Thread by @blackfordsafer1

People will choose to cycle when there is safe, convenient & contiguous infrastructure.
Meanwhile, today we celebrate the "opening" of the city centre cycle "link" which is convoluted, compromised and unfinished...

https://twitter.com/Edinburgh_CC/status/1770074811571552302

Unfinished: Nearly a mile of George St has no protected cycle lane. The junction in the middle of Melville St has been abandoned, with temporary red/white water-filled barriers in place - ugly much? And no clear priority for bikes

Convoluted: Instead going direct along Shandwick Pl, the route jinks around some back streets & alleys at Haymarket - ironically where today's opening celebration ends...

Convoluted: The route takes you around a cathedral & along an alley that's also shared with cars. Then there's a section over really rough, but newly laid, rounded cobbles to pass through another narrow & dimly lit alley.

Convoluted: Then it travels around 3 sides of square, on-road, with no guidance, markings or signage before dumping you in a giant car park also known as George St

Compromised: The width of the bidirectional lane at Haymarket is below 2 metres, far below the recommended absolute minimum 3m and the "desirable" 4m - world class ???

Compromised: However the segregated lanes on Melville St are to a good standard (albeit lumpy) but also the street is over-engineered. No need for a multi-lane exit for cars onto Queensferry St, complete with traffic light filter. A modal filter to remove through-traffic would...

Compromised: A modal filter to remove through-traffic would have sufficed on Melville St, along with removing the central parking. This would've simplified the junction with Queensferry avoiding the need for long waits for bikes, pedestrians (& cars) at the junction

Compromised: The Melville St/Queensferry junction gives very low priority to bikes, there is a long wait to cross. Why? Because cars have been given priority, including multiple lanes and signal filters on all approaches - massively overengineered, esp. given council ambitions...

...to reduce traffic by 30%. The cycle/pedestrian crossing on Palmerston Pl also has very long wait times - the council grovelling to great God of "traffic flow" again.

Congratulations: We should be grateful that @Edinburgh_CC managed to build anything at all. It's taken over a decade & multiple consultations to get this far.
Yet the climate crisis dictates that we do "everything, everywhere, all at once"

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