CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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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.
resolvedI've just been taking another look at the Innertube map, and the promenade at Portobello is marked as a valid cycle route, albeit marked "...give way to pedestrians. Dismount if necessary."
Are we actually allowed to ride along there, if we're nice about it? Is this for the whole stretch from Seafield Rd to Joppa Rd and Coillesdene?
The bit behind the car showrooms is fair game, official cycle route. The bit from the 5-a-side football place to to furthest east bit is, properly, no cycling. But. The police have stated (a number of times) that as long as people cycle carefully they will not do anything.
Allegedly made no cycling after one muppet went haring through the narrowest bit (towards the east there's a kink in the wall that can form a wee blind corner) and hit someone coming out of thier house onto the prom, breaking their leg.
I'd love to see that logic applied whenever anyone is hit by a vehicle and hurt...
I just assumed that it was all cycle-friendly. In fact it is one of my fave places to cycle in Edinburgh. I guess I'll have to remember to be polite when I cycle down there now...
I've ridden it loads and never had a problem. At the same time I've heard stories of people being tutted at, or seen in the newspaper people complaining about rampaging cyclists. As ever the truth is somewhat less dramatic.
And hell, it makes perfect sense as a route rather than Porty high street.
Another excuse I've heard for not making it an official route is that it is too narrow. Which is quite clearly tosh.
I can confirm anth's statement above that the no cycling rule was brought in after a man was hit and had his leg broken after being hit by an idiot on a bicycle. I too would like to see a ban on motor traffic on any road where a person is hit and injured by a motor vehicle...
signs are still up on every other lamp post with a wee bike in a red circle... But yes, it's a promenade, cycle as if you were on one of TBC's cruiser bikes (i.e. slowly, and awesomely!)
"breaking their leg"
I thought it was arm.
Perhaps someone else (worrying thought).
I do remember that (a) victim was retired ENews photographer...
I tend to either divert and cycle down the high street or run/walk alongside my bike on the prom for the usual reason: irrespective of the legality/visibility/clarity of the signage, the place is usually full of slow-moving people not particularly looking around them, not walking in a straight line and emerging from the side-streets without looking because they're not expecting bicycles due to the signs. It's less than a mile so it's hardly an imposition to work around it for the time being.
No, you're ok just cycling it Wingpig, just do it nice and slowly and with a smile on your face. Oh, and try not to kill any children.
The last I heard about the 'ban' being lifted was this:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Cycling-ban-on-Promenade-lifted.5324164.jp
It's all gone a bit quiet since then as far as I'm aware. Maybe they're still consulting.
And Anth At Work is right - according to a local councillor back in 2005 (I have a good memory), the police will only enforce the ban if a cyclist is "cycling dangerously."
We run fairly often along that way from the office at lunchtime, and I've never seen it with enough people on it to constitute "busy", let alone "too busy".
Last year I did once try riding that way as part of an exotic extended commute (to join the Innocent and ride it in to Pollock Halls, then home) in the evening, and it was likewise very quiet.
Hard to imagine how it could ever be as much of a problem as the canal is when packed with dog walkers, joggers, prams, etc. all about six inches from a dooking!
"We run fairly often along that way from the office at lunchtime, and I've never seen it with enough people on it to constitute "busy", let alone "too busy"."
I cycle along it both ways nearly every day . Early hours of the morning & at night you can go at a reasonable pace, only dog walkers and a few people going in and out of the baths. Late afternoon its busier and you have to cycle slowly ~ 1o mph. On the rare occassion the Sun is out its hoaching [goodness knows where they all come from] and its either get off and push or go along the high street.
Much as I'd like cycling on the prom officially allowed, I would suggest perhaps it is a little narrow. You have to keep away from the South side in case somebody steps out in front of you, and on the sea side people esp. children stand at the wall. Taking down the no cycling signs may (??) encourage some to cycle too quickly.
Mind you the people who complain about th e prom being too narrow for cycling are likely to be those that drive within an arms length of you on the road.
As a resident of Porty I can confirm that the prom is cycle friendly as long as you don't act like an idiot. I taught my kids to cycle there and they all enjoyed it. Plus for me, when they finally cycled away from me running behind, I knew it wouldn't be straight under the wheels of a car!
It's a pity that the signs are still up and this can lead to some tutting, but as a policeman friend of mine said - it does give them ( the police) more power to act against wahoos on bikes than if it were a designated cycle path.
True - or if they don't like the look of you (wrong skin colour, say) it provides "automatic guilt".
Imagine how effective policing drivers would be if we just made it illegal to drive (but don't worry sir, we'd never take action against an upstanding citizen like *you*).
Sun + warmth + weekend or summer holidays = don't even think about trying to ride the prom...
Well, as the weather will almost certainly be torrential dreich when I head out that way, I'm not really expecting the prom to be stowed out.
Sounds like a plan, though. Thanks people. :-)
King's Haugh - Innocent; Porty Cyclists - Guilty?
Rather a prescient encounter, Rugg. :-(
We cycled along the prom last week. It was nice and sunny and not that busy. We maintained a safe speed and were not challenged on it, though I did have a print out of the permission from the link on this website. Its wide enough to put a sensible cycle lane on but chatting in the pub afterwards (what did you expect from a group of middle aged cyclists) we thought that because the Cooncil would not be able to add the length of the route to their 'we've made x miles of road into combined cycle lanes' it was not done. Plus the Nat Cycle route to the south through the streets along the railway, meant that they probably thought the provision was covered.
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