CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
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.
stickyYesterday: drivers turning right from Slateford Road into Shandon Place while the straight on light was green but the right turn filter was red. Mentioned this to Boyfriend Of Fimm - "Oh yes", he said, "I've seen that a lot..."
This morning: driver of a Jaguar trying to move left into a queue of traffic without using their indicators.
@chdot Can't be a case of bad driving, as there's no mention of a driver at all in the article. The car hit the unfortunate person and then decided to leave the scene all by itself...
True...
You can stick it in the sentient being thread.
The car did not stop at the scene and drove off towards Lothian Road. The man has been taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where he is in a critical condition.
I could put the first bit of this is rubbish cycling (by me) but there was a trend amongst the drivists that mean I've put it here...
This morning I was looking to cross Saughtonhall Drive from Saughton Cres, when I was waved out by a Northbound car waiting in the queue for Western Corner. Foolessly, I crept half way across only to find the Southbound lane was now full of moving cars and the Northbound queue having cleared.
Feeling quite exposed, when I saw a small gap in the Southbound traffic flow I made eye contact with the driver and quickly crossed. The driver leant on his horn and I could see him really mouthing off at me (fortunately I couldn't hear what he was saying as his windows were closed). He then stopped by the junction and having built up a full head of steam continued to shout at me through closed windows.
I appreciate I made a mistake but I'm not sure me & the kids deserved such a tirade at 7.30 in the morning...
Later on the commute, I saw a couple of young school girls (maybe 10yo max) trying to cross Ravelston Dykes. With no central refuge they had crossed half way and we're standing in the middle of the road. I was approaching from a side road and had my heart in my mouth as I saw several cars whizz passed them. I could also see a car approaching from the side of the road they were on and they were uncertain what to do.
Again, they had made a mistake and put themselves in a dangerous position, but that is no reason why those at the control of a couple of tonnes of metal couldn't take a few seconds out of their journey to ensure that the kids got across safely - thankfully someone did but I was shocked by the lack of compassion.
Balgreen Road/Saughtonhall Road were very busy this morning, probably because of the diversions for the works on the West Approach Road. Cars were stopped across the Balgreen crossing. Probably added to usual driver impatience.
Ahh. I thought it was busier than usual. I thought it was because we were a few minutes later than usual.
A shame that those 2 crossings on the Family Network haven't been given toucans which the original ATAP had set out.
"which the original ATAP had set out"
Details/link?
I may have remembered incorrectly as I can't find the Saughton / Balgreen crossings as being flagged in the ATAP as due to get a toucan. Sorry for the false claim.
Trying to think where I got that impression from...
In the meantime, I did find this update to councillors in 2012 which on page 23 has a number of red dots denoting crossing redeterminations under ATAP.
On the Meadows-Innocent route last night. I use the crossing at St Leonard's Street. A taxi stops at the red light. I cycle over the crossing. The minute I'm off the crossing, the taxi driver accelerates away with much revving of his engine.
Now going through a red light on a pedestrian crossing isn't the worst thing ever - it was as much the aggressive acceleration that irritated me as anything. I wonder if he thought I was cycling illegally?
Oh, and a really, really blatant red light jump by someone driving a car following me up the Lanark Road this morning.
Maybe we should have a separate thread that is just a list of all the times we see the driver of a motorised vehicle jump a red light?
"Maybe we should have a separate thread that is just a list of all the times we see the driver of a motorised vehicle jump a red light?"
Wouldn't be enough room on the interweb if we did that.
Every time I cross Queen St at Hanover St (morning & evening), at least 3 eastbound cars RLJ. In the mornings, some cyclists going uphill line up in front of the ASL, right on the edge of Queen St, maybe because it's flatter, maybe they're impatient, maybe that's the way they roll (unfortunately). I hope none of them choose to combine it with going on amber 'cos they'll get cleaned off.
[wrong thread]
Driver with a completely misted-up windscreen coming out of Russell Road onto Roseburn Street around 6.20am'ish.
I couldn't see through it to even see if there was anyone in the vehicle, so how he or she could see where they were going is beyond me.
But hey, piloting a ton or so of speeding metal whilst blind is perfectly legal if the sun's in your eyes and you can't be bothered to slow down or stop - so I guess a windscreen that you can't see through is OK too.
Vans and lorries double-parked and triple-parked outside Taste of Italy/Planet Out. They must have just come to a stop as soon as they came off the roundabout.
Worst red light jumping junction in town?
For me its the drivers turning right from Quality Street onto Queensferry Road
Shameless dregs of humanity
@bax
Pedestrian crossing outside Wickes on Stevenson Rd. I've witnessed six cars go straight through that one - and proper RLJ, not amber gambles. Also watched in horror as a G4S van nearly drove over a child in buggy.
The fact that there is a massive TV perfectly placed to distract drivers is, of course, entirely coincidental.
I'm not sure a single phase of Barnton junction passes without at least one RLJ.
This morning's example was from the Audi who crossed into the hatched area to ensure he had the space to accelerate through the red light. The sound of him hitting the debris in the hatching made sure he had everyone's attention*.
*Cars are sentient beings and therefore I'm not considering their drivers to have attention.
Lots of RLJ on the slip down onto the A90 above Cramond Brig this morning. All that happened was that the cars (not the drivers of course) had to wait at the end of the slip as the main A90 traffic was already moving...
The Boy:
That crossing on Westfield Road is awful. I'm surprised there hasn't been any serious incident yet. You're right about that advertising screen. It's incredibly distracting.
Anyone recognise a company logo that's probably a wee man in a kilt lifting up a red phone box? It's on a driver's shirt and if I could find his employer I might ping them a video, otherwise ICNBA.
(Driving along texting).
Chap in Etixx quick step Jersey raised roof on west port today he bombed past me over Lothian road then bombed round the point hotel only to be met with car not observing the give way. He did not swear which I found amazing but he did invite the driver to use eyes.
Did the school run this morning with micro-Greenroofer on the tagalong. On Hermitage Gardens, which is absolutely not wide enough to overtake a bike that's avoiding the door zone, a person in a car kept trying to squeeze by despite the fact that I had a passenger on the back and there was no way to give us anything like enough room. A few minutes later on Morningside Drive a ridiculous monster BMW X6 (yes, LL62 HWG, I'm looking at you) overtook me so close I could touch it with my elbow just as I was passing a side turn with a car coming out and one coming toward us too.
I will shrug these things off (although the BMW one was a pretty dire example of a close pass that even looks close on video, and that's saying something) but how are we ever to persuade anyone 'normal' that it's safe to let our children on the roads on bikes when this kind of thing happens.
@greenroofer how are we ever to persuade anyone 'normal' that it's safe to let our children on the roads on bikes when this kind of thing happens.
Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure...
We need many more safe & direct routes to the places we want to go.
I've honed my school run route to attempt to minimise the risks. My route takes in part of the Family Network but is quite circuitous which adds 30% distance / time to the direct route.
Extra distance / risk is added because the current Family Network has a very tight chicane at Broomhall which prevents me from using it. I'm also waiting for a future Family Network Route to have 6 steps replaced by a ramp.
Even with careful route planning and confident/competent riders you are still taking risks whenever you have to share the road with cars. I can understand parents not wanting to risk it...
@HC Yeah but I did that. All the roads I was on were 'quiet streets' that will be 20mph in due course (some already are). I stayed off Cluny Avenue, Balcarres Street and Comiston Road for exactly the reasons you give. 'Infrastructure' for bikes is part of the answer, but in both cases today my incidents were caused by people in cars who were too impatient to give me the space I'm entitled to.
I suppose 'infrastructure' in this case could extend to installation of many bollards to make most of the streets I was on dead-ends (after all, why do you need both Balcarres Street and Morningside Drive to be through routes for cars when they are only a few hundred yards apart?
However it's very well talking about infrastructure, but the roads won't feel safe for 'normal' people until the people in vehicles take more care around people on bikes who are on the normal road because the infrastructure doesn't go where they want to.
I've just been reading the Rachel Aldred's Near Miss paper, and it's interesting how putting the tagalong on the back slowed me down so much that it moved me from the 'low incidence of near miss category' to the 'high incidence of near miss'.
@greenroofer didn't mean to imply that you hadn't planned a quiet route...
To me, the culture change required to get impatient car drivers to slow the heck down will get a huge help if more people are cycling and 'we' become less of an out group and I can't see that happening without the infrastructure.
I'm totally with you on the speed reduction. It feels so much worse when you are considerably slower than other road users - although I get a wee kick out of the ironic kudos I get on Strava from randoms impressed by my 10mph average...
Taxi 1067 last night... A little after 10pm, I'm on Princes Street (cos it's much clearer of buses at that time). There are two lanes heading east, at the junction with South St David Street, with the left being for turning into that street, and the right for straight ahead. And I hate that layout, cos I stick to the rules you see, and sit in the right lane, then move over left to go straight on after passing South St David Street. I think I've still to see a taxi or bus do that... Anyway, 1067 last night at least had left space for me to move across in his desire to be in the wrong lane.
Then at the lights for North Bridge I was in the left cos I was going straight on, he got caught up in some shenanigans involving a Mini and an SUV trying to squirrel about about the hotel, so missed the green light to turn onto the Bridge. And I mean missed it. Good 5 seconds or so. He was obviously annoyed at being held up by a cyclist and then muppets unable to drive, so just blew it completely. Didn't have the camera on of course.
Today a Rembrand Timber lorry looked for all the world like it was going to squash me against railings. Fortunately he was pre-preparing for a split in lanes ahead, and was aiming for the 'middle' lane, so wasn't coming all the way over (I'd also anticipated, so was braking to hang back).
"I stayed off Cluny Avenue, Balcarres Street and Comiston Road"
I assume you mean Cluny Gardens?
Without wanting to give too much away I assume you are faced with the challenge of how best to escape from Plewlands?
Comiston Drive, Balcarres Street and Myreside Road don't exactly give a range of lovely options.
Craiglea Drive to Comiston Terrace seems like a reasonable route perhaps by using the pedestrian crossing. Not so handy for the return but I have used this route with the two year oold on the back.
If Balcarres St isn't too busy then going down through Morningside Park and then eventually pushing across to Cluny Avenue is an option, although getting in/out of the park is not good by bike.
Who knows, maybe they'll build that bridge over the south sub one day?
@cb yup that's it. The tricky bit for me actually is getting from South Morningside Primary to Canaan Lane. The best route seems to be Braid Crescent to Corennie Drive to Braid Avenue, but Braid Avenue is traffic choked and I had a spoken altercation there with the driver of a Discovery this morning who tried to squeeze past us at the lights for Cluny Gardens after he came far too close to my stoker.
I am keen to take the kids to school on their bikes, but it's only going to take a couple more incidents before I give up.
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