CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Gardner's Crescent/Morrison Street crossing

(16 posts)

No tags yet.


  1. Stickman
    Member

    I think it's been discussed here previously how terrible this crossing is for pedestrians. There must be thousands of people who walk this route to and from the station, yet they are hemmed in behind barriers and have no signalled crossing. As I go this way each day I've noticed more and more people walking on the road outside the barriers. If nothing is done then it's only going to get worse when the new Haymarket development opens.

    It occurred to me that banning traffic from turning left from Morrison Street onto Gardner's Crescent would allow a signalled crossing to be installed without offending the great god Traffic Flow. The green man could go when traffic is heading westbound from Morrison Street.

    This would only affect cars coming out of the Semple Street car park who want to get back to Fountainbridge and a few residents at the north end of Gardner's Crescent. They would have to make the diversion round Torphichen Street.

    There would also be the added benefit of removing the left-hook risk here. A cyclist was seriously injured at this spot in the last couple of years.

    Thoughts?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  2. Frenchy
    Member

    Does traffic from Gardner's Crescent get a green light at the same time as traffic from Dewar Place? If they're separate, am I right in thinking that a two-stage crossing would also allow for a signalled crossing without angering The Almighty Traffic Flow? Pedestrians could cross the southbound carriageway of Gardner's Crescent when traffic from Gardner's Crescent has a green light, and then the northbound carriageway when the light turns red.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I agree it's atrocious. And that corridor up to Lothian Road from Haymarket Station is heaving with pedestrians any given rush hour, only for them all to be funnelled into a very narrow space where there's barely room to pass (never mind if the businesses have their bins or A-boards out), and then to have to cross a road with no crossing where vehicles generally take it at a run.

    Building the pavement out at the throat of Gardners Crescent to increase space for waiting would have the double benefit of preventing a straight, high-speed run out of Dewar Place.

    I assume that it's not closed to southbound traffic as you suggest as Grove Place and Semple Street are northbound only, and there would be no other alternative to get from Morrison Street to Fountainbridge. But that raises the question as to why Semple Street needs to be 3 northbound lanes.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  4. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    "This would only affect cars coming out of the Semple Street car park who want to get back to Fountainbridge and a few residents at the north end of Gardner's Crescent."

    And me cycling, as using the cut-through through Widows is quite antisocial to peds at peak times, I feel.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "using the cut-through through Widows is quite antisocial to peds at peak times, I feel"

    Only done it when almost deserted, but can imagined it's v busy at certain times.

    And there will still be people who think 'bikes not allowed'.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  6. Stickman
    Member

    And me cycling

    Cyclists ignored in street changes again! ;-)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  7. Frenchy
    Member

    And there will still be people who think 'bikes not allowed'.

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=16894#post-231223

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    Indeed - only a week ago too!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. neddie
    Member

    Just put in a straight-forward "all directions" pedestrian phase. It will not affect traffic "flow" one iota due to the significant delays at the neighbouring junctions in all directions.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. Stickman
    Member

    @eddie_h: that would work!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. jonty
    Member

    The whole Morrison Street corridor is due to be rejigged soon anyway I think - anyone know how that's progressing?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. wingpig
    Member

    "Does traffic from Gardner's Crescent get a green light at the same time as traffic from Dewar Place?"

    I think left-turns into Morrison St from Dewar Place are simultaneous with left-turns out of Gardner's Crescent. I wandered past at lunchtime but forgot to check that, so I'll see on the way home.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. Fountainbridge
    Member

    I've heard recently that there's due to be a review of Morrison Street but can't remember where I heard it.

    Plenty of new developments could have paid for an upgrade in the past, and plenty to pay for it in the future.

    This is after all the main pedestrian route from the Exchange Financial district, International Conference Center and the 4th busiest train station in Scotland.

    I'd also add changes required to end of Grove Street which can have 3 cars wide stopped on it.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. Stickman
    Member

    It's on the design list mentioned in this thread:

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15990

    The whole area is a disaster.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. wingpig
    Member

    Left out of Gardner's coupled with ped green on both bits of Dewar.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. Frenchy
    Member

    Left out of Gardner's coupled with ped green on both bits of Dewar.

    If I'm understanding you right, pedestrians could therefore cross the southbound carriageway of GC whilst traffic coming out of GC has a green light, and cross the northbound carriageway when GC traffic has a red light?

    This is obviously inferior to simply having an additional pedestrian phase of the lights cycle.

    Posted 7 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin