CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Braid Hills Drive?

(14 posts)

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  1. Yodhrin
    Member

    I vaguely recall reading years and years ago that they were going to put "soft segregated" bike lanes on Braid Hills Drive along with the speed reduction, but that patently never happened or has since vanished. Is it just me or is this a no-brainer for a "quick win" route? Even just a redetermination for the existing ~3m pavement to shared use given you're only ever likely to encounter an occasional ped could - eventually, with a bit of further work on Liberton Drive to make it *feel* more like a 20mph road - make east-west journeys in central south edinburgh far more tolerable, and in future when they have the stones to deal with the inevitable bleating from the golf club members the road could be dropped to 30mph and widen the path to 4-5m by eliminating the central hatching.

    Is this being considered anywhere and it's just the usual glacial pace of our council holding it up or are they still just not really considering active travel south of the grange at all?

    Posted 1 month ago #

  2. Frenchy
    Member

    Searching through old emails...

    Those plans were consulted on in 2016 but had dropped off the council's list of active travel projects by 2018. The reason was possibly concerns about using bollards on an unlit road.

    It is absolutely bananas to me that there are only two east-west roads in south Edinburgh (Frogston Road is the other) and both are incredibly hostile for cyclists with no apparent plans for improvement. I had a conversation with Scott Arthur in 2018 where he said he wanted to get protected cycling infrastructure on at least one of these roads into the next 5 year plan. That obviously didn't happen.

    Will raise again via Spokes.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    “and widen the path to 4-5m by eliminating the central hatching”

    So simple

    So sensible

    Not expensive in the big scheme of things

    Lots of road humps probably necessary to restrain speed

    Posted 1 month ago #

  4. bakky
    Member

    Very much here for this. There was a project looking at Frogston Rd losing the hatching and gaining a pavement-side bi-directional path, but only from Kaimes to Klondyke; while that does link in with some back paths adjacent to the caravan site, leading to Braid Hillls Dr, Stanedykehead and Buckstone respectively, it did leave me wondering why it wasn’t proposed all the way to Fairmilehead Crossroads or at the very least, Mounthooley Loan.

    The route was called Burdiehouse to Mortonhall

    Posted 1 month ago #

  5. Frenchy
    Member

    See also: Pentlands to Porty route http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=14767

    "9 years ago"...

    Posted 1 month ago #

  6. neddie
    Member

    Someone ought to compile a list of all the plans (many of which are detailed) that CEC have commissioned, but never delivered.

    Here's a few, off the top of my head:

    - Cameron Toll to Bioquarter
    - Gyle to Wester Hailes
    - Pollockhalls to the Grange (Holyrood Park to Ratcliffe Terrace)
    - Canal to Meadows
    - Burdiehouse to Mortonhall
    - Burdiehouse / Niddrie burn route
    - Braid Hills Drive
    - Davidson Mains to Blackhall path
    - A8 airport path
    - Joppa to Musselburgh connection
    - Starbank Rd
    - The quiet route along Saughton Crescent / Riversdale (parallel to A8)
    - Powderhall railway path
    - Meadows to Kings Buildings (which to be fair, is more of a scheme for motorists, including a nice gyratory system)
    - Carrington Rd segregated lanes
    - Easter Rd
    - Meadows to Castle Tce
    - Inverleith to Goldenacre path
    - Dundee St
    - A71 (feasibility)
    - Calton Road leading to Waverley Station
    - The Causey
    - George St and First New Town

    Any others?

    Campaign organisations, individuals, and many good people have invested a lot of time and energy pouring over these plans, but the council haven't delivered anything!

    Posted 1 month ago #

  7. Yodhrin
    Member

    @Frenchy it really is kinda wild eh. I'm moving out to the Inch(touch wood, couple of weeks to go before contracts are signed) so I started looking around the area in more detail and while things have clearly improved a fair bit it's still a massive pain in the bum to get anywhere that isn't the city centre. Even just something simple like getting a Tesco click & collect - your two options are Colinton and Musselburgh, the former meaning a choice between illegal pavement riding, busy roads, or trying to pick your way through the caravan park and some wooded paths I'm not even sure are technically open to the public, and the latter seeming better on the map at first but when you dig into the detail you find that the gaps may be smaller but are still pretty inconvenient/dodgy.

    It's actually safer and less distance in practice to ride all the way back to the one I use now at Canonmills hah.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  8. gembo
    Member

    Beautiful cycle over Braid Hills from the Inch to Colinton/Hunters Tryst. Sometimes traffic is quiet but other times not. Would be plenty room for a bike lane though the camber do be mighty.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    “though the camber do be mighty.“

    Well yes, if only there were some competent ‘road engineers’ available

    Posted 1 month ago #

  10. SF
    Member

    @Yodhrin
    From the bottom of the Inch (NW corner / Kirk Brae), I usually go Blackford Glen Road - Hermitage - Braidburn Valley - Braid Burn path to Colinton Mains Rd. Probably not the best return route with loaded panniers though, especially if your new place is up by Mount Vernon / Kingston Avenue.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  11. Yodhrin
    Member

    I'll be up at Ravenswood Ave and I use a trailer when I do my big click & collects so I'm not sure how I'd do through the Hermitage, but I'll give it a ride and see(I think I gaslit myself previously into thinking it was a lot worse than it is because there's a google map image that's pegged to the main path but now I look closer seems to be way up in the quarry). I have a pretty hefty new ebike because I had thought I was going to end up way out in the back of beyond cycling country lanes so gravel paths should be easy enough. Looks to be about 4 miles which is a touch less than back to the old stomping ground, and also means I don't have to hump my way up quite so much hill as going for the Drive which is a bonus.

    Has the Braid Burn path been upgraded to a priority gritting route yet? I recall a dicey cross-town adventure a few winters ago to get the last box of my meds in Edinburgh from an Oxgangs pharmacy where I thought I'd go through the park and ended up in the gutter slush on the main road because it was like an ice rink hah.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  12. Morningsider
    Member

    The Hermitage path is perfectly cyclable, the main downsides are a lack of street lights, mud, and many, many dogs.

    You will be pretty well served by non-Tesco supermarkets (Morrisons and Sainsburys both do click and collect and there are two nearby Aldi stores) local to your new home - although I appreciate you may well have a preference for Tesco.

    Posted 1 month ago #

  13. Yodhrin
    Member

    I have a preference for Pepsi Max and Tesco are the only ones who still sell it at a reasonable price(went into Morrisons the other day because they sell a great homebake baguette that's an actual baguette not just a long crusty white roll - 2.45 for a 2ltr!) :P

    Posted 1 month ago #

  14. bakky
    Member

    Hermitage is decent, I take the Urban Arrow along it often - the Western end of it has copious wee speedbumps on the road but nips round most of them; the only stretch I take particular care along is the narrow stretch after (heading West) the big wooden bridge across to the Braid Hills Drive side - this section often has deep mud in wetter weather, so if it’s muddy I’ll end up stopping to ensure it’s free of walkers and then skirt along the driest part (usually where the slope ends on the right) so that I don’t have any slipping out to contend with while close to the water.

    At the end, turning right and then heading left along Braidburn Terrace is quite pleasant these days, with the pavement build-outs, and cycle marked shared pavement space when entering and exiting the road - as you get to Greenbank Parish you follow the cycle marked dropped kerb to a nice toucan crossing and the start of Braidburn Valley Park.

    Posted 1 month ago #

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