Anyone know why there is only half an ASL box at the end of Princess St, when turning right onto North bridge ?
I wonder every day, finally remembered to take a pic today.
and how do I post a pic in a post ?? never seems to work :(
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
ASL @ End of Princess St
(11 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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The logic may be that then a bus waiting at the advanced stop line would obscure the side street?
That's less of an issue for the left hand lane as it gets a filter phase extra?
All purely a guess...
Something similar happened at Summerhall Place into West Preston Street - the creation of the "Q"BiC resulted in removal of the ASL on the left turn lane, leaving only the other half.
https://goo.gl/maps/e2pHv5srssC2
Conspiracy theorists might surmise that there is a quota of ASLs and only putting half at each of these locations allowed them to be used in both rather than just one!
Robert
Posted 8 years ago # -
Something similar happened at Summerhall Place into West Preston Street - the creation of the "Q"BiC resulted in removal of the ASL on the left turn lane, leaving only the other half.
I think this is to do with the fairly short distance between the junction and the end of the double yellows. Another solution would have been to extend the double yellows, but...
Posted 8 years ago # -
I received answer one time from the council about the one at the foot of the walk. I think it concerned cyclists going ahead blocking the left filter lane for cars...
Posted 8 years ago # -
You remember that thread about Cllr Andrew Burns crossing ASLs illegally when the lights were red? Well, under the pre-2016 rules you were only supposed to enter an ASZ (on a red light) by the filter lane, usually provided on the left side of the road.
I suspect the thinking went something like this. To get a bike into the right turn position of the ASZ at that point the bike would have to cross in front of two lanes of revving traffic - dangerous, or we will have to provide an additional filter lane in the middle of the road - dangerous, no space. Tell you what, we'll just do half an ASZ - problem sorted.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I'll just continue to sit forward of the stop line anywhere an ASL doesn't exist..
Technically illegal but ASLs just formalised the status quo because that's what cyclists naturally do.
Posted 8 years ago # -
This seems to happen a lot on Princes Street and I always assumed it was a tram tracks thing - can't be here though. Interestingly, in other places the vehicle stop line stays in the same place, but here it is level with the bike one.
Could be something to do with the yellow box junction (which despite having just been repainted is now pointless and probably not legal as right turns out of West Register Street have been banned.) However I wonder if it's standard now on multi-lane setups to keep bikes to the left for some reason.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Anyone know why there is only half an ASL box at the end of Princess St, when turning right onto North bridge ?"
Virgin East Coast won't let me see Flickr (but lets me watch YouTube!).
I asked the council years ago.
As far as remember, the answer was that they thought it would be dangerous encouraging cyclists to change lanes while the signals for straight ahead were green.
That might be overcatious, and I don't know if it's in any design manual, but I decided that they weren't about to change their minds - which would no doubt involve consulting LB, etc. etc.
Posted 8 years ago # -
That's actually quite an interesting point. However, I'd have thought the problem would come when the straight ahead lights were red and the right lights were green and, with mutually poor sightlines, cyclists risk "appearing" in front of a fast-moving stream of right-turning traffic.
I seem to remember that there was a plan to solve this once upon a time, but I think objections from a certain "active travel" group got them cancelled...
Posted 8 years ago # -
@ j
Your suggestion may be correct.
Either way, it was done with a reason, after some thought.
That whole area is a mess - esp with vehicles parked (particularly illegally) on two sides of the hotel.
Don't see much changing...
Posted 8 years ago # -
That junction's always a problem because pedestrians waiting to cross see that the straight-on traffic has a red light, and don't notice the right-filter light, so they start walking, just when the right-turning traffic (me) is trying to move off too. Sometimes it's necessary to be pretty assertive.
Posted 8 years ago #
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