WAR entrance - most of the people commenting here are I guess experienced, confident and fairly or very fit cyclists. There is (unfortunately) no way that most other people (existing and potential cyclists) are going to move out into the centre of the road on a fairly steep and long uphill, with traffic pressure behind - think about it! Although classifying myself fairly much in the first category I wouldn't move out there either - 90% of the time it may be the best solution, but I'd still be scared of the maniac driver who decided to overtake and cut in anyway. Also, even for the experienced cyclist there are other circumstances (as SRD says) where it's just too scary to move into the centre on a steep uphill. My solution, which works ok 95% of the time, is to use the cycle lane and keep a good lookout behind for bad and inconsiderate drivers, and not get too annoyed if occasionally I have to lose out to them.
The existing solution is far from ideal, but is a big improvement on the original layout. The pavement blip was put in at the same time as the cycle lane. Imagine how the junction looked to drivers before that, with nothing at all to warn or remind them about cyclists continuing on towards Fountainbridge. Incidentally, at that time it was harder even to move into the centre, since traffic heading for WAR was speeding even more so than now, with no form of obstacle or warning ahead.
Of course, it would certainly be good to do more to make the WAR entrance a lot less convenient for speedy entry than it still is, so how about councillors at http://www.writetothem.com!
A solution is needed which any existing or potential cyclist would feel at least reasonably happy in using.
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