The nice professor sent me an update e-mail the other day, which included a list of roads in his ward which are scheduled for resurfacing per the "Roads and Infrastructure Investment – Capital Delivery Priorities for 2024/25 report" (due to be considered by the Transport and Environment Cttee today, apparently).
It came as no surprise to me to see Caiystane Crescent and Caiystane Terrace on the list (out of nine roads in his ward in total). Whoever they contracted to 'do' Caiystane Crescent last time out made a <rule 2> poor job of it: there was grit detaching from the surface and collecting in/blocking the gutters within just a few weeks, and wide linear cracks the depth of the new surface* forming along the seams in the pre-existing surface** within a month.
The real cause of the lack of surprise, though, is that those two roads are the primary ones used by drivers rat-running between Comiston Road and Oxgangs Road, avoiding the right turn at the Fairmilehead Head traffic lights. If they put down a surface designed to handle normal residential traffic loads i.e. people going to and from their homes then it's not that surprising if regular, significantly greater quantities of through traffic end wearing the surface out quicker. Is it?
I have several times pondered how the area could be made a LTN but I think having two access points on Comiston Road and three on Oxgangs Road (more if you count through traffic bouncing over the sleeping policemen on Oxgangs Bank and Oxgangs Brae to get to Oxgangs Road North) makes it a bit tricky. But then I am not a traffic planner and I know little of the cunning ideas that they can come up with. On reflection I suppose it's not actually that different to the "Braids Estate" (as Cllr Arthur likes to call it) in terms of entry & exit points - but we all know how that's looking likely to turn out...
* Especially unfriendly to two-wheeled vehicles. I actually find them scarier on my motorbike than on my bicycle.
** Which didn't seem to have been planed or otherwise levelled before the new surface was plonked on top of it.