CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Chesser Crescent blocked with piles of road building material.

(25 posts)

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  1. Bigjack
    Member

    As works on resurfacing Chesser Avenue continue a pile of road building material was dumped beside the cut -through for cyclists on Chesser Crescent (in front of Pentland House) However, on Friday pm they had completely blocked the way through with another large pile of material. I called the council Friday pm to report but the road was still blocked this morning. A disgrace that the way through was blocked in the first place but just as bad that it hadn't been dealt with by this morning.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  2. Bigjack
    Member

    Route through still blocked yesterday pm after reporting to council on Friday.
    called council yesterday pm and was told it had been passed to SW team. Road builders still don't give a t*** to the possibility of cyclists using this signposted cycle way!!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  3. rider73
    Member

    there should be on the spot fine for that Company - if the general public had done that , there would be!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  4. SRD
    Moderator

    tweeted Gavin Corbett, who says he'll contact roads team...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  5. Bigjack
    Member

    Thanks for that SRD. The piles of rubble were even bigger this evening. SW team had been informed of my report last Friday but nothing had been done by 5:15pm today.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  6. Bigjack
    Member

    Still blocked as of 7:30 this am 1 week after reporting despite councillor Corbett's best efforts to get SW team on the case. All it needs is a narrow channel cleared through the mounds of rubble to reinstate the cycle way through. I've resorted to the criminal act of cycling on the pavement all week (looking out for pedestrians of course!)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  7. Bigjack
    Member

    Clear route for bikes at last with the mounds of rubble barriered off as they should have been in the first place. Always laughable how OTT with health and safety contractors are on building sites High vis, safety boots, helmets etc even to visit the site office, but surrounding roads are usually a free for all with lorries parking on double yellows etc!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. Bigjack
    Member

    Update : unfortunately the contractors have reverted to allowing their piles of rubble (rocks, broken kerb stones, lumps of tarmac) to spill onto the previously cleared cycle way and the safety barriers have been removed from one side. a total shambles once again. I've sent more pics to Gavin Corbett who did a great job of getting it sorted last week!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. Stickman
    Member

    New painted cycle lanes in the door zone on the resurfaced Chesser Avenue. Will the council roads department ever learn?

    https://mobile.twitter.com/markushiemann/status/930029216174919680

    https://mobile.twitter.com/MarkusHiemann/status/930030321067839489

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. Klaxon
    Member

    This shouldn't be so hard: if there is space for parking and a cycle lane, the cycle lane goes on the inside, with kerbs, armadillos, wands, 0.5m of hatching paint, or anything really.

    None of the above are expensive.

    There will never be a network if the roads department considers themselves above betterment.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. Klaxon
    Member

    Encouraging riders into the door zone is better than no infrastructure

    Discuss

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. Stickman
    Member

    "Why aren't you cycling in the lane?l"

    "It's dangerous, I don't want doored"

    "^^**^~!<!~ cyclists. "

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. fimm
    Member

    This will be the "we are resurfacing the road so we will put in painted/red chip cycle lanes by default" thing, I assume. Do we now think that this kind of lane is better or worse than nothing?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. chdot
    Admin

    “improves existing conditions”

    Very borderline conclusion. IF ‘cyclelane ‘ wide enough to avoid doorzone then ok, but acceptance of this because of -

    “We argued bikes behind parked cars; council genuinely considered but decided unsuitable here.”

    just encourages more of the inadequate.

    If there isn’t room to have a wide enough lane inside, avoiding car doors (which might be more likely to open without opener looking first), then clearly CEC knows that what they have done isn’t adequate.

    Cars can only be inconvenienced so much - obviously the road isn’t wide enough for two way traffic and parking and a decent bikelane, so there has to be a compromise...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. Frenchy
    Member

    Do we now think that this kind of lane is better or worse than nothing?

    I *feel* safer with lanes like this *if* the lane is wide enough and far enough away from the cars. East Preston Street (wiggle aside) is an example. Causewayside is an example where it feels less safe (possibly not helped by being uphill).

    Objectively measuring whether these are an improvement seems like it would be incredibly difficult.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. SRD
    Moderator

    we drove (!) that yesterday and I sighed....

    Posted 6 years ago #
  17. Morningsider
    Member

    I'm not sure putting an advisory cycle lane behind parked cars would work. Drivers could legally park their cars in it for one, which they would almost certainly do. Also, a new Traffic Regulation Order might be needed to move the parking spaces (plus create an enforceable/segregated cycle lane).

    What we really need is a change in the law to allow Councils to put in mandatory/segregated cycle lanes without all the current TRO palaver.

    Perhaps someone from SPOKES could shed a bit more light on what happened here.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. neddie
    Member

    Mandatory painted lanes do not need a TRO anymore

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. Morningsider
    Member

    nedd1e_h - you are, of course, correct. I completely forgot that the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 removed the need to obtain a TRO for a mandatory, with-flow cycle lane.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. gibbo
    Member

    @chdot

    Cars can only be inconvenienced so much

    This is the council's rule #1.

    Same reason "big increase in cycle budget" is being spent on resurfacing NEPN, when anyone who uses NEPN knows that vast majority of it is fine. (Far smoother than most Edinburgh roads.)

    Because, if you don't waste the budget on this sort of stuff, you'd have to use it to build segregated bike lanes.

    And that would break rule #1.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. mgj
    Member

    It involves a resurfacing of an appalling road surface, which must be a win. Every other road around there is rutted and breaking up. I'll take my chances in the door zone rather than swerving round enormous pot holes. This is a wide road; in what way is a cycle lane a requirement here, other than to funnel bikes into the door zone? The solution to car drivers who cant share the road safely is not to force cyclists out of their way, surely?

    (And I don't like the idea of cycling downhill inside parked cars on a curve, with bus stops to negotiate.)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. Bigjack
    Member

    The resurfacing is great but the marked cycle lanes aren't so good as others have said, thanks to the wiggling in then out then in again past the parking bays. BTW the contractors have now completely blocked the Chesser Crescent bike gate with neatly stacked piles of barriers and sand-bags and it looks almost deliberate. Councillor Corbett's efforts have been ignored again!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. SRD
    Moderator

    the bit that really made me sigh was when the nice bright lane wiggled out around parked cars, then jinked in again, only to end abruptly in a bus stop.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  24. jonty
    Member

    My understanding was the bike lane was explicitly not meant to wiggle - it's a shame if they've not even managed that.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. Bigjack
    Member

    Just try the supposed bike way from Chesser Av-Chesser Cresc.- Robb's Loan- its now a proper rough-stuff route with no worries about car-dooring etc!

    Posted 6 years ago #

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