process in the evening). Cramond Road North is the direct connection between the 2 areas, but is not a pleasant road to cycle on - down or uphill, essentially a "country" road, cars usually too fast and too close. I don't think I have had a single journey on it over the last fortnight that hasn't had at least one close pass or badly-timed overtake. There are alternative routes, but they almost double the distance I would have to cover in each direction (which comes with a time penalty on a regular commute, so...)
I felt motivated to write to my 3 local councillors at the beginning of the week: no response as yet, but I have realised that I am not sure what could/ should be done to that road to make it safer. I wondered if anyone else knows the road and might have ideas about how it could be made more cycle-friendly? If I do have some conversations with LCs, it would be good to have some ideas to suggest.
So far, I've thought about a Gogar Station Road-style makeover, turning it into a one-way route for cars (and making the other direction go via Barnton), building a two-way path down the edge of the golf course to the immediate west of the road behind the existing stone wall - all options with substantial downsides. There's an existing pavement on one side that perhaps could be broadened and made shared use, but that creates pedestrian conflict (although it's not heavily used). Perhaps speed cameras and/ or conventional traffic calming measures could be the way forward (although that's not always that well regarded by the cycle planning experts, is it?). Anyway, if anyone has ideas or comments, that would be much appreciated.
Basically, all that is really needed is a magic "make drivers drive more sensibly" ray at either end, but in lieu of that...
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