Fixes for QBC

The so-called “Quality Bike Corridor” along Causewayside/Buccleuch/etc. was poorly designed because it prioritized cars and vans’ (alleged) stopping and parking desires over cyclists needs to safe cycling. Is there really a need for there to be parking along most of this corridor?

Supposedly parking is for businesses. But consider this photo taken on a Sunday when parking is totally free in the bike lane. It’s very busy with cars, as you can see. Are these cars spending money at the businesses along the Quality Bike Corridor? No. In fact when I took this picture, one cafe was open (Press), and ALL the other businesses along the 3-4 blocks in the vicinity were NOT OPEN.

Lone cyclist braving a sea of cars on the “Quality bike corridor” on a Sunday

I think it’s fair to conclude that the people who were using the bike lanes as a parking lot in this photo were probably doing one of two things:

1. going to use the Meadows (because it was a sunny day, and normally there are FAR fewer cars parked here on a Sunday)
2. parking their car for the whole day, then walking to e.g. Nicholson street or George IV where there were actual businesses open.

In both cases, all of these cars could’ve easily been parking along Melville Drive, i.e. along the Meadows. There is ample parking space there, and though technically this is also in a bike lane, the cyclists who are trying to go East-West along the Meadows already have a fully segregated option: North Meadow Walk (one of the rare well-designed and useful bike paths in Edinburgh).

I think that Melville Drive should have even more relaxed parking restrictions than it does now: increase the parking along Melville Drive, and decrease or remove it along Buccleuch, where cyclists currently do not have a safe option in to travel North-South in the Southside of Edinburgh.

There are other places along the corridor where parking could be increased. The current parking pattern, from over a year of daily observations, is that there are about 5-10 cars parked along the West side of Buccleuch, between about East Preston street and Bristo square. Can we not have a dedicated parking area for 5-10 cars along here where the road is wider? For example right at the North-West corner of Melville drive and Buccleuch, or just North of the East end of North Meadow walk along the West side.

This would serve the real loading/parking needs, while seriously reducing the harm and annoyance of having these stopped or parked vehicles spread out 1 every 50 metres or so, each time requiring bikes to swerve into fast-moving traffic, unsafely.

Another place where parking could be easily extended is outside the Mosque, across from the Informatics Forum and Appleton Tower. The street is wide here, and there’s already a designated parking area. Then the bike lane curves in to hug the pavement, but there’s so often parked cars in it here! Instead: extend the parking area, make the bike lane continue in a straight line, and fix the sub-par pedestrian crossing by putting a better pedestrian crossing (that is, moving the traffic light to where it’s needed and useful, not to where it’s the least inconvenient for cars, which is the only rationale for the current location).

QBC in an ideal world

In a better world, we could go back in time and make the Quality Bike Corridor a, well, quality bike corridor: commit to a segregated/protected bike lane along most or all of the length from Edinburgh University George Square campus to King’s Buildings. Realistically, at least in the short and medium-term, this is not going to happen. Somehow, £650,000 have been spent on this poorly designed infrastructure which does hardly anything to protect cyclists from fast-driving cars. It’s disheartening to think that such a great opportunity for safe, protected infrastructure was missed by Edinburgh Council.  We can and must emphatically insist on better infrastructure on any future consultations from the Council.

Let’s focus on a short section of this road which should be a good option to avoid the busier and nearby Nicholson St to go North-South, and which links up with the Meadows for people moving along the East-West axis:

If you look at this section, there are zero actual through roads for cars coming from the West side at all; there’s a connection with the off-street bike lane going East-West across the Meadows, and the rest are short dead-end streets leading into Edinburgh University campus. That means there is hardly any car traffic ever turning in and out from the West side. My wishful brain immediately thinks: this makes it a good candidate for a 2-way protected lane!

Now I think several years ago when this was being designed, a 2-way protected lane along the West side would’ve been an excellent option to follow through on. It would’ve meant the opportunity for metered parking on the East side along most of the street aside from some narrower sections and pinchpoints. It would’ve meant a safe and straightforward North-South corridor on a street with grocery stores, cafes, florists, wineries, pubs, and other shops. This is in contrast to current separated bike infrastructure in Edinburgh which is largely on old railroad tracks off the main road network, and thus no good for short trips to go buy groceries, run errands, and so on.

Most of Causewayside/Buccleuch, including this stretch, has enough space for cars to be parked along both sides on a Sunday when parking is a free for all for everyone, AND for cars to comfortable drive by in both directions without needing to serve to avoid parked cars. A two-way bike lane takes about the width of a parked car: so, there’s the space for a 2-way bike lane with a short physical separation buffer (like some concrete taking up about the width of a painted white line). Short pinchpoints like the corner of Gifford Park can be accomodated when there’s the will.

I hope that in 5 or even 10 years from now, some quality infrastructure like this can be put in along this stretch. This is a street with great potential to be reclaimed as a ‘Place for People’ rather than as merely an unpleasant transportation corridor with cars and vans breezing through.

The current situation: bike lane literally turns into parking lot.

Hopefully better speed limitations will come into effect soon for this section, but I’ve not heard whether that will come through. There are already lots of small businesses on this section that depend heavily on foot and bike traffic, and making this street more attractive can only mean good things for them. By having parking on one side of the road along most of the stretch, they can rest assured that those who choose to or must drive can also be accomodated. The demand for parking on this stretch in no way exceeds the parking available on one side of the street, as evidenced by the one-car-every-once-in-a-while pattern currently seen.

People on bikes: your safety is worth nothing compared to this one car’s right to park anywhere.

Having all the cars in one place (on one side) where they don’t form multiple obstacles for cyclists is a winner for everyone including drivers who have to wait behind, or carefully drive around, cyclists who must ‘take the (car) lane’ whenever they are going around a parked car.

That’s my wishful thinking for now. There are lots of viable short and medium-term fixes that can be done along this stretch, and that will be the focus of an upcoming post.

Quality bike corridor? Far from it.

When I first heard a Quality Bike Corridor was being built along Causewayside/Buccleuch, I was excited and optimistic: finally, the council was going to build proper cycling infrastructure along a major North-South artery of the city! A smart move, and a good choice of road: Buccleuch/Causewayside is quite flat with only a few gentle inclines, and is not the main transportation artery in this part of town, but is just parallel to it, one block over. In a moment of trusting naivety, I put my faith in the council to do this right and went on with my life.

The wishful thinking looked something like this:

Separated bike lane in Utrecht – actual quality cycling infrastructure

Fast forward to colossal disappointment and disillusionment. As part of the bold plan to make a “quality bike corridor”, the council added some signage suggesting to drivers that parking in certain parts, at certain times of the day, is not a good idea. Drivers: you can of course stop and “load” at any time, and in a substantial portion of this 3km route, legally park and block that reddish area inside the white lane sometimes referred to as a “bike lane”. But, forget the signs anyway: who’s there to hand out tickets? The police should be making an absolute fortune on the illegally parked cars that litter the “corridor”.

Can you spot the quality bike corridor in this photo taken on a weekday morning?

No space for cycling. No bikes either in this shot, unsurprisingly.

And there’s plenty of complaining going on in the websphere already – just search google for “quality bike corridor” to see results like this, or this, and how about this one.

So, Edinburgh Council: please don’t call this a “Quality Bike Corridor”. It’s insulting. Cyclists deserve better than to have their collective safety be traded against cars and vans’ “right” to stop and park anywhere they please. You could make this a “quality” bike corridor if you wanted or cared: by having a dedicated, cycling only area along most or all of this stretch. This could be such a lovely street for people: cyclists, pedestrians, and local businesses would reap the benefits. Causewayside would become a more attractive, inviting, traffic-calmed street where cars are not speeding by at 30 miles an hour, where you can wave hello to others cycling or walking by, where you can sip a coffee and watch people go by instead of cars.

Instead, cycling a few blocks to get groceries in the evenings is a stressful battle against cars stopping, parking, and opening their doors. Riding to classes in the mornings means hardly ever riding in the actual “bike lane” because what’s the point if you have to swerve into fast traffic every 10 seconds to get around a parked car? It’s frankly less safe to have to weave around parked cars and vans than to just ride in the middle of the road in the first place, where cars will at least notice you.

My next post will suggest some specific improvements to the route – aside from the obvious: further restrict parking and loading along the route, and raise lots of cash by actually enforcing the regulations!

Cars and vans: merely a suggestion.

 

First blog post!

Welcome to my blog! This blog is mostly the result of biking around Edinburgh and feeling like those involved in making decisions regarding cycling infrastructure are often making bad decisions – or, decisions just short of “good”. The focus is to highlight examples of good infrastructure, “not so good” infrastructure, and pull together my general and specific thoughts on improving the cycling infrastructure in Edinburgh. I have travelled to dozens of cities in Europe, dozens of cities in North America, and I draw upon these experiences to constructively critique the existing infrastructure in Edinburgh. I plan to use evidence-based reasoning on what designs and policies have been shown to work in other places to inform my suggestions. I will use photos from my walking and cycling trips, mainly around the city centre. The focus on the city centre is easy to justify: it is the crucial area to get right in order to get more people on their bikes. Indeed my guiding principle will be: how can we get more people cycling? I can answer this question from looking at surveys and from speaking to people from all walks of life in Edinburgh: the main reason is safety.

My first post will be in a few days about the Buccleuch/Causewayside Greenway.

Stay tuned!