I might start commuting via KB to see how it works, since it will only add thirty seconds onto my day.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
QBC video audit...
(83 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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"Apparently due to open officially a week on Friday."
Or not -
"
Due to the uncertainty as to whether the utility works on Potter Row /
Teviot Place will be finished this week, it has been decided to postpone
the QBIC launch.
"Posted 12 years ago # -
Does anyone know if there will be an official launch event with media? Could be a good opportunity to point out that QBC is not what good cycle infrastructure actually looks like.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Presume there will be an official event (like there was for the lights at Gardners Cres.)
Media will probably be invited - ENews will print the press release (and maybe send a photographer).
Might be better to wait (say) a week and see what it's like in practice.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Wonder if the media would be interested in a cyclist or two whisked to A&E due to parked car derived incidents on the QBC on launch day?
Not that it can be easily arranged, but there is always
[+] Embed the video | Video Download Get the Flash Video (skip forward for the great bits)
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
cameron rose (@cameronrose)10/10/2012 14:05
Local newsblog Bike corridor opening put off: Teviot PlaceThe official opening of the Quality Bike Corridor has ... http://bit.ly/PWKWLX"
Contains link to a certain CCE member's web site!
Posted 12 years ago # -
\o/ fame!
If they're going to wait for no roadworks at all then we may be here a while - the QBC is also dug up southbound between Grange Rd and the Meadows (just a little - although the signs have also been put down completely blocking the northbound lanes).
I'm coming to recognize all the usual suspects who are abusively parking on the QBC on the way in. Maybe I'll put together a rogue's gallery for councillors / parking enforcers to enjoy?
Way home is hopeless however, Joe public just drops their cars all over it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Maybe I'll put together a rogue's gallery for councillors / parking enforcers to enjoy?"
Good idea.
Posted 12 years ago # -
With a certain Chinese supermarket featuring heavily on the list!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Yesterday at Tesco about 5 -
Posted 12 years ago # -
Miracle. Never seen that happening before!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Aparently it's officially open now -
So fair game for recording how it's working.
However as its official opening was postponed because of digging up at Teviot I don't know why it's been 'opened. Today -
Plus the revised entrance at KB is far from finished.
"
Ian Maxwell from Spokes said: "Spokes welcomes this latest bit of progress towards achieving the aim of makng Edinburgh a truly cycle friendly city. This is already a busy route for cyclists, and we hope that now it is a Quality Bike Corridor the Council will work out ways to ensure that the cycle lanes are kept free of parked cars and the surface remains of a high quality.""
Well yes - never mind the quality, feel the parked cars/vans.
Posted 12 years ago # -
So what did we get for our £650,000? Not a lot, apart from some new tarmac which will soon break up with the heavy traffic running over it and 20mph limit which is more honoured in the breach than the observance? I have been riding that road for almost 20 years, the QBC is no improvement on what was there before. Who would be happy for their children ride it, to primary school (it is a part of the "family friendly network)?
It really begs the question is the Active Travel Action Plan worth the paper it was printed on? Maybe that is why CEC abandoned the 15% modal share and replaced it with "15% of journeys to work" but 2020. It is a target they have no intention of hitting, but apparently "Cyclists in the Capital have given a warm welcome to a new 3km bike route since its recent completion." It may please a few MAMILs who like to play with the cars, it is very rare to see a child riding on it. Will no one think of the children?
Modal share for cycling in Edinburgh remains stubbornly at 2%.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Meanwhile in London, they work out how to do roadworks properly https://twitter.com/johnstreetdales/status/269544330224603138
Posted 12 years ago # -
Check that drain!!
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Kim I agree absolutely with your points. The QBC has not benefitted cyclists, there having been negligible improvement, if any at all, apart from, as you say resurfacing of really atrocious road surfaces, large swathes of which were done prior to the QBC and were the whole road. Whenever I cycle this route I rarely actually use the bike lane preferring to just use the road. The problem is that as a designated bike lane it has broken lines demarcating it, thus making it perfectly legal to park your car on it, now if that was a solid white line the parking attendants could book car drivers for depositing their vehicles on it and blocking the route, but as it is it is less than useless frankly.
@chdot - at least that drain is level with the road unlike the sunken sivers and craters in so many Edinburgh roads.Posted 12 years ago # -
Well they have re-surface some of the bad bits but far from all. The junction with Salisbury Place and Causewayside is still in an awful condition.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Kim yes it is, and is positively lethal in bits, particularly as you have no choice but to take evasive action to prevent you hitting very poor utilities repairs endangering yourself by moving out into the path of overtaking cars. The whole section from W. Preston St down to the start of Ratcliffe Tce is just awful, that is two whole blocks. This is why if I do go this way I take a positive position on the road.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Aye. Quality!
Posted 12 years ago # -
From above link
"
On Twitter, one cyclist, gilmertonJoe said: “Just cycled this new route. Diabolical – my life flashed before my eyes!”"
Then he(?) deleted his account!(?)MANY more comments on Twitter
"
Cllr. Andrew D Burns (@AndrewDBurns)
15/11/2012 17:14
@SRDEdinburgh @Edinburgh_CC @CyclingEdin @SpokesLothian Sara, I take the point you're making but surely its another move in right direction?"
https://mobile.twitter.com/andrewdburns/status/269127421293363201
Posted 12 years ago # -
Why is it that cyclists continually fall into the traps set by the papers, in this case cycling three abreast?
@Councillor Burns - the usual dogma trotted out. Well it is setting an example of heading in the right direction. Well yes, no-one has denied that spending money on cycle infrastructure is a good thing, but in this instance it is a total "fail", it is not safe, and is not "quality" and if the councillors/council think so then heaven help us. A good proportion of the money allocated was Sustrans money and I have to ask the question about consultation with them about this "Quality" bike corridor, because I would not be happy with how the money has been spent.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Why not vote in the poll as to whether or not you would use it?
http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/latest-news/cyclists-fury-at-danger-route-1-2642845
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Claggy Cog As soon as I saw the picture with the 3rd cyclist on the give way,I knew it would be picked up
Posted 12 years ago # -
@custard...yep, detracts from the issues. Also the headline is so sensationalist, I am not furious about the standard of the QBC, more resigned to poor, shoddy planning and execution, by EDC, yet again. Motorists can hardly fail to be impressed by our whingeing, as portrayed by EEN/Scotsman publications, and as ever forget that they are surrounded by a substantial amount of metal and have four very fat tyres and don't disappear into potholes and uneven surfaces, although uncomfortable are not life threatening.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm clearly missing the bandwagon. Should I dig out my rogue's gallery of QBC video offenders?
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think we need footage shot from a frame-mounted camera to highlight surfacing problems. This mount will need some stern engineering.
It shouldn't. But it will.
Also: sign me up for this jaunt along the QBC with Cllr Burns. I'll bring m'trailer.
Posted 12 years ago # -
What ride? If not during office hours, it might be more useful for those of us with cars to carefully recreate the worst blockages!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Comment in yesterday's EEN:
"
It seems the Capital's van drivers missed the memo from CEC's transport gurus about the new bicycle corridor launched yesterday.The Council's transport vice-convenor Jimm Orr posed happily on his bike for photos at the junction of Buccleuch Street and West Cross Causeway, espousing the improved safety of the cycle lanes running from George IV Bridge to Edinburgh University's science complex at King's Buildings.
Only 50 metres down the road, however, a parked van had done its best to steal the show, completely blocking the the bike path. Another van ended up across the designated path at the junction minutes later after hitting the brakes to avoid colliding with oncoming traffic, in signs that cars still rule the central city's roads.
"Posted 12 years ago # -
What ride? If not during office hours, it might be more useful for those of us with cars to carefully recreate the worst blockages!
Can door the councilor?
Posted 12 years ago #
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