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“Family call for Maybury Road improvements”

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    ‘Don’t let Jonny die in vain’ Family call for Maybury Road improvements

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/don-t-let-jonny-die-in-vain-family-call-for-maybury-road-improvements-1-4763627

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. acsimpson
    Member

    Mrs McDaid and her family have now discussed with city council representatives installing central reservation barriers to separate traffic in the busy road.

    Mrs McDaid said: “It was quite a fair meeting, we got to put our points across and they listened, then they put the legal points across.

    “We learned some things are not just as easy and I think they learned we are not lying down and would like some changes done to the death-trap Maybury Road.”

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/family-of-tragic-maybury-crash-victim-in-road-safety-plea-1-4777975

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. acsimpson
    Member

    With due respect to Mr Smith's family I'm not convinced that all their requests are sensible. Installing any sort of barrier, temporary or otherwise down the middle of the road may have a small safety benefit but I don't think it will stop it being used by otherwise law breaking motorists to flout the speed limit. It may also have the detrimental side effect of encouraging drivers to pass closer to cyclists who choose not to break the law and ride on the pavement.

    Trimming bushes on the roundabout to improve sight lines (in my mind at least) will encourage faster speeds not safer driving. I have seen a number of incidents on the roundabout over the years. The majority of these are caused by drivers going faster than their competence levels permit and skidding off the road. If anything needs done here it is to tighten up the angles of approach so that drivers can't carry their momentum onto the roundabout. The state of the crash barrier next to the roundabout is testament to just how many incompetent drivers there are.

    Reducing the speed limit should in theory make any road safer. However is it simply paying lip service to safety in this location? There is approximately zero enforcement of the current speed limit and with often highly excessive speeds in the area will a reduced limit make much difference to safety. I suspect it's not the drivers going at 40mph who create the safety problem. For instance last night I witnessed a driver pulling off the roundabout onto the 30mph Maybury drive and flooring their accelerator until they were out of sight.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. neddie
    Member

    Maybe they should put white wooden crosses on the road where every fatality has been.

    They (used to?) do that in New Zealand and it was certainly an effective reminder to drive carefully. Of course, the nut-jobs that drive at crazy speeds think that could never happen to them anyway...

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. neddie
    Member

    Since they built the new motorway extension from the M9 to the M90 / Extra Bridge, there is no need for the Maybury Rd to be considered as an extension to the city bypass.

    Reduce the speed limit to 30mph. Put a segregated bike lane on each side. Narrow the general traffic lanes (only 1 on each side) to make it look like a 30mph road. Re-time the traffic lights at Barnton and Maybury to make the Maybury Rd unattractive as a rat-run.

    This will need doing anyway, once the new housing goes in.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. Snowy
    Member

    GPS black box in every car and automatic speeding fines.

    Anyone who thinks this would be 'new' and a breach of their liberties has got some catching up to do.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  7. HankChief
    Member

    Plans to drop the speed limit on Maybury Road from 40mph to 30mph due to the new housing going in.

    Please support the TRO by 15th Feb.

    http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/2777/tro1889_-_maybury_road_-_speed_limit

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. Harts Cyclery
    Member

    Also, we could maybe do something for bicycles with that ENTIRE lane they hatched off going south-bound. North-bound outside lane between Maybury junction and East Craigs roundabout is also redundant for vehicles and could be much better utilised.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. acsimpson
    Member

    As far as improving Maybury Road the new buildings can't come soon enough. It's just a shame we have to sacrifice green space to improve a road.

    The new cycle path will be going up the western side of the road with the surplus lanes being used for filter lanes at each junction (or so I am told). Sadly this mean maintaining the status quo of one lane for drivers and another for speeders for large stretches of the road. It also means that they have given somewhere around zero consideration for the fact that many cyclists will be going to or from NCN 1 on Whitehouse Road.

    They should have removed the extra lanes at the same time as reducing the limit to 40mph almost a decade and a half ago. It wouldn't have been beyond the realms of possibility to put cycle lanes in at that time.

    however given that they can't even be bothered to clear the overgrowth of the pavements I don't hold much hope yet.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  10. acsimpson
    Member

    Well it seems the "trimming" of bushes on Maybury Road Roundabout has come to pass. By "trimming" I mean complete removal from ground level up. It took a team of 4-6 workers 3 days to do and has left an unsightly bare mound an no real change to sightlines (yet).

    Meanwhile they have cleared another 30m or so of the pavement. It's a shame they couldn't be bothered to do the whole thing while they had a crew on site.

    I've taken some pictures which I will post when I get the time.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. chdot
    Admin

    “no real change to sightlines (yet)”

    What will/should they do?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. acsimpson
    Member

    As I said up thread I don't think the roundabout needed it's sightlines improved. There is already a regular stream of drivers attempting to go round it faster than their tyres allow. Just look at the amount of damaged iron work around it (incidentally the crash barrier was also repaired again this week).

    Cutting the vegetation off hasn't made visibility noticeably different so my fear is that they are planning to come and remove some of the soil too.

    Either way it seems like a lot of expense for a roundabout they are planning to remove during the next decade anyway. Especially as that is the excuse they are hiding behind to avoid making other improvements to Maybury Road.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. HankChief
    Member

    Dropping the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph is being recommended at next week's TEC despite 11 objections to the TRO

    http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/61138/item_710_-_maybury_road_-_reduction_in_speed_limit_-_objections_to_traffic_regulation_order

    Posted 4 years ago #
  14. acsimpson
    Member

    "6.5 The costs of reducing the speed limit would therefore be met from funding allocated towards active travel improvements within the Council’s Transport Capital Investment Programme."

    Can anyone explain why the active travel budget should be paying for a change to the motorised speed limit in advance of new housing being built.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  15. gembo
    Member

    No one else had any budget?

    Spending the active travel budget is difficult as Tories and some others object?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  16. HankChief
    Member

    30mph passed.

    No satisfactory answer to why Active Travel paying for it...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  17. @HankChief was there any answer?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  18. HankChief
    Member

    Something about turning it from a road into a street...

    https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/428152/start_time/17488000?force_language_code=en_GB

    Posted 4 years ago #
  19. acsimpson
    Member

  20. HankChief
    Member

    After a bit of badgering the Council have been out and cut back the undergrowth by the Maybury Road pavement.

    But only on one side of the road and they have left the soil & roots still covering large parts of the pavement. And guess what, after 3 days green shoots have started to appear where the undergrowth will once again take over...

    grumpy tweet

    Posted 4 years ago #
  21. acsimpson
    Member

    That link goes to last year's tweet. Although they have been ignoring it for far longer than that.

    Did you perhaps mean this one:
    https://twitter.com/hank_chief/status/1164608013648498693

    I think you're being pretty generous saying half the job. They have barely done half of one side.

    Of course now that it's been a year since the cleared the north eastern pavement they need to come back and give it a sweep too.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  22. neddie
    Member

    The Ferry Rd path and SMW need doing as well.

    This should be standard maintenance, not only done ad-hoc when someone shouts loud enough...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  23. HankChief
    Member

    Another grumpy tweet, well more of a thread.

    This time with a before and after photos of me showing CEC how it should be :-)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  24. acsimpson
    Member

    Twitter needs a this pisses me off too button. Like just doesn't feel the correct response.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  25. HankChief
    Member

    Interestingly, my tweet isn't really taking off but a similar post on the local 'friendly' FB group has now received nearly 100 likes, so maybe that will be enough to get some action.

    If we don't get any traction, I have been mulling a FOI request to work out what on earth is going on with CEC's prioritisation.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  26. acsimpson
    Member

    Good work HC.

    I dread to think what the future will look like if the council is taking to prioritising work based on the number of likes on social media. Although I suppose it wont be altogether different from today's priority based on press coverage.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  27. HankChief
    Member

    The pavement still have been scraped back to it's full width.

    So now a couple of local retirees are have a go bit by bit.

    https://twitter.com/Mr_Mark_Brown/status/1235577720219881478?s=19

    How can we tell if it is a Core Path and what status does that bring? Anything about clearing it?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

    It’s not -

    https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/22553/map-of-edinburgh-s-core-paths

    (Generally) no apparent benefits/resources for CPs by SG or LAs.

    After a massive consultation process, helped by the notion that there would be money for improvements/maintenance, maps and not a lot of action.

    Great document, only 12 years old -

    Edinburgh's core path plan

    https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/12899/core-paths

    Posted 4 years ago #
  29. HankChief
    Member

    Thanks.

    Went for a frustrated twitter rant.

    https://twitter.com/hank_chief/status/1236350361201508352?s=19

    Apologies for hijacking @maddie's thread.

    (I also sent in the FOI request I threatened above)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  30. neddie
    Member

    I'm only a wee bit mad...

    Posted 4 years ago #

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