Very vebberian, alas the motion will go forward but can’t do anything as long as the coalition holds.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Scottish Govmt announces £10m for pop up cycle/walking lanes
(3661 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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Councillor Susan Webber, Pentland Hills ward and Conservative group spokesperson for transport said: “The aim of the scheme to make accessing Juniper Green primary school easier for those concerned is commendable but I do despair when you see the supposed practical solutions presented.
“The road in question has had issues with congestion and people parking on double yellows. However the proposed solution is just another example of something that looks simple on paper, though when it comes to implementation it is anything but.
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Posted 3 years ago # -
Re: the planter and the lorry.
They simply shouldn't be allowing these huge (and long) rigid lorries to make deliveries to schools or corner shops, where they have to travel down inappropriate roads.
Design your vehicles around the city, not the other way round!
Posted 3 years ago # -
The council could make it part of the tender process conditions that all deliveries have to be done with smaller lorries. You'd think the residents would be OK if they stopped big lorries driving past their houses. What actually said: "I'm going to cut this up and put it in our log burner"
Posted 3 years ago # -
Also, a child was killed on this very road (Baberton Mains Wynd) in the 1980s. By a lorry driver, reversing and driving over the top of him :-(
His name was Alan Dunn. I haven't forgotten it over 40 years.
Posted 3 years ago # -
So Councillor Webber is arguing that the street should be designed for the convenience of the very occasional lorry that makes deliveries, as opposed to all the small children that use it to get to school?
Also, it is clear that the Tories will use any "argument" against road safety measures. Cllr Mclellan was arguing against "plastic stumps" on aesthetic grounds yesterday and now Cllr Webber argues that the more attractive planters obstruct the view.
How do you justify the need to allow traffic to barrel round a corner into a short cul de sac that ends at a primary school? The stuff about emergency vehicles is laughable. I don't think anyone would really object to an ambulance or fire engine with sirens and lights on mounting a kerb for a few seconds.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I would really like the council to do some PR interviews with fire crews, paramedics, police where they are like... we're fine with this.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Of course the cars parked too close to the junctions (highway code rule 243) can't possibly be to blame for a large truck struggling to navigate narrow residential streets.
Posted 3 years ago # -
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Considered such a core activity that it is assessed by teachers, play in Finland is also about learning risk and responsibility – competences Finnish society promotes to the extent that it is common for even seven-year-olds to walk to school on their own.
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Harder to do in UK due to attitudes to children and cars...
Which is why traffic/speed reduction measures are important for PEOPLE.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@morningsider: I don't think anyone would really object to an ambulance or fire engine with sirens and lights on mounting a kerb for a few seconds.
Or they could go round the planter on the 'wrong' side of the road, like the lorry seems to have eventually managed to do (not helped by the badly-parked cars opposite the junction, as pointed out by acsimpson). In fact, I think that's what drivers are supposed to do. I walked past a similarly placed planter at the junction of Clearburn Road and Prestonfield Avenue this morning and it seemed to me blindingly obvious that it's intended as a road narrowing measure for traffic calming, and vehicles turning in to the side road are supposed to pass it on the right. All it needs is a circular blue "keep right" sign, and maybe a "give way to oncoming vehicles" sign, for those too clinically thick to work out what they're supposed to do (and for all I know, the intention is to fit them with those at some point in the near future).
Posted 3 years ago # -
St John’s Road is back to it’s pre-pandemic worst. Nothing to do with the SfP extended pavements, just too much traffic for the area to cope with.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“Just too much traffic“
Hope CEC & SG/TS are keeping proper track of it all and research whether it’s work/leisure/shopping/ looking for parking space etc.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I suspect that 'everyone' is just getting out there and driving, assuming the roads are going to be just like they were during lockdown...
It'll take a few* traffic jams before people start to realise not to make that journey at certain times, or to walk, cycle, etc.
*Knowing the stupidity levels, is probably going to take a *lot* of getting stuck before people learn-it, innit?
Posted 3 years ago # -
@neddie, maybe you are underestimating folks' capacity for denial.
Drivers won't imagine that they might have to modify their own behaviour. It will always be someone else's fault. Other drivers, lorries, vans, buses, trams, cyclists, roadworks, SfP taking up road space, you name it they'll blame it.
I mean, that's how it was before. It's just that now folk are convinced they'll be safe(r) from the plague sitting in their car in a traffic jam. So I don't expect this will change much until the pandemic is officially declared over.
Sad but these seem to be the times we are in. Look at Brexit for example. Lots of folk said it would be a disastrous mess. Now that it is, it's someone else's fault. Not the ones who voted for it. Not the ones who agitated for it either. Oh no. Somebody else.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I was on Princes Street earlier today, for the first time in months (since before Christmas, I think). I couldn't help noticing, after this extended retreat in the Southern Heights, that the centre of town smelled quite noticeably of vehicle exhaust fumes. And that's far from one of the worst areas in the city.
At least that probably means that I haven't got Covid...
Posted 3 years ago # -
The EEN getting fact-checked and put in their place over one of their misleading SfP scare stories:
https://twitter.com/longstone_cc/status/1388209706251034627?s=21
Posted 3 years ago # -
Some rather nice planters have been added at the Oxford Terrace/Learmonth Terrace closure next to the A90. I pass through there fairly frequently with a friend (on an ever powerful Just Eat bike) and it's far nicer now. Doesn't seem to have been much of a fuss over it either.
They also repainted the upside down bike, which somewhat sadly made my afternoon!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Saw that there was a fire at the nursery on Lanark Road this morning (everyone is safe). Then saw this:
Dear ALL #Edinburgh Councillor's and @edinhelp do we REALLY need the street bollards? Fire Service on #LanarkRoad attending a fire ambulance just arrived traffic redirected via #Kingsnowe photos show difficulties fire service are having with them both side of the road!!
https://twitter.com/sharonbabes1/status/1389852976123158532?s=21
Posted 3 years ago # -
No, you see, two lines of parked cars is much easier for emergency services to negotiate than some flexible plastic bollards.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Who would have thought that people trained to work in zero visibility, extreme temperatures and hazardous situations would find some rubber kerbs such a challenge!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Can’t find any photos.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Apparently the difficulty was that other traffic had to be redirected. As opposed to being able to exercise their human right to rubberneck past the incident, I suppose...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Fire engines are fairly sturdy things. I'm sure if they needed to get closer to the fire they would just drive over the top of the kerbs/bollards.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“I'm sure if they needed to get closer to the fire they would just drive over the top of the kerbs/bollards.“
One reason why the are flexible.
Also fire engines can/do push vehicles out of the way. Presumably that wasn’t necessary...
Posted 3 years ago # -
very strange how there's no photos to evidence this :)
Posted 3 years ago # -
They were parked in the road, even though there are no bollards at the nursery (the cycle lane is unprotected, but there are floating parking spaces). However traffic driving past had less room because there are bollards on the opposite side. This meant parents cycling to nursery (and other cyclists) could still safely cycle past the fire but it probably made the driving delays worse.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Next door drives fire engines, and I asked frankly what they thought, and their opinion was it does make it harder to get to calls (traffic moving out of the way) but they make do.
It would be interesting to know statistically what the average time to reach a fire site is now, compared to before SfP. If it was 1 second longer, meh. If it's 10 minutes longer, problem. I assume it's not the latter since we haven't heard any complaints from the fire service.
I don't think the bollards at a fire itself would be an issue. If they are ramming cars out of the way, they will surely drive onto a folding removable bollard.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Not recent but fits here because it’s about what a professor thinks -
https://road.cc/content/news/171926-professor-claims-mini-holland-scheme-could-be-terrorist-target
Posted 3 years ago # -
Calling him a retired medical professor just highlights shows how little he probably knows about what he is referring to. This is someone who has spent their entire professional life learning about something totally unrelated to what they discussing.
He is not an expert in this field and as such is less relevant than most other local people.
Posted 3 years ago #
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