Fietsclub Balerno went round the forth this morning, some jolly locals even when we cycled on main road from lime kilns to culross rather than pavement path. However once we were south of the river again and east of Linlithgow it was all toots, bad driving , angry locals. This is not the first time we have noticed this particular concentration of drivers with bad attitudes to cyclists in that area compared with other bits of the lothians, Falkirk, Fife, borders, Perthshire, Dumfries, Northumbria and Cumbria. Confirmation bias or have others found this? There is a long flat stretch on way to Gullane where there is also similar bad driving.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Unpleasant drivers concentration between kirkliston and linlithgow
(13 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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Confirmation bias I think
Posted 8 years ago # -
I've had problems with impatient over-takers at the traffic islands outside Kikliston- so much so that I much prefer taking the track from Glendevon (petrol station)to Fauchildean- much more enjoyable. I wonder how many of those drivers could be on the M9 instead?
Posted 8 years ago # -
There is a long flat stretch on way to Gullane where there is also similar bad driving.
Golfers upset at cycling hitting their membership levels? #thenewgolf
Posted 8 years ago # -
Have to agree with gembo, A904 & B8090 are roads I actively avoid. Close pass hells. Plus Winchburgh has a mega problem with neds in cars and neds on the street giving abuse. Must be chemicals leaching from the bings...
Posted 8 years ago # -
I thought we didn't talk about Fiets Club?
Posted 8 years ago # -
This would make an interesting running thread...
Black spots where there is some consensus that cycling is worse.
Could be road layout based, event/traffic density based or (more subjectively) more aggressive traffic (i.e. lots of cars that have just left a motor way).
Posted 8 years ago # -
A904 certainly fits category of 'cars that have just left a motorway'. B9080 also close to M9 but in that case I think it's more layout based, it's a wide carriageway - does that lead to faster, more aggressive driving? I generally avoid both of these roads but mainly because there are nicer alternatives, although road surface leaves much to be desired in some cases.
If the A89 is anything to go by I'd say yes, wider carriageway influences speed and general behaviour. I avoid the A89 except for weekend mornings and even then there are times when I decide it's just not worth it and bail out to the shared path. See instances of very fast aggressive driving on the long straights behind Broxburn and Uphall more or less every day. Seems to be something of a local racetrack.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Got to agree. Hit by an overtaking driver (!) whilst I was turning right off main road between Kirkliston and Winchburgh. Broken ribs and an afternoon in A&E in St Johns. Police involved - driver fined and points for careless driving. That was a year ago - then a month ago I was nearly the meat in the sandwich of another overtaking car and approaching car (on wrong side of the road) near the hairpin bends at Railway bridge heading to Kirkliston just beyond the Dalmeny turn off where I think there was a cyclist fatality not that long ago.
Unfortunately all this has made me choose to get off two wheels and go for a recumbent trike which can cope with more challenging and minimal traffic terrain. Looking forward to that but sorry to be giving up the laidback 2 wheels!
Posted 8 years ago # -
it's a wide carriageway - does that lead to faster, more aggressive driving?
Almost certainly yes.
When highways in America were new, and given the automobile technology of the day when drivers eschewed seat belts and then went through glass windscreens, the school of thought was the need for more safety. So they made the highways wide, three or four lanes each way, and they gave drivers lots of room in case of accidents, so they built hugely wide central reservations of grass.
The crash rate of drivers was unexpectedly high.
The generous space that was available to drivers was designed to account for and passively contain the errors that drivers might make. But psychologically, drivers were fooled into overestimating their skills. The removal of close-proximity hazards led to a lowering of the sensation of speed (just as distant things seem to move more slowly), and an increase in perceived invulnerability. The result was that people drove faster, and more people crashed.
Make a road narrow and (apparently) dangerous, like a single track road cut on the side of a cliff face, and people will drive slowly. Armco barriers are quite effective* for speed reduction because not only will they absorb an inbound vehicle, but it's quite attractive to not to hit them in the first place because they will spoil your paintwork (or kill you, if you're a motorbiker).
A904 certainly fits category of 'cars that have just left a motorway'.
See also the phenomenon of people attempting to step off a moving train (in the old days of slam doors) believing that the speed was much less than it actually was. This is because after time spent moving at high speed one's brain adapts to process information faster, and one's reflexes speed up accordingly. Quickly eliminate the physical high speed (by leaving a motorway, or approaching a railway station platform) and one's perception of a reduced speed is a greatly reduced speed.
* Except the section on the off-camber curve on Braid Hills Road, which has been mangled by something rather heavier than a motorcyclist.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I hesitate to bring this up to build on Arellcat's point, but on Top Gear (sorry) James May (I think it was him on that occasion) had been driving a Bugatti Veyron at some insane speed and described how he slowed to a near stop and moved to open the door before it actually stopped, then looked at the speedo and saw he was still doing 70mph.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Thinking aloud here... I am minded of the exit poll buttons at the IKEA tills. Happy/Okay/Sad.
How about a handlebar mounted device. Allows you to report 3 states of happiness/unhappiness. Tied back via GPS. ...The data could very quickly build up a sentiment analysis heat map of where cycling provision needs improved..?
At the very least it would interesting data for route planning purposes.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@Moose there was an app launched by Love to Ride a couple of months ago that did that sort of thing. I gave it a go as I like the idea of crowd sourcing that type of info and I'm making the journey anyway but ended up deleting it after a day as it didn't seem to recognise movement beyond Edinburgh. From memory, once you had stopped for a bit you were prompted to give a positive or negative rating to your trip so far.
Nice idea but I think the app needs work. Including expanding beyond Edinburgh.
Posted 8 years ago #
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