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.
And anyway it really is impossible to get east-west across south Edinburgh in good order. And that's for a big boy like me.
Braced myself and the inevitable barrage of abuse came on Greenbank Crescent as I lost speed on the climb and moved to turn right down Greenbank Road.
White van a hooting [Rule 2]ing learn tae ride ya [Rule 2]ing [Rule 2]. Festive goodwill wearing thin.
And anyway it really is impossible to get east-west across south Edinburgh in good order. And that's for a big boy like me.
A wee birdie told me there are plans to do something about this in the council's next five year plan. Not worth getting hopes up yet, mind.
There are currently three roads which connect council wards 8 (Colinton/Fairmilehead) and 16 (Liberton/Gilmerton): Braid Hills Drive, Frogston Road and the bypass. You'd probably get fewer close passes on the bypass...
It's tricky because of the hills and the Braid Burn glen I suppose. The mix of steep climbs and fast traffic is just horrible. Braid Hills Drive is easily wide enough for Dutch infra but you meet Hell at either end.
Frogston Road is exactly the same. Would be almost trivial to make the existing pavement on the north side shared use.
Lose the parking lanes on Comiston Road and there's loads of space there too.
The entitled MTBer emerging from the Viewforth Bridge on the towpath this morning, overtaking a pedestrian and a fellow cyclist with the benefit of a tailwind. They then maintained their far right line, cycling straight at me until I was forced to dink right to avoid them, and even had the audacity to mutter "What are you doing?" at me as we passed one another. What I was doing was taking the conventional left-hand line and trying to avoid you. I automatically volleyed a "What are YOU doing, you rule two" back because the only thing worse than an entitled person is one who blames another for their own mistake.
They then maintained their far right line
No wonder you didn't like them ;)
@Frenchy if only keeping left was also politically conventional...
Blue-coat blue/yellow bag man, with a dual front-rear light atop his hat, not heeding my initial polite requests to turn the rear light down, re-overtaking me when I was waiting at Clerk St after overtaking him on Rankeillor Street so that his light was no longer in my face, then whining when I less politely request he stop shining it in my face at close range at the Buccleuch St crossing, when he kept tilting his head to point it directly at me despite me trying to find a position where it was not pointing. He made some crack about telling his children the importance of please, so I replied that my previous requests had included please and that I also told my children of the importance of not being selfish and ignorant.
When I looked behind before moving to the side of the Rodney Street tunnel path which was clear of pedestrians, I noticed a light twenty metres back. When I looked behind before joining the path past Tesco, the light was inches from my rear mudguard. As it was both damp and busy and dark, I politely warned the light's owner that I would be doing a peculiar thing called 'slowing down for pedestrians'. Twenty accommodated pedestrians later there was a short section of clear path crossing the river, so I again requested the follower (still inches away) to go past if they wanted to go faster, or go further back. Undaunted, they clung to my shadow past more pedestrians, down for whom I slowed further as we reached the wiggliest and most narrow part of the path. When clear of other path users (but still going at a going-past-pedestrians-in-the-dark speed, to encourage them to overtake) I bade them overtake again, which they finally started to do only to then start being all whiny and indignant. The end of the dialogue made me forget the precise details of the earlier bits, but it was along the lines of:
THEM: what's your problem?
ME: you were too close. It's dark and wet and I slow down for pedestrians.
THEM: what am I supposed to do about that?
ME: either get past if you want to go fast or just stay further back and leave more space in front of you.
THEM: this is the second time you've done this.
(I wasn't sure if that meant that they'd heard me just past the tunnel a minute earlier or if they'd been the aggressive weaving person I'd left the path to avoid when I'd exclaimed at the lack of consideration they were showing early morning path users on my way in a month or so ago, who had decided they weren't in such a rush after all insofar as they had time to slow down and start whining indignantly at me.)
THEM: if you were MAN ENOUGH you'd say things to my face, not once I'm past.
(I was more concerned about addressing this than pointing out that I had turned round to address them with my face twice in the past couple of minutes but that it had had no effect and that I generally find indignant whizzing people more likely to hear what I say when they're alongside.)
ME: man enough? It's 2019 etc.
By this time they had manned masculiciously past me and were maling off at a rate more suitable to their karyotype. I had been going to turn off at St Mark's Park but escaped through the gap in the wall to Warriston Road instead, lest I was poisoned by the sudden high concentration of androgens.
"Go faster or get out of the way"too. Almost forgot.
Did they have a sticker saying "My other bike is a BMW" ?
@wingpig
What was in the dude's Jiffy bag? Quintessence of testicle?
@wingpig a lot of that comment is poetry.
down for whom I slowed further
was good but the last paragraph is a thing of beauty.
"My other attitude is, if anything, even less pleasant" perhaps?
The Spirit of the Stairwell popped up in the Bonnington Road Screwfix with "if you were human enough you'd bear other path users' safety and comfort in mind" which I might still put on a wee poster to mount somewhere in the potential eyeline of recurring path users. In large print, to aid reading at speed.
Gnomic guerilla flyposting - I vote YES.
The Spirit of the Stairwell
Twitter awaits.
Yesterday on the towpath, by Harrison Park East (which is quite dark), I am keeping left, oncoming cyclist with a light that's too bright to turn it up the way they did. Before I am completely blinded I spot a jogger on the left so try to tuck in behind them. At this stage both me and the other cyclists have both slowed down, and I am completely disoriented by the light, and can't see if the jogger is there or not, so I gamble by turning right, forcing the other cyclist into the gutter and being sworn at. In hindsight I should have stopped rather than try to navigate (the jogger was actually further in front than I thought), but this is also why considerate lighting is important.
So here we are...
People who want to cycle are given just enough space to do so, and what's made available is just about adequate to allow for a minimum level of usage, and they need to share it with a whole load of other uses... walking, jogging, dog walking, etc. They need to use this inadequate space even at night. It's not even lit like the rest of the city. This results in years and years of impassioned conversation about how best to walk, to cycle, and even how to manage the lights we use. People fight. People get angry. Codes of conduct. Signs. Irritation. Anger. Incidents. There are even conversations about whether people out minding their own business should be told to walk on one side of the path or the other. Ring your bell and be hated for it. Don't ring your bell and be hated for it. Walk your dog off the lead and be hated for it.
What on earth could be the answer...
Although.... just suppose... what if... perhaps... we could make it safe to cycle on ordinary city streets.... and we could make it pleasant to walk on ordinary city footways... and then people could use the darker paths for walking dogs or jogging unimpeded...
I wonder if anyone ever thought about that as a way forward...??? If only there was a working example of such a system in some other country. I don't know, maybe one not too far away... Then we could just copy this other system.
What do you think? Just a dream?
(I know it's been said before; it just seemed like it might be time for a re-rant...)
a few days ago, i heard a honk behind me, which i cheerfully ignored because i wasn't doing anything wierd and my experience with horn honkers hasn't been good.
then the siren started.
parked cars left me uneasy about coming to a dead stop, but no worries, i was about to turn left down a small side street...
as was the police van behind me.
again, illegally parked cars made it so narrow there wasn't room for me and the van, so they had to wait for me again.
soz. well soz.
Someone, somewhere in south Edinburgh, is currently telling the following story:
"So as I was driving this morning, there was a cyclist in front of me in the middle of the road when there was a cycle lane he could be using. Sure, it was covered in frost and ice, but he was in my way. And then, when I wound down the window and pointed out that there was a bike lane, he had the nerve to shout at me. Very sweary he was too."
@the canuck. Will you be writing to the Plod to apologise* and ask what they will be doing about the illegal parking?
*on behalf of the occasionally law abiding motorists.
@thecanuck if they honked first before activating the siren, I am highly dubious they were actually responding to a siren-worthy call. I wouldn't feel bad if I was you.
Young lady, ten at most trying to cycle to school along Craigmillar Park on her own. On the pavement because obviously she'd be killed on the road.
Of course she gets to this bus stop and it's full of commuters and there's a stand-off as they look at her and she looks at them.
Craigmillar Park is 17m wide there and all the people trying to do the right thing are squeezed into 1m at the bus stop.
Total utter plonker on a green bike cycling straight through the cycle/pedestrian crossing at red at the west end of the meadows... nearly taking me out (i was on the road). Amazed he didn't get hit by the car behind me.
I ran a red on george street today. Was sat in front of traffic going east, looking across the roundabout at the lights. The green man turned to red where I was, and the light across the roundabout for straight on went green and my distracted mind just set me off.
I only realised when I spotted the cars approaching the roundabout on green from the Princes street side of Hanover street, so had to shoot ahead to get off the roundabout before them.
My apologies good burghers of Edinburgh's roads.
Ironically because I was now so far ahead of the traffic I felt a lot safer for the majority of the rest of my ride along George Street.
A very dull video, but highlights the danger of cycle lanes coming up to lights encouraging filtering. No left indicator from the bus - I know there's a bus stop ahead so braked, but the whole infrastructure is encouraging us all to go right where you don't want to be. Every time pulling up to lights, all sorts of judgements have to be made as to whether to continue filtering, and if necessary where to cut back in to traffic - the problem is that there is no right way to behave in this situation.
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e-bicycle rider ignoring the red on Princes Street at South Charlotte Street in favour of going through it then cycling along the footway as fast as his batteries could carry him to the pedestrian crossing at the top of Lothian Road.
"Will you be writing to the Plod to apologise*"
even better, i sometimes work in a room opposite that particular police-place's staff kitchen. i plan to put up happy, supportive, drawings to boost copper morale.
(i think they may have had their blues on, and weren't bothering with sirens as there was no motor traffic at that moment.
i heard sirens the other morning at 4:30 am. who the hell is blocking emergency vehicles at that time?)
Sunday's riding actually. Being the clown barrelling in to town in the middle of the towpath about 10.15 towing a fairly wide two wheeled trailer and who refused to slacken his considerable pace or move over slightly, thus forcing a line of approaching cyclists to a standstill.
I don't think the pedestrians were too impressed either. Next time he hits my elbow he might find it a bit sharper so to speak.
Anybody know him?
Today's Roseburn Gardens corner cutter was, thankfully for me, a Brompton rider. Had he been in his car he'd have wiped me out.
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