Sign this route
This route should be signed. It's a very nice quiet bicycle-walking connection between Liberton and Gilmerton, but very difficult to find, especially the footpaths between all the curved bits of Malbet Park/Wynd.
Issues
This section lists issues - problems on the street network and related matters.
Issues always relate to some geographical location, whether very local or perhaps city-wide.
You can create a new issue using the button on the right.
Listed issues, most recent first:
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Cycle lane Gilmerton Rd
Cycle lanes in both directions needs urgent improvment. It's painted on but
- it is far too narrow, encouraging dangerous overtaking
- road surface in the gutter (=cycle lane) extremely bad, with deep&wide cracks, most covers have sunken etc.
- paint has faded
- parking (near the schools)Many sections of Gilmerton Rd have hatching in the centre, wasting space; these sections would be wide enough for a segregated path (or wide lane protected by bollards/armadillos).
In the narrower sections, the existing bike lane should be removed completely because at the moment it increases the dangers (encouraging cyclists to be in the gutter between kerb and speeding cars).
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Drum Street in 20mph
Drum Street is very narrow in Gilmerton, many shops and pedestrians. Should really be included in 20mph.
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MMW/Forrest Rd
Longstanding issue about 'optimum' design, particularly to reduce conflict caused by vehicles turning from Teviot Pl due to signal phases.
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Cycle Superhighway 1 consultation (CS1)
Transport for London's public consultation on Cycle Superhighway 1 is open from 16 February to 29 March. The LCC office has set up this thread to facilitate discussion of the proposals.
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Bike lane protection
Cars and buses southbound often cut the corner at the traffic lights (road bends to left), driving over the cycle lane.
The cycle lane leads up to the lights but ends there and restarts some distance along the road.
It is dangerous because drivers think that cyclists are out of the way in their own lane, even larger vehicles overtake here without realising that they easily move into the bike lane. Attached a photo where that happened to me, on 21 October 2014, the bus overtook and cut me off, I had to slam the brakes in order not to be squashed.
The bike lane should be clearly separated here, bypassing the traffic lights completely.
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Segregate/Protect cycle lane
Drivers often cut the corner at the Bank of Scotland, driving over the cycle lane. The current layout encourages drivers to overtake without giving people on bicycles the necessary distance. Parking is also a dangerous problem here.
It would be easy to install plastic highway bollards here along the cycle lane which would encourage drivers not to encroach on the cycle lane.
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Toucan crossing
Very difficult to cross here, coming from Brunstane Burn Walkway to turn right towards Musselburgh.
The timing of the traffic lights seems to be such that there is almost always traffic from one direction, so one often has to wait for very long here.
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Cycle path needed
Lady Rd needs a segregated cycle path uphills. It's very steep uphills with dense&fast traffic, and it is particularly difficult to turn right.
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Discourage through traffic
Apparently it is not possible to close the road to through-traffic, but it could be significantly discouraged by making it a less convenient ratrun.
I suggest at the entrance to the carpark of Inch House the road could be changed to create a very tight corner. This would not affect people going to Inch House from either direction, but it would make it less convenient to drive through, and slow down the cars (there is a blind corner behind the house).
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Bone-shaker speed bumps
The road through Inch Park has a lot of very high/short speed bumps which are total bone-shakers for people on bicycles - dunno how many eggs I have broken cycling home from the shopping centre.
I realise aggressive speed bumps are there to remind drivers of the 10mph speed limit.
Perhaps they could be changed to have a gap or a shallower ramp in the centre so that they are easier on bicycles. Some actually have pothole repairs which essentially created such a ramp and they are much nicer.
Presumably this would also be better for users of mobility scooters.
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Traffic lights at junction do not change for bikes
When approaching this junction from the East on Widney Lane (and possibly other directions as well), the traffic lights do not detect the presence of waiting cycles.
Since the default priority at this junction is for traffic on the Blossomfield Rd / Marshall Lake Road axis, this means that cycles heading from Widney Lane to Longmore Road have to wait indefinitely to cross the junction.
In busy times this is not a problem, because a waiting car will trigger the traffic lights to change.
However, at quiet times this effectively means cycles cannot cross this junction legally at all. I have experimentally waited more than 5 minutes for the lights to change. Unless a car comes to trigger the change, cyclists are stuck.
This "bike-blindness" built into the road signalling infrastructure is unfortunately not uncommon. As well as being inconvenient for and disrespectful of cyclists, it reinforces the notion that bicycles are second-class road-users - indeed that they do not really belong on the road at all.
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New SE Gate Kings Buildings
It would be great to have a pedestrian/bicycle entrance in the South East corner of Kings Buildings. This would be of much benefit to everybody coming from the south, as you can avoid the steep, busy Mayfield Road.
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Cycle path Bypass-Straiton Retail
The shared footpath under the bypass ends at the bottom of Loanhead Rd and then there is no suitable connection into the Straiton Retail Park area.
Loanhead Rd is very steep with fast cars. Straiton Rd is fast dual road with unconnected bits of narrow painted cycle lanes. Both are total barriers for other than high-risk extreme sports enthusiasts. No way families could cycle to the shopping centre here.
The connections into Edinburgh (Burdiehouse Burn, or the new Loanhead-Lasswade path) are actually really good, so it's particularly sad that you're dumped in a car hell on the last few hundred metres.
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More bike parking at Cameron Toll
Need considerably more bicycle parking at the shopping centre. The few racks here are often overfull.
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Bike parking at Summerhall
Need proper bike parking in front of Summerhall. Bikes chained to the guardrails are a hazard for pedestrians.
Some should be right at the entrance, some more could be at the front of Summerhall Square (please not tugged away somewhere at the back of Summerhall Square where it would be perfect for thieves).
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Contraflow cycle lane
Contraflow bike lane in Salisbury Rd for easier access from Southside to Commonwealth Pool, Pollock Halls and Holyrood Park.
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Contraflow cycle lane
Contraflow here would make it much easier to get from Pleasance and Geography Dept in Drummond Street to South Bridge and avoid the uphills detour to Hill Place.
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Contraflow cycle lane
Contraflow bike lane to make it easier to get from University to East Crosscauseway (St Leonhards, Innocent etc.) and St Patrick Square.
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Nicolson Sq Gardens
Make more pedestrian friendly and discourage car use. There has been a fatal collision in 2012 but near hits are common.
Remove the fence around the garden, or add additional entrances on all four corners, to open it up and enable pedestrians to use the garden to cross the square in East-West direction and diagonally. At the moment it doesn't have an exit in the west, making it a dead end and barrier for people moving between Nicolson St and Potterrow.
The pavement on the south (from Mosque kitchen to the libanese restaurant) are far too narrow. Double yellow lines regularly ignored, creating blind corners, making it difficult for pedestrians to cross.
Marshall Street should be narrowed considerably to one lane, as it's really only used for a few bus lines, no need to have two fairly wide lanes here. The southern pavement far too narrow, but it is very busy with pedestrians.
It is used a lot as ratrun between Nicolson Street and Potterrow.
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Racks too close to wall
These racks are too close to the wall so you can't actually lean a bicycle against them in a stable way.
Also why only so few in such a central and busy location?
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Bike parking
Need much more bicycle parking here, also to access Nicolson Street.
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East End (Bridges, Leith W, St Andrews Sq)
The whole area is a barrier, there are no connections between North Bridge, St Andrews Sq/George St and top of Leith Walk without lot of bus/taxi/confused private car drivers and cyclist-blender junctions.
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Terrible surface
Cobbles, tarmac patches etc almost impossible to cycle on.
These streets are key connections between centre and the Innocent Path.
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Abdon Avenue - Bristol Road Link
A cycle path built here would complete this proposed route segment: http://www.pushbikes.org.uk/location/bournville-3
This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:
The most popular issues, based on the number of votes:
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Pinch point created by pedestrian crossing
The current layout of the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Winchester road and Vermont close forces cyclists out of the cycle lane and into the flow of traffic. This is a risky maneuver and relies on the patience of the car driver behind the cyclist. A possible solution would be to be extend the cycle lane through the chicane, with give way markings so that pedestrians have right of way.
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Dangerous section of cycle path outside Dominos Pizza on the Avenue
Southampton Cycling Campaign has received many reports of local cyclists having accidents on the cycle path outside the Dominos Pizza outlet at the southern end of The Avenue.
A recent incident was reported in the Southampton Echo, http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10475081.Cyclist_hurt_in_road_crash/
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Dogs Head Street cycle contraflow lane parking/loading bay
There is a loading bay in the cycle contraflow cycle lane, which means that the cycle lane is blocked for cyclists as soon as a vehicle is parked there. This means that cyclists have to pull out into the path of oncoming buses, thus making the NCN route unsuitable to young children or inexperienced cyclists.
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Tandem carriage on Scotrail trains
We have a tandem which fits in all the spaces on trains in Scotland (as far as I know), but we are prohibited from taking it on any except the East Coast line trains. I've been writing to various officials - elected and otherwise - and contributed to the recent review of the Scotrail franchise, but am not getting much joy. No one seems to think it is a big deal. But, for my family, with 2 kids aged 5 and 1, and no car, if we don't go by tandem and train, we can't go anywhere much. The tandem is not a luxury but a practical transport solution. Does anyone else want to join in and make this more than a one-woman issue?
(another related issue: even once the kids can ride their own bikes, we won't be able to use trains much since most only allow 2 reservations).
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Grey Street
Redesign of Grey Street to remove the danger of cars reversing (blind) out parking bays into middle of the road.
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St Peters Dock lethal rail tracks
Disused railway tracks on St Peters Dock provide short section of road surface that is dangerous to traverse from East to West by bike.
If you are avoiding crossing the tracks then you are forced into oncoming traffic.
If you cross the tracks, you are then potentially trapped between parked cars and the railway tracks, which can be dangerous.
The tracks are very slippery when wet or icy, and sections are often hidden underwater because there is poor drainage after heavy rain.
Ideally the tracks are totally removed, or the surface covered with concrete or tarmac.
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Cycling on A2
The A2 is a hostile environment for cycling. Cyclists should be directed away from using the A2 towards existing safe alternatives (e.g. RCR16) and the current A2 cycle signs should be removed.
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Clerkenwell Boulevard
Here is an ambitious plan for a Bicycle Boulevard from Shoreditch to Fitzrovia, along Old Street, Clerkenwell Road and Theobalds Road, open only to bicycles, buses and motor traffic for local access only.
a. It is now the most cycled route in London, showing that it is the desired EW route.
b. It is of variable width, therefore trying to accommodate bikes, buses, and through traffic in a consistent and safe way is impossible. In other words, a compromise will be a botch job.
c. There will not be mixing of buses and bicycles: bicycles will have a dedicated two way cycle lane on the South side of the street.
d. The Boulevard stops being a mega- EW-rat-run. Motor traffic will have to use Pentonville/City Road.More details here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yw9mkHhGZaVBKYJs6FxyhC1Z4nNYVl-IFH-aR1ScK9U/pub?start=false#slide=id.p
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Chisholm Trail
Proposed route along the rail corridor through Cambridge, part of which is in the Cambridge Local Plan.
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North Meadow Walk - NMW
Surface, drainage and width issues.
Planned for upgrade as part of CEC 'family network'
No details/dates.
Was an issue 5 years ago (and before)
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Safer Walking and Cycling between NW Cambridge and Girton
Our campaign for safer walking and cycling to/from NWCambridge now has a petition and a first video (of five) summarising our position.
See our new video summarising our petition:
https://youtu.be/hIlQAzsU0js?t=1sI’d be delighted if you could promote this to your networks. Time is of the essence because a Senate House discussion is coming up [3 Nov 2015], and I will report the number of signatures on our petition there. (But signatures after the date will still be useful.)
More information:
http://tinyurl.com/EddingtonSafetyThe petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/EddingtonSafetyAnyone is welcome to sign the petition; we ask people to use the Comment field to let us know if they are University Member / University employee / City resident / SouthCambs resident / etc.
For twitter purposes the recommended hashtag is #EddingtonSafety and there is an @EddingtonSafety account too.
Thanks very much
David
David J C MacKay FRS
djcm1@cam.ac.ukRegius Professor of Engineering,
Cambridge University Engineering DepartmentAuthor of “Sustainable Energy - without the hot air” www.withouthotair.com
and “Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms” www.inference.eng.cam.ac.uk/mackay/Girton resident and parent.
Cambridge Cycling Campaign Member -
Tower Bridge road surface problem
Six inch high ridge near left side of north bound lane on the south side of the bridge forces cyclists too close to the kerb or into the path of motor vehicles. Issue reported via CTC pothole reporting site. Resurfacing required.
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NCN route 11 and the Waterbeach Gap
I've visited Riverside to Waterbeach with William Rayner of county cycling team. He's revising signage here and providing it along the St Ives corridor, with the old NCN 51 being renamed Regional Route 24 (blue patch). We've decided finally to continue to sign NCN 11 from Riverside Bridge to Waterbeach Station, and he's looking at suitable (hopefully temporary) wording to advise to follow NCN 51 to Bottisham for destinations beyond Waterbeach, which will hopefully eliminate misrouting those from outside the area.
Our inspection of existing signs showed that only one new signboard was provided on completion 5 years ago of Riverside Bridge. Signboards still send people via Green Dragon. Sustrans considers signage is an important part of any route project.
The intention is to sign Milton Country Park as a destination, not as part of the route, removing route signs within the park, and probably retaining Coles Road as the signed route through the village, though it would be much preferable to have improvements past the shops and the village green, pubs etc.
Retaining the route to Waterbeach as NCN will help keep the gap in people's awareness.
I am planning to contact again the landowner of the missing link between Bottisham Lock and Fen Road, Lode with a suggestion for a low-level route, southeast side of the Bottisham Lode floodbank which is the route of the public footpath, where signs forbid cycling. It might be considered more visually acceptable. All parish councils are for the route, including the one of which he is a member.
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Wandle path bypass for Earlsfield
Garratt Lane at Earlsfield station sucks massively for cyclists, and is a jarring interruption to the Wandle Trail (Sustrans route 20). It would be great to extend the riverside path underneath the railway to avoid this dangerous stretch of road.
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Lack of safe room for cycles, terrible road surface
While some painted "cycle lane" does exist northbound, there is woefully little provision for cyclists considering the huge number that use this section of road each day, a large number of whom are those who work at the General Hospital and other nearby health centres. Southbound cyclists have no real provision of space at all, save a graduated stopline, where cars turning right often try to pass right-turning cycles on the inside. Dale road itself is extremely narrow by winchester road, with almost no pavement space for pedestrians.
Cyclists heading northbound on Winchester road must beat traffic off the line at Dale road to get to the painted centre of Winchester road. North of the traffic light at The Range, the cycle lane is almost non-existent, placing cyclists between 2 lanes of heavy traffic, and cyclists have to stop and wait in this dangerous area in order to turn right onto Wilton road. Furthermore, the road surface, especially at this part of Winchester road, is currently deplorable. -
A14 very hostile for cycling
The A14 is a very hostile, dangerous road for cycling.
Improvements to it, as well as broader changes to the national framework for cyclist crossings of major roads, are needed.
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Lack of cycle routes to Cambridge Business Park, Waterbeach
My employer is planning to relocate from central cambridge to the Cambridge Business Park (near Waterbeach). There is currently no decent cycle (or footpath!) access to this business park which avoids riding along the A10. I am a confident cyclist but I am not looking forward to riding to work along sections of the A10.
Are there any plans for cycle route construction which the campaign can, perhaps, help accelerate?
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Replace Hooper Street gates with bollard
The permeability gate between Hooper Street and Kingston Street is obstructive as it only allows passage in one direction at a time.
Given the ever-increasing amount of cycling in areas like this, it's time to get this replaced with a simple bollard arrangement that would allow two-way passage whilst still enable the emergency services to unlock for access in an emergency.
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A41 Divides Guilden Sutton from Chester - better crossing needed
The A41 ring road cuts across a useful quiet route north-west out of Chester, which is an alternative to the traffic-free Greenway (which is unlit, and slippery in icy conditions). Crossing the A41 during busy periods - e.g. when commuting at rush-hour - can be a slow and potentially very dangerous process, especially after dark. A better crossing for cyclists and pedestrians, or a lower speed limit on the A41 (or both), would be very helpful here.
[Original version of map was wrong; I've now updated it.] -
Ommision of lights creates danger on cyclepath
The cycle path crosses the soutbound exit from the M53 at Cheshire Oaks. The exit is light controlled for traffic as they enter the roundabout. This provides a safe time for cyclists to ride across the sliproad. However the lights are not visible to cyclist on the path and there is no light provided to advise cyclists when they can cross.
This makes it very difficult and dangerous for cyclists to know when they can safely cross. This would require no physical change to the road layout simply a new light to show cyclists when to cross.
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Reach Fair Ride
The Reach Fair ride takes place on the early Bank Holiday Monday (May Day) in May.
The web page for it is:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/The planning overview is summarised:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/timeline.htmlI've created this issue to help plan this event.
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Cycle Superhighway 1 consultation (CS1)
Transport for London's public consultation on Cycle Superhighway 1 is open from 16 February to 29 March. The LCC office has set up this thread to facilitate discussion of the proposals.
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Brook Hill Roundabout
Brook Hill roundabout is a major barrier for cyclists in West Sheffield. The traffic is fast and as it is a three-lane spiral roundabout with the exit roads (except Bolsover St) having two lanes there is a lot of lane-switching by motorists. This makes the risk of a collision very high, and for less experienced cyclists it is simply a no-go area.
Many of the buildings adjacent to the roundabout belong to the University, and have been built up to the curtilage, so there is no space to expand the pavements and make them shared use.
One alternative for cyclists coming from the Walkley/Crookes area via Bolsover St is to use Tower Court, but this area can be very congested when the University is in session, with several thousand students using the Arts Tower and Library.
The council has signed an alternative route via Weston St and the Netherthorpe Rd tram subway, but this involves a drop in height of about 100 metres and subsequent climb up again, plus the negotiation of access barriers in the subway, so is not really sensible.
Meanwhile on Upper Hanover Way, a cycle crossing was severed when the tramway was installed, although cyclists still use the crossing. A proposed alternative crossing is stalled as it is too expensive.
What can be done about this knotty problem?
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Dangerous to cross Milton Road diagonally at Toucan crossing
As the bridleway crosses Milton Road, it swaps sides of the busway, so most pedestrians and cyclists want to cross diagonally. However the toucan crossing only protects people crossing Milton Road. It doesn't stop busway traffic.
This is confusing and dangerous. When the road traffic stops at red lights, and the Toucan crossing turns green, it feels very safe to cross the busway. Yet buses can come from three directions (busway west, busway east, Milton Road south) at speeds of 30 mph.
Cyclists in particular are tempted to cross diagonally from north west to south east. Last week I saw a near accident.
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Prince St Bridge - Quick Fix
Prince St bridge is an anarchic pigs ear. I like pigs and fond of a bit of anarchy but it's getting beyond a joke. Of course it will all be sorted out properly in due course but we could live with this for years. Here's a quick fix:
SOUTH
1. Move south vehicle stop line back 10m behind tramlines
2. Remove all bollards unless one or two kept in line with centre of bridge with arrows right for cars
3. Widen cycle lane from bridge to Festival way turn so suitable for 2-way cycling.
4. Put in Give Way painted line at an angle running from enlarged cycle lane to centre line so southbound cyclists alerted to need to filter across traffic.NORTH
1. Remove all bollards
2. Widen cycle lane for 2 way cycling all the way up to the traffic lights with The Grove.
3. Remove 5 bollards on each side of north bound traffic light along with the two set back
4. Paint cycle lane passing behind light and then back onto carriageway making it nice and clear that it's an option for cyclists when lights red or they can carry on (as most will, no worse than now but at least it will be clear that they can treat these as 'give way')
5. There will need to be 'give way' paint to make clear that pedestrians have right of way on the by-pass.Yes it's muddled but less so than now and makes the desire lines easier. It's also a cheap paint based fix pending the proper job.