Bad Junctions Parts 1 to 3

Junction 1: Newbiggin and Inveresk Road

Junction of Newbiggin and Inveresk Road

This junction just a minutes walk from Musselburgh Grammar School's entrance is staggering inept:
a wide compound radius curve which gives buses a smooth corner also allows motorists to take this corner too fast. Pedestrians take their lives in their hands to cross here. There is rarely a quiet moment with which to cross. The photo above shows the view from the west side of the crossing which is akin to a chicken run. Given that there is no bus service that runs along Inveresk Road, the corner on the west side of this junction is unreasonably wide.
Hundreds of school pupils use this junction each day.

The view at the pedestrian crossing point  is
very limited on the east side. Car drivers aren't under any obligation to slow down due to the wide turning radius. There is a pedestrian crossing at the junction of Newbiggin and Pinkie Road but this is not useable if you are travelling along the south side of Inveresk Road towards Pinkie.













Addendum: Sports Centre Car Park Entrance

Sports Centre Car Park Entrance

This inept piece of engineering I think summarises the indifference of  the road designers to pedestrians. When I write indifference I am being kind.
This is outside a major school and all those crossing this entrance step blindly out into the road. I have witnessed so many near misses here. There is a bus stop and the road here widens to accommodate it: this allows cars to turn into this entrance from the Newbiggin Brae direction at speed. All-round vigilance is a requirement here.

View from car park

The designers of this junction have done a marvelous job in creating a blind junction when exiting the car park. There is no visibility either to the left or the right.











Junction 2: Dalrymple Loan and Inveresk Road

Junction of Dalrymple Loan and Inveresk Road Looking South

This junction rates highly on the ineptitude scale: there are so many levels of almost gratuitous design neglect and incompetence that I could write an essay on it.
Here is a list:

1. when turning right from Dalrymple Loan into the west section of Inveresk Road you do so blindly. 
2. cars turning north from Inveresk Road into Dalrymple Loan always cross the white lines and do so with limited vision of oncoming traffic. I am a cyclist and turning right (as above) has resulted in many near misses with every complaint to the police resulting in abject apathy.
3. the crossing connecting the south west end of Dalrymple Loan with the pavement outside the entrance to 130K-L Inveresk Road (basically follow the double lines you see in the composite image above) is excessively and unnecessarily wide. Many schoolchildren cross here in the lunchtime run to The Caprice for their daily intake of lard and carbohydrates.
4. cars travelling to the west end (Tesco's end) of Inveresk Road to park will not indicate or slow down creating a danger for any pedestrian. A child was recently injured here which prompted the council to act and install bollards outside of school Lane to raise visibility for pedestrians and motorists: note the council did not act to reduce the speed of motorists, the volume of traffic or provide a pedestrian crossing, they merely gave pedestrians the better chance to observe the speeding cars. 
5. speeding cars heading towards Tescos along the west section of Inveresk Road from the junction of Dalrymple Loan hit a narrow point below the tree creating a danger area outside school lane
6. cars travelling southwards on Dalrymple Loan invariably will take the corner too fast resulting in the incessant destruction of the walls outside number 100 Inveresk Road.
7. crossing this junction in any of the possible permutations is dangerous (see the gentleman crossing in the composite image below). Sometimes the road is safest when there is a log jam.

Junction of Dalrymple Loan and Inveresk Road Looking East and North

 Traffic backing up onto Pinkie Road is now increasingly common.

 Junction 3: Dalrymple Loan and The High St.

Junction Of Dalrymple Loan and The High St.

This junction features on my list as it summarises everything that is wrong with the road transport policy. This junction represents the complete capitulation to the weight of traffic coming through Musselburgh. It has been designed to minimise standing traffic at the High St. (due to pollution concerns) and has resulted in the caging-in of pedestrians on all sides and the danger of staggered pedestrian crossings where traffic is halted on one side of the road and travelling at full speed on the other. I have witnessed many near misses at these staggered junctions.
And this is going to get worse.

The corner here at The Caprice is too small.
Priority (as always) is given to the car and when just two or three pedestrians congregate here waiting to cross, the pavement gets blocked forcing other pedestrians to walk out onto the road and around the corner.
Children spill out onto the road at lunchtime when queuing for their chips, luckily cars are slowing down or stopped by this stage when travelling towards the high St.

A Typical View On Any Day