The point about ASLs is worth thinking about. The whole problem with the junction is the excessive queues caused by the high numbers of vehicles. They could build ASLs quite easily - but I don't think there is much scope to reach them safely on a bike during those times because the carriageways are so narrow, especially that on the A703.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
A701 "Relief Road"
(157 posts)-
Posted 3 months ago #
-
@ejstubbs - what! I've been calling it Old Pentland Road for years! A quick check of the OS map and Midlothian Council's list of public roads confirms that it really is just called "Pentland Road".
Posted 3 months ago # -
Edinburgh council atlas us probably just using OSM data and the road is Midlothian. However it appears as Pentland Road on their list of adopted roads. Curiously though the Royal Mail appears to agree with Google and the secret garden distillery also adds "old" in is address so it's not totally clear cut.
Historic maps reveal some interesting facts. Old Pentland used to be just Pentland in the mid 19th century. New Pentland was also already there. By the start of the 20th century Pentland had become "old" and had remained so. Presumably the road name dates from the time before the change. I'm not aware of an online source of historic road names.
Posted 3 months ago # -
This just in from bear:
Thank you for contacting us regarding the provision for cyclists during the traffic signal installation works near Hillend.
Cyclists will be allowed to proceed through the works site. We ask that you approach the site carefully and dismount, at which point one of our traffic management operatives will make sure the site is safe for you to pass through or may escort you through the works.
Thank you again for raising this with us.
Posted 3 months ago # -
I have just received an identical reply from BEAR Scotland. That's good news, although they didn't actually answer my first question.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Having made an interesting excursion to Loanhead on Monday this week* I realised on my return home that I had seen no sign of any traffic lights at the A702/A703 junction at Hilllend. As far as I know, the overnight closures in January did take place, but there didn't seem to be any sign of anything significant having been done. I certainly didn't encounter any actual traffic lights there.
Was it all just preparation work that left no obvious traces? It seems that installing traffic lights must be a much more complicated process than one might have imagined. (I note that Edinburgh Council have scheduled four weeks to put new lights in at the bottom of Craiglockhart Avenue).
* First ever visit to Mavisbank Policies. Pleasant enough walk along the North Esk, with many dippers evident, but I'm afraid I was rather underwhelmed by the estate itself.
Posted 2 months ago # -
I went past a few weeks ago and retention sockets had been installed for the traffic lights. Generally a civils contractor will install the ducting/sockets etc before a traffic signals contractor than handles the actual lights/cabinets etc.
Posted 2 months ago # -
@ejstubbs, the full signalisation is coming, but I'm not sure when exactly it's planned for.
Mavisbank is quite nice to visit - I've been there two or three times in the last few years, but it there isn't a lot to do or look at. The ruinous state of the house is obviously is an issue, and its rather secluded outlook probably doesn't help the aura of grandeur that it deserves. How it ever came to be in the hands of a used car salesman is beyond me.
Posted 2 months ago # -
“
It was altered in the 19th century, but suffered decades of neglect in the 20th century. The interiors were gutted by fire in 1973, and the house remains a ruin, described by Colin McWilliam in 1978 as a "precarious shell.".[4] In 2024, a grant of £5.3 million was given to stabilise the building and to enable up-to-date surveys of its condition to be made.“
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavisbank_House
“
The Mavisbank Trust is looking for funding and volunteers to support our work to help ensure the long-term future of Mavisbank. Support comes in many forms and you may have a variety of skills and experience you can offer - so come and join us. Of course, if you are able to make a donation to the Trust that would be very welcome too!
“
Posted 2 months ago # -
Compulsory purchase notices went up at Mavisbank on Saturday, with a view to works to stabilise the ruins.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Starting on Sunday, some minor A702 work, via https://www.roadworksscotland.org/ :
High Impact Works
Reference: XS001-SEU/2025/20310 (3755172)
Location: A702 Hillend.
Address: A702t, Penicuik
Promoter: Transport Scotland - SE Unit Op Company
Contact: SENetworkAccess@bearscotland.co.uk or via http://www.bearscot.com/se/
Est start date: 23/02/2025
Description: Dayworks. Lining.Posted 2 months ago # -
Very confused about the changes at A702/703 junction, as I'd thought they were scheduled to install traffic signals at the end of January and when we passed it recently these haven't materialised... Anyone know if they were delayed for some reason?
Posted 2 months ago # -
I passed that way this afternoon. There are now stop lines and (IIRC) ASLs on the A702, and yellow boxes on the A702 opposite the [Old] Pentland Road and Seafield Moor Road/A703 junctions. No actual traffic lights present yet, though*. It looks as if the lights on the A702, when they arrive, will be north of the [Old] Pentland Road junction and south of the A703 junction, so quite an extensive stretch of the A702 going to be controlled by the lights when they arrive. I didn't have a chance to see what lineage if any had been done on the joining roads.
* I did rather assume that they were putting the lights in on the Sunday just gone, given the tailback of southbound traffic on Biggar Road that I noticed stretching all the way back over the bypass towards the Fairmilehead crossroads. Inspection of Google Maps indicated road works at the junction[s] in question, but that must have been just for the lining works, not the installation of the actual lights.
Posted 2 months ago # -
There are works scheduled for 10-18 March for "Installation of signs". This may be shorthand for traffic lights?
Posted 2 months ago # -
Why is the P’cuick Rd called the A703 then the A701? I see further south by which i mean north of Peebles the A703 turns into the A701. But then at the Hillend Junction it has turned back into the A703???
Posted 2 months ago # -
It's all a bit complicated. In 1922 when A-roads were classified, the A703 originally ran only between Hillend and the T-junction at Bilston where it meets the A701. The A701 meanwhile was actually the road from Peebles to Edinburgh via Leadburn and Penicuik. The A6094 ran from Blyth Bridge to Dalkeith, and the Beef Tub road from Moffat to Blyth Bridge was the A752, braided for a short distance with the A72 which ran from Hamilton to Galashiels (basically, a route to help Glasgow people holiday in places like Melrose).
In 1935 the A701 was redefined and extended, to run from Dumfries to Edinburgh, via Moffat. Since the road from Peebles would have been notionally severed, they redefined and extended the A703 accordingly to take the place of the A701 from Peebles, which is why the A703 is braided with the current A701 north from Leadburn to Bilston.
Posted 2 months ago # -
@arellcat thanks for that explanation
Posted 2 months ago # -
Glasgow people holiday in places like Melrose
Chilling words indeed. We have no truck with the people from the West at the Dacha. Perish the thought.
Posted 2 months ago # -
I was in Melrose once and jokingly said to a nice woman in a Nick Nack shop who had what I assumed was a Shetlandic accent -
Gembo- Ah, you are not from around these parts then?
Nick Nack Wanderer - No I’m from KelsoPosted 2 months ago # -
Massive tailbacks on the A702 back towards Fairmilehead again today, presumably because the actual traffic lights are now being installed. Drivers reportedly resorting to decidedly dodgy manoeuvres to escape the congestion. (While in no way condoning such behaviour, I can't help wondering why the latter stages of the job couldn't be done overnight like the preparatory stages were.)
Posted 1 month ago # -
The tailbacks northbound on the A702 have been back to the houses near the top of the hill at Erraid Wood, and southbound from before you reach the bypass. The A702 really needs some sort of upgrading: it's so narrow going round Hillend hill it's practically impossible to filter on a bike (motorised or otherwise).
I wonder how much the traffic lights will actually help. My gut feeling is that they will merely transfer some of the congestion on the A703 northbound to the A702.
So much of the A702 traffic is actually to and from the bypass west of Lothianburn. I still think what is really needed is an A702 relief road that tunnels under the Pentlands roughly aligned with the cross-border drove road, running north from somewhere between Carlops and West Linton all the way to the Lizzie Bryce roundabout at Livingston, maybe with a limited access spur that meets the A70 near Little Vantage.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Don’t give them ideas…!
Posted 1 month ago # -
More roads == more driving
Posted 1 month ago # -
But it's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses. ;-)
Posted 1 month ago # -
“You've got to build bypasses”
ABSOLUTELY
They are such desirable/profitable things that the private sector is desperate to invest in them - if only someone would sort out the blockers!!
Posted 1 month ago # -
Could this be the works first bypass bypass?
Posted 1 month ago # -
Curiously, low level cycle signals have been installed at the newly signalised A702 junction. Does anyone know if they’re acting as early releases or purely repeaters?
https://x.com/setrunkroads/status/1904486942672089575Posted 1 month ago # -
They're clearly dummy. I'm sure the real purpose of the repeaters is to be able to dip into active travel funds for essentially a motors-only junction
Posted 1 month ago # -
Be great to apply pressure to (what I'm sure is Midlothian's?) active travel team to get these to behave as advanced cycle green - the more of which I use, the more I think they should be on every major junction.
Posted 1 month ago # -
“the more I think they should be on every major junction.“
When they were first introduced in Ed a lot of drivers went when the cycle light came on.
This seems to have settled down and more motor users wait.
Lower down ones seem to be more sensible, but perhaps only allowed as repeaters??
Posted 1 month ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
posts
