CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

pollock halls to crewe toll - any advice?

(16 posts)

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  1. rider73
    Member

    Hi all,

    before i setup shop over in Dalgety Bay im in pollock halls for the next 2 weeks and commuting to crewe toll.
    did it by car today, that wasnt pleasant, lots of diversions, road works, closed roads and of course traffic -

    fortunately i have brought my commute bike with me

    ive looked on the mapping site city connect, but the routes if gives seem quite turny - was thinking something more direct, but the problems seem to come when going right through the center of the city.
    i have so far in my own "plotting" got:
    Pollock -> melville terrace, up the meadows center, forest road, n bank street onto hanover then right up dundas street
    onto inverleith row , left onto terrace, arboretum road and ferry road (cycle path to work from there)

    i am currently google street viewing all of these roads and most seem to have a bike lane on them esp. up around the city bits.

    any help/recomm. much appreciated. :)
    THANKS!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  2. SRD
    Moderator

    I would go across the grange etc (can give details; it's the reverse of my old nursery commute). Spylaw, Gillsland, Harrison Rd, ardmillan, murieston, russell rd, switchbacks, NEPN to Crewe Toll.

    Gillsland-Russell rd is basically a straight run. should be fine,as long as not at school drop-off....

    Posted 7 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    @rider73 that route is good.

    You could come out the pollock gates and go north through the houses then round hermits croft and down the Pleasance. Then right down Holyrood and up through moray house then over the zebra through the shanty town festival, round the back of council, down to the lovely wee neon art under the rail bridge, round the back of the station, up to broughton street down to canonmills on to the NEPN at tescos and round to Crewe toll on the path.

    Round the houses but with some local colour

    Posted 7 years ago #

  4. ih
    Member

    @rider73 give this a go which is about 70% on cycle paths but just as direct imo.

    1 Pollock hall to North Meadow Walk (NMW). You can do this on road, or use the slightly longer segregated route direct from Pollock to NMW.
    2 Go all the way along NMW (cycle path)
    3 You're now heading for the zigzags onto the North Edinburgh Path Network (NEPN) at Russell Road, it's on road but could be worse:
    3.1 Cross Melville Drive to Valleyfield Street, then right onto Leven St and left onto Gilmore Place.
    3.2 Right onto Leamington Road, cross the bridge over the canal, and onto Gilmore Park.
    3.3 Left onto Dundee Street (this is the worst bit) right onto Henderson Terrace.
    3.4 At the bottom half right onto Muiriston Road and make your way through to Russell Road.
    3.5 Just before the zigzags there's a shared pavement.
    4. From the zigzags get onto the NEPN and breeze downhill all the way to Crewe Toll.

    Hope that helps.

    Edit. Get a Spokes map of Edinburgh. Worth every penny of the £6.95 it will cost you!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  5. rider73
    Member

    wow - thanks everyone - will check out the routes mentioned , the ones down to the south and east of the city seem to avoid the center nice enough ;-)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  6. rider73
    Member

    @ih - spokes map is on my TO DO list for this week! :)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  7. SRD
    Moderator

    If you follow the route above from ih, I recommend carrying on along Gilmore Place and turning right onto Harrison Rd at Polwarth Church. Avoids the 'worst bit' although it is slightly less direct.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. rbrtwtmn
    Member

    Always worth trying Cyclestreets to see what it suggests of course.... Three possible routes which might change if you fine tune start and end points:

    Quietest

    Balanced

    Fastest

    And refer to Opencyclemap to get a good view of (signed) cycle routes and (all the other) cycle paths.

    If you want some other suggested routings there are two further cycle routing applications available through Openstreetmap.org - although cycle routing is notoriously difficult to do well...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. chrisfl
    Member

    Also have a play with cycle.travel - This route is very much along the same lines as the route @ih has suggested. It's a bit longer than the cyclestreets routing but the lack of traffic and stops on the NEPN makes up for this. It's mostly the route sugggested but I've added some pins to smooth things out.

    (Actually IMHO - it seems that cycle.travel should really suggest this or a variety as it's quiet route_

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. Rosie
    Member

    Would agree with SRD about Harrison Road. Much better condition, less steep and a much better turn at the bottom.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. Rosie
    Member

    When/if there is a proper Meadows-Canal link then a Canal-Roseburn link how much simpler this will be.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. piosad
    Member

    Harrison Road currently has one-way traffic lights due to roadworks at the bridge over the old railway, so it can be backed up all the way from the park to the Angle Park Terrace junction. (Filtering is not always an option as the road is twisty/narrow/parked on.)

    Also note that Valleyfield St is one-way eastbound — going west you're meant to turn right into Brougham Pl then left into Tarvit St. (Yes this is one of the worst junctions in Edinburgh. Yes it is on an NCN route. Nobody knows how anyone thought it was a good idea.)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. ih
    Member

    Just done Crewe Toll - well Red bridge on NEPN - to Pollock Halls and back. 28.5 minutes out and 24.5 back, which compares well with Cyclestreets fast route at 31 minutes. I'm not fast but didn't dawdle.

    The main possible alternative on my previous suggestion is after crossing the canal bridge, go left along the canal a short way and then cut through the new development of student residences onto Dundee Street. This avoids the bit of Dundee Street which is currently chewed up because of local construction. Dundee Street is not actually as bad as I thought because there is very little on street parking. As @piosad says, there are a couple of one-ways at Valleyfield Street and at Muirieston Road (the other way) which you can enjoy finding your route through!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. rider73
    Member

    @lh / others - again thanks for the info and @lh thanks for trying out the route!!!!

    I actually went via Meadows, directly north and around the galler (on road cycle lanes) , up dundas street (on roadcycle lanes) then fettes road and onto the utterly FANTASTIC cycle lanes all the round to Crewe Toll,
    all was good at 7am in the mornings
    all was very very busy at 4.30pm on the way back.

    a few things for my first ever commute in Edinburgh
    1-BUSES! so many of them!
    2-so many delivery vans at 7am parked in cycle lanes
    3-cobbles - brrbrbrbrbrbr ..... bumpy ;)
    4-the cycle lanes get clogged up with everyone on the way back, especially the meadows.
    5-do we talk to each other? so many commuter cyclists compared to inverness no one seems to say hello.
    6-loved it!!!!!!!!!!

    might try a different route tomorrow given all the options above!
    thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    "do we talk to each other? so many commuter cyclists compared to inverness no one seems to say hello"

    ThisISedinburgh

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. rider73
    Member

    @chrisfl - thats a good map/tool to use- like it - thanks

    Posted 7 years ago #

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