A mate of mine who is nervous of city cycling will use this facility on Thursday to come round our house.
His judgement will be final.
(My judgement on his top headset bearing will also be final.)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Scottish Govmt announces £10m for pop up cycle/walking lanes
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Posted 5 years ago #
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IWRATS - Your nervous friend is what really counts.
My feeling is that on balance, having the barrier certainly feels safer and that narrowing the road hopefully slows the traffic down.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@chrisfl
Exactly. I made this point to Cllr McInnes when she asked what I thought of the scheme. Pointed out that what mattered was what Madame IWRATS thinks of it. She is a robust individual but just cannot be bothered with threats to life on the way to work - something we all seem to accept as an occupational hazard.
Posted 5 years ago # -
At least the southbound ODR section has wands outside the car dealership, an area that is consistently parked up. No doubt once the dealership's staff are back from furlough they'll park between the wands (and the first transporter will remove them).
I'm a bit irritated that the wands give up soon before the islands - as a defensive cyclist, I take the whole carriageway through the islands before Bridge End, and would come out earlier (indeed usually then staying out past the parked car). I suspect the lack of wands is an admission that the gaps are too narrow to have both cyclists and drivers pass through at the same time!
Near the RIE it looks (from the video footage) that the narrow cycle lanes have been widened southbound - does that apply to the comedy width northbound lane too? There's a bit just north of the RIE that was narrower than a MTB handlebar!
Robert
Posted 5 years ago # -
Given HwC is not devolved would this apply up here also? Article just says England
Dft tweet
New laws will give local authorities the power to use CCTV to issue penalties to drivers who park illegally in cycle lanes, to make cycling…
✅ Safer
✅ Easier
✅ And more enjoyableFind out more https://t.co/V120NIWIXE
Is there an appropriate camera outside Tesco on Causewayside?
Posted 5 years ago # -
"another disappointing token gesture"
We can look forward to £5 million worth of them,
coming soonafter the necessary consultation process has concluded.Posted 5 years ago # -
Wanding existing substandard advisory lanes gets us nowhere. At worst it just pens cyclists into a narrow drain-pocked mess of crumbling tarmac (and bashed wands!). From chrisfl's video upthread, drivers appear to think it absolves them from giving a decent lateral distance when passing, no attempt to cross the centre line (maybe that was always par for the course on ODR, I don't know)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@toomanybikes ScotGov will give you an Order of the Saltire medal for parking in one instead.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Worried the Tories haven't tried to delay things for a few days? Fear not! The latest amendments have arrived:
1.1.5 Requests that Network assessment and modelling takes place on the impact across city of all the agreed and proposed designs to date. This should also include any other major proposals (e.g. The Mound being closed at Bank Street) and focus on unintended consequences and outcomes of individual projects, which when brought together, may result in severing of the north of the city from the south. This would have a serious impact on both businesses and residents.
1.1.6 Agrees to immediately suspend and consider alternatives solutions for North Bridge which by limiting to one shared lane for both buses and cycles is inherently dangerous
Posted 5 years ago # -
may result in severing of the north of the city from the south.
Ironically, a scenario with which cyclists are already perfectly familiar.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I am somewhat curious what the official North Bridge diversion will actually be though. Queen St, Lothian Rd and Melville Dr? Supposedly there's only a 3-5min difference (at 22:43...).
Posted 5 years ago # -
consider alternatives solutions for North Bridge which by limiting to one shared lane for both buses and cycles is inherently dangerous
This is the same Conservatives that said cyclists could just use the road and didn’t need protected lanes? Those Conservatives?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Stickman
I have just replied to one of my Conservative MSPs who I had asked to vote for something next week.
I pointed out that his proposed stance was lax on law and order and socialist on state subsidies.
At the UK of GB&NI level the Conservatives are destructionists dedicated to smashing the structures of society while in Scotland they are obstructionists opposed to all change regardless. Odd bunch.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@CycleAlex
There doesn’t need to be a diversion. Private cars should not be able to cross the city. They should have to go “out & round” (or choose another mode). This is what they do on the continent
Posted 5 years ago # -
It is every man’s right to drive his car where he likes. (May not apply to people who menstruate)
Posted 5 years ago # -
I live on the eastern edge of the New Town, so would naturally think of the Bridges as the most direct route to the south side.
However, if I go to Google Maps, drop a pin in Marchmont and command Google to provide directions for me in my automobile it gives me several potential routes.
Going via North Bridge is no quicker, and is often 2 or 3 minutes slower on a 11 to 14 min journey time, than routing either via Lothian Road or London Road and (look away now) Holyrood Park*.
Doesn't feel particularly severing.
*Don't worry - I take great pleasure in observing the 20mph limit all the way up the hill.
Posted 5 years ago # -
It is every man’s right to drive his car where he likes.
There's a specific gene on the Y chromosome that codes for a protein that's an enzyme that catalyses getting into cars to drive around. It's just biology.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I listened to the council meeting discussing Spaces For People today.
It’s a sign of how low aspirations are that on several occasions it was stated that Edinburgh had done more than any other Scottish local authority.
I know officers are stretched and working flat out, but closure of a few minor roads and a short stretch of wands doesn’t feel like a lot to celebrate.
Posted 5 years ago # -
That says far more about Scotland generally than it does about CEC in particular.
Posted 5 years ago # -
New plans:
South Bridge - Bus gate, widened pavements and closure on Blair St: https://leithccc.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/tdd-637129-1200-07-south-bridge.pdf
George IV Bridge - Widened pavements and segregated cycle lane: https://leithccc.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/tdd-637129-1200-09-george-iv-bridge.pdf
The Mound - Uphill segregated cycle lane and bus gate: https://leithccc.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/tdd-637129-1200-10-the-mound.pdf
Forrest Road - Segregated cycle lane: https://leithccc.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/tdd-637129-1200-11-forrest-road.pdf
I sense resistance within the Roads Dept. The Planning Dept et cetera
Funnily enough @gembo, all these city centre plans have been designed by a roads team engineer but the mediocre advisory plans on Crewe Rd South weren't. Perhaps we've entered some sort of alternative universe.Posted 5 years ago # -
@CycleAlecx - dont get me wrong there are good people around these Depts. just that they often encounter resistance from colleagues. My oft quoted example - 2 years of internal campaigning to get No Entry signs. Once argument won sign appeared rapidly
Posted 5 years ago # -
My mate's verdict on the ODR wands downhill at 20h00: "Yeah, really helpful. Until you get to that roundabout. WTF are you meant to do there?"
So, connectivity.
(His top head bearing race was missing one ball bearing. Doubtless had been since it was built in 2015. Pinnacle Lithium.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
One further little gem from the council meeting:
Turns out that this amendment from the Tories was prompted by Spokes’ response to the plans:
1.1.6 Agrees to immediately suspend and consider alternatives solutions for North Bridge which by limiting to one shared lane for both buses and cycles is inherently dangerous
It’s nice to see that the Shadowy All-Powerful Cycling Lobby is directly writing Tory amendments. I look forward to the Tories endorsing other, more significant, Spokes suggestions in future.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't mind sharing with Lothian buses at all. It's psycho skip lorry drivers and mums chatting to their kids in the back seat that scare me.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Parking charges to return 'as soon as possible' thanks to Claire: https://twitter.com/Edinburgh_CC/status/1271140522904748032
Posted 5 years ago # -
Does anyone know the minimum recommended width for a unidirectional segregated cycle lane?
Overall the plans look good, but I have some concerns on widths: 1.5m in places seems too narrow. And it’s probably going to be less than that where they are “segregating existing painted lane” e.g. Bank St southbound
Posted 5 years ago # -
Cycling by Design says:
"desirable minimum" is 2m
"absolute minimum" is 1.5m (excluding drains etc.)
but that "in exceptional circumstances" it can be as low as 1m.https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/14173/cycling_by_design_2010__rev_1__june_2011_.pdf (page numbered 51, page 69 of the pdf).
Posted 5 years ago # -
Who wants to take a punt on the ODR lanes kerb to inner surface of wand?
Posted 5 years ago # -
From ESDG: Min 1.5m*, desirable 1.75m and high flows 2m+ *1.25m in very constrained locations
I notice Leith Central CC have sent a rather moany reply:
While the proposed measures may well have merit in principle, we fear that the rushed progress from conception to enactment does not only undermine democratic principles, but, through unnecessarily hurried planning and hasty implementation, that the very aims these measures seek to promote may be discredited.
We note the absence of an explicit sunset clause, as would be appropriate for emergency measures.
We note that the attached plans sent to us did not include DRG. NO. TDD-637129-04 (North Bridge), although this is closest to our area and shows a southbound bus gate.
We note the absence of even a basic environmental impact assessment attempting to quantify excess pollution and delayed travel times caused by displaced traffic in neighbouring areas – including ours, the most densely populated in Scotland (census 2011) – especially in view of the ongoing works at Picardy Place and the imminent resumption of the tram extension works.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Who wants to take a punt on the ODR lanes kerb to inner surface of wand?
1.4m?
Posted 5 years ago #
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