Top of the bonkers bike lanes - John McLellan

For all Edinburgh Council’s enthusiasm for cycling projects, it’s quite an achievement for the world’s top ten worst bike lanes, according to the “Discerning Cyclist” website, to include three from Edinburgh.

Cycle lane on Leith Walk, full of twists and turns.

​Top is the insane Leith Walk chicane, which must surely become a tourist attraction, a real-life Grand Theft Auto with scoring for near misses with pedestrians. At night you can rack up points faster than a second-half Welsh rugby recovery.

That was no mistake, but now the repair men are out in Melville Street to fix the still incomplete Roseburn-Picardy Place cycleway. All part of normal snagging says the council, all part of the usual incompetence and shoddy workmanship say local residents.

Well, what do we expect for £19.4m, given the council’s track record on transport projects? And it’s not the only issue; cycling from Corstorphine Road there’s no obvious way onto the segregated route at Roseburn Terrace, so bikers can end up pedalling alongside the bike lane, much to the irritation of already irritated drivers.

Then there’s the £12.5m Roseburn-Union Canal link, which doesn’t have dropped kerbs on Russell Road, so like Roseburn Terrace you quickly find yourself cycling alongside the bike lane. And instead of proper dropped kerbs at Sauchiebank there are just mounds of tar which you can’t see in the dark.

And now the Lib Dems are on a voter data skimming exercise, gathering names for a petition to save the Roseburn Path from the tram extension. Nothing a few million quid can’t solve, and that’ll just be the snagging.