Traffic

Movie Reference 27/31

Woo hoo, a cycling facility put in almost at the very centre of Edinburgh! And now for the whinge...

See, the thing is, if you're going to put a facility in there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Firstly, it should be safe. And secondly, it should be easy to use, therefore making the road easier to use. This does neither.

This is outside a new hotel on George IV Bridge, where the road crosses over the Royal Mile to head down the Mound. The pavement has been widened, no problem with that, but where before there was a bus lane, which then had a bike lane past Victoria Street and up to the lights, the build out of the pavement in the picture forces everyone from the bus lane right, and does away with the bike lane.

The 5-10 yards or so after the build-out is not actually a bike lane per se. It's an access lane for a cycle reservoir at an ASL. More than two cars queueing for the lights? You 'aint gonna get into it. And since access lanes such as this have as their sole and primary function the safe and legal passage of pedal cycles into a cycle reservoir when there is a build-up of traffic, it's a slight design flaw not being able to use it when there's a build-up of traffic...

Add to that the fact that anyone turning right from the right hand lane (yes, there are two lanes of traffic there) still blocks the left lane enough that cars are 'forced' into broaching the access lane and a few famouswords spring to mind:

"Into the Valley of Death..."

I'd rather they hadn't put this in at all, because it encourages cyclists to scoot up the inside of traffic to reach it (and doing this with buses is particularly inadvisable) and if you get to it just as the lights turn green you're likely to be turned to jam by someone driving into it.

Edinburgh: Model Cycling City. Only in the sense that the traffic planners seem to think the roads are a toy...

However, this is good for the 'top' ten Edinburgh cycling facilities list I've started on YouTube....

The really worrying thing is that someone somewhere actually sanctioned this and presumably thought it was a good idea.

(hmmmm, not sure why the photo is on its side, but I'm at work so can't fix it just now - mind you, it sort of sums up the daft nature of the thing).