Pavement Survey 2

The pavements on Inveresk Road and Dalrymple Loan are at times so convoluted, banked and plagued by parked cars and vans that it makes walking along them a difficult experience for everyone. Pushchairs and mobility scooters have to deal with some rather excessively large inclines (for the benefit of the car users who park in adjacent driveways) which poses a real danger next to this busy road.
This is a common daily sight:

For some reason van drivers seem to think it is preferable to block the passage of mobility scooters and prams etc than hinder the traffic on the road. The police are aware of this problem but rarely take action. The forthcoming legislation at the Scottish Parliament which will outlaw this selfish behaviour seems to be sufficient for the police to turn a blind eye.






Another of many:

On this occasion I was given he rather curt response of 'We're only going to be here for a few minutes', which is the standard response in this procedure. An hour later they may pack up and leave only for another vehicle to arrive.
This one was so tightly parked that no buggy or pram could navigate through. Van drivers seem hardened to the pleas of pushchair and mobility scooter users. They don't budge and get aggressive and paranoid.






But the worst aspect of this section of pavement is the weekly, or at worst twice weekly dancing with the wheelie bins: you know, the bit where you have to shoogle and shimmy with the bins to get them out of your way and resume your journey along the pavement.
At its worst, even with optimal bin placement - an art not yet fully mastered by the binmen, there was only 62cm of useable pavement which is barely the width of a standard adult male.
Now imagine having to walk along a convoluted, inclined pavement lined with poorly placed bins next to a road that carries 5,500 cars a day with two small children tagging along - maybe also pushing a buggy and you get a sense of the sheer level of cynical neglect that seems to be embedded in the transport department.
These are trunk road levels of traffic slicing through densely populated residential streets containing two major schools and a sheltered housing complex.
All demands for pedestrian crossings, traffic calming and every other kind of safety feature have been denied by a council all too aware of the inherent problems that have existed for decades. The council, in their obsession to keep the traffic flowing, have ignored all demands for a safer street ( Dalrymple and Inveresk) in order to allow a convenient route into Edinburgh for the residents of Tranent, Haddington, Gullane, Port Seton etc who can't be bothered using the A1.

Here are some sample pavement sections taken on bin days:

Inveresk Road (South Section)
                                                              Width Of Pavement        Useable Pavement


Outside entrance to 130A-L                        143cm                               80cm
Outside entrance to 130K-P                        150cm                               80cm
Outside 100 Inveresk Road                         155cm                               85cm
Outside 138 Inveresk Road                         150cm                               80cm

There seems to be  consistent pavement width with an optimum of between 80 and 85cm of useable pavement space: in practice it is usually much smaller.

Outside entrance to 130 K-P. See the bad junctions post.













Inveresk Road (North Section)
                                                             Width Of Pavement             Useable Pavement

Outside entrance to 121                              134cm                                  62cm
Outside 95 Inveresk Road                          150cm                                  80cm
Outside 93 Inveresk Road                          138cm                                  68cm

This section of pavement leads from the junction of Dalrymple Loan towards Newbiggin. It is the narrowest, most dismal stretch of pavement and one where pedestrians are most vulnerable.

 
Outside entrance to 121 Inveresk Road

                                                         
Outside entrance to 121 Inveresk Road looking east towards Newbiggin. this is the narrowest section of pavement. there are 5,500 cars ply down this section of road every day. There has been absolutely no concession towards pedestrian safety.







Dalrymple Loan (East Section)
                                                              Width Of Pavement        Useable Pavement

Outside 30 Dalrymple Loan                         146cm                            80cm
Outside 20 Dalrymple Loan                         146cm                            80cm
Outside 18 Dalrymple Loan                         136cm                            60cm

This southern section of Dalrymple Loan is the most deceptive not because the pavements are a whopping 136cm (reduced to 60 cm with wheelie bins) but because cars reach their optimal speed before having to brake for the corner. this makes it a rather more dangerous place to cross with children.

There are signs here, invisible to pedestrians but visible to drivers, which read 'Please Speed'.










Dalrymple Loan (West Section)
                                                              Width Of Pavement        Useable Pavement

Length of road.                                            155cm                            85cm

The west side of Dalrymple is the most consistent in terms of width with little variation.
Car drivers tend to be at their fastest on Dalrymple. There is nothing in the way of them other than pedestrians who dare to cross.


The widths of  Inveresk Road and Dalrymple Loan tend to exceed the 6.2m I measured roughly outside 95 Inveresk Road which was the narrowest I could find. Measuring the widths of these roads is a job fraught with difficulty. The random sample I did on both Inveresk Road and Dalrymple Loan tended to be around 6.5m.