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King's Stable Road - Segregated Shared-Use Path |
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The deficiencies are obvious: poor pedestrian compliance (this is not a staged photo) and poor visibility lead to a dangerous situation, a high wall and a fence ensure there's no escape route. |
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What is the point of this path? You get round the corner, then... |
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Are dumped onto the pavement (behind the phone box) with no legal way of getting back onto the road. |
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Update:
I imagine this path was installed in order to maintain two-way operation of this
road when it was converted to a one-way street. Unfortunately, as it stands, the
path is useless as there is no legal way of cycling off it and its end. There is a
signalised junction at its end which should be modified in order to allow cyclists
to exit King's Stables Road onto Lothian Road (in all directions). Like so many
traffic management schemes, the desire to keep motorised traffic moving has taken
precedent over the effective use of the roads by cyclists.
It is also interesting to note how poorly the surface of the path and its markings were re-instated after the works to lay some sort of cable under it were completed. |
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Another Segregated Shared Use Path. This one is in the Roseburn area. |
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Coming from the left-hand side of the picture, you can dive onto this pavement path... |
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Go round the corner... |
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Down the street (past the new flats - perhaps the cycle-path was installed as part of a planning arrangement?)... |
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And back onto the road... you've saved yourself the trouble of making a left-turn, and replaced it with making two left turns (one to get onto the path, one to get off). In the other direction, you can replace a right turn with two right turns by using this path. Great! |
| Update: This path signifies all that is wrong in the current approach to cycling provision. The path is highly visable and totally useless. There are no movements which are facilitated by this path, it does not link up with any other features as part of a network, and it is never used. It also features a blind 90 degree turn. | |
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Cycle Lanes on Roundabouts |
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At a roundabout, one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a cyclist is to position yourself where drivers are not looking, for example at the edge of the circulating carriageway when a driver's attention is directed more towards the centre of the carriageway. This lane encourages cyclists to put themselves in the prime position not to be seen. |
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Same location, here it appears that the cycle lane joining the roundabout has priority over the lane on the roundabout, contradicting the normal rule of the road. Additionally, if you were in the lane but did not want to leave the roundabout at the exit shown, you would have to give-way to vehicles from behind. |
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At least the surface of the lane is free of debris. Not! |
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Another roundabout lane, this time at Broughton Street. |
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Broughton St again. Notice how the Edinburgh council lorry is waiting in the cycle lane. |
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Another roundabout lane - according to the road markings, cyclists in the lane have to yield, once more, to vehicles from behind if they are not leaving at this road. |
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A car waiting to join the roundabout highlights the dangers - and a strategically placed cone adds to the perils of using this lane. |
| Update: Comment from BC:
shame you didn't get a photo of the lane on the roundabout
before they cut the bushes back as they were half way across it at one point
The bushes were cut back about a week before the photo was taken. The lane was then full of clippings. By the time I arrived with my camera, they'd been swept up. |
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