@HankChief: there’s a good chance there will be a new story Transport Spokesperson in May:
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20408&page=28#post-347914
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Scottish Govmt announces £10m for pop up cycle/walking lanes
(3661 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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Scott Arthur there, the man of consultation, complaining about the consultation.
Posted 3 years ago # -
That cost will be nothing compared to the costs of future legal tussles if any get made permanent
Now the people who resort to legal tussles around such matters are often the same people who bemoan the co7ncil having to spend money on things like legal tussles.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo: if the council didn’t try to do things that I hate and oppose then they wouldn’t have to spend money defending themselves when I challenge them doing things that I hate and oppose. If they just did the things that I want then they will save money.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Council consultations are regularly accused of producing biased results by anti-SfP types, who then argue the results should be disregarded. To counter this the Council then undertake impartial public opinion research. This is then criticised for being too expensive (approx 0.00001% of the Council's annual budget). They literally cannot win.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Work is underway on the Meadowplace Road lanes. Essentially installing what should have been done 6 years ago when they painted new lanes because they said the road was too narrow for segregation.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I’m having a long and rather tedious Twitter spat with the chair of the East Craigs group which I’m keeping going with purely because it’s a wet Friday afternoon.
It reached a peak when he accused me of being creepy because I knew he lived in East Craigs. Must have misread all of those EEN articles describing him as an East Craigs resident.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“creepy because I knew he lived in East Craigs”
Big place.
I know people on Twitter who know his address!!
Posted 3 years ago # -
The 1 way (Eastbound only) on Queensferry Highstreet is great. The atmosphere on the street is much improved without the continuous negotiation of priority between car drivers.
You can still cycle both ways but be prepared for drivers to stop you to point out the 1 way system. Thankfully there are regular signs you can point to to correct them.
Posted 3 years ago # -
HankChief I shall have to go and investigate.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Meant to add, there are no bollards on the Lanark Road lanes yet, but for a confident cyclist the lack of parked cars makes a huge difference - no more having to slow and move out.
A driver coming out of Kingsknowe Road South by the golf club had encroached into the lane but then reversed out of it when they saw me coming - I gave them a wave of thanks.
Posted 3 years ago # -
One learner driver only parked in the east bound lane all the way to the Ford of the Slate. Bad a learner should start with such habits
Also red sporty number parked on the pavement to avoid the lane
Posted 3 years ago # -
I hope she consults widely before writing her opinions -
“
It’s interesting that the council simply tends to ignore citizens who don’t agree with them. It’s also interesting how much money they are happy to spend on something that many people don’t want.
“
Posted 3 years ago # -
@Stickman, I'm not sure why he finds that so creepy. He posted on a public Facebook group to say exactly which road his work from home desk looks onto.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@acsimpson - yeah, he’s not exactly anonymous. He took the hump with me after someone sent him my post above, went on a rant about me then blocked me. He’s very happy to dish out abuse but is very touchy when it goes the other way - I’d thought it was a relatively innocuous comment compared to some of the stuff he and his pals have said. I’m not losing any sleep over it though.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo: Also red sporty number parked on the pavement to avoid the lane
IIRC there are DYLs the whole length of the cycle lanes except where there are parking spaces. That's certainly how it ended up on Comiston Road. Red sporty number perhaps one of those vehicles that mistakenly believes DYLs only apply to parking at the kerb, rather than the whole of the road including the footway?
(Note to self: remember to check for the presence or otherwise of DYLs southbound just beyond the Braid Road junction next time I go past.)
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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Councillor A supporting the anti-cycling conspiracy theorist?
Posted 3 years ago # -
As far as I can gather from his public statements that Holledge chap is in favour of cycling, just as long as it isn’t in the city centre.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Just as long as it's not on Broughton Street. Cyclists should just go along Dublin Street instead.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Thinking about the anti-SfP cycle lanes argument that they create congestion, I thought I would investigate how much road space they cover compared with parked cars.
The Council state it has designed 39km of segregated SfP cycle lanes. They haven't all been installed, but lets just go with it. Assuming the lanes are all 2m wide, then they cover 78,000 m2.
Edinburgh residents own 171,500 cars. Given that two-thirds of Edinburgh households live in flats, 20% of households have 2+ cars and on-street parking is common even when people have driveways, it seems reasonable to assume 50% of these cars get parked on the street. So, 85,750 cars are parked on the city's streets. The average parking space is 11.52m2. So parked cars cover 987,840 m2 - taking up 12.7 times more road space than the SfP cycle lanes.
Anti-SfP campaigners will argue that this simply reflects the importance of the car as a mode of transport. So, are 12.7 times more trips made by car than bike in Edinburgh?
No.
In 2019 (pre-pandemic) 43% of trips for all purposes in Edinburgh were made by car. Cycling accounted for 4% of all trips. So cars accounted for 10.75 times more trips than bike.
Then there is national and local policy to reduce car mileage and increase the number of trips made by bike...
Sources: Transport and Travel in Scotland 2019, Scottish Transport Statistics 2020, Census 2011, CEC - Spaces for People
Posted 3 years ago # -
“Then there is national and local policy to reduce car mileage and increase the number of trips made by bike...”
National in this case can also include England, which (as/for the UK) has a party in charge whose north of the border members (many of) seem to advocate different policies/priorities.
Another benefit of devolution.
Posted 3 years ago # -
As far as I can gather from his public statements that Holledge chap is in favour of cycling, just as long as it isn’t in the city centre.
I *think* his concern is that cyclists can travel very fast down Broughton Street (which is true - I know I do 20mph down there regularly), so shouldn't get a segregated lane as that would endanger pedestrians. I'm not sure I buy that - if I wanted to go fast downhill I'd stay in the road.
He also thinks the street is too narrow to allow for wider pavements and segregated bike lane, which I presume is why he doesn't want an uphill cycle lane (unless he thinks we go too fast uphill as well?). I do not buy the "too narrow" argument either. Broughton St is wide enough to have cars parked on either side and plenty of fast flowing vehicles in it. Take out the parking, narrow the lanes to reflect the 20mph limit, and there'll be a fair amount of space.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I had a go on the westbound London Road segregated lane. I did not enjoy having to rejoin the main carriageway at every built-out bus stop. I suspect your attitude towards cycling with a bus behind you will be the prime deciding factor on whether that segregated lane is for you or not.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Lots of FOI requests about SfP schemes on the council website. The SWEM lot are getting excited about the results of this one, which is just a series of emails between the Council design team and Sustrans, Lothian Buses and the Spokes suggestions for projects.
It’s not really a smoking gun on alleged council impropriety, but is interesting to see how some of the design discussions progress.
https://edinburgh.axlr8.uk/documents/31217/31217%20Information.zip
Posted 3 years ago # -
All of Spokes' responses are published on our website: http://www.spokes.org.uk/documents/members-campaigning/edinburgh/edinburgh-covid-schemes/
I'd suggest that one could compare the initial designs with our suggestions/comments and the final designs, in order to try and quantify how much influence Spokes has...but it'd just be a depressing use of time...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Re London Road - A prime candidate for floating bus stops if made permanent. I have used the lane but it's not ideal.
Broughton Street - Parking for businesses is being quoted as a consideration but there are only around 15 parking bays on the street and around 50 businesses. Albany Street is always full on contractors' vans so obviously space there for parking.
Posted 3 years ago # -
The speed (some) cyclists go downhill isn't a thing they have to deal with in The Netherlands and I think it isn't a simple thing to solve.
Mr fimm came down the Lanark Road lane yesterday and his comments were 1) the road surface isn't great and 2) it gets a bit narrow in places. So there's a good chance he will stick to the main lane - which of course puts him at risk of hassle from people who don't want to drive behind a cyclist doing 25-30 mph in a 30 mph speed limit.Posted 3 years ago # -
I tried the southbound Willowbrae Road and Milton Road West lanes yesterday. Good, except for the debris and where they give up at every traffic island pinch point including the one at the crest of the hill.
Posted 3 years ago #
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