I love CCE thread drift, but sometimes things need focus..
"actually, I'm coming around the dave's perspective on this <shock! horror!>" (SRD)
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=5573&page=3#post-59864
And a few posts above.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Shared use paths
(3 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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The NEPN is great but all too often you need to slow down almost to a standstill to negotiate pedestrians who walk on any part of the path (which is fair enough, but I wish they'd leave a gap on one side or the other).
Maybe things are better at commuter times?
My eyes were opened to segregation when using a bike for a day in Ottawa. That city has miles and miles of over road path, approximately the same width as the NEPN.
All the paths there have a white line down the middle. Cyclists stay to the right. It really, really works.
There wasn't often (in fact hardly ever) space for two cyclists to pass on the 'cycle' side, but it didn't matter, you just move over to the pedestrian side to overtake or pass.
It made me wonder why on earth we don't do this in Edinburgh. It works, more or less on MMW; I think if it was more widespread path users would be more used to the 'rules'.
Another observation last time I had a spin around the NEPN was that there is ample space for all the paths to be wider, probably by a metre or more. But that would cost money.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've recently been experimenting with the little shared-use corner from London Road to Marionville Road. If the (heading east) lights have gone red as I've approached and I know they'll be red for at least a minute then I can hop onto the shared-use path, trundle round the corner, re-join the road at the first ped crossing if it's unoccupied, carry on to the next ped crossing if need be (where the roundabout is usually free to be re-joined) or even carry all the way round if it doesn't look like there are any trolleys blocking the path. It usually means I can be back up to normal speed and cresting the rise of Marionville Road by the time vehicles at the head of the left-turn queue hove into view.
The thing beside West Granton Access is fine if you're going from the NEPN to the tunnel underneath the Morrison's petrol station but isn't as useful if you're wanting to move onto a road at some point.
I gave the widened Seafield Path a try the other evening, feeling unnecessarily guilty through the absence of sufficient signage to indicate that I was allowed to be there. I also had to involuntarily go "kshseeeschcchh!" at an unlit ninja who was steaming through the still-narrow bit on the bridge from the other direction. I was of course heading east, as (unless you've come straight from the cyclable bit of prom behind the LRT lair) it's no use to westbounders unless there's zero traffic on Seafield Road, in which case use of the path is not indicated.
Posted 12 years ago #
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