CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 14years 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.
I see the council has a map and searchable list of its priority gritting routes.
I've successfully used it to find a safer alternative to my normal route to work, where I came a cropper a year or two back on sheet ice one morning.
Whether the priority gritting routes do all get gritted in time is another matter but I'll give our lovely council the benefit of the doubt on that one.
I've only done a quick search, but doesn't look like cyclepaths such as the Innocent or Trinity Path are listed. Unless I'm missing something obvious?
Aha, the map on that page didn't work the first time I used it. Shows part of the Innocent being a gritting route - from the tunnel to Duddingston Road West, but in typical 'This is Edinburgh' fashion the section from Duddingston Road West heading out east isn't part of the gritting route.
You might be missing the map? :) Scroll down to below the A-Z search thingy. There's a map which has priority gritting routes in red, secondary priorities in blue, and (as far as I can see) all the main cycle paths in purple. It doesn't explain what purple means, mind you...
Edit: yes they do seem to have only partial purplisation of the cycle paths. Doh.
<cynic>
<Doesn't even bother looking at link>
That'll be because those are cycle paths and this is a list of priority routes...
</cynic>
The purple are for 'pavement' routes that are on the gritting list. If you click on the link it tells you the priority. Apparently the 'part' Innocent is priority 1. And so is the 'part' Trinity Path - but again, it seems to go as far east as the five-ways juntion, and if you want gritting any further you've got to turn right to Warriston, and contniue on to the Shore (presumably then doubling back on the road if it was actually the likes of Ocean Terminal that you were heading to).
I mean, don't get me wrong, it looks like an improvement over previous years, but still appears piecemeal in the approach.
WC indeed, looks like kaputnik, uberuce and I willhave to resort to the hellish road at broomhouse, as the cycle path is not on the list.
I was going to come back and edit my post as I cross-posted with others, but then I got logged out and couldn't get back in (does this happen to anyone else?)
I'd be happy if they just went down the A90 onc in a while to clear it of leaves. I'm considering doing it myself! I saw a small road cleaning vehicle removing leaves after that windy period the other week, but its back to the norm, wet film of uneven coverage of leaves. I was glad they routed the Pedal for Scotland along the A90 route into Edinburgh though as most of it has been cut back and is still cut back. The Dalmeny Estate is very good at cutting their hedges and bushes back along the route, if only whoever (were responsible for the A90 Path) would sweep the leaves from the A90 again.
CEC says -
"
Hopefully after this year's winter there will be an opportunity to review how it has worked and to consider whether other paths can be added.
"
So if/when it gets icy/snowy worth noting what does/n't get done.
Last winter there were ice problems around Five Ways which got dealt with fairly quickly via Twitter - @north_team
Too little too late for me. The first time I came off on ice I injured myself in a fairly minor way. The second time I broke a bone and damaged my hip joint in such a way that I will have pain for the rest of my life and in the next 10-15 years will develop arthritis in my hip which will be painful, disabling and eventually require a replacement. I'm not risking a third injury. Once it gets cold enough that ice is foreseeable most days, my bike is going into hibernation for the winter and I'll be on the bus.
The only things getting gritted on Edinburgh and Lothian cycle paths this winter will be teeth.
I sent a request to the council after seeing the map to see if they could add the new(ish) Chancelot Path to their cycle path gritting list.
Response today:
-----------
ADDITION OF CHANCELOT PATH TO CYCLEWAY GRITTING ROUTES
I refer to your communication of 22 October regarding the above.
Having now discussed the matter with Services for Communites Cycling Development Team, I have agreed with them that Chancelot Path will be given a higher priority status for winter maintenance in keeping with the other major parts of the off-road Cycle Network in the immediate vicinity. As a result the stretch of path you identified in your correspondence will now be added to Road Services priority cycleway gritting routes.
This addition will be reflected in our online map of winter gritting routes at the next update.
----------
Small yay!
Of course "in keeping with other major cycle paths in the vicinity" in reality means "very occasionally", but hey ho, better some than none :)
Well done!
Ooh, does this mean my plan for carry freedom snow ploughs is redundant?
Doubt it some how...
/learned cynicism
Slight hijack of the thread but...
Nelly et al: do you find the Broomhouse Road particularly bad? Can't say that I've had any real problems with it since I started using it (now I've mapped the surface in my mind) and certainly prefer it to the cycle path where people seem not to care about lane segregation and the recent rain has made the dirt run to slippy mud.
"
The current priority system for deciding which roads should be gritted will be re-examined after councillors agreed that “shortcomings” were exposed during the recent spell of cold weather.
"
Link at the top doesn't work any more. New one here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20227/gritting_and_salt_bins/506/winter_road_and_pavement_maintenance_map
Another blog from @mummycycle that is bang on the money...
When it snows, it is wonderful when the snowploughs are out clearing the roads….but not if they dump the snow off the roads and onto the pavements.
Even private individuals do this. Round our way, it is depressingly common to encounter blocked pavements caused by people who have cleared the snow off their drive and left it in a big pile on the public footway. These are properties with front gardens including ground which basically has no other purpose than to be flat and green ie lawns. I assume these people must cultivate some exotic variety of grass which cannot survive snow which has been deposited other than by falling from the sky. Or else the householders are just ignorant, thoughtless, selfish idiots. Take your pick.
When the parents of the kids school were clearing the pavements last year we must have blocked more than a couple of driveways just piling the ice from the pavements into the road.
some exotic variety of grass which cannot survive snow which has been deposited other than by falling from the sky
Dunno, the stretch of grass from my front garden to my bike shed is looking worse for wear, I'm assuming its salt from roads on my tyres killing it.
Snow shovelled off a private drive shouldn't be particularly salt-laden, I wouldn't have thought. In any case, it's still no excuse for inconveniencing others.
IME lawn grass always looks rubbish at this time of year anyway. It doesn't grow much if at all, so simple mechanical wear can easily make a lawn look quite sad. When the grass starts growing again in the spring it quickly bounces back.
We had some fairly major work done in our back garden just before Christmas. The guys were meticulous about putting down boards for the mini digger but the relaid turf over the trench for the armoured cable is still a bit of an eyesore, and the other areas that just got trampled by feet still look rather downtrodden (literally). But we're confident that it will quickly start to look a lot better once the growing season kicks in properly. The trick in our garden, which has quite heavy soil, will be to stop the moss getting a head start on the grass and taking over.
The Council Snow Plough on the road creates a wall of ice outside my house if I do not get shovelling immediately after it goes past. I have to create two mountains of ice and a valley to allow the car in and out.
Many moons ago my sister-in-law's hyusband dragooned the pavement tractor to clear the wall of ice so they could head home. He insisted on giving them a large tip which they were embarrassed about.
I used our wee front garden as a skip for five housefrontsworth of snow and ice I cleared from the footways last year, with no perceptible ill effects.
How many snowpersons worth is that?
Apparently Gritty McGrit Face has an app now to say how icy it is and what types of grits are down on the road already. Well prototype.
Gritty McVittie and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang
Came off the bike this morning on black ice at the subway by Asda Milton. That section is never gritted. Emailed the council this morning.
Boab08
Sorry to hear about your crash. Hope you’re not badly hurt.
Thanks for the heads up about that section though - I use that route frequently. Seems to a be reluctance to grit the shared use path between Milton Rosd and The Jewel. I’ll also ask that it gets more attention from the gritters.
Cheers
Colin
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