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.
As promised last year a cycle lane has now been marked going North towards Mound. This skirts round the parking bay and extended pavement at Hotel Missoni. Should be a benefit for their five star guests (Lady Ga Ga is a keen cyclist so I'm told).
So congratulations to CEC - I mean that without sarcasm!
No doubt the forum will find some details could be improved. From what I can see it should allow bikes to progress towards the traffic lights.
I passed by the works this evening on my way to Waverley. It didn't look as though any kerb realignment was going on, but the shiny new cycle lane should stand out to motorists!
Big thumbs down to the lack of red paint. Alas, on the ground the lane is being thoroughly ignored by many motorists. I stopped by for 20 mins on the way to work, and only one of all the Lothian buses I saw left enough room in the lane for a bike to exist.
The problem is that they've kept the right-turn lane, so while it's been turned to one notional car lane for much of the length, everybody is still moving to the left hand side, which means driving fully over the bike lane as if it wasn't there.
It did work *sometimes*, if people started queueing outwith the lane others might follow suit, but often the car approaching the back of the queue would very deliberately pull over into the cycle lane, and then of course the sheep followed suit.
To be fair, while the traffic is actually flowing through a green light, people were riding up the lane (although previous to the lane, nobody had been run over there anyway) but I'd estimate around half of cyclists I saw approaching a red light did so up the right hand side.
I'll post up a series of photos I took on flickr tonight.
Interesting. I only cycled through last night and it was still coned off at right hand side.
I will have a look. We did suggest that right hand lane should be junked as more (cycle) traffic was going straight on. I suppose they could have kept right hand turn for bikes only.
You reckon it's a waste of time?
I'm sure it's better than what was there before, but it's not great. The problem is that even people driving up outwith the cycle lane move into it to avoid the (empty) right filter lane.
It could probably be fixed simply by painting it red, otherwise I think it needs to be made mandatory and for them to do a few ticketing days (oh look, a flying pig!)
I don't see why there is a right filter lane at all, the number of vehicles using it must be tiny.
Quick vintage mobi shots...
Buses seem to just ignore... Gets worse at pinch point at end of parking bay. At this point right turn is marked.
Hmm, might pop by tonight as well - this looks pointless, another example of white paint 'solving' the problem in the minds of people who don't cycle.
Does anyone have a contact for this scheme at CEC?
Perhaps we should push them now to finish it properly.
"Does anyone have a contact for this scheme at CEC?"
The simple answer is that there are several people responsible for different bits of the decision making/implementation process.
Much as 'we' would like it to be the case, cycling (and even road safety) are not the only concerns.
This 'problem' has been round for almost a year (http://cyclingedinburgh.info/2009/05/18/this-is-progress) and (I suggest) stems either from a lack of joined-up-thinking or 'the law of unexpected consequences' (or both).
The main issue is that the pavement has been widened for 'streetscape' and 'helping commerce' reasons. The actual design leaves a lot to be desired and several people on this forum (not me) met the council last year and (I believe) expected action 'within months' and that the pavement edge line would be amended.
What has happened is that an extra pavement widening has been put in place - which is probably an improvement (I haven't been to look yet).
I've had various conversations and it's clear that redoing the pavement outside the Hotel Missoni would be the last option, and...
Still to come is some more red surfacing and road markings. The official view is that the "encroachment" (as seen in photos above) is "from habit". The implication (and hope) is that drivers will get used to the new arrangements.
Plan B (the favoured option by several posters here) is to have only one traffic lane. There are people in the council who favour this - and others who don't.
Concern is that even the relatively small number of vehicles might be "enough to block the main traffic flow".
Like it or not, even if cycle use reaches the magically "15% of journeys by 2020" - which ought to mean an even higher percentage in places like George IV Bridge - there will still be other traffic to be accommodated.
Of course things like the pavement arrangement outside the hotel should never have happened, and all the consequent fuss means that similar decisions are less likely, but...
It would be nice to think that 'the council' would go 'oh yes we made a bit of a mistake and we will compensate by making things MUCH better for cyclists on this core cycle route'. Unfortunately, life's not quite like that!
The relevant council staff are aware of all the conflicting issues and (through things like Spokes, and indeed posters on this forum - especially those prepared to stop "for 20 mins on the way to work" to take photos) there is definitely pressure to resolve things satisfactorily.
It might be better to direct pressure (as well) towards politicians (particularly councillors) rather than officials. If the current election manifestos are anything to go by, the 'better by bike' messages aren't getting through!!!
What it looked like last year.
Presumably there are two lanes southbound again?
How about moving the centre of the road.
More expensive than a bit more paint, but would solve more 'problems'.
Or just put back the no right turn sign, for £5 the problem's solved entirely! :)
Agreed.
There is no filter for Chamnber street and Candlmaker Row further back. Both if these are on bus routes too.
For some odd reason we survived for over a year with a two lane road with right turn restrictions onto a street you can't actually drive down anyway... no matter what your SatNav says!
Very odd. I argued that statistically bikes are a fair amount of the traffic on this route. Growing according to stats.
I do note however that the Missoni parking bay is quite well used so they're unlikely to want to lose.
I managed to get two vehicles using it in space of five mins and that's with double yellows. Shows you the power of paint!
OK, some pics from this morning are up... definitely some trucks and buses to avoid being squeezed by (thank goodness there's no railings!)
Hmm...
Nice photo!
(and instructive)
I think options are
Remove kerb
Make this section single lane (room for a wider cycle lane!)
Move centre line
Give up LibDem manifesto 'pledge' of cycle friendly city!
That one, plus maybe the one below, sum up what I watched for 20 minutes pretty accurately I'm afraid:
If you want to wince, you can follow a series of pictures I took of a girl being simultaneously undertaken by cars in the bike lane, and overtaken on the outside (pretty good going considering there is only one lane!)
Starts here (rider in the bike lane) and goes one, two, three, four, five.
Filling in the bike lane with red might make a difference - though there would have to be a committment to renew when worn!
That kerb, and the sharpness of the lane 'flow' around it, is the main problem. Additionally the 'streetscape decision' to put sets down the centre of the road has probably been beneficial. It clearly helps to send a message that this isn't a wide/fast road.
It should have meant that the new layout with wider pavement and retaining two lanes at the lights shouldn't have been possible.
Another option would be to widen the pavement all the way to the junction (good for pedestrians) which should guarantee that there was only one lane of traffic (plus bike lane).
Of course as I said earlier, the council has to consider more than just the safety/convenience of people on bikes - but it also wants to get considerably more people cycling so things like this are important.
Dave, that entire set of photos should be sent to the Council to show how much of a nonsense this is. Brilliant work!
I'm sorry it isn't working as we had hoped.
Seems the problem is that left hand turn and straight ahead lane have been combined with a slight turn in. So drivers actually are 'encouraged' to move left to go straight on!
Meanwhile the right hand turn lane is empty much of the time.
I was hoping that they would avoid a bend in cycle path. This would mean cycle lane becomes broader at end and simply incorporates the original 'irrelevant' short cycle lane. The road area used to 'promote' green transport would be no more than has been allocated to the hotel parking bay.
Currently we are protecting an empty bit of road that's not used that often in preference to ensuring that cycling is safe with proper space for lane. I would have just have gone for one car lane as they have at Greyfriars. This would also keep left hand turning tour buses from cutting in.
Basically the High St isn't a through route. The whole street is wandered over by pedestrians so why car access should be encouraged is beyond me.
Cars back up anyway from Mound and this will get worse anyway with increasing traffic.
Now cycled a few times.
Basically you're unlikely to get any further than parking bay.
Maybe they should put bike lane on right hand side as that is best place to get by traffic ;-)
Given the choice between encroaching a traffic lane and a cycle lane most drivers favour the latter!
I don't understand why they can't get rid of the sets up the middle of the road and make a decent cycle lane??
Yeah thats just a joke lane!!
I was wondering about giving it an award?
You'll note that there is nothing turning right in lots of the shots here yet the bus is dutifully sitting to the left. Then again it has just driven over the invisible bike lane.
So... should they..
Nothing turning right in that either?
Did the 'powers that be' survey the demand?
The cyclist was riding defensively, makes sense in that situation.
Today - just a minute...
This is what it was like when I went through too - nothing in right turn lane. Obviously our observations are pretty unscientific, but given that this is (i think?) the most used cycle route in the city, something clearly still needs to be done.
I've been through this several times now in the van and not once have I entered the cycle lane. I think ( and I know this sounds crazy but bare with me on this ) a lot of these drivers aren't looking at the road markings...........
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