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Representatives from Murrayfield Community Council handed in a petition to the council today demanding action on rat running.
The document has been signed by more than 100 locals who want traffic calming on Ellersly Road and Kinellan Road.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
“Petition demands that council stops “rat running” in Murrayfield“
(10 posts)-
Posted 1 week ago #
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Are they so mind-numbingly unimaginative that they can only think of speed bumps?
Speed bumps on a residential street are a classic indicator of a street that actually needs to be filtered.
They could literally install a filter on Kinellan Rd (and possibly Ellersly Rd as well) overnight, at almost zero cost, using temporary barriers as seen on the Greenbank Meadows Quiet Route. Then switch them out for planters at a later date.
Is it really that the Community Councils of this city can't think beyond, "MUST. ACCOMMODATE. CARS"?
Posted 1 week ago # -
If I recall correctly, Colinton community council even solicits people who drive through, not merely their ward residents, to feed back on consultations etc.
Posted 1 week ago # -
As the highest and most immediate priority
Yet again, the affluent areas DEMANDING that the council attend to them first, at the expense of more deprived areas...
If only there was a way to roll out traffic-calming across the city in a fast, cheap and equitable way, maybe in only a matter of weeks...
(oh wait, there is... temporary traffic barriers)
Posted 1 week ago # -
Would surely need to be a bus gate as it appears the 38 goes that way, stick it near the corner at the west end so cars can turn around.
Posted 1 week ago # -
I used to live off Ellersly Road (not in the big posh houses though!) - even 25 years ago it was really busy and in rush hour it would back up from Western Corner all the way to Kinellan Road. At that time though Kinellan Road wasn’t really used as a ratrun. I think it’s become that since the advent of satnavs sending people what appears to be the “quickest” way.
No reason why Kinellan Road shouldn’t be shut to through traffic. Closing Ellersly Road would mean more traffic going along Corstorphine Road to the junction with Murrayfield Road, which may or may not be desirable.
Posted 1 week ago # -
"They could literally install a filter on Kinellan Rd overnight"
I have previously made the point to one of those presenting the petition, that making Kinellen's (southern) junction with Ellersley Rd as exit only would solve the problem overnight.
His response was that he wouldn't want to 'punish' the residents with such draconian measures...
Meanwhile the same individual wanted MCC to object to the Toucan Crossings on QR9 because "he passes through the area six times per week and has never seen more than a couple of cyclists. He felt that the safety measures for Ellersly and Kinellan Roads, which MCC has been seeking for 10 years, were far more important"
Posted 1 week ago # -
I suspect the 'don't want to punish the residents' are the same people saying the Roseburn lanes are not needed because there's a wiggly quiet route from the end of the NEPN to Haymarket?
Just make the streets one way, but in opposite directions. Still completely accessible to residents, but not attractive to rat runners.
I was in a taxi that took the Ellersly route once, it was not especially faster. He was assuming that there would be a long wait for the light at Murrayfield and Western.
Posted 1 week ago # -
he wouldn't want to 'punish' the residents with such draconian measures...
But, but...isn't it the residents who are asking for the rat-running to be stopped? Ah, maybe not. On reading the article linked in the OP it seems that what they are primarily asking for is for the rat-running traffic to be be made to slow down. The three items on which action is requested are traffic calming, a wider pavement and a pedestrian crossing. There doesn't seem to be anything specifically about keeping traffic out of the area.
I'm not convinced that speed bumps have a major deterrent effect on rat-running. Kirkgate seems to get a fair amount of through traffic, despite having some of the most ferocious speed bumps in Edinburgh. The predominant drivist mindset seems to regard being able to "make progress", however leisurely, as being better than being stationery in a queue.
That said, I do think that lack of enforcement of 20mph limits is creating increasing problems. Braid Road south of the Hermitage is just one 20mph road I use regularly which is plagued by speeding motor vehicles. (And in that instance there's clearly a temptation for people determined to follow the [currently] tortuous rat run through the Braid estate to let their speed creep up once they're past the wiggly bit, so that they can feel that they're not 'losing out' to traffic that can legally be doing 30mph on Comiston Road once past the Greenbank junction.)
Posted 1 week ago # -
The design of new builds estates suggests that people would far rather live in a cul-de-sac than a road with speed bump.
Craig's Road also confirms that speed bumps are not a deterrent to rat runners.
Posted 1 week ago #
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