@Ed1
Those rocks and things are the best cycling in all of the EH postcode! There's an argument that you should cycle where the track suits your bike, mind.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Worst road surfaces for cycling
(96 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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Craighouse Avenue now resurfaced!
Just need the nursing home to open the back gate and there would be a fine alternative to the Craighouse Road hill.
(And it's all 20mph around there too now).
Posted 7 years ago # -
Clifton Road (connecting East Calder with EICA Ratho)has a distinctive moonscape quality to it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Frenchy
"The southbound carriageway of Newington Road, near the junction with West Preston St. is awful - although some roadworks are there just now, so it might get better soon. Or it might get worse."
this - rode that last Monday and it was dire...
Melville Terrace is still dire
Posted 7 years ago # -
Yes, Melville terrace is a real obstacle course of disintegrating speed reducing cushions and bomb craters.
Another hellish surface is Dundee Street in front of the new school. in fact most of Edinburgh's Ciyy centre roads are utterly appalling.Posted 7 years ago # -
Strictly speaking, it's Rillbank Crescent and Fingal Place, rather than Melville Terrace (which was resurfaced a while ago). Came along there yesterday in the dark, and it's just awful.
I'm going to carry on nominating:
1) Comiston Road, particularly the southbound lane from Morningside clock to about the school. All that time with the gas mains works, with the road closed and everything, and they couldn't schedule a resurfacing exercise at the same time?
2) Myreside Road, Craighouse Gardens and Balcarres St (mentioned in the Clarenced thread), which are horrendous. It's patch after patch, sunken and dug out by buses, with CEC not bothering their behinds at all. Plus there's the trench across the road on Myreside, cut for installing the new traffic lights. That trench was filled and has since sunk.
3) How awful for cycling do you think a cobbled road can possibly get? Scotland Street and Drummond Place are like that. Some of the gaps between the setts could be measured in multiples of fingers.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@ Arellcat - yes #3 Scotland St / Drummond Place every morning I curse it.
Has anyone nominated Rankeillor St yet ? I no longer use to to get to the Innocent. It's like a patchwork of poor repairs - more patches then original road.
Posted 7 years ago # -
https://goo.gl/photos/XUYgKGA2VasZ6X5H9
For various reasons I'm now cycling more often to/from the gyle and couldn't help feel that the tactile paving on bits of the cycling half of the Sighthill/Balgreen shared path parallel to the tramlines looks like it should be laid perpendicular to the direction of travel rather than parallel. Wouldn't like to hit that at speed in the wet. Hopefully the image above works.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Re photos -
Needs a link to actual image rather than page
Also needs to be about 500 wide as auto-resizer has stopped working.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Re tactiles -
They are 'correct' according to U.K. guidelines.
Many CCEers don't understand/agree.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Re "Sighthill/Balgreen shared path" -
Yes, well
MANY mentions on here.
Various 'CCE site visits' and reports to councillors.
A few bits have actually been improved...
Posted 6 years ago # -
I find with my narrow 30 winter tires they tram line in the sighthill tram path. I switch to the pedestrian side or slow right down. I have always wondered why this stone choice was taken for a bike path. With my larger 32 tires it's fine.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I'll nominate the whole of Bruntsfield Place/Leven St from the links right down to the junction at Tollcross. Weaving around to avoid the holes and badly done patches is no fun in busy traffic and close to parked cars.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I have always wondered why this stone choice was taken for a bike path.
There are many discussions on tactile paving in the CCE archives, as chdot mentioned. Suffice to say, from the Guidance on the use of Tactile Paving Surfaces, page 76:
"
On the cyclist side, the surface should be laid with the bars running in the direction of travel (Figure 29 page 75). This arrangement was chosen because it was felt the rumble effect created by the transverse pattern would deter cyclists from entering on the pedestrian side.
"In other words, the transverse alignment ought to be less comfortable than the longitudinal alignment. The DETR (or its predecessor) will have conducted experiments on grip levels for both scenarios, and must have concluded that the risk of a tyre sliding in wet conditions was higher for the transverse arrangement. After all, there is no barrier to that sliding movement; if your tyre slides/tramlines in the wet on the longitudinal alignment, in theory it should only slide as far as the next raised bar, rather than all the way across the slab. People not brought up with mountain biking often feel any kind of skid is uncontrollable, no matter how slight. The trick is to allow the bike to move underneath you, with the confidence that it will grip again momentarily later.
All that said, and straying off-topic somewhat, and correct installation or not (as some might feel), there is an interesting yet blandly titled paper, "Tactile Paving Survey" that was carried out in 2005 by the HSL. Some of the findings:
"Up to 58% of the tactile paving assessed for this survey had one or more problems associated with its installation."
"The [cycleway tactile] surface should be used on any segregated shared route where the pedestrian side is not physically separated from the cyclist side. The tactile surface should be laid at the beginning and end of the shared segregated route, at regular intervals along its length and at any junctions with other pedestrians or cyclist routes." (my bold)
"No examples of correctly installed cycleway tactile paving, including the use of a central delineator strip were identified in the course of the current survey."
Posted 6 years ago # -
I cross over or go down the middle. As I have taken a skits on these and the bigger ones through the meadows when they are wet
Posted 6 years ago # -
Thanks for the incredibly detailed responses to my comment/rant above, and for the fascinating wealth of old posts on this forum. As someone new, not to cycling but to getting around Edi on two wheels this site is definitely an underrated resource.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"this site is definitely an underrated resource."
Thanks.
('We' rate it MOST highly...)
Posted 6 years ago # -
Chalmers Crescent is brutal at the bottom end between Palmerston Road and Argyle Place.
Its almost tolerable on a MTB, but terrible on a roadbike.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The hill on the Lang Whang as you come up to the wind farm and turn off for Tarbrax. It seems to be made of a rumbly gravel-in-tarmac material designed to slow down road bikes and make your hands sair.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Posted 6 years ago #
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The lower section of Harlaw Road (the bit nearest Balerno) has been terrible for years. Even on my cross bike it is really bumpy. I'm surprised it never seems to get any treatment (to my knowledge).
Posted 6 years ago # -
The hill on the Lang Whang
Had minor off there, lost concentration and hit the soft verge. Never got up so quickly in my life!!
I'd like to add The hill on the Lang Whang as you pass the cattle farm, not only does it stink but its rummbly and I dread to think of the contents of the small gaps between the stones.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@arobcomp, you have to wait for the green light and cycle behind a convoy car out there just now as they are putting in kerbs and I assume they will then resurface?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@steveo the bit of the Lang Wang by the cattle farm has been resurfaced and is now lovely and smoooooooooooth! :-)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@fimm shows how much cycling I've done of late. :(
Need to stick the road tyres on and investigate.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cattle Farm?
Ainville that does the horses or the one nearer Tarbrax that burns the rubbish?
Bits of new road at both sites.
Lot of the Whang now hacs good surface
Lot of the minor roads around the West aCalder turn including the West calder turn on rolling closure to be upgraded.
THe Woolfords road to dog rescue is really bad. Wind Farms. I think Ned Boulting's parents live out that way.
Posted 6 years ago # -
not really Edinburgh, but the A708 west of Gordon Arms has had a new gravel top added a few weeks ago - not brushed off yet and there's loads of it, so only really possible to cycle in the thin groove worn into the shippings by the cars. Either side there's an inch or so of chippings - deadly on a road bike.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cattle Farm?
between the glider base and Harperrig.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Steveo - On right hand side as heading out to Carnwath, beyond Leyden Road (nice descent goes down to Kirknewton under the railway?). Three storey but not very deep farmhouse? Ainville is the name, Clydesdale Horses is their game but will also have cattle.
Just trying to narrow things down a tad as two or three miles between RAF Kirknewton and Harperrig
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cattle Farm?
I assumed that the farm with the "warning cattle crossing" sign was meant. I once had to wait there with two other cyclists (and some people in cars) while the cattle crossed. I can't remember if it was flies or midges that were bothering us, but something small and flying was!Posted 6 years ago #
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