Gillespie Crossroads
The City of Edinburgh Council has shared plans for initial discussion with Community Councils regarding Lanark Road (thank you to Cllr Scott Arthur for sharing). It shows revised parking plans which include a long, unattractive, steep and unlit diversion for cyclists at Gillespie Crossroads. But most disappointingly, it shows limited improvements for pedestrians or blue badge holders.
The City of Edinburgh Council Motion was aimed at achieving bike speed mitigation measures on the downhill sections to help address conflicts and safety concerns. This is the right goal. Our previous blog covered a lot of solutions for this:
Wider floating parking, better kerbing and lane designs for slowing bikes.
Pedestrian crossings
Suggestion of timed parking to prioritise parents at nursery drop off
At Gillespie Crossroads, the Council suggests only two options
Remove the parking: not great for the nursery or its kids
Remove the cycle lane on a largely level section: not great for active travel as it leaves a big gap in provision.
We think there is a third option, to keep the lanes, improve the floating parking and improve pedestrian crossing times:
This section of the cycle lane is largely flat - speed is not an issue here
We think that each larger section of floating parking should have at least one Blue Badge Space - particularly near the nursery.
Reduced pedestrian wait times at the Gillespie Crossroad lights
Surrounding streets have plenty of parking for residents - although many thankfully have private drives already
Junctions are the most common area for accidents, due to turning and accelerating traffic; better crossing times and segregated cycling helps protect the most vulnerable road users.
The road adjacent to the parking is so flat bikes hardly roll down it! With improvements to the floating parking, safety can be improved.
One of our SW20 supporters has posted a series of videos illustrating some of these topics:
The alternative cycle route is up a steep hill, across a road without a crossing, is muddy and poorly lit. That won't increase usage. When you think of this route remember that kids, less confident cyclists, those who use accessible bikes or perhaps older will have to be diverted on this unsealed, unlit path. A comparison of the two routes is here:
There are some great opportunities to connect quieter 20mph streets and create 20 Minute Neighbourhoods. Widening the gap between the Juniper Green back streets and Lanark Road is a missed opportunity. Here's the 20mph streets (in purple) and how they could connect Balerno to Longstone:
Dovecot Park
At Dovecot Park, the proposal is to move and increase floating parking space to the park / uphill side of the road. This is welcome. But the Council design is silent on pedestrian improvements. This area needs crossings to satisfy pedestrian desire lines. The greatest risk of harm here is pedestrian conflict with traffic - pedestrian crossings and vehicle speed reductions need more attention.
How to balance needs
All parties that represent this area agree that walking, wheeling and cycling should be prioritised over private car use - let's do just that! By making routes more convenient and direct, as well as safe, well lit and consistent more folk will take the healthier options.
Experience from all over the world shows that consistent safe infrastructure encourages all forms of transport - we hope the most sustainable healthy ones are the ones that our Council focuses on and our Councillors push for. .
