CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Innertube

(30 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from kaputnik

No tags yet.


  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Now it has been running a while, is anyone dialling in regularly to the Innertube blog and so on? Recent posts seem to be adverts for events (Canal Festival; Dragon Boat Racing; Golf on Leith Links; Gorgie Farm) rather than posts about the off-road network per se. I can see the place for this news when it's on the network as they are places to get to on the bike, or to avoid if you need to ride through!

    It seems to be struggling slightly to find a 'direction' at the moment. Teething problems I would guess, but I was expecting almost daily updates on some aspect of the path (works, problems, so on). Scrolling down the list of latest posts there have been 8 in the last 9 days on: Dragon Boats; Canal Festival; Water of Leith News Round-Up; Tour d'Edinburgh (a suggested bike path ride not in "garish lycra"; Gorgie Farm for kids; Innertube Quiz 6; Leith Links Golf; safe riding around horses.

    So that's two posts on the network itself... I'm pretty sure the Twitter presence has lessened in the last few weeks as well. Moving out of the 'new and enthusiastic' stage for the Ambassadors?

    I was chatting to a colleague about the map this morning and we were in agreement that as an aim to show that there are lots of off-road paths to encourage the novice/non-cyclist out there is potential, but what it shows at the moment are massive gaps, which in themselves may have the opposite effect.

    I'll keep watching with interest...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    It irks me deeply as little more than an expensive and unneccessary re-branding exercise by referring to everything in the abstract terms of "blue line" and "red line" or whatever, and to junctions as "stops". Rather than using the perfectly good and very geographically descriptive names that paths already have ("Hawthornvale Path", "Roseburn Path", "Water of Leith path", "Middle Meadow Walk").

    It doesn't really achieve much more than you can with flickr and some geotagging but would seem to have required significant investment for custom building.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Page two stories are: What would you like the Ambassadors to cover (aha, useful!); Edinburgh community backgreens movement; Red Arrows wow crowd; Wildlife podcast; Summer fun at Hailes Quarry Park; Red Arrows at Cramond; Graffiti on the red line; Wildlife on the Innertube (my wildlife site gets ashout here, nice!).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Wendy
    Member

    Hello,

    I'm not sure if you've noticed, but members of the public are actively encouraged to submit their own stories to the Innertube Blog.

    The frontpage of the website says:
    Welcome to the Edinburgh Innertube map and blog. This is where you'll find the latest stories, news and information about the Innertube, written by our ambassadors, by guest bloggers - and by members of the public like you.

    You can find stories by clicking on a specific stop, a line, or on an ambassador – or view all citywide stories. You can also find out how to contribute your own stories.

    If you notice any blocked paths, works, or any other issues, or even wildlife sightings on anything else you think other path users might be interested in then please do submit a piece on it. It doesn't have to be long or have photos in it!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Thanks Wendy. One of the reasons I didn't sign up to be an Ambassador was not knowing if I could handle the time commitment (proven right by only now, 3 months into my new job, having managed to get life organised to fit in citycycling) - however offering the occasional post (which in my case would almost always include photos) could be do-able.

    I'll see if I can expand on my 'issues' above as well in a message about how I saw the Innertube working (which at least gives someone a chance to say why that should or shouldn't be the case).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. SRD
    Moderator

    was trying to find the blog that anth mentioned. google wasn't much help, but did bring up this blogpost nothing much we've not said, but worth a read. nice to find another fellow traveller and all that.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. Smudge
    Member

    Don't know whether it's a good thing or not, but I know I've neither seen or heard of it outside this forum... which whilst far reaching and profound tends not to reach the general public at large probably?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Hey SRD, the Innertube site is here...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Wendy
    Member

    Anth - That would be great if you can offer the occasional post! You can also send any feedback to innertubemap@gmail.com

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Graffiti on the red line

    On the what? Where? that's my point. Without the map to translate, it's just a bit meaningless. "Graffiti in the Innocent Tunnel" or "Graffiti at Newcraighall" means something to me.

    I know it's meant to be inspired by the London Underground map, so it would be worth nothing that no lines are referred to by the colour of the line, e.g. it's the Northern Line, (it goes to Northern London) not the "Black Line" or the Waterloo and City Line (it goes between Waterloo and the City), not the "Pale Pink Line".

    I had quite a long tweet conversation about this with the innertube tweeter when the map first came out, who seemed to agree that there was no reason to rename something that already had a name.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. wingpig
    Member

    [typed before seeing I'd been ninja'd by kaputnik]

    Compared to the way users of the path (such as us on here) actually talk about them ("Innocent trapper at it again" or "trees down on Roseburn") the "#purpleline" and "#orangeline" stuff from the ambassadors' tweets generally gets filtered out in favour of other geographical pointers such as actual physical location names. If I saw something warning of armed neds on the #greenline or large puddles of sewage reducing the #brownline to a single lane I'd then have to go somewhere else to check where this meant and if it was likely to affect an imminent journey. Perhaps this will change when the expensive new signs are installed on all routes advising which #linecolour you're currently riding along.

    Also, @greenerleith currently occasionally tweets geographically relevant entries from FixMyStreet. Are the ambassadors or anyone at Innertube Control monitoring FixMyStreet or FillThatHole or whatever for reports of fallen trees/fly-tipped rubbish/aggressively yappy dogs to re-post via the Innertube's own channels?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I have no idea what colour the Innocent is... Sort of grey tarmaccy colour really. Occasionally white in winter... :P

    Actually, I do think it's a serious point. It's noticeable that Lothian Buses have rebranded some of their routes. Okay, so it involves a little geographical knowledge of the place, but the Mary Queen of Scots, Victoria Line and Pen-Y-Gog buses all work better than calling them 'purple' or 'taupe' (Aberdeen buses, incidentally, have a 'beige' line).

    But yes, to re-iterate Wingpig above, when a tree was down on the Innocent after the storms a few months back I tweeted on-site that a tree was down on the Innocent. Using the line colour would have been meaningless to most Edinburgh bike commuters that follow me...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. Morningsider
    Member

    I was chatting with a non-cycling colleague about the north Edinburgh path network the other day - as he lives pretty close to the top of the Roseburn path. He was amazed that you could travel off-road from Haymarket to Leith and had no idea these paths existed.

    Given this, I would question whether trying to publicise these paths using the internet is the best way to go. Why would people search for information on something they didn't know existed. I would argue that providing clear signage in the streets around access points to the network might be more beneficial - at least it would alert local people and visitors to the existance of the network and might encourage them to try it.

    I'm still not convinced about treating the offroad network seperately from the road network - almsot all cycle trips are on-road or have on-road sections. Focusing on off-road cycling could potentially make new riders question the safety of on-road cycling, meaning they might never become regular cyclists.

    I'm not questioning the commitment of those working on the Innertube project - just whether this is the right approach.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I presented my (free) Spokes map to my parents yesterday evening as they've decided to dust off some ancient bikes and get back out after about 15 years since they were last used. They were equally amazed when I showed them that they could get on a bit of cycle path in Corstorphine and, with a few little bits of quiet back roads, could get to Cramond and Leith and Stockbridge without ever leaving the cycle path.

    I'm still trying to convince them that they don't need to drive the bikes to Roseburn to join the path there. At the worst I said, get off and push them down to the bottom of Clermiston Hill and get on the path there.

    There were no gaping holes in town left out from the map.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    The Spokes maps are excellent, truly superb. On the basis of my new city one alone I was thinking of finally joining, because it would help fund them making more!

    Must get the East, Mid and West Lothian versions!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. wingpig
    Member

    In Spokes, all off-road paths are big purple lines. That's what makes them stand out on those maps - you can see the standard map features of roads and the stuff between but then the unbroken purple lines sneaking through, over, under or between roads. The roads indicate if they're cobbly, non-hostile or perfunctorily-be-cyclepathèd (or greenwayed). The maps remain accurate geographical representations, important for any journeys where speed is relatively limited and time is a concern. Powered transit systems' maps focus more on stops as that's where the much of the total journey times is incurred.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Take the purple line to...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Well according to First Scotrail, purple serves Waverley, Croy, Stirling and Inverkeithing. According to TFL, purple takes you from Amersham, Chesham and Watford, through Wembley, Baker Street and Barbican to Aldgate. And according to Chemins de Fer, purple goes at grand vitesse from Paris to Connerré Junction.

    Anth, are you really telling us that you don't have the full complement of Spokes maps yet? 8-|

    Posted 12 years ago #

  19. steveo
    Member

    Take the purple line to...

    Morington Cresent!!

    I won!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    Disqualified for misspelling key component.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  21. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Deviation from the English language as we know it.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  22. steveo
    Member

    Disqualified for misspelling key component.
    Deviation from the English language as we know it.

    Doh!!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  23. SRD
    Moderator

    Wendy, I emailed the address you gave this morning wondering if you'd like a wee blog post about cycling to craigie farm with the kids to pick berries. Thought I would mention that we had planned to take the train to dalmeny station, but then decided to try the NEPN, and it was a good choice. (but of course, people could always train back). Haven't heard back. Let me know if you're interested or not. Am off on holiday next week, so would need to write it quickly. But also pretty busy, so if you don't want it, its not a problem.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  24. Wendy
    Member

    SRD - I don't manage the Innertube website or have access to the Innertube e-mails I'm afraid. However if you are in a rush what you can do is submit the story via the website.

    All you do is click on the stop that the story relates to (or if it relates to several stops, perhaps the one where you joined the route or ended the route). Then click the button on the lower right hand side that says add your own post to this stop. It will then display a box that you can type your post in to (e.g. this is the box for Dalmeny Estate East - http://innertubemap.com/blog/stop/dalmeny-estate-east).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  25. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Still not had a chance to do anything for this, but I noticed a tweet this afternoon:

    "Hazard on Red Route at Telford, burn out car and debris all over the cycle path!"

    Posted 12 years ago #

  26. DaveC
    Member

    What is this colour purple of which you speak. My Spokes map has only blue & pink on a B&W map of Edinburgh. The lines are solid blue, dashed blue and pink dots (not unlike Anthony's dress he spoke of I expect). I was looking over it recenly and discovered that the canal didn't exist between Westside plaza and Kingsknowe before the connected it in ~2000. I wonder how they got the canal boats up to Fountainbridge in the old days? [tongue in cheek]

    Also, is this innertube not that project which was given hundreds of thousands of pounds last year?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  27. steveo
    Member

    "Hazard on Red Route at Telford, burn out car and debris all over the cycle path!"

    Yeah a couple of the girls in work said they seen this probably should have mentioned it on here. Not that I could tell you what route or for that matter what the name of the path is, i have enough trouble with road names....

    Posted 12 years ago #

  28. kaputnik
    Moderator

    "Hazard on Red Route at Telford, burn out car and debris all over the cycle path!"

    Roughly translates as "Hazard on the Telford Path, burnt out car and debris all over the cycle path".

    Posted 12 years ago #

  29. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Thank you, you've all confirmed my thoughts.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  30. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Red route now the melted black route. But yes, if you need to use the name of the place to describe where it is, kind of defeats the purpose of calling it by a rainbow name.

    "It's on the red route"

    "The where?"

    "The RED route!"

    "Where's that?"

    "It's at Telford"

    "Oh, you mean the Telford path?"

    "yes. That's what I said. The red route...

    ...at Telford"

    Posted 12 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin