CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
“New housing estates fail people by favouring cars, says study”
(16 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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There is a good thread here about the car-centric "cauliflower" schemes like Croy:
Posted 6 years ago # -
We took my nephew in his wheelchair around Burdiehouse Burn which is near where he lives. Ended up in The Murrays housing estate.
You know the crossings don't have dropped kerbs but the driveways do? At that point you wonder what the pavements are for at all.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I used NCN1 and couldn't get through first barrier easily at Dalmeny Cala estate.
So faced with another bunch of barriers I just used the access road for driveways. Was much faster.
The route for cars was easy and encouraging. The bike route the complete opposite. Only for people with a high tolerance of stop start cycling and as noted the crossing points make conflict on a busy path. Meanwhile the roads are unused much of the time.
They should automatically put in level crossing with ramp up for cars with markings. That's if they really wanted to promote cycling and walking.
'Duff scheme thread'.
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=11145&page=5
Appreciate that people here have engaged with developers to do their best.Same article was in Sunday Herald but good to link Ferret!
Posted 6 years ago # -
At a recent consultation on new houses being built outside my village I posed a number of questions about cycling and was told no-one ever asks for these things so they don't bother offering them.
Posted 6 years ago # -
You know the crossings don't have dropped kerbs but the driveways do? At that point you wonder what the pavements are for at all.
Incomprehensible, isn't it? Only about half of the access points to the Burdiehouse Burn path have dropped kerbs.
I pointed this out to the council at least a year ago, and the Active Travel team have (independently) identified it as an issue. It should get fixed sometime, but I don't want to guess when...
Posted 6 years ago # -
I posed a number of questions about cycling and was told no-one ever asks for these things
That is because your average Jo(e) doesn't realise the benefits of having good design for walking & cycling, even if they never cycle themselves.
It's like saying, "No one swimming in the river ever asked for a bridge" [because there isn't anyone swimming to ask]
Posted 6 years ago # -
Next there will be a study demonstrating that bears avail themselves of wooded areas when they require sanitary facilities. Closely followed by a rebuttal from West Lothian council saying that they are prioritising modern ursine sanitation in their planning guidance.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@crowriver Yep, from the school of the blindingly obvious...
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Snowy, I mean I suppose someone needs to point these things out. However it will hardly be news to the developers, their business plans are based on selling new houses with a garage and a driveway, enabling two cars to be parked, and their sites are chosen for proximity to the road network. The whole selling point is how convenient it is to drive to/from these places, folk who buy houses in these places see it as a positive and would complain if the roads were "too narrow" or there was "not enough" parking...
So the headline would be more accurate if it said these estates cater for people who favour driving their cars.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The massive Cala development on the Kinleith Mill site at Currie is for people who like sitting in their cars in very slow moving traffic. Though at least one of the 500 or so adults living down there has figured out he is quicker getting on to the WoL path that runs by his house and cycling in.
Posted 6 years ago # -
“The massive Cala development on the Kinleith Mill site at Currie”
Classic example of developers playing the long game and waiting for guidelines to change or objectors to give up or(?)
For years it was ‘exit from site not suitable for vehicles (especially at main road junction)’.
“Though at least one of the 500 or so adults living down there has figured out he is quicker getting on to the WoL path that runs by his house and cycling in.”
I presume local objections to tarmaccing the WoL path are still strong?
Posted 6 years ago # -
"The massive Cala development on the Kinleith Mill site at Currie is for people who like sitting in their cars in very slow moving traffic. "
It seems a sizeable number of folk do indeed "like" doing this. Isn't that what car stereos, climate control and smartphones were invented for?
Posted 6 years ago # -
dougal: You know the crossings don't have dropped kerbs but the driveways do? At that point you wonder what the pavements are for at all.
Yes, last winter many people cleared the snow to get their cars out their driveways and heaped it up onto their uncleared pavements.
I did hear that the police like "cauliflower" housing developments (from their resemblance to a califlower floret on maps) because they can cut off thieves and joy riders at the only access point.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@chdot, local horsey folk and runners on this forum even object to Tarmac. Plus would need many barriers to stop vehicles powered by petrol. However, I remain hopeful that ultitrec is the answer.
Access unchanged so how fire brigade would get in if entrance blocked I don't know, traffic lights let a few cars through at a time.
They did alter the course of the river a little and put in a new bridge. Local planning vigilante Archie C would have stopped this if it was possible to stop it. Big brickish houses rammed together, small gardens but handy for access to WoL path.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I enjoy looking* into the windows of Kinleith Mill development as I cycle by. I wave cheerily at the residents where possible.
*never blink
Posted 6 years ago #
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