CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Dundas Street cycle lanes

(35 posts)
  • Started 7 years ago by chrispaton
  • Latest reply from Tulyar

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  1. chrispaton
    Member

    Was just heading down to the Botanics and noticed resurfacing works going on between Fettes Row and Northumberland Street on Dundas Street. There's red chips going in so cycle lanes are part of the work and the council's traffic disruption page backs this up:

    City of Edinburgh Council
    Carriageway resurfacing and installation of cylce lanes. [sic]
    Lane closures / contraflow maintaining 2-way traffic. Phases 1/2 - Cumberland Street closed. Phases 3/4 - Great King Street closed. *Stop/Go boards early afternoon Wednesday 21/06/17*

    Does anyone know more about this project? Are the cycle lanes going the whole way up? Was segregation considered?

    Whatever the case it's good to see provision for cycling on Dundas Street as I've always thought it could form a nicer alternative to Dublin Street for getting between the NEPN and the city centre.

    Cheers,
    Chris

    Posted 7 years ago #

  2. fimm
    Member

    Dundas Street?

    Now there's a dilemma if ever there was one. Even on the Brompton, going downhill, the only safe place is out in the flow of traffic. You go way too fast to be safe in a theoretical second lane, especially as there's parked cars. And if they are door zone lanes I'm going nowhere near them.

    Going uphill, of course, is a different kettle of fish.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  3. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @fimm

    Spot on. I stopped going inside the line of cars after totaling a young lady who stepped off the pavement in front of me thinking the 'traffic' had stopped.

    A cycle lane next to the pavement on the downhill side will get people hurt through that, dooring and left hooking.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    "Was segregation considered?"

    Probably not.

    If so, briefly.

    "A cycle lane next to the pavement on the downhill side will get people hurt through that, dooring and left hooking."

    Obviously I hope you're wrong...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  5. chrispaton
    Member

    Agreed about a downhill cycle lane being counterproductive. Since no-one seems to have more details I've fired off an email to the Active Travel team asking for any more details they can share. Will report back when I hear anything...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    Because of the resurfacing work I noticed last week that there already is a cycle lane downhill - must normally be parked on!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  7. Colonies_Chris
    Member

    Going up there yesterday, what I could make out is that there seems to be red chipping in the centre of the road, with a branch diagonally leftwards leading up into the ASZ. I can't figure out what that's about.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. Min
    Member

    Because of the resurfacing work I noticed last week that there already is a cycle lane downhill - must normally be parked on!

    Really?? Never knew that!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. Frenchy
    Member

    @Colonies Chris -maybe I've misunderstood your description, but sounds like the bike lane is being diverted around parking bays?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    "Really??"

    Yes indeed!

    My Flickr Uploadr was misbehaving, so I couldn't find this when I looked for it earlier.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. Colonies_Chris
    Member

    It was news to me that there are downhill cycle lanes, and I travel up and down there almost every day. It's always fully parked up. The only safe route downhill is to take the lane, as others have said. But drivers hate that - I've been bullied and aggressively overtaken, even though I'm easily keeping up with traffic down the hill.
    @Frenchy - no, the red chipped area is too far out to be going around parking bays - almost on the centre line. It's a mystery to me.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. jonty
    Member

    From what I've seen the red chipping clears the parking bays with a modest door zone buffer added. If you think it's that far out then it can only be good as the door zone buffer must be bigger than I thought. Or maybe we're thinking of different sections - the one I'm thinking of is the first uphill section they've done.

    I had never noticed the old bike lane until recently either! Didn't occur to me that the only reason it's visible will be the parking ban for the roadworks. What a waste of paint.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    "It was news to me that there are downhill cycle lanes"

    I think it's really just an ASL lead-in lane.

    But even so - useless if not 'protected' by double yellows.

    "But drivers hate that - I've been bullied and aggressively overtaken, even though I'm easily keeping up with traffic down the hill."

    Might be better if the surface is decent.

    OBVIOUSLY plenty of room for a separate uphill cycle lane.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. Min
    Member

    "Yes indeed!

    My Flickr Uploadr was misbehaving, so I couldn't find this when I looked for it earlier."
    Well you learn something new every day. :-)

    I would like for them to reset the traffic lights so you get enough time to clear the junctions going uphill if you are still crossing when the lights change. I ended up actually stranded in the middle of Queen Street because of this once and it was terrifying. For me that would be much more useful than bike lanes.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. gkgk
    Member

    I suppose that putting in a downhill bike paintlane under the parked cars lets them charge the roadworks to the bike budget.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. jonty
    Member

    To be clear, the downhill lane was there already. Hopefully any new lane will be painted outside of any parking bays like the uphill one.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  17. fimm
    Member

    Is the speed limit 20 or 30 there?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  18. Frenchy
    Member

    Twenty.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  19. neddie
    Member

    Apparently, the (new?) uphill lane is to be 1.5m wide with a 0.5m door zone buffer.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Spokes CycleCampaign (@SpokesLothian)
    01/07/2017, 14:18
    @116McD @CyclingEdin @Edinburgh_CC Note this funded via road resurfacing, not cycle budget. Extra cost virtually zero, just red chips instead of black!

    https://twitter.com/116McD/status/881138232293044225

    "

    Posted 7 years ago #

  21. chrispaton
    Member

    Hi folks,

    Kudos to the Active Travel team; they replied really quickly to my email. I was just slow to reply here :-)

    But yes, they've basically taken an opportunity to add an uphill cycle lane during programmed resurfacing -- hence why segregation wasn't considered as that would be a separate project. The work they're doing here doesn't' require any TROs or RSOs etc. in the way that a full segregation project would.

    The resurfacing and hence new cycle lane is unfortunately only from Fettes Row up to Great King Street, but the good news is that it is indeed 1.5m wide and goes around the parked cars with a 0.5m buffer -- so as good as you're going to get without segregation. Definitely an improvement.

    Cheers,
    Chris

    Posted 7 years ago #

  22. fimm
    Member

    Uphill only?
    Even better.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  23. gembo
    Member

    hopefully that will be helpful

    Posted 7 years ago #

  24. fimm
    Member

    Went that way last night (as far as Cumberland Street). As Chrispaton says, it is only lower down the road. It does look like uphill only, although it isn't finished yet. The uphill lanes are a bit unexciting - not that wide, and door zone - but at least they are not under parked cars, I suppose.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  25. Colonies_Chris
    Member

    Now I've seen the new red chipping properly (minus distractions of cars, machinery, cones, weather etc) I can see that it is indeed a cycle lane going around the parking spots. Definitely an improvement. And so is the new surface. Shame work seems to be stopping part way up though.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    Photo -

    https://twitter.com/116mcd/status/883427920928280576

    Posted 7 years ago #

  27. Colonies_Chris
    Member

    Just below the newly surfaced section, on the uphill side, there's an incredibly shoddy pothole repair - they haven't even bothered to try to flatten it, it's just a lump. Who do I complain to?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  28. chdot
    Admin

    "Who do I complain to?"

    Anyone you want!

    If you're on Twitter try https://mobile.twitter.com/edinhelp

    Or 200 2000

    Posted 7 years ago #

  29. Colonies_Chris
    Member

    Ok. Tweeted.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  30. neddie
    Member

    It's only been two months since the junction was resurfaced and already they are digging it up again.

    I thought there was supposed to be an 18 month moratorium on newly surfaced roads?

    Posted 7 years ago #

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