CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Calls to restrict cycling on Portobello promenade"
(117 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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The incident, witnessed by hundreds of people on Monday afternoon
Really? The ice cream van was on some sort of stage?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Then I call to restrict ice cream vans in all locations and driving cars on roads.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The prom is OK for cycling year round with the exception of the hot six hours on a summer afternoon
Only the most diehard will try on hot days as progress is equal to walking pace
If there was a safe parallel route on Porty high street nobody at all would bother and one could reasonably some kind of electronic signs diverting cyclists during these busy periods
On this same day the usually safe west prom was being used as a public road with cars driving up and down to park
Posted 7 years ago # -
Ian Maxwell, of city cycling group Spokes, said:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH!
Posted 7 years ago # -
I'm liking the new EEN comments policy of removing everything posted.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Lots of bikes on the prom last night around half past eight. Only about 1 in 10 belonged to people who seem likely to identify as a "cyclist", the rest were just people - a lot of them kids/teenagers - with bikes. Good luck persuading all those folk that they can't meander along the seafront on a lovely summer evening (exactly what I was doing after a long, warm swim).
Posted 7 years ago # -
The usual cyclist hatred and road tax comments on the EEN FB page.
Hope the child is okay.
Posted 7 years ago # -
At least the victim blaming language isn't purely reserved for cyclists given the child is stated to have 'collided with the bicycle', instead of 'been knocked down by a bicycle'
Posted 7 years ago # -
In those Faceboak comments someone says they witnessed the incident: cyclist came off his bike and waited for five minutes to make sure the kid was ok. Could be lies; who knows.
Posted 7 years ago # -
If Porty prom was widened then lanes for cyclists and pedestrians could be created.
De Panne prom, much wider and longer, has these and it's rammed in the summer. When we were there two years ago, Peds of all ages/sizes, canines, skaters, cyclists and folks riding various pedal quad bikes happily mixed together. It ought to be carnage but it worked well. A model for Porty?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Years ago when I was Brighton visiting family I noticed the prom had formerly had a lane division with bicycle symbols on one side of the divide. The markings had been mostly removed because apparently people complained about the cycle lanes encouraging cyclists.
Down with cycle lanes! It only encourages them!
Posted 7 years ago # -
ENN now removed the comment section - no wonder.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Dougal, I may still have photos of those cycle lanes. Lots of red paint and blue railings, as I recall. I also recall quite a lot of cycle/ped conflict at certain points.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Its interesting how on the prom cycling is 'permitted'. As I understand it the TRO that restricted cycling has never been rescinded so basically the Council put up signs (non standard, not approved signs) to say cycling permitted and just ignores the fact that cyclists are still actually committing an offence by cycling on the prom.
Posted 7 years ago # -
If that's true, I assume the TRO is now unenforceable under the Land Reform Act anyway.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Compare and contrast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-40653873
Posted 7 years ago # -
When it gets hot in Porty they should ban ice cream vans as kids lose their spatial awareness after buying a cone. This is a well known observation of scientists
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Klaxon
The prom is OK for cycling year round with the exception of the hot six hours on a summer afternoon
Only the most diehard will try on hot days as progress is equal to walking pace
Exactly.
It was dumb for any cyclist to ride there on Monday afternoon.
You'd have to inch along and stop repeatedly as people and dogs walked out in front of you - or were standing blocking the pavement.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The Portobello CC has "cycling on the promenade" as an item on their agenda for the meeting next Monday:
http://www.portobellocc.org/pccpn/2017/08/21/agenda-for-pcc-meeting-28-august/
They've scheduled 25 minutes on it, the longest item on the agenda. Might be an idea to get some cyclists along, for "balance".
See also other prom threads here:
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=13089Posted 7 years ago # -
*le sigh* I go along the prom about once a week and I've never seen anything approaching an accident or irresponsible cycling. 90% of the time it's pretty quiet and there's plenty of room. The rest of the time there's 2 pinch points where peds in need of sustenance blunder about a bit and the rest is fine. I personally consider it bad form to ring my bell to anyone there so I ride accordingly.
From my observations the biggest hazard to all is kids on scooters - they dart out from all angles with little to no awareness. Meanwhile little kids on bikes seem to be extra focussed. It's interesting.
Posted 7 years ago # -
OK, so what's THE problem?
Some people on bikes are inconsiderate?
Almost certainly - but many/often?
Some people don't like bikes?
Yeah well...
People have been knocked down/injured?
Sadly true, notably a retired ENews photographer (some years ago). Of course such things never happen on the roads in Porty.
Some times of year there are too many pedestrians for cycling to be sensible?
A few days of the year. If only there was a safe alternative route...
'We' are generally understanding of cycle/ped issues - just not impressed by views which assume some/all 'problems' are cycle users fault.
That said, I have sympathy for people who would like 'pedestrian only' areas.
I hope there will be people at the meeting well able to argue that most cyclists are 'responsible' (same as drivers?), Active Travel is a good thing and that much more needs to be done to make roads safer.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The police asked for it to be added to the agenda, after they received concern from members of the public. The Council's Active Travel office should also be there.
(I'll be chairing the meeting)
Posted 7 years ago # -
It might be pointed out that despite the 20mph limit, many motorists still seem to be going at least 30mph on the High St. And the high level of traffic plus parked cars and an awful road surface make it extremely unattractive.
I was there on the promenade with my OH on Sunday. Very nice it was too. In the central part we walked as the density of people was just too great. Some were cycling though at too great a speed in my view. In other parts it was easy to cycle with care. Of course, from a cyclists perspective, you are sat on a fundamentally difficult to balance thingymajig, and people are making changes in direction at random. Dogs and children do their Brownian motion thing at some speed. So quite frightening. Some people use the promenade as a way from A to B (walking, cycling or whatever), others are more interested in the cafe, skating in circles etc
Of course, the fundamental with public life is that you cannot trust people to follow some types of rules without some enforcement (speed limits, parking, walking/cycling/dog walking with consideration, littering). Too many are frankly anti-social/selfish.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I have been along the Porty Prom on a fine Sunday afternoon & it really was too crowded for cycling.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Rosie, what year was that?
Posted 7 years ago # -
2 years ago or so.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I agree with Rosie. When it's a hot Saturday/Sunday afternoon, it's just too crowded - unless you're going 5mph or less.
People want to be able to walk along the prom - and have their kids run around - without having to look over their shoulder for traffic.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Not disagreeing, just saying that policy should not be based on rarely occuring events.
Often on tourist beaches the dog walkers are not allowed on when the summer starts but at Porty we are still waiting for the summer to start?
Posted 7 years ago # -
I guess that people also expect to be able to ride there though, as an alternative to the horrendous roads going parallel.
It's not obvious who should "win" given the stats19 etc doesn't support more than an annoyance (whereas we can't really tell people that nobody is hit by traffic and they should just cycle elsewhere. "Except that fatality the other day it's more or less safe" convinced nobody ever)
Posted 7 years ago #
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