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.
Interesting research into the positive health impacts of Covid-19 pop-up cycle lanes. The results are pretty startling:
Within 4 mo, an average of 11.5 km of provisional pop-up bike lanes have been built per city and the policy has increased cycling between 11 and 48% on average. We calculate that the new infrastructure will generate between $1 and $7 billion in health benefits per year if cycling habits are sticky.
https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/bi/retainingspacesforpeopleconsultation/
Consultation closes today.
Please take a few minutes to fill it in if you haven't already done so.
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Local resident Thomas Porteous, 72, of Redhall, has been driving professionally since he was 17 years old - he says he has ‘never seen anything like this… even in third world countries’.
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New Town and Broughton Community Council ramblings on SfP survey.
https://www.ntbcc.org.uk/ntbcc-response-to-retaining-spaces-for-people-measures-consultation/
Google tells me Thomas Porteous (72) is a taxi driver. Not mentioned in the article for some reason.
Looking at the Longstone Road works shown in the article, the Council really does itself no favours sometimes.
Surely anyone with a drop of sense would have seen that not realigning the centre line of the road before adding the cycle lane and parking bays slightly later would have been confusing and potentially hazardous, and a complete open goal for motons and Evilling News journalists just waiting for any opportunity to leap right in? Details Matter, and it's still something that the Council isn't getting right (sigh). (See also: the farcically narrow 2-way cycle lane on Silverknowes Parkway (which itself is a cop-out to properly traffic calming Silverknowes Road South))
Wonder if Brian allen is still around he was 69 back in 2015 and the red mist came down and he was fined 360 quid and nine points for his driving but City Cabs did not dismiss him.
Odd how the Chipwrapper never felt the need to publish photos of an unfinished Queensferry Crossing, including quotes from wallopers about how "it doesn't even meet in the middle".
I suppose the the Council could shut the road for the duration of the work, just so no-one is confused. I assume that would have Cllr Webber's support.
Superb Morningsider, superb!
That branch_cab tweet thread contains an interesting comment from one of the more vocal opponents to the East Craigs LTN and spaces for people:
"One of my van drivers was hit by a cyclist outside one of our clients...actually about 10 yards away from this scene."
Sounds like he operates a business which relies on motor vehicles and perhaps has a vested interest in maintaining unhindered access and maximum parking for them.
@rob, when my driver didn’t look where he or she was going?
There is no rational reason to oppose these schemes.
Either they inconvenience your parking so you oppose them out of vested interest
Or
You have an irrational desire to have things how you want them but don’t care about the future of the planet.
Perhaps Thomas Porteous would prefer the unsealed roads with no markings found in many 3rd world regions. Perhaps even the ones which turn to mud every time it rains. All he has managed to do is further reveal how biased the chipwrapper's political correspondent is.
I find it hard to believe that a taxi driver with so many years of experience would never have driven along (or past the end of) Silverknowes Avenue to see the floating parking which has been there for years without incident.
@acsimpson, but Thomas Porteous’s memory is maybe not so good as it used to be given he is 72?
Looking forward to the dangerous floating parking in George Street being removed.
@stickman, the stuff that floats the entire length of the street right up the middle and you have to step out into dangerous traffic to even reach the pavement. That is an accident wait8ng to happen in all my years of travelling through Edinburgh on a bus, in a car or on a bike I have never seen anything so dangero7s and am amazed that the clowncil has never removed this accident waiting to happen,
It's even worse at Tesco*. You have to park in the dangerous floating parking and then walk the entire length of the road before crossing a larger road just to get to a narrow pavement along the front of the shop.
*Or most other large shopping destinations.
I saw a claim that the Currie kids football team are looking for somewhere else to play because the parents think Lanark Road is too dangerous now.
@stickman. Not Currie? No change to parking there but yes at the pitches at Kingsknowe the parking will float and if by danger they mean You can’t park where you like then yes.
@gembo: aye, the pitches at Kingsknowe.
Parking on anything other than a dual carriageway is "too dangerous"? Wow, cars are less useful than I thought.
I was going to suggest they park on the grass next to the football pitches for maximum child safety, but that would put the cars at risk of being hit by footballs and that would be a step too far.
@Stickman - at least one of them is well ahead of you.
@chdot: Mr Porteous said: “All of a sudden, there’s a car parked in the middle of the road, so you have to swerve right, to avoid it, and basically, if there’s a bus parked at the bus stop, you’re coming into the flow of traffic coming from the other direction - it’s very dangerous."
I am bemused at his suggestion that parked cars appear "suddenly", and that the only possible way to deal with such unforeseeable materialisations is to swerve in to the path of oncoming traffic.
I think what he's trying to say is: "The road layout has changed and I have to pay a bit more attention to what I'm doing. I may even need to slow down a bit and drive with a bit more caution, and consideration to other road users. It's outrageous."
I would question whether someone who apparently thinks and operates in that way when behind the wheel should be allowed to be in control of thousands of pounds weight of moving metal in a public place.
Lol, have they not noticed how fast cyclists go up that reasonably steep hill? Unless they're expecting the Tour de France peloton through there...
@ejstubbs, yes an insidious creep into the safety narrative. Safety yes but drivers must not have to drive carefully.
It is too easy to drive cars now. They don’t even seem to have a choke anymore. None of my dad’s cars when we were kids ever worked without frequent pulling on the choke.
I also note 75 per cent of the SUVs are bought by people living in urban areas. Even the RAC are questioning the point of this.
I shall join the two propositions. People in urban areas bu6 and drive SUVs around streets not designed for such huge vehicles as they are not just status symbols but very safe for the driver.
if suburban drivers need a car capable of ploughing over rivers, across fields and up steep hills
Except that SUVs aren't capable of any of that stuff, because that's not what it's about...
SUVs are about luxury. And like any luxury item, they lose their utility and status when everyone has one.
You can try stopping people with money buying luxury items - good luck with that one...!
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