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.
Just had the delight of going past and chaotic sounds about right. Traffic management contractors must be making a fortune.
Police Scotland are also out enforcing the no left turn onto Broughton Street and have pulled someone over which isn’t helping with the traffic flow https://twitter.com/polscotrpu/status/1181129287807709184?s=21
Why is that turn banned?
Peds cross at the same time
Thanks
Somewhat silly explanation since the no-turn creates that issue but essentially it’s to increase traffic flow over the gyratory as it avoids having a separate pedestrian phase
Yeah, it's a gyratory-related change. I am sceptical about whether these 'clever' traffic engineering tricks which involve people flawlessly observing rules are safe in busy central areas, though seems to be relatively well observed. Similar things happen at the Mound/Princes St. crossing, Morrison Street/Lothian road and, in a slightly different way, S St Andrew St/Princes Street.
Does anyone know why the council used double yellow lines instead of red? I figured they'd want the stricter option
I get the impression the council doesn't really 'do' greenways and the red lines associated with them any more. They've got rid of the no stopping signs on Leith Street and I don't think they've created any No Stopping areas since before 2010. Bus lanes aren't painted green anymore either!
Yeah, it's a gyratory-related change.
I suspect that was the main driver, but it's also necessary as a result of the build out of the pavement on the corner of York Place/Broughton Street, which has made the corner substantially tighter. I could see larger vehicles either running over the pavement or swinging across it to make the turn.
I am sceptical about whether these 'clever' traffic engineering tricks which involve people flawlessly observing rules are safe in busy central areas, though seems to be relatively well observed.
Yes. Avoiding a snarl up appears to be entirely reliant on drivers observing the box junctions at each of the intersections. Good luck with that.
'sgonna be CHAOS
It's all a bit chicken-and-egg but I would assume the pavement buildout was designed to make the no left turn self-enforce to some degree. Traffic flow is a much bigger driver of decisions on this project than pedestrian amenity.
If the left turn was to be kept, a consultation response of 'please extend unpleasantly small pavement' would be replied to with 'unfortunately swept-path analysis indicates this is necessary to facilitate large left-turning vehicles, which are more important than you.'
Now the pavement has been extended as unintended side-effect of maximising traffic flow, it can of course be held up as an example of how this is the best project for active travel this millenium.
Sorry, that got rather cynical!
At some point enough of the Island of the Dead will have emerged above the swirling tarmac that we can all sit there watching the chaos, munching snacks, and saying "Told you so!"…
Let's hire the Island of the Dead (from ourselves) and install an illuminated billboard.
Suggested message: "This place is horrible and you are miserable."
So much has changed in the last 60 years...
“
Comprehensive demolition was not only viewed as the solution for housing problems. Paisley engaged in substantial road realignment programme during the 1960s, resulting in the Paisley Expressway, which ran through the core of the town and necessitated further widespread demolition. The Burgh Engineer, writing in The Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette about the proposed new road network, remarked that a “completely new approach” was necessary to traffic management in the town centre, and that the historic “form of development must now be considered as obsolete”: a definitive public pronouncement.
“
https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/187959940/Thesis.pdf
How thoughtful of them 
The weird 'turn left to turn right' boxes at MacDonald Road have already become palimpsests due to the passing traffic.
That took a couple of years at most. Never seen them used and now they are fading fast.
I've never bothered with them but I would probably use it post-tram. With the early cycle signal there isn't much point at the moment.
Picardy Place: AVOID AVOID AVOID SUBVERT.
Squeezed through gaps in the cones and went my merry way. Everbody did - it was like cats high-tailing it out of a house in an earthquake (one of my favourite niche youtube genres).
I do feel bad for the person who has to put the cycleway not in use barriers/cones back every morning.
Is it worth someone who is aware of the specifics asking the council to get them to open part of the cycleway up as a safety measure, if everyone is successfully using it? They managed a temporary cycleway on Leith Street...
The blade gets changed in the meat grinder every couple of days. Also hard to see how to safely access the pavement lane northbound.
As ever in Edinburgh the basic message is that fit, assertive cyclists on standard bikes should make their way as best they can.
"Also hard to see how to safely access the pavement lane northbound."
As a fit, assertive cyclist on a standard bike, I'm not going through that mess at the moment.
I crossed from the road to the pavement lane at the pedestrian crossing outside the John Lewis entrance, but I think that doing the same at the Leith Street traffic lights when it's either on a right turn or green man way also be the only way to safely get to it Northbound.
Rejoining to continue Northbound at Elm Row means coming off at Greenside Lane by the Theatre Royal, crossing during a break in traffic into the coned off middle road then coming through the cones onto Elm Row.
Cats in an earthquake indeed.
All it really needs is a replacement of the kinetic sculpture but with halberds instead of fluorescent tubes, wafting around and slashing at anyone trying to take shelter amongst the cones.
Last night's weird thing was that the right-hand lane divided by the modular rubber kerb was blocked-off higher up, though I still peered behind me up it plenty of times before merging with it.
Guy riding a Babboe cargo bike north into the blender this morning. He took the proper route and got through quicker than me as I tried to dodge it.
Caught up with him later as he tried to keep the bike straight and upright on the MacDonald junction moonscape. American, riding Leith to Royal Mile and back with two kids.
Last week I was taking the Pashley Pronto on the train to Fife, and on way to station decided to use the inoperative segregated cycle lanes rather than risk life and limb on Picardy Place/Leith Street. Not bad, actually. I was cycling slowly anyway, but made good progress despite the throngs walking on "cycle lane" just prior to Calton Road junction due to scaffolding blocking footway for past months... Also pleased to note the Pronto just fits in lifts at Waverley drop-off point.
Didn't use on way back, did the Waverley Ramp/Princes Street/Regent Road combo instead: my the Pronto flies down Regent Road!
Yesterday afternoon I discovered there was no passage north from Leith St to Leith Walk. Fortunately, I could step through the cones and head round Calton Road.
From Twitter: https://twitter.com/gordon_struth/status/1183756765340536832
@Edinburgh_CC What is this??? Still with the magic paint, this time on the outside of a tight bend at a very busy junction, alongside tightly turning buses and lorries???No, this is totally unacceptable. Start again with something that normal people will actually cycle.
I cant even imagine where that lane is taking someone; is it on the outside of the roundabout, so going from York Place to Leith Street? So the whole time you'd be in it, you'd be signalling right, and watching for cars headed down Leith Walk?
The lane heads for a circa 1 metre wide gap in the curb outside the Omni that 'connects' with the strip on the pavement.
I had my optic nerves overhauled after I saw it the first time but it was still present and appears to be part of the observable universe.
Good luck hitting it in the dark with a Friday night tipper truck on your tail.
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