CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
And.... erm.... Were the lights already in place, with the lane built around them, or the lane put in place and the lights then installed right slap bang in the middle?
https://twitter.com/urbancyclist/status/1145949725331460102
I presume they'll be moved, but....
A similar thing happened on Leith Walk when those lanes were being built so that (I assume) staged surfacing could happen allowing continuous use of different bits of pavement while others were being worked on, then all the signals (or streetlamp, as it was) engineering happens at once and the surface gap is dealt with in snagging afterwards.
Looks funny in the meantime but probably no worse than noticing "look! that road has a hole in it! won't be able to cycle over that!" halfway through roadworks.
There's at least one suggestion on Twitter that the path was laid, then the lights moved into it. I don't go by often enough to know if that's actually the case. Though it does look more like the pathwas laid around it.
I stand by the assertion though, anything is possible in Edinburgh! (I've a picture somewhere of the lane near Ocean Terminal with a street light in the middle).
To be honest, that could still make sense as a temporary arrangement. I'm generally inclined to assume that people are good enough at their job to get basics like this right...but we shall see. (If Leith Street is anything to go by it might be years before the lane is even intended to be operational so they've got plenty of time to fix it...)
I'd rather talk about the competency of whoever designed the pedestrian waiting area further down - complete with drop kerb - to completely overlap the cycle track!
Well, despite taking many years to build the tramline and bridge over South Gyle Access, they still managed not to bother moving the telecoms cabinet and built the diverted cycle path around it. A few years and many complaints later, they moved it ...sorry, I had an attack of hallucinogenic common sense there.... painted a circle around it and filled the circle with hatched lines.
Never assume that people are good enough at their job to get basics like this right, even if they have a few years to do so!
They got a bit sniffy when challenged about the Leith Walk poles, but that didn't mean they weren't pretending to be offended whilst secretly being relieved that someone had noticed and warned them before it was too late...
Various 'street furniture completely in the way' on the cycle path to Edinburgh Park as well (before even going anywhere near why they did that anyway, and should just have continued the Blagreen path alongside the tram line).
Given the overall masterplan I don't think we can assume any level of competency. The only thing the designers send to care about was their flawed traffic modelling software.
Hijacking this tread for rant about signage at bottom of leith walk (heading North) where road works are set up and block the useless painted on cycle way, and the sign reads "CYCLISTS DISMOUNT AND USE FOOTWAY"
All sorts of problems here. How are they allowed to set up roadworks with no thought of cyclists? Why are cyclists excluded from the single lane of general traffic that is left open? Is this excusing drivers from allowing cyclists safe passage through the roadworks?
Or perhaps, is this just a general injunction for us all to go away and leave the road to the polluters.
flawed traffic modelling software.
The software is fine. It gives an output based on inputs. Modelling software has one purpose - to tell you how many vehicles can pass through a particular system before delays happen. It does not make a subjective judgement on if x vehicles per minute is good or bad.
What is happening is that the modellers in Edinburgh are wilfully feeding it worst case scenarios to reverse justify an pre chosen outcome, and creating 3D animations of mile long queues back to frighten politicians into agreeing.
Bullshit baffles brains
I'm pretty sure the modelling system does not predict how many vehicles will "go away"* when queuing becomes too bad.
*Change mode; change route; change timings; not make journey at all.
@neddie, you are correct. It also doesn't predict how bicycles will interact with street furniture or right angle bends. Nor as far as I understand does it predict (or even have inputs for) number of pedestrians waiting on certain widths of pavements.
It's entire design as far as I can tell is to help justify designing towns around the 1960's model of steel box movement.
L’enfer Picardie est arrivé…
(avec photos)
https://twitter.com/davecykl/status/1165607065148108803?s=21
Experienced the new (and presumably temporary) layout this morning on my way to work. Presently, a lane of trafic from York Place (mostly wanting to go to London Road) appears on the left of a lane of traffic from Leith Street (mostly wanting to go to Leith Walk.) Both lanes moving, most of the cars and vans and trucks trying to cross each other to swop lanes. Insanely dangerous, and coming upon this on my bike from the remains of the Picardy roundabout, a pretty unnerving experience. I survived, but only just.
This junction requires the greatest of care.
I also might start bypassing this for a while. It's a real grinder at the moment. And this is perhaps the closest layout to the final design so far. Doesn't bode well. Doesn't seem fantastic for traffic flow either.
At least some of the pedestrian phases are currently single phase. Always annoys me when they try make pedestrians wait twice just to cross a road in a town centre.
I've been through this most days over the past few weeks and it's different almost every time. There were even some traffic lights on the way out of Leith Walk this morning.
Why, yes, that is a •southbound• taxi now hastily reversing towards us down what is currently the •northbound• Leith St to Leith Walk lane at #PicardyPlace because the roadworks signage southbound is not as clear as it should be.
https://twitter.com/davecykl/status/1166808245266264064?s=21
Some new cycle markings at Picardy Place. Just looks like they ran out of red chips...
Came through the Picardy hellscape this morning and realised how the newly-installed murder strip is supposed to work.
I actually burst out laughing. Not that it's funny, it's a disgrace. People are going to get hurt there.
It's not often I have to asses whether a part of Edinburgh is worth cycling on or not but I suspect this may be beyond the pale once the tram tracks are in.
"It's not often I have to asses whether a part of Edinburgh is worth cycling on or not"
When tram-rail/cycle interactions were introduced at Haymarket I deliberately went through it a number of times in a number of ways from different directions to make sure I knew what to do/watch out for/not be bullied into by rearward motor-revving.
Years and years ago Picardy Place and the London Road roundabout were on my internal 'bargepole' lookup, where they remained until they ended up on the quickest route to work from what was then a new home. They may be freshly-classified as places to avoid if it looks like they'll be even more of a cyclist-blender than the original cyclist-blender design.
The on-road lanes are bit blendery, right enough. But the segregated lanes should be OK, if too narrow and populated by pedestrians.
I have to negotiate the blender at least twice a day during the working week, and you most certainly have to have your wits about you, particularly as it's changing on a daily basis.
I'll just continue maintaining a strong primary, ignoring the horns and beeps. I'm not sure if I'll use the segregated lanes on the way to work as I'm not sure how to cross over to the right hand side of the road, then back to the left when I need to continue down Elm Row. Might just be better staying on the road..
Might just be better staying on the road..
I'll need to see what they do but I'm tending to this stance for reasons of;
1) Safety
2) Self respect and
3) Campaigning
There’s a slip lane of sorts that brings you back on to the road heading North. You’d probably need to turn right at N St David Street to join the segregated route https://www.tellmescotland.gov.uk/attachments/16/1549377737/18-64%20Proposed%20Plans%20A%20%26%20B.pdf
The segregated route still looks like a mess going northbound. You have to hope for a gap in traffic or lights so you can filter into the cycle lane. Then you may have to wait for up to 4 separate crossing lights until you can get back to the right side of the road going down Leith Walk.
I mean... I'll give it a go. But I suspect car prioritised traffic light timings might lead me to just take primary and play car.
At speed downhill I can't imagine ever wanting to take the Toytown Way - I'll take a super-assertive primary and play car.
I will judge the uphill route when it's built but the thought of wiggling through pedestrians to rejoin the traffic at some comedy intersection is not alluring.
Admit it - you are all just worried if you ever sample our new island oasis[1] you might just never leave...
[1] artist's impression.
Once you've experienced world leading place making, why would you leave?
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts