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.
stickyAs I said pathetic.
Ditto. What a load of ****. No contigous cycle route into one of Edinburgh's key employment areas, otherwise within a few hundred metres of semi-good access. Same at the canal end. It's like the masterplan is to deliberately frustrate attempts to cycle to the Gyle.
likely to have a significant impact on the traffic flows
Good to have THAT in black and white.
I've had various council officials deny that not/doing things is about traffic flow.
This is the council that wants 10% of journeys by bike by 2020 and allegedly has plans to reduce motor traffic.
I say allegedly because, although it's in the LTP, not sure there is any plan to make it happen.
OBVIOUSLY there is great resistance to doing things that might simultaneous help to meet both targets!!!
I don't remember it ever being two-stage.
We're talking ~ 4 years ago (or more). You can just about see on old streetview / aerial photos that it was indeed 2 stage, although the island was in a different position and there wasn't the same unneccessary dogleg as there is now.
So it's official. Single occupant vehicles into the Gyle trump active transport...
This is stupid - I, along with others here - use this route daily and nobody (really, nobody) has got off their bike there or at the tramstop at the college (see my photo above).
Do we have some other step - take up with councillors etc or is Andrew Burns word final?
The other step is to complain on the grounds it is too narrow for pedestrians, it's well below minimum widths recommended for wheelchairs to pass. It's bonkers to suggest "dismount" is a good solution - a rider pushing a bike is even wider than a rider on a bike!
Am I just unobservant, or are the 'Cyclists Dismount' sides on the path beside the Bankhead tram stop new? So we're supposed to get off and walk the length of the stop and then get back on again?
*Facepalm*
We need some blue & white "Cyclists Stay Awesome" stickers to go over all the "Cyclists Dismount" signs
Edd1e, not a bad idea!
ThreefromLeith, its better..... You are supposed to get off before makro (going to work) and not remount until after the tram stop.
In the 3 weeks or so of operation,I have seen one person do it!!
And no-one ever will. Crazy situation, and typical of City of Edinburgh council to take a perfectly good, existing shared-use path and allow it to become a partially non-cycling shared use path.
I'll take these advisory signs seriously when they start advising drivers to get out and push when going along narrow roads or where there are lane closures due to roadworks :-)
Saw two workies putting up new signage by the green-man crossing at the Balgreen end of the tramside path last night. Tonight I saw that it looks like an official sign to tell cyclists that they should use the crossing (without the usual "Dismount and..." prefix!).
Did anyone else notice the sign, and was I right in my interpretation of its meaning?
As far as I am aware, the Family Cycling route signs (route 8?) at that crossing heading from Murrayfield to the Gyle already direct cyclists to use it as if it were a toucan crossing, which I think the council plan for it to be. (If that's the crossing you mean, Balgreen Rd and Baird Dr?), this would be a nice confirmation of that heading the other way.
I cycle that way every night, and have never once seen someone NOT use the crossing when heading towards Murrayfield (the alternative being to dive into traffic at a blind junction next to the bridge then turn immediately right across oncoming traffic on a busy road!). The only problem is that the pavement on the Baird Drive side has not been adapted for bikes, so you have to bunny hop onto the road.
No need for bunny hops off the Ped X to Baird Dr.
Just do a neat left then right over the corner of the pavement, avoiding the bin & tree, then end up on the raised speed table at the end Baird Dr. - no kerbs at all. Traffic is really light on Baird Dr too, so no issues about crossing it near the junction.
Not perfect, but OKish
Be careful though - I was nearly taken out last week by a car which turned left out of Saughtonhall Avenue (?) and then left into Baird Drive at speed without indicating. I'd moved onto the raised speed table assuming the car was going straight on towards Balgreen... Luckily I was paying attention and was covering the brakes at the time.
Previously -
"this sign is at the Bankhead tram stop, there is another at the west side of the tram stop"
Email written last week (just been sent a copy) -
"
I can confirm that signs were erected in error around Saughton and South Gyle Access and are due to be taken down tomorrow. Some signs will remain around the pedestrian crossing at South Gyle Access where cyclists cannot legally use the crossing.
"
So presumably signs have gone?
where cyclists cannot legally use the crossing
You might want to correct them that they can legally use the crossing, they cannot "legally" cycle over it.
But have the signs been removed?
if a cyclist is pushing a bike over a crossing have they become a pushist? I have a member of staff who has become a bit of a pushist. I see him pushing his bike to work in the morning and shout at him to get on his bike. The other day I got off and pushed with him, just to be sociable. Turns out he buys himself a big coffee before coming to work and has to push bike from coffee bar to office. I am guessing he must really like the coffee in this shop (he gets an americano which is three espresso shots and a lot of water, he tells me. THe machine does double shots so they fling a shot away, this is getting technical). We have a perfectly good cafe in the building but maybe does not do the americano the way he likes it.
A lot of the problems here have been 'tram related' and therefore CEC 'can't/won't do anything until it's handed over'.
The handover has now taken place, and (I'm told) -
'The local team have been implementing repairs and will be doing more this year prior to adopting it for maintenance. Further improvements are not yet programmed but may be added for design next year'.
No idea what is intended, but clearly a lot could be done and a lot really should be done to turn this into a classy (not quality!) commuter route for existing users, and more importantly, to encourage more people to use this route.
In an ideal world it might be a good idea to take over some of the clogged up adjacent road space, but...
CCE did a 'study tour' a while ago. Lots of photos were taken.
Does anyone want to do it again and actually do a bit of a report/wish list to take to the council - not as a "demand", but a way of highlighting the issues (as seen by current users) and get some idea back of what is 'possible' and an indication of what amount of money is required.
Also perhaps find some 'I would like to cycle there, but' people.
Only improvement I've seen is the westbound cyclist dismount sign (approaching gyle access) has now been moved to the crossing rather than 20m prior to it.
chdot, I am on it most days but usually in a horrific rush. Let me see what I can do. If you have the old 'wish list' that would be useful.
As steveo notes, certain aspects have not been touched (e.g. telecomms cabinets just past S Gyle access are classic fubars).
If anyone else wants in, please shout!
Can't find a list, and there are a lot of threads on BP/tram route.
Just a couple -
Happy to be involved but I would want to go as far as the Tram depot.
HC
"
Dave H (@BCCletts)
14/08/2014 14:29
@harts_cyclery @hank_chief @dnmnsmith @LAHinds @SRDorman @AndrewDBurns @CyclingEdin Huge missed opportunity not building wider tram tunnel
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Spokes CycleCampaign (@SpokesLothian)
14/08/2014 18:29
.@BCCletts We lobbied for wider tunnel but whole #tram project was 'one-track'
http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/2013/10/tramline-traumas/#s2
@CyclingEdin @harts_cyclery @dnmnsmith
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OK, so here goes for my starter to send to Lesley - comments and additions sought. Apologies if all the pics dont work first time:
OK, so thursday was a nice sunny evening, left work at 6, and started these photos just east of Edinburgh Park tramstop - starting off, lets be honest the path looks pretty good -
At least the Cyclist Dismount signs are off at Bankhead -
But sadly are there at S Gyle Access -
And the reasoning? This disastrous 'changed from a toucan to a two-cant' crossing -
Just before the crossing, of course, was the piece de resistance -
Follow the path to the Broomhouse Road Toucan, make sure you miss this crumbling bit of pavement, right at the apex, sharpening your bike handling in the wet -
Between Broomhouse Road and Saughton road there are umpteen examples of infra requiring repainting, relaying, or simply stopping access trucks ruining -
The segment between Saughton Road and Stenhouse is not too bad and leads to the new bit of path down to Jenners Repository.......however, if like me your journey requires you to continue through Stenhouse.
Surely they didnt just build a path round these?? Aye -
Closer - yep, its right in the line of the bike path - had some ped conflict here myself -
At least there is a dropped kerb (if you spot it) to access the busy road eastbound - but this is horrifically dangerous if you try to access it westbound -
....but lets say you miss the unsigned dropped kerb, what awaits 10 yards on ? Nothing, get off, do not pass go, please jump into the traffic and take your chances - pretty shoddy if you were taking young kids on an offroad route to gain confidence -
Great (and useful) set of pix.
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Cycling Edinburgh (@CyclingEdin)
30/08/2014 09:22
@LAHinds @adamrmcvey @AndrewDBurns current state of major cycle commute route
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9318&page=8#post-163744
Will need holistic approach + money
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Of course the money shouldn't just come from the 'cycle budget' - this is 'tram legacy'.
This is probably a more important 'get people cycling' route than much of the half-hearted "family network".
Perhaps should be the next priority after Leith Walk and the Innocent to Canal 'gap'.
Maybe time for the second CCE 'delegation' to the transport committee?
Surely the whole point of dedicated cycle infra is to make cycling faster, safer and more efficient? If it doesn't achieve all three you'd be as well to take your time walking everywhere, or coccooning yourself in a metal box and driving everywhere.
So now this has been "adopted", some might say made worse, by the council. Are they going to start gritting it? It was slippy under foot this morning and a couple of riders were sliding going up the little rise away from one of the crossing.
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