CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Tourists blast city’s roads as worse than Third World"
(30 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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If they blast the roads that will just make them even worse.
Nice to see cycling getting a mention. The Scotsman now seems to finally realise that it is not just all about cars. And if the tourists are complaining then perhaps the council will do something? Tourists are important, not like us residents.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Min, at least if they blasted the roads they would have to start from scratch!
I like the way they blame two harsh winters...last winter was not so bad and they have had a whole year to catch up. I am unclear where they have spent the money and blaming the utility companies is all very well but the actual infrastructure itself is crap. Repairs to roads usually, as everyone knows, involves a lorry with some pitch, a load of chuckies, which are poured into the offending hole and stamped on, only to become a hole a few weeks or if lucky months later. I really question where they have spent the money that they claim to have done. Wages have not gone up significantly in the past couple of years (for the workies) and I really cannot see vast tracts of Edinburgh's roads having had any major work done on them, other than the tramworks, which are also an utter disgrace. Where will they find the money to sort out the mess that is George St and Queen St, which have deteriorated so much as to be positively life-threatening to cyclists, once the trams start - in 2014, perhaps they should start saving now!!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Well they've made a start on one of the bad bits -
Even planning to work evenings and night (like they do in London) - which may be a first for Edinburgh(?)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Wonder if my three councillors who all cycle ever ride through the lights from tarvit st to gilmore place. Maybe we can work it into our ride to the spokes breakfast...lunar landscape indeed!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Forgot to mention that the Commercial Street/Lindsay Road/Ocean Terminal Drive crater-junction was being replaced last weekend. Wonder how long it'll take me to stop automatically taking the line which avoided the worst holes...
Posted 11 years ago # -
I went back home fairly late a couple of weeks ago, it was dark o'clock, to get to the Old Dalkeith Road to be blinded by the spotlights, it was akin to a late night footie game, and to huge machines churning up the road and others behind laying new surfaces down one side of the road and onto the start of Walter Scott Avenue, which had become a vertible patchwork of potholes. It is now quite lovely, however getting out of WSA and turning left onto the ODR became a bit of a challenge for a week or so as there was about a two to three inch difference in the levels of the tarmac, but that was eventually sorted and now both sides of the road are even. It is still a bit weird down the road by the entrance to the city dump with new tarmac not meeting at the same height as the old stuff, even drivers don't want to use it. The bus lane is kept clear as it is higher than the rest of the road currently. I wonder how long it will be before they finish that. The point is that they are doing roadworks at night.
Posted 11 years ago # -
It still seems really odd, when I cycle down Argyle Place or Causewayside, to not have to do the familiar weaves round all my old friends the potholes. Argyle Place has had the trenches across the road filled in, while Causewayside actually has a pleasant surface for cycling on. Here and there anyway, it's a work in progress.
Very much the exception of course. Most of the roads are still appalling, one way or the other. But it's encouraging - a step in the right direction. Now we just need the other million steps.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@claggy cog: The difference in heights between the new and old bits on ODR near the dump access is quite disconcerting, and the drain / manhole covers are (so very) proud of the road surface there. Can't figure out why it's taking so long to finish that bit...
Posted 11 years ago # -
@IMK, neither can I, work out why it is taking so long, that is. There is still signage by the pedestrian crossing before W S Ave saying there are roadworks, but nothing appears to be happening. It is a mess at the moment and drivers do not appear to be very happy, driving somewhat erratically to avoid the bumps, even moving into the bus lane to avoid the drain covers etc.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The uneven surface where the ridge runs parallel to the direction of travel will 'steer' the cars and could catch drivers out...dangerous...
Applause to the CEC for getting some very rough bits of road sorted around there, but much puzzlement at their failure to ensure the job is finished (FWIW my money is on a contractor going to the wall...).
Posted 11 years ago # -
Or else that is all the machinery now doing the roadworks in the photo above. I quite often use the dump road but have not done so for a week or so, and I am not particularly looking forward to the crossing of the ODR to do so, unless by some miracle the work is done rapido, and it won't be tomorrow, I don't think, it being a holiday.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The A70 at hutchisons x-way and again at lidl's in Gorgie has had a good job done on the surf with the red bus lane made of red stones -might be too subtle in future but looking good just now. Obviously many killer potholes abound but not all doom and gloom
Posted 11 years ago # -
Myself and a buddy went for an early morning 25 mile circular into midlothian this morning. Out via Dalkeith and then up through the countryside(ish) to Bonnyrigg and back. Was nice weather but somewhat spoilt on occasion by the roads being FAR worse than in town. Some of it was really brutal. My riding mate was signalling to avoid a pothole to the left (hand wavy to left - peloton/roadclub signal style) and while doing so hit another rough patch so bad he almost came off!
So even if we get the inner city on route to getting sorted. It'll be a while till the roads around Edinburgh are anything resembling safe!
Posted 11 years ago # -
The roads to the west of Edinburgh in west Lothian and south Lanarkshire are not too bad at the moment, been a bit of resurfacing at tarbrax, woolfords, Lang Wang OK, most of Col du Climpy route bearing up through west calder, fauldhoose, stoney bridge, forth, Climpy itself, braehead, Carnwath, apple pie bakery all good
Posted 11 years ago # -
"apple pie bakery all good"
You on commission?
Posted 11 years ago # -
No commission just sharing the love of south lanarkshire's best kept secret bakery and cheapest espresso, or as they like to call It in the apple pie - expresso
Posted 11 years ago # -
Cycling out from Hillend to go over the Granites we took some back roads with horrific surfaces. However the worst surface of our trip was near Durham - so it is not just Edinburgh...
Posted 11 years ago # -
The worst piece of (supposedly) surfaced highway I know had to be the west entrance road to Heriot-Watt University. It's looks like whoever surfaced it did so a patch at a time and got a different sub-contractor to do each job.
I assume it is a private road owned by the University. It's closed at the weekends, only busy at arriving or going-home time and is probably not on anyone's list of priorities.
Posted 11 years ago # -
route bearing up through west calder, fauldhoose, stoney bridge
preparing for the Olympics, obviously
Posted 11 years ago # -
Not Edinburgh, but East Lothian, where the roads are truly awful. Came through Prestonpans on the coast road to find that a whole swathe where the top surface has been removed awaiting resurfacing, this is about where the Goth is, and about time too. I just wish they would now extend the favour to the part of the road leading out of the 'Pans towards M'burgh past the open air market and meet up with the section that they resurfaced outside the Prestongrange museum, I really live in hope because that has to be possibly one of THE worst stretches of roads, absolutely dreadful, almost as dreadful is the road that runs next to the racecourse. Although I do note at this section they have widened and repainted the cycle lane at about four of the traffic islands, not that it made any difference to the drivers who still overtook me at the pinch point!!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Turning left from Shandon Place into Harrison Gardens at speed can be a laugh, I have now found a line that avoids most of the pot holes on the red tarmac they seem to have missed this when they recently resurfaced sections of the Gardens and Harrison Road... Sent to fixmystreet and waiting
Posted 11 years ago # -
Claggy Clog: "I just wish they would now extend the favour to the part of the road leading out of the 'Pans towards M'burgh past the open air market and meet up with the section that they resurfaced outside the Prestongrange museum"
It is being resurfaced this week apparently. They've started with the side inbound towards Musselburgh.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Cyclingmollie that is the worst part of the whole Edinburgh-N Berwick stretch. Glad to see something being done.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@twq it may well be the worst bit of road in East Lothian.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Two "favourites":
1. Wester Coates (ostensibly tarmac, once a flagship 'Greenway')
2. Dewar Place Lane (aka urban mountain biking)Posted 10 years ago # -
There have been a couple of times recently when I've taken the wrong line on Wester Coates and the resulting rattling has actually caused the clasp on my watch strap to bounce open! I have to tighten the bolts on my pannier rack regularly as well due to the pounding the road gives.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@panyagua: Ah, Wester Coates.... I have waxed lyrical on here before about the Urban Glentress that is W.C. Tonight on my commute home I was only getting wet from the top down (the accepted direction of travel for rainfall) until I got to WC, whereupon I was obliged to plough through all the water stored in a myriad of little mini reservoirs between Haymarket and Roseburn. Choosing which pothole to traverse was an (un)lucky dip and I picked a few deep 'uns such that, by the time I ascended onto the Roseburn-Silverknowes path, I was damp around the shoulders but wringing between toes and knees...
Posted 10 years ago # -
There are quite honestly far too many to list awful road surfaces in this great capital city. However one that springs to mind in addition to those already mentioned above is Henderson Terrace down from the Diggers - not good.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It is being resurfaced this week apparently. They've started with the side inbound towards Musselburgh.
That's great.
I only cycle along that at off-peak times when I think it might be quiet. Because, at those times, I can cycle along the middle of the lane. If I had to cycle on the left, it would be hopeless.
Posted 10 years ago #
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