Good photoset, chdot, illustrates the tokenism of this gesture very well! Clear a nice flat bit, leave out the slope, and don't clear any of the routes in or out of it! I see that they have a "thing" (or a "hopper") on the back to "spit" (or "spread") out grit.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
dig out your snow tyres and your wooly vests
(429 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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I've been told that a huge effort has been made to clear the car parks at out of town shopping centres. Of course this will be done privately by the likes of Asda (I hope).
Despite MMW being a top walking and cycling route into city it hasn't been improved today either. Maybe they think it will just thaw?
The crush of people at the narrower top of the path makes cycling a slow hassle so I've been going round on road half the time.
Much as I enjoy the scenic aspect of a snow bound MMW I think the mini-ploughs should have a go asap!I only saw one other cyclist and a solo motorbike this morning. The open top tour buses have come back though.
Yes... you may not be able to get a train within our modern Scotland but you can tour our slushy streets at 10mph.
Posted 13 years ago # -
My cycle is reliable, however the rail system has effectively collapsed which has left me no alternative but to use a car :-( it's reliable and predictable (with a trained driver), unfortunately the rail part of my multi-modal is not, therefore I shall join the caged masses until the trains get fixed :-((
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Scotland braces itself for weekend of chaos"
"
Forecaster Aisling Creevey said: “The problem is the ground temperature is lower than the air temperature, so that makes thawing difficult. It’s going to be really cold into the next 10 days.”
"Posted 13 years ago # -
watch out for sudden patches of snow on the roads, either from avalanches, or people digging out their cars now its the weekend. Saw a guy rashing about in the gravel/slush of the pavement on a very knobbly mountain bike. I was bemused (the roads were clear) but he seemed happy enough, the full gear and everything.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Planning on MTBing the Innocent tomorrow - if it has gone the way of some of the medium use paths round here it should be pretty hard packed fun. Drove by today and had a look down it and looked like a nice central track looking just like that.
Roads could be interesting - I predict sudden ice patches based on a wee walk outside just now to find little patches forming on the path I cleared earlier today already.
Posted 13 years ago # -
posted on the other thread
Posted 13 years ago # -
No way cycling to work in the snow - too B****y cold!
Saw one guy yesterday morning with a short sleeved T-shirt at Haymarket just after 9am heading towards town. The snow was heaving down at the time. Wonder if he ever got home?
I didn't (came in on the bus) and had to check into a hotel for the night! thnere were no buses heading beyond Longstone and it would have been a long hike to Balerno!
So today I had no trouble getting to work but do have a very fashionable stubble!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Cycling to and from Balerno has been just fine.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Meanwhile, in Scotland...
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Cycling to and from Balerno has been just fine."
Seriously?!?! No snow or ice on the roads making it... fun? I need to move inland - supposed to stay clearer near the sea, but that's definitely not the case at the moment!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Strangely enough, I've been convinced the past couple of evenings that it's colder at the shop than in Balerno. The state of some of the roads would appear to support that as the Lanark Road was wet, whereas Princes St was icy.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@kaputnic Touché!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"'Warm' spell on the way but it'll last just 3 days"
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/39Warm39-spell-on-the-way.6653376.jp
Posted 13 years ago # -
Rail unreliable?
Tuesday night I was on a Caledonian Sleeper from London to Edinburgh, which was initially cancelled, but then half an hour later re-instated, yet the online live trains info continued to state that the train was cancelled, even so I was on it!
Then waking up yesterday morning, I was informed that the train was going into Glasgow instead, with the end of the train where the bikes for Edinburgh go, off the end of the platform, luckily I was able to take the bike through a few carriages. I then get to Glasgow Queen to find the 0800 and 0830 trains to Edinburgh, with massive queues for the 0900.
I thus ended up taking a bit of a gamble and taking the Alloa train, that according to the online live train times was cancelled, yet I was on it! I got off at Larbert to find that all trains on that line were cancelled until further notice due to a broken down train outside Stirling. I started cycling the next bit towards Falkirk, but then gave up and started pushing due to the road being too icy.
I went into Camelon station to find all trains there were cancelled too, yet there was a northbound non-stopping train, and then the first Edinburgh-Dumblane train of the day, which was hopefully going to turn round and head back. I hung round the station for a while, and sure enough it did come back, with no information about that train on the displays, though there was an announcement where the guy was rather surprise that there was a train running. I had a nice chat with the catering guy on that train, including some cycling stuff.
Cycling on Edinburgh's main roads from the Waverley, up the bridges to the Gilmerton Road wasn't too bad. Once I came off the main road though it was a lot harder, especially when hitting a speed cushion, or getting onto the lesser used roads, with 2 deep ruts to attempt to cycle in with the peddles hitting the top of the snow.
Needless to say, I was cycling with 2 full panniers (probably weighing a good 10kg between them) and an additional 9kg on top of the rack too strapped on with bunggies, so it was even more challenging than normal.
Posted 13 years ago # -
smsm1: Good getting-home effort!
Posted 13 years ago # -
smsm1 That was an epic. And there was me wondering whether to risk using the Innocent Path to go into the city centre tomorrow.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I started riding again this week on the MTB, after humming and hawing all last week (just put shiny new drivetrain on it which I wasn't sure I wanted to rust away).
It's been surprisingly fine, even the deep snow in the side roads has now firmed up to the point where it's quite acceptable.
There are some dodgy bits where compacted snow has made little ice nuggets, but I haven't had any near misses yet.
The convenience is worth the risk. (An hour to bus a 15 minute bike ride, indeed!)
Posted 13 years ago # -
good effort smsm1! The bicycle must get through!
Posted 13 years ago # -
on foot again today, these ice spikes are just too much fun not to use them
Posted 13 years ago # -
Yes indeed. Make sure the spikes are pointing outwards on both feet though..
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Make sure the spikes are pointing outwards on both feet though"
Why? Have you been going round in circles?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hmm no, just sliding a little on one foot, d'oh. Still works pretty well even as spikeless chains I have to say..
Posted 13 years ago # -
0730 Airdrie - Glasgow for a course at 0930. Got there a little early. Two other people turned up but the presenters didn't.
Course cancelled.
Council has told teachers to report to their nearest school. I drop in on the way home, report and leave. Not sure what the point of that was.
A wee bit of yaw on some of the ice. I suspect it's the camber. Mostly positive responses to the trike apart from one taxi driver in Bargeddie. Apparently I'm a nutter... but he was the one ranting at strangers.
Posted 13 years ago # -
smsm1
That is an amazing story. Cycling the gap between Stirling and Camelon was a bit of genius.
File under 'incredible journeys' and send to Struan Stevenson! Or Scot-trial.
Shows you that their info is in meltdown. Never has so much technology been used to so little effect. If you'd used twitter you may have given up... Better just to go for it.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"I've seen them do it, but they don't want to damage the engine, so they get out and 6 burly firemen "bounce" it out the way. It's quite a treat to see."
"
Hundreds of cars lifted for blocking fire engines' path
"http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Hundreds-of-cars-lifted-for.6673179.jp
Posted 13 years ago # -
Perhaps some of the revenue created by the above scheme could go some way to reversing some of the idiotic "traffic calming" measures around town that also create road obstructions.
I always come around the corner of Robertson Avenue on my way home and marvel at the cars apparently parked in the middle of the road. At first it was the "selfish owners" of the cars that annoyed me and incurred my mental curses, until I noticed, in better light, that they were in fact parked perfectly legally;
The recipe for success here seems to be to build a 10 foot extension to the pavement on a corner, but only paint the double yellows partially around it, thereby letting people park their cars along side it and in what was previously the middle of the carriageway. This of course completely defeats one of the major purposes of these extended pavements; to provide the pedestrian with a safe place to wait to cross where they are completely visible to drivers.
But why stop there? You've already got cars parked on the opposite side of the road, but it's not quite narrow enough? So why not extend the bus stop out by a couple of metres - after all it's a busy stop served by one bus route, 3 times an hour at peak. It's an odd decision, they seem perfectly happy to plonk the bus stops in the middle of the pavement in town where waiting passengers and passing pedestrians mix and get in eachothers way to mutual frustration.
So now traffic trying to go uphill is met not only by the cars parked in the middle of the road - and cannot see anyone trying to get out of the side street (and neither can they see you), but also the queue of cars trying to get around the bus coming the other way. However, the designer was obviously on a roll that day and delivered a coup-de-grace by placing the recycling bins exactly where they obscure the line of site between pedestrians and downhill drivers.
Genius.
</rant>
I needed that.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Meanwhile, in Northern America...
...everything is bigger!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Thats brilliant!
Posted 13 years ago #
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