🚲 edi.bike | issue 45 | 17th Jun '24
your weekly edinburgh cycling digest
📰 News this Week
💸 “So much money spent, so little achieved” - Merchiston Community Council on Polwarth renovations
Background from last issue:
A 68,000 vehicles-per-week mini-roundabout described by locals as a ‘terrifying rat-run’ — at the junction of Polwarth Gardens / Terrace and Granville Terrace — has been resurfaced and repaintedx with zero new affordances or improvements for walking, wheeling and cycling users.
Merchiston Community Council have published a fairly damning post about the opportunities missed, and lack of engagement or consultation with residents and other stakeholders - arguably the whole purpose of Community Council bodies:
"The City Council decided to press ahead with this work, at substantial expense, despite pleas from Merchiston Community Council to delay the work at the roundabout while further consideration was given to our proposals for more radical and lasting improvements. The Council refused our request.
So, the net result will be smoother pavements, plus one new lamp-post.”
📈 Another new record set as 2,107 cycles pass the Leith Walk cycle counter in a day
Cycling Scotland shared an article: “Edinburgh the latest city to see record number of people travelling by bike”;
“In addition, a survey organised by Cycling Scotland to monitor traffic over a 48-hour period between 15th and 16th May, recorded that bikes accounted for 9.1% of all journeys on Leith Walk: a level of modal share rarely seen in Scotland. On the other side of the city centre, Melville Street also recorded a high cycling modal share of 6.4%. The number of cycling journeys in Edinburgh is up 12% compared to May 2023, and up 19% compared to May 2022.”
Edward Tissiman followed up on X with note of a recent new record for the Leith Walk cycle counter near the Omni - of 2,107 cycles on the 30th May;
The article also features a great testimonial from Leith resident Elspeth, on the segregated cycleways:
“The separated cycle lanes have made my bike journeys so much more relaxed, and thanks to CCWEL, it’s now almost completely on separated cycle lanes. It means I can go whatever pace suits me without feeling rushed with traffic on my tail.”
The new data and testimonials were also covered by The Herald.
👨👩👧 ‘Davidson’s Mains parents call for council to speed up road safety improvements’
“The meeting was called after an Edinburgh child died on 1 March as he cycled to school. On the same day, there was a serious road incident involving a Davidson’s Main Primary School pupil.”
The NEN might have forgotten his name, but I haven’t. It was Thomas Wong, and rather than simply ‘ceasing to live while cycling’ as inferred by the motornormative prose in the article, he was hit by an HGV that really shouldn’t have been anywhere near him during school run hours - or at any time, for that matter.
If you can bear to read more about the council’s utter failure to act, peppered with mysterious references to ‘accidents’ and no mention of vehicles having drivers whatsoever, read on at North Edinburgh News.
🌆 Local Bits
🍻 If you missed the EdFoC discussion “Beer Bike Bust: outlaw bigger bikes, or embrace them?” - it’s now available to watch back on Youtube;
🗂️ The City of Edinburgh Council are hiring a Transport Officer in Programme Management for the Active Travel Team - Job Listing & Information »
📋 Ahead of the upcoming Transport & Environment Committee meeting on 20th June, the Business Bulletin has been published;
📸 Some great photos on X from the folks at Cycle Law Scotland of a recent evening ride with Vie Velox;
🚴🏼♀️ From Bikes for Refugees (Scotland):
CALLING SESSIONAL BIKE MECHANICS / SOLE TRADERS 🛠
We are updating our sessional workers database. We occasionally require mechanics on a sessional basis for short-term work/projects.
Please email your details & hourly/daily rates to:
admin@bikesforrefugees.scot
😮 Discovered this week - Ariel bikes, who hand-build their own beautiful Cargo bikes in the South of Scotland.
From Last Week:
🖍️ ERRATA - Credit for the excellent Edinburgh Festival of Cycling seminar ‘Can Cycling Make Transport Sustainable?’ was last week incorrectly attributed to one ‘Bernard Hill’, when the speaker was of course Dr Brendan Hill. The editor responsible has been duly fired, and replaced with an arguably similar looking chap but for glasses, a moustache and a slightly bigger nose that doesn’t seem to match the rest of his skin... Apologies to Brendan for the error.
’Roseburn to Union Canal’ opening delayed until Autumn;
Polwarth roundabout resurfaced and repainted with no new active travel affordances;
Edinburgh-based Cargo Bike Couriers Farr Out Deliveries have joined Zedify;
🎨 There’s an opportunity to sublet a studio space with the lovely folks at The Wee Spoke Hub, available from 19th June - see all the details on their Facebook post;
🛣 Route Closures and Issues
The Crawford Bridge - between Albion Ter and Bothwell St off Easter Rd - is closed as of today until the 30th of Augustx for refurbishment;
Updated - reopening delayed until 30th June: Argyle Place is closed northbound for sewer repairs by Scottish Water. As a knock-on from this work, the last 20m of South Meadow Walk footway and cycleway as approaching Argyle Place from the West is closed, with a diversion onto the Melville Drive footway and a bit of a mess at the segregated turning / crossing cycleway at the bottom of Middle Meadow Walk;
Melville St at Walker St has some partial closures of the CCWEL segregated lanes for major works as part of the public realm improvements that recently commenced and run until December this year.
➕ Nationally
🚌 From Jarlath Flynnx:
Karen O'Hare from the University of Strathclyde is carrying out a survey on bike bus participation in Scotland. Please consider completing this 5 minute survey if you are based in Scotland.
🙌🏼 Cycling UK have launched their new 2024-29 Strategy [PDF] with a rather lovely video intro;
🔎 ‘Essential Evidence 4 Scotland’ have released their issue No. 86: “Change in support before and after implementation of controversial measures” [PDF].
🌎 Elsewhere
📹 Compelling (if short) clip from Chris Bruntlettx, Director for International Relations of the Dutch Cycling Embassy:
“So what we’re finding is cycling is much more than just a tool for transportation. It’s transformational policymaking means to address a lot of the big challenges that cities are facing in the 21st century...” — Watchx »
🇨🇭 In Fribourg, Switzerland, a new bike lane increased cycling traffic 20% during weekdays.
Researchers found "a latent demand that has been triggered by an improvement in cycling infrastructure."
— David Zipperx on new study “Build it and they will come? The effects of a new infrastructure on cycling practices and experiences” /via SW20x
📆 Events and Happenings
✨ New This Week
🚺 This Thursday 20th June, 6pm – 8pm: ‘Women on Wheels’ at the Giant Store by Edinburgh Bike Coop:
Are you seeking a safe space to discuss cycling? Do you have unanswered questions about cycling? We have the perfect event for you.
Join us to chat about both the joys and challenges of being a woman in the cycling world, and gain knowledge (or share your expertise) on how to be a more confident cyclist. We're excited to introduce you to our Women on Wheels night—an event led by women, for women, non-binary and trans individuals.
🏳️🌈 Sunday 23rd June, 1.30pm - 4pm - The Wee Spoke Hub are having a community bike ride to celebrate Pride month:
We'll be meeting up on Guthrie Street before heading off on a circuit around Edinburgh. We will be prioritising low-traffic and cycle paths. The route includes some of the less-known paths in the city, a cycle along Porty prom and a journey along the innocent railway!
We're aiming to finish up at the Newington end of the Meadows for a picnic (weather permitting).
Dress-code: FABULOUS
Not ticketed - More information on Facebook »
🗣️ Friday 28th June, 6.30pm - 8.30pm: ‘Towpath Talk #6’ at Biketrax - the final talks before a wee summer break:
Cheryl completed her first triathlon in her 50s after encouragement from friends. Although she ran a lot and swam for pleasure, her biking skills left much to be desired. She found that with consistent training and better kit she was able to achieve her goals and, to her astonishment, now in her 60s she is qualified and races for the GB age group team. Her story is one of how to train to be competitive on a bike and of adapting her training for her age.
Helen and Mike met in January 2016 on Tinder where Mike said he really wanted to cycle around the world. Helen’s first message was “when are we leaving?”. Fifteen months later, they’d sold everything they owned, quit their jobs and were waving goodbye to family and friends to head off for a very long bike tour. After cycling through thirty countries on four continents over seventeen months and covering around thirty thousand kilometres, they arrived home with plenty of stories to tell.
Enjoy canapés included in the ticket price, with mocktails and drinks available from the cafe on the night. More info & Booking »
✊ Edinburgh Critical Mass is coming up on Saturday 29th June, 2pm Middle Meadow Walk; a fun, friendly and welcoming mass protest ride, with the route typically published a few days before to their Facebook, Mastodon, X and email list. Ever want to join the ride late, but not sure where it is? You can use Critical Maps - an anonymous location-sharing app for cyclists in critical mass events, aiding coordination through real-time map visualisation. Only one or two people need to use it from the start, so that others can see where the ride is.
📆 Upcoming / Ongoing
☕️ Active Travel Cafe is a national, weekly online active travel event; news, talks & discussion via Zoom on Tuesdays at 5pm. They’ve recently published a list of speakers for the next month or so.
🎭 Still a couple of events left on the EdFoC events calendar - be sure to get them in the diary:
🎭 Ride to the Sun - Carlisle Castle to Cramond Beach - Saturday 22nd June
🎭 A Quick Brown Fox – An Evening With Ayesha McGowan - Thursday 11th July
🌊 Porty Community Energy’s Sea Rising Festival is this Saturday, 22nd June:
On the 22nd June 2024 Porty Community Energy are organising a free music and environment festival on the promenade and beach in Portobello, Edinburgh (near the bottom of King's Road) between 1-6pm.
You can join us at the sea stage, to listen to the music with the waves lapping at your ankles, to be part of a chorus of voices, and dance in the water.
On dry land there will be another stage, where you can join in a ceilidh. Visit markets and workshops, and try out different bikes.
They’ve also recently posted about some of the excellent organisations you can expect to see there.
🏳️🌈 From The Wee Spoke Hub:
Join us for a special Bike DIY session with LEAP Sports Festival Fortnight, exclusively for the LGBTIQ+ community! Enjoy a fun evening of bike repairs led by and for our amazing community.
📅 Tuesday 25 June | 16:00 - 20:00 (staggered arrivals)
13 Guthrie Street, EH1 1JG🛠️ What to Expect:
⭐ Warm, well-lit space with bike stands
⭐ Wee Spoke Hub tools, spare parts, and expert help
⭐ Old clothes recommended (aprons & lab coats available)
⭐ Sign in, get matched with a volunteer, and dive into your bike repairs!Remember, patience is key as we rely on our fantastic volunteers. More Info & Booking »
Not part of the LGBTIQ+ community? Join us for our Thursday night Bike DIY sessions!🚴♂️🚴♀️
✊🏼 🎭 EdFoC | Ongoing - 'Pedal Power', a free exhibition on cycling and activism in Edinburgh, co-curated by Critical Mass Edinburgh, Infrasisters, Spokes and folks running Bike Buses across the city - at the Museum of Edinburgh running until the 22nd September.
Edinburgh Council archives — who recently launched the ‘Edinburgh 900’ project to celebrate 900 years since Edinburgh became a royal burgh — have also asked ‘Pedal Power’ to be part of the programme and will tour the exhibition around communities in Edinburgh after it finishes at the Museum of Edinburgh in September.
🔁 Weekly Events
⚡️ Porty Community Energy are trialling a weekly Wednesday evening advice drop-infb;
🛠️ Edinburgh Tool Library host a weekly Bike Kitchen providing 'tools, spare parts, and expertise' to 'learn, grow, and connect with others'; Open every Wednesday from 3pm.
✴️ Regular events on at The Wee Spoke Hub - follow their schedule here including a Bike DIY Session this Thursday 20th, 4pm - 8pm and ** Bike Puncture Repair Session: How to get rolling again** this Saturday 22nd, 11am - 1pm.
🫂 Help Needed
🚲 Help Fund a New Specialised Active Chair for Porty Community Energy Activist Roseanne Sinclair
Rosie has previously volunteered with Porty Community Energy’s Bikefest and Accessible Porty events, and is raising funds for a new specialised active chair and physiotherapy. If you can help, head on over to her campaign page!;
Ongoing:
🌊 Porty Community Energy crowdfunding their Sea Rising Festival;
🚴🏼 Friends of the Skelf bike park and pump track just off Holyrood Park are raising money currently;
🚌 Volunteer to help marshal a local school Bike Bus - see the Bike Bus Hub Directory;
🙋 Sustrans seek volunteers for their ‘I Bike’ school programme: teaching kids, maintaining a bike fleet or marshalling rides with pupils;
🗨️ Spokes are in need of new members for their Planning and Resources groups;
🤝 SW20 are a Co-op Local Community Fund Cause - support them via this page;
🆘 Support Bikes for Refugees with an SMS donation 🐦or on EasyDonate;
🌈 Infrastructure Progress & Consultations
🙃 ‘Roseburn to Union Canal Fountainpark, actually’
At the last Transport & Environment Committee meeting in May, Independent Councillor Ross McKenzie brought a Motion regarding the £17m ‘Roseburn to Union Canal’ link project, asking for:
A project update, as it was clear work would not conclude by July (the project was subsequently updated to finish in August, and latterly ‘Autumn’);
That temporary measures be considered to actually link the new path and park route to the actual canal as currently it gives up at Dundee St, where another programme of Active Travel infrastructure - the “Fountainbridge/Dundee Street active travel project” - slated for ‘early-mid 2026’ takes over for the last leg to the canal.
Cllr McKenzie shared on X that page 14 of the Business Bulletin for Thursday’s June TEC Meeting [PDF] contains a lengthy response to the original motion - summarised as:
The pithily-named ‘Fountainbridge/Dundee Street Active Travel Project’ was originally intended to be designed in parallel with the ‘Roseburn to Union Canal’ venture, so that construction on it could quickly follow the completion of the major new link;
The introduction of an experimental Covid-era ‘Travelling Safely’ scheme along Fountainbridge / Dundee St meant a need to consult for two six-month periods in relation to the Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETRO) required, and as such it hasn’t been possible to go ahead with the work on a permanent design nor the required statutory orders;
It is argued that the current temporary segregated cycleways are sufficient for travel to / from Gibson Terrace, and that the major changes proposed by the full project — adding a Toucan crossing over Dundee St at Gibson Ter, along with significant changes to that junction — are not really feasible to carry out using temporary materials.
This may or may not be debated further at Thursday’s TEC. The response also mentions the potential addition of direction signage to help folks emerging from the Telfer Subway find their way to the much rumoured ‘canal’ the project supposedly links to. Fairly certain none of that will feature in the photo opportunity when the ‘Roseburn to Fountainpark, actually’ route eventually gets its ribbon-cutting ceremony.
✍🏽 ‘Spaces for People’ Lanes in East of Edinburgh - ETRO
This ‘East Area’ Experimental Traffic Order (ETRO/21/28A) covers a number of Covid-era parking suspensions used to facilitate bollarded cycle lanes around London Rd, Willowbrae and Duddingston, including cycle routes used by school pupils, teachers and parents to and from multiple primary and secondary schools. It is currently open for comments until 28th October by emailing TRO.Consultations@edinburgh.gov.uk quoting ETRO/21/28A.
🐳 Connecting Granton Waterfront
A new Granton-focused consultation running until Tuesday 16th July. From the project’s Consultation Hub:
This project proposes a network of safe and well-connected routes as part of a walking, wheeling and cycling network for Granton Waterfront. Our ideas have been designed to make walking, wheeling and cycling safer and easier through the new and existing areas of the neighbourhood. The proposals include wider pavements, better cycling provision, placemaking improvements including new and improved landscaping and upgrades to key crossing points and junctions on the following routes:
Forthquarter Park
Waterfront Broadway
Waterfront Park
Waterfront Avenue
West Shore Road
The Promenade
View the Community Engagement Portal and give feedback via the Survey.
There is also the opportunity to attend a public drop-in event at Granton Station, Station Square, Waterfront Broadway, Edinburgh EH5 1FU; this Thursday 13th June 2024 3pm - 7pm, or Sunday 16th June 2024 from 10am to 2pm.
🏖️ Brunstane and Portobello
‘Edinburgh roads: 'Radical changes' on way for Portobello High Street and Brighton Place’ in The Evening News;
The ETRO scheme closing Brunstane Rd to motorised traffic has been made permanent.
🌳 Meadows to George Street
✍🏽 Detailed Design Documents: - 📄 Teviot Place, Forrest Road, Bristo Place [PDF] - 📄 Forrest Road, Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge [PDF] - 📄 George IV Bridge, The Royal Mile and Bank Street [PDF] - 📄 North Bank Street and the Mound [PDF] - 📄 The Mound, Princes Street and Hanover Street [PDF] - 📄 Market Street [PDF]
⚓️ 'Signs of lifex' - 241 days of planned cycleway construction works starting some time between late Summer and Autumn this year - on the 'Foot of the Walk to Ocean Terminal' protected cycle route as part of Leith Connections, which promises to be a great continuation of the segregated routes slowly taking root in the city centre;
🚴🏼♀️ Nearby Midlothian Council have launched ‘On the Move Midlothian: Our Active Travel Strategy for Everyone’, consisting of two parallel consultations on Active Travel (one of which has now closed) and also wider transport concerns across their council area:
The active travel draft strategy, which includes measurable and achievable targets, focuses on making Midlothian a place where getting around in a way that makes you physically active, such as walking and wheeling, will be an easy, convenient, cheap and realistic option for all.
📄 You can view the draft strategy online [PDF].
Deadline of 22nd July for the 'Active Travel Survey'.
👁️🗨️ The Dalry Living Well Locally consultation runs until 26th June:
Thanks for reading - ride safe 🚲
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