Traffic cones have learned a new trick

tardington
tardington Posts: 1,379
edited February 2009 in Commuting chat
They've started tieing them together with rope here in Edinburgh! No more short cuts through the vast plains of non-moving cars. Pfft.

Pain in the arse, given the sheer volume of tram-related roadworks we have. :evil:

Comments

  • chuckcork
    chuckcork Posts: 1,471
    What can I say?

    When poorly positioned traffic cones on my commute home last year made the going decidedly dangerous, I would amend things by picking one or two transgressors up and hurling it a good distance.

    No idea what the road works guys though but after a few days I did get my route through, perhaps you could simply take a pair of scissors to the rope?
    'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze....
  • chuckcork wrote:
    What can I say?

    When poorly positioned traffic cones on my commute home last year made the going decidedly dangerous, I would amend things by picking one or two transgressors up and hurling it a good distance.

    No idea what the road works guys though but after a few days I did get my route through, perhaps you could simply take a pair of scissors to the rope?

    years ago my route to work, (by car) was up a old 3 lane road which has narrow lanes so during the night the lorries would scatter the cones, so at 5am you'd have a devil of job working out which lane they wanted you to be in...
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    The bigger ones make a good job of stopping your handlebars as I found out to my cost :x
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • tardington
    tardington Posts: 1,379
    When they put them right next to each other? Annoying! And it's purely aimed at cyclists (I reckon)

    The rope is a sneaky trick though - it's always blue stuff you'd never see at night. :evil:
  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    TRam works, what tram works?

    Once again Civil Servants fail to write a proper contract to make sure that when companies put their tender in they get stuck with the price.
    Do Nellyphants count?

    Commuter: FCN 9
    Cheapo Roadie: FCN 5
    Off Road: FCN 11

    +1 when I don't get round to shaving for x days
  • tardington
    tardington Posts: 1,379
    Heh, you noticed? I also noticed that although Princes Street has an entire unblocked lane, you can't just whizz along it on your bike. STRING! :evil:
  • croggy
    croggy Posts: 116
    Last summer a road near me was coned off,no through traffic but passable for bikes.Everyday for about 3 weeks at 3pm a commuter went through the cones at about 20mph until one day when someone had joined the cones with blue rope.He hit the rope taking 4 cones out and crashing into a metal mesh barrier.The result was concussion,a broken arm and lots of road-rash.
  • I think this is a particular issue with the tram works. In theory, VERY deep holes many yards long. Also, they are removing and inserting a considerable amount of materials and require access. I'm not sure bikes have a place in that inside lane.

    Are they going a bit over the top with quite the extent of any given road blocked off at one time? Erm... yes.

    This morning, coming into the shandwick place end of town, up lothian road was the safest its been for months though. It was the most dangerous conceivable piece of road for bikes, with 2 lanes of busses, each trying to cross the other, taxis and trucks trying to squeeze into the one remaining lane, and cars nipping in and out. I was about to contact the person responsible for road safety and as if the 13 pedestrians (or whatever number it was) who have been hit by busses coming along what appear to be coned off lanes should be added to. However now that Princes street is closed it was virtually empty.

    I guess this means that there is some lethal traffic flow somewhere else now.
  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    not more likely to stop peds getting run over.....

    there have been 3 or 4 people run over on princes street since the road works began...
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.