I'd like to step up to the virtual flip-chart with marker pen in hand and start a new thread of ideas which could take forward some of the POP28 aims on a practical level.
Ist idea: Contact the cycling/sustainable transport person at CEC to find out what would be needed to create a wish list of drop-kerbs which could be referred to by the Council when they work on the roads.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Brainstorming session
(33 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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I've been thinking for a while about some kind of "Edinburgh Cycle Infrastructure Audit" group that would be a bit like Fill that Hole - a way of identifying changes that need to be made and an easy reference for pestering your councillors.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've had a similar idea that I've not really got off the ground. Using Googlemaps I was going to create a "missing links" map, of all the little bits that need done/improved/fixed in the existing infrastructure to really join the existing network up and make it more user-friendly.
Things like surfacing the bit from Gogar Station road to the Bypass underpass, widening/removing cycle-obstructing chicanes, adding dropped-kerbs, improving lighting/signange etc.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@kaputnik, Tom, Dave, these are useful suggestions for a 'crowdsourcing initiative (for those with Googol accounts anyhow). Could be a handy resource for Spokes, etc. to point cycling officers to...
Somebody gonna start a map then?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Give me a minute and I'll dig the link out of the one I started, I think I've so far managed to get 2 things onto it...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
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Pet hate of mine is the NCN signage, sometimes easy to follow and then sometimes it just seems to stop, I'm used to it now but it must be off putting to new starters/returnees, is that relevant to this topic or is there somewhere I should report probs to?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Smudge: "is that relevant to this topic"
As chdot said in another thread - let's start with a list.
Dave: a "fill that hole" for infrastructure, yes! I'm off to look at Kap's map.
Kaputnik: is it possible to add things to your map? I'm a Google Maps user already.
Perhaps we need to publicise this forum as a focus for post POP28 discussions? Are there any more going on elsewhere?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Yes the map is public, feel free to add. I was going to come up with a classification system, but didn't get futher than a green line for signage required and a yellow line for re-surfacing required!
Posted 12 years ago # -
How do I edit the map?
(I'm signed into google - do I need to do anything else?)I was about to start adding stuff, but I'm not sure. There's several sorts of ways of categorising stuff:
How easy it is?
How much a change will inconvenience the motorists/etc?
(e.g. uncovering a bike lane currently with 24-hour permanent parking).
How important (direct cycle route vs an unused residential road)Posted 12 years ago # -
isn't this what "fix my street" already does with a map?
Posted 12 years ago # -
There's the good-and-bad infrastructure-example maps Arellcat put together on another thread somewhere. They point out examples but currently don't have "whereas, ideally, it'd be like this:" things.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It would be useful to just have a list of simple infrastructure changes that could be referred to when other work is being done.
For example drop kerbs could be installed at access points while a road is being resurfaced but it's important to have a list of these so roads people can be referred to them when they are doing the prep work.
More complicated things like uncovering bike lanes from official car parks tends to make the map look a little too busy. IMO.
Posted 12 years ago # -
isn't this what "fix my street" already does with a map?
Yes but only really fixing what's there already, not putting in a wishlist. And you can't mark lines / areas on it. And it's not cycling infrastructure specific.
I had forgotten about Arellcat's map. It should be possible to import the bad bits of infrastructure into another map.
What I had in mind was creating a map that would show how a reasonable amount of investment in joining up what's already there would make for a far more useful and coherent network. It wasn't simply about fixing potholes.
Posted 12 years ago # -
google maps make me ill - for this is openstreetmap.org not better?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Arelicat's map (with annotations from folk on here): http://g.co/maps/wn9pr
Posted 12 years ago # -
for this is openstreetmap.org
I'm inclided to agree to get the OSM layer, but does it let you make custom, collaborative maps?
Posted 12 years ago # -
@kaputnik, could I suggest we use Arelicat's map as the starting point? It already has lots of inffo on it. One could have different colour codes for "ideas for new infrastructure". Yellow lines?
Posted 12 years ago # -
GoBike did that 20 years ago they even put a darn handsome guy on the cover of the leaflet.
http://www.gobike.org/archive.php
They weren't even called Go Bike until about 5 years later.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@wfb, how far did their ideas get with the council? Some really nice proposals...
Posted 12 years ago # -
More lanes were put in place but were often rubbish. The Tron end of London Rd is worse now, other junctions haven't changed. There are bike racks at the stations.
The lanes were put in before VeloCity inthe '90s. This is the kind of thing we got:
http://scruss.com/enterprise.net/barriers_to_glasgow_cycling.html
The Glasgow feeder Facebook page says they had a bad time with the cycle path and that was part of the reason some of them got the train.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Re POP2: One issue that a few friends raised was that they strongly supported it, but weren't cyclists yet. We discussed it more last night, and think the single-issue simplicity is vital (i.e. not Active-travel-on-parliament), but maybe a possible fix would be to provide hire bikes to all those who'd want to take part but can't (maybe the Bike Station or other bike shops could each lend out a few bikes for free?!?!), the advantage would be twofold:
1. It would increase the number of people taking part (especially to those now too afraid to cycle on the roads).
2. It would give them a very fun taste of cycling in Edinburgh. It would be the perfect way to try cycling in town for the first time!I don't know whether I was the only person who had non-bike-owning friends who wanted to take part but couldn't? If not, then forget the idea! (just putting it into the mix) (also not sure how it would be advertised/organised...).
other idea: I also wonder if organising a van from other large cities (or did that already happen?): 4-5 vans from neighbouring cities would add another 200 cyclists to the protest who might not otherwise be able to make it?
Posted 12 years ago # -
@lionfish - being a non-bike owner should not have stopped them taking part. The whole idea is that money is allocated to be spent on infrastructure improving things for each and everyone. Although it was Pedal on Parliament it was for all modes of transport users (other than motorised 4-wheeled or more vehicles)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Surely I can't be the only cyclist who owns more than one bicycle? ;-)
Posted 12 years ago # -
I know someone who was at the demo but did not bring her bike. Just to be different.
Posted 12 years ago # -
The conversation started when she said the whole of Edinburgh centre should be car free :). I gave her a few leaflets etc about POP (and said pedestrians were going too), but I think the fact I wasn't able to go myself put her off (it's easier to drag people to something you're going to as well :P). I also love the idea of using POP as an opportunity to let new cyclists try cycling around Edinburgh! I'm sure this week there have been lots more cyclists than last week (and many of them seem very new and a bit nervous! anyone else notice this?).
Anyway, just throwing in ideas!
What do people think about September 2012 vs ~April/May 2013 for the next one? Where's the balance between 'fatigue' and 'momentum'?
Posted 12 years ago # -
first we need to follow up the first demo - write to our MSPs and councillors,. Write to the new councillors next week. Ask to meet with them. Go cycling with them etc.
Posted 12 years ago # -
PoP BACK?
Hard to tell whether extra-people are just normal dust-off-after-winter cycle-commuters or something new. There have been more tights-wearing-but-rather-slow-and-wobbly-when-setting-off people than usual on my routes over the past couple of days, who resist neat classification.Posted 12 years ago # -
"Write to the new councillors next week. Ask to meet with them. Go cycling with them etc."
YES!
Spokes has arranged 'facility visits', by bike, which various councillors have gone on.
How much better if councillors were invited by their voters.
Don't take can't ride/no bike as an excuse.
I'm sure all wards have parks with flat, soft, grassy bits.
HOW ABOUT if, after the election, CEC/POP creates a 'group' for each ward (17 in Edinburgh) to look at 'issues' and engage with/encourage councillors?
I'm in Ward 10.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"who resist neat classification"
That's good then(?)
Posted 12 years ago #
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