Gorgie and Dalry Roads very slushy - worse than I'd expected. Looked like they hadn't been gritted or plowed at all. Trains messy too.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Snow(?)
(369 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Lothian Buses (@on_lothianbuses)
11/03/2013 08:16
Further snow expected today, with low temperatures to continue. Keep an eye on our twitter feed and website for travel updates."
Posted 12 years ago # -
Super ninja custom snowplough out in anger this morning.
Did our estate then pavement on QBC from King's Buildings to Meadows.Even did east side of NMW to MMW.
It's spent now however. I tried it on NEPN out of interest, but the front has suffered too much wear and it just vibrated along - possibly making it worse for cycling than the unpacked snow...
Pics later.
Posted 12 years ago # -
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Edinburgh Council (@Edinburgh_CC)
11/03/2013 07:52
21 #edincouncil gritters and 20 mini-tractors have been working round the clock since 6am yesterday to treat main roads and pavements"
Posted 12 years ago # -
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EdinburghTravelNews (@edintravel)
11/03/2013 08:11
Captain's Road - heavy traffic and lengthy delays from Lasswade Road towards Kaimes crossroads #edintravel"
Posted 12 years ago # -
About two inches of snow at the south summit of Edinburgh so far, but it's still coming down. My priority 1 road looks quite snowy to me, so I shall be on spikes today. Having said that, it's proper stick-together snowball sort of snow, so ordinary offroad tyres would probably be fine. The thermometer says -1.3C.
Posted 12 years ago # -
NEPN had clearly been treated by a plough / gritter (although it still had ~1cm accumulated).
In fact it was in better condition than West Saville Terrace or Mayfield Rd...
Priority 1 indeed?
Posted 12 years ago # -
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EdinburghTravelNews (@edintravel)
11/03/2013 08:23
A90 - citybound queues reported from Dalmeny to Barnton junction #edintravel"
Sounds like a good argument for making sure cycle routes are gritted first!Posted 12 years ago # -
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heather coutts (@mfheight5)
11/03/2013 08:24
@forthone traffic in Newtongrange gridlocked heavy snow!!"
Posted 12 years ago # -
The canal path was entertaining on Marathons (standard), on side roads I had to stick to unpacked snow. Until it started hailing round Melville Drive, it was fun. My colleague thought I was insane when she saw me amble up on the 'bent.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I came home on Barnton / Roseburn path last night. The latter had residual grit on it so was quite passable, the Barnton section on slick Gatorskins was entertaining and slow going. Main roads were fine at the time.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Things we slightly better for me in Livingston - the "main" road I use had obviously seen enough traffic to give nice clear tyre tracks and the silghtly less main road was fine.
Lowlight: one Audi driver who didn't appear to know where his brakes were.
Highlight: a different Audi driver who hung well back and let me make my right turn.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Frank Ross (@FrankRoss06)
11/03/2013 08:33
Where are the gritters? Princes Street remains ungritted. #chaos"
(SNP councillor for Corstorphine Murrayfield and Convenor of the Economy Commitee)
Posted 12 years ago # -
As far as i could make out on my cycle to work today, there is no grit from Roseburn in to Regent Road through the town, Rose St is an icerink!! Avoid the toon!!
R
Posted 12 years ago # -
(With apologies to Marianne Faithfull)
At the age of 49
He realised he'd never ride
through Edinburgh on a bicycle
with the snow flakes in his hair
... except that this morning I did and I loved it.
I just cycled in through the Grange and Marchmont and MMW. Beautiful. I don't know whether to blame the winter tyres or not but I had no problems with grip at all, in slush or hard packed snow or fresh soft beautiful virgin snow.
The bicycles seemed to be the easiest-moving form of traffic; the cars were inching along in massive queues on the main roads and getting stuck on the wee roads.Confession: I only resorted to the bike after being turned away from the bus! But I'm so glad I cycled.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Path from Silverknowes to Blackhall was well gritted at 7am but from Blackhall to Haymarket it was less well done.
Only came off once on my Gatorskins and that was on Barton Road West when I touched a bit of lane marking paint and lost the front wheel.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Pretty sure I saw Cllr Burns on the canalpath about 8.20. Moving carefully but steadily.
South End of Leamington walk totally ungritted.
[/img]
north section slushier and felt like it might have been gritted last night?
Jawbone walk compacted snow, but manual gritters were out.
Pavements outside Peter's yard and Sainbury's had been ploughed and snow dumped partially across MMW cycle path :(
Posted 12 years ago # -
You can see my handiwork in the last pic (although it's looking a bit slushy and woebegone - the plough blade was on its last legs).
Not the huge snow pile, but the two tracks, I hasten to add...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I actually passed the gritting lorry on NEPN about 6.45am yesterday on my way to Dalmeny for the Forth & Tay audax. Gritting also in progress in Barnton around 7am Sunday. I was impressed the Council were being so proactive in anticipating the weather to come...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think the Innocent has been gritted. Certainly in the tunnel there's a very defined line of grit - I'm presuming the snowfall has simply been too heavy for it to make much difference, and there were only about 5 other bike tracks on there so not enugh to churn the grit from underneath. Still passable though (I was MTB'd up), not yet quite rutted, though expect that to be different heading home.
Was surprised at how much snow/slush there was on the roads in the city to be honest. Glad I was on the MTB - the commuter would have coped, but the bigger tyres just gave a little more confidence (even if mudguardless means I got a wet backside).
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm a big enough man to admit I should have got the bus. Nothing terribly hairy but the point on my ride where everything usually clears up I watched two cars going sideways round the corner. Pretty slow going but I was probably still the fastest (average) moving thing on the roads.
Thanks of the day to the first (I KNOW) bus who held back going along Gorgie and waited till it got wider before passing.
Tube of the day goes to the muppet who turned right out of a side street on to Dundee St and basically merged to my right. I'd seen better cars and drivers go side ways already this morning.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well it took me 36 minutes to ride to work today, instead of about 15. My commute has to cross the WoL and there are only two options: Slateford or Colinton Village, and both were absolutely solid with cars. In fact, it was near-gridlock all the way until I reached the bus lane on the Calder Road, when I speeded up to 21mph and was then shotblasted in the face with huge hailstones, which I see have now stopped.
The cycle lane that runs down Wester Hailes Road was mostly get-atable—you could see the edge marking at least—but it wasn't cleared. I managed to sneak past all the standing cars while my front tyre sprayed powdery snow everywhere. To their credit, most of the drivers were sensible today; just the black BMW estate brought dishonour to the group.
Normally gridlock wouldn't be too much of a problem, but when it snows, the only cleared bit is where all the cars are, so you end up having to go at car pace half the time, and you don't generate any body heat. A spiky tyred extra-monstrousbike is a bit of a handful in 3mph traffic. :(
Posted 12 years ago # -
The Roseburn path to and from Granton/Barnton was a little quieter but I saw the usual suspects and there were plenty of tyre tracks.
The slowest part of my ride was from Colinton Mains to the cycle path very slippy on the roads
Posted 12 years ago # -
Came in via the Dalkeith Road and had to stay in the inside wheel track all the way to St Marys Street. Well behaved drivers, no one tried to overtake or squeeze past. Bike behaved all the way. Frozen face by the time I got to the office car park. Number of bikes in the work cycle park well down.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Had a quick bash round the braids this morning - lovely fresh powder snow, much of it completely untouched.
On the other hand witnessed some horrendous driving on the brief cycle back to my flat. If you think the best way to drive on to a snowy Comiston Place is to spin your wheels as much as possible you really shouldn't be driving.
I'd guess there will be a number of a decent number of prangs as I got the feeling very few people were driving to the conditions on the compacted snow that made up the side streets.
Posted 12 years ago # -
The gritting job on Barnton section appeared to have caused regular defrosted pockets once every 5m or so. I assume the grit dispenser wasn't working quite correctly and was only dropping the stuff down intermittently.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Just did the canal towpath - the new fall of snow over the last hour covered any previous tracks/footprints. Surprisingly easy at the moment (I guess it becomes horrible once it's compacted to ice).
Drivers all seemed to be being very sensible. I was a bit cheeky and snuck to the front of the queue turning right into Shandon Place - I wasn't going to stand around for 5 minutes in that temperature... Saw a few cars slithering. The most exciting was the one sliding down the road onto my side of the road on Chamber's Street.
Anyway, I enjoyed my ride immensely :D The icy chunk of hail blasted into my face helped wake me up!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Someone in the office was having a rant about people amber-gambling in the snow, so it isn't just the cyclists who notice these things.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@EddieD - Any tips on recumbency in the snow? I was meant to return a borrowed Fuego today, but couldn't get going. Fell off twice before I'd even got the beastie moving (too low a gear?), so gave up and reverted to the usual commuter.
Definite advantage that I didn't have far to fall, but as per my previous comments, there was a woman passing.
In my defence, the Fuego is on Kojacks!
Robert
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've just had a brainwave. My bike is currently covered in salty slushy stuff, there is a hot water urn at my work, and I have a Sigg bottle. It might be worth my while to wash off the worst of it before too long.
Posted 12 years ago #
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