🚲 edi.bike | 11th Sep '23
Ask not for whom the bell dings...
👋🏼 Hello! We’ve had a huge surge in subscribers this week, welcome! Many thanks to Michael and his wonderful daily read The Edinburgh Minute for the link last week :)
💫 News this Week
☕ Oli shared that local bike shop BikeTrax have just opened their new cafe at Lochrin Basin - mentioning that “it has a terrace that gets full sun all day” - worth checking out when heading along the canal;
🍕 Sophie got in touch about parking at the Omni Centre’s new Street Food area:
I'm encouraging other people to email Edinburgh Street Food to ask them to add more bike racks for their customers. Since they opened the Omni bike racks are frequently full in the evenings and weekends which is great to see but also means there's nowhere to tie up bikes! All the railings down the steps have bikes attached to them too which is obviously not ideal for accessibility.
This seems like a great idea – especially with the venue’s popularity already causing parking and access issues – so if you feel you can, why not email events@edinburgh-street-food.com and copy in info@omni-centre.co.uk on your message;
💡Porty Community Energy (lots of posts on FB too) have opened their ‘Porty Active Travel Hub’ in Portobello for general conversations about active travel, local bike routes and seeing their library of electric cargo bikes for hire - check out their opening hours;
🚸 Bike Station recently made the news having opened a ‘Wee bike library’ in Gorgie with the excellent aim of reducing barriers for kids getting into cycling.
🛣 Road and Route Closures
Major resurfacing works on Regent Rd, Waterloo Pl and Princes St lasts around 7 more weeks;
Some disruption around Haymarket train station for works relating to the new segregated West-East Link route (‘CCWEL’); from the 18th more substantial resurfacing works of Haymarket Yards junction and some of the A8, running overnight from 7.30pm to 5am until 22nd Sep;
Avoid Braidburn Terrace at the end of the Greenbank-Meadows Quiet Route while the new pedestrian and cycle realm enhancement works are underway with overnight closures of Comiston Rd coming later in the project including bus diversions;
Morrison St has a Westbound lane closure from Dewar Place to Grove Street until Weds 13th for cabling works;
Rolling road closures on Saturday 16th for a climate protest march (specifically, protesting plans for the Rosebank oil field near Shetland) : starts 11.30am and follows route the Mound - Hanover Street - George Street - South St David Street - Princes Street - Waverley Bridge - Market Street - New Street - Canongate - Scottish Parliament.
As always new information available from the Council’s Road reports page as the week progresses and via @edintravel on “X” - like Twitter, but owned by a bam™
🌈 Infrastructure Progress & Consultations
⌛ The City of Edinburgh Council's refreshed 20 minute neighbourhood strategy [PDF] is now online - “These updates show different examples how the 20-minute neighbourhood concept is currently being embedded into key projects across the city”;
⚡ The ‘controversial’ measures to reduce non-resident through-traffic and protect people walking and cycling through Whitehouse Loan and Braid Estate on the Greenbank-Meadows Quiet Route have seen an important consultation open to take in public opinion ahead of the further ETRO process next year - if you use the quiet route or live in the adjoining areas please do make your voice heard. Blackford Safe Routes has a good review of the options or you can go straight to the consultation which runs until Oct 22nd.
📣 Elsewhere in the city Spokes Porty are calling on folks who use Brunstane Rd to respond by email regarding orders TRO/23/14 and RSO/23/15 which are listed here by Friday 15th, which in tandem call for one-way streets and filters in the area to discourage non-resident through-traffic and allow for safer cycling and walking;
🎤 Thursday 14th sees the Council’s Transport and Environment committee meeting, with items on the agenda including a compulsory land purchase to facilitate the Roseburn - Canal link and some process issues around the aforementioned Greenbank - Meadows Quiet Route consultation options.
Ongoing…
🏴 Last week we linked to ‘Transform Scotland’ – Scotland’s alliance for sustainable transport – having recently published Off Track (PDF), “A review of the Government’s performance on its sustainable transport commitments”.
📆 Events and Happenings
🌴 This Saturday 16th Sep, Porty Bikefest offers test rides of e-cargo bikes and unusual cycles, a bike health check and much more in a fun, closed-road environment in Portobello;
💛 Local Bike Shop Hart’s Cyclery in Corstorphine are celebrating their 10th anniversary on Sep 23rd with 23% (or more) off everything in the store (excluding workshop, 23rd only) as well as a ride out the evening before;
🌎 The global ‘Cycle September’ campaign is ongoing - register your workplace, track your rides and encourage others to get on their bikes!
From Previous Episodes…
🏴 26th Oct sees the Cycling Scotland Conference 2023 at Pollock Halls.
🏙 Rogue Weegie News Corner
Ok, so it’s not Edinburgh - but this article about Amazon rolling out electric courier cycles across Glasgow city center is interesting to think about… Can they use bike lanes? How many wheels can you stick on something and still be happy to call it a bike? Surely they’re not as fast or friendly as Edinburgh legends of cargo Farr Out :)
Many thanks and ride safe! 🚲
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