Naturally, some cracking comments already - Saughton Billy reckons that "ECC continually harass motorists and place cyclists and pedestrians on a pedestal"
I must have missed that !!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Bid to reduce speed limit in Holyrood Park
(26 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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"Just make it a 60 maximum and be done with it. Stop telling the public what to do"
Yer average moton's weltanschauung, in a nutshell
Posted 11 years ago # -
it's not exactly a residential area so the road could easily be widened into a dual carriageway and upgraded to a 40 MPH speed limit to ease congestion on other routes.
That's the sort of pro-building view held by fans of S4 roads. Build more roads! Make roads wider! Induced demand? No such thing.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Mmph.
I really can't comment, because I've regularly exceeded the limits in the Park, on a bike.
I doubt I'm alone either :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Actually (tin hat being applied), no real reason for it to have a 20 limit, not residential, not an accident blackspot, no reason at all. If the desire is to slow people down from 40mph (if that is what people are doing), then simply enforce the 30 limit that is there.
Yes, of course 20 limits in zones on residential areas at either side.
Posted 11 years ago # -
EddieD - speed limits only apply to motorised vehicles, meaning a cyclist can't exceed the speed limit (although cycling at high speed could, in certain circumstances, be considered as inconsiderate or even dangerous).
Arellcat - I love the crazed thinking in that comment. Make a mile of road in central Edinburgh a motorway and you "remove congestion". I'd be intrigued to see if the good burghers of Meadowbank and Newington (at either end of the road) would agree.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"
New speed bumps are also to be installed in Duddingston Village – through which around 7000 vehicles pass each day – in an attempt to end congestion problems in the narrow Old Church Lane.Mrs Crofts said: “There is often complete standstill. The drivers get out their cars and scream at each other.”
"
So they don't just get annoyed with people on bikes!
Posted 11 years ago # -
I know.
But we all try to.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The comments are INCREDIBLE.
Some highlights -
"The congestion at Duddingston village has more to do with the moderate volume of traffic trying to get past the parked cars on the narrow road than it has to do with speed! The parked cars, I presume, belong to the residents of the village? Remove the cars, apply and enforce parking restrictions,,,,job done!"Yes because those people who DARE to park in a narrow street next to their homes, and slow down YOUR right to a shortcut. My GOD. They shouldn't have the right to do that.
"This [reducing speed limits] has been tried in so many places now (Ferry road or the A1 by QMU for example) that no one takes limits seriously any more."
Perhaps it's time to fire in some more speed traps and cameras then.
"I may be mistaken but I thought that this country had laws on discrimination and that we were all equal."
Just AWESOME.
Posted 11 years ago # -
So they don't just get annoyed with people on bikes!
Cage rage, pure and simple.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"The comments are INCREDIBLE"
I've given up being surprised, outraged etc.
Given up worrying how 'representative' they might be.
'We' are right (mostly) and the current councillors are generally in agreement (though still not bold enough) and increasingly the police see drivers/speeding as more 'problem' than 'normal'.
Personally I'd be happier if HP was no through road for motor vehicles all the time!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Agreed. Let people walk (or cycle) in from the edge of the park. No motor vehicles allowed. Then it might seem more like a park and less like a big lumpy motorway verge.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"Actually (tin hat being applied), no real reason for it to have a 20 limit, not residential, not an accident blackspot, no reason at all"
Sometimes it's about making what should be a wonderful urban parkland space a nicer place to walk and cycle.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Of course, if people used the park as you'd hope they'd want to, it *would* be an accident blackspot.
In reality the experience of being constantly overtaken into the teeth of oncoming traffic by speeding impatient drivers keeps me out of the park, and so many others too that the crash rate probably isn't that bad - but no reason to aspire to having a distributor road through our parkland.
It's like when they show that there's no problem crossing busy roads, the obvious point is that all the grannys who aren't confident they can get across safely just don't do it, so aren't there to be counted.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I thought it belonged to the crown as we users use it by permission. I beleive it should be a park with no motor vehicle access. That would include the drive down to Duddingston, but then I live in the Kingdom so likely to be considered as not having a vote as my Cooncil Tax goes outside Edinburgh....
Posted 11 years ago # -
I would not hold your breath, I have yet to see the "No commercial vehicles" rule enforced to any great extent either.
Actually (tin hat being applied), no real reason for it to have a 20 limit,
I would respectfully disagree with this, I would like the park to be a nicer place for children, walkers and cyclists, and a 60mph limit would turn it into a playground for racers.
On Sundays when traffic is limited the park is such a nice place to be.
The fact that you can limit the traffic to such extent shows that it is just a short cut for many drivers.
And,as a side point, it would reduce the death of local wildlife and the hare population could bounce back, which would be a wonderful thing.
Posted 11 years ago # -
iratesheep - may I nominate you for best-ever CCE username?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Just so we're clear are you admitting to partaking in some form of sheep judging or are you a particularly angry Ovis aries?
Posted 11 years ago # -
"I never obey any speed limits. I ignore them all because I drive at a speed I consider safe for the conditions, environment, etc"
"I agree that 20 MPH is a good idea. I think the views of cyclists however should be TOTALLY ignored as they TOTALLY IGNORE the rule of the highway code. Cyclists in Edinburgh seem to think they can cycle where they like, go through red lights etc. Utterly irresponsible! They most certainly do NOT like being confronted with the truth."
Posted 11 years ago # -
"Vehicles averaging 40mph ? this might be possible on the downward stretch between old James Clark School and Holyrood but is nigh impossible between there and Duddingston Village. Carry out a speed check at Hangman's Rock above Duddingston Loch and I would be surprised to find it exceed 15mph due the bends and adverse road camber."
I've been overtaken there when I was doing 30. In my car.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Less than 3% of vehicles in Holyrood Park are bicycles according to HS's own figures. This is fairly unique in European terms. No other city would have such an assett managed in such a way.
The figures are so distorted in favour of motorised vehicles that illegal journeys outnumber cycling ones x 3.
The existing bike lanes are unusable for commuting cyclists as involve crossing the parkland freeway.
HS need to get serious on this - hosting showcase cycling events like the Skyride is all very well but fails to address making the park somewhere you would want to cycle through.Posted 11 years ago # -
I've cycled the St Margaret's Loch bit the last couple of days into work, and stick to the road. The cycle lane is fine for pootling, but because it's also a path me riding along at 20mph just doesn't mix with pedestrians and dogs (especially daft when there's a road right next to it) and getting onto the roundabout to then go up past the front of the Parliament is rendered more difficult.
I just love the fact that the commenters seem to think that cyclists have it all their own way with the Park. Really couldn't be ANY further from the truth. Cars are given free reign (save for Sundays, in certain sections, which has been pointed out turns the Park into a haven). Seems so strange that people are so hung up on it not being residential, and so should be fast. It's a PARK!
The other argument that always creases me up is that if people speed it's because the speed limit is too low. It's not that people are wilfully breaking the law, the limit is too low. Cyclist runs a red (not condoning this) or rides on a pavement (nor this) and that cyclist is a dangerous moron who should be clamped down on. Driver breaks the speed limit, it's not his fault.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Steveo, can't it be both?
After all, on the internet no one knows you are a dog.
Or, in my case, a sheep.
It does make finding a bike frame that fits my proportions difficult though...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Does anyone bother to post on the EEN comments, to counter some of the ludicrous posts, or is it just not worth wasting your 'breath'?
Posted 11 years ago # -
"Does anyone bother to post on the EEN comments"
Several people on here have - under various names...
I think we've all given up.
I believe there were some good wind-up sessions. But you can have too much of a good thing (allegedly).
Posted 11 years ago # -
I will cycle down the road and up the path, makes sense to me. I ain't holdin nobody up on the way down, I am going at pedestrian friendly pace on way up with a nice ting bell or voice.
Did have a disagreement with my fashion consultant last Saturday. For some reason letting cars park on the slope up towards the roundabout so en famille we took to the crags, hutton's section, Scottish enlightenment etc (oh yes and the German man who married a local, insured her then caused her to fall to her death, all in the space of a few days)
Anyway, fashion consultant walking and indeed carrying her wee sister on the cycle path despite my previous instruction regarding which side was which. She then exercised her individuality by climbing the crags in an ill advised direction. I waited patiently and pointed her back to safe route, man she could have punctured her new docs. As her wee sister said, I am not staying up there it is totally diagonal
Posted 11 years ago #
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