🚲 edi.bike | 16th Oct ‘23
ccwel well well, what have we here?
Hi friends, and welcome to the tenth edition of edi.bike weekly. This is a digest of cycling-adjacent happenings from Edinburgh - the home of that vital bike maintenance lubricant, ‘chippy sauce’ 🤎
📰 News this Week
🏰 Locally
🎉 If you ever take the Water of Leith cycle path as it heads through Saughton Park, you might be interested to know the cafe there has been opened again by anti-homelessness Charity Foursquare;
📸 Great to see a wee update this week from the Bike Bus to Corstorphine Primary School.
💬 Edinburgh Council’s Transport & Environment Committee - notes from Oct 12th Meeting
The Transport and Environment Committee meets regularly and a lot of its activity touches on cycling or cycling-adjacent projects and decisions. Our highlights are below, you can also read the meeting’s paperwork (or watch the webcast for the full session). Here’s the parts that jumped out to us:
🚶 There will be a ‘one day per week’ trial of pedestrianising Elm Row in response to a petition about the space;
👁️🗨️ Regarding the George Street and First New Town project - confirmation that stakeholder groups such as Spokes and Living Streets Edinburgh will be involved in the engagement of businesses and residents regarding the plans;
🚗 Progress on the 2030 goal of a 30% reduction in kilometres travelled by car continues, but based on current progress other measures will need to be considered. Budget should be available from the Scottish Government for e.g. bus prioritisation measures, helping the bus network run faster and become a more attractive alternative to driving; but further automotive disincentives may need to follow to achieve the goal of ‘modal shift’ to bring about this reduction via an increase in walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport use;
💚 Cllr Chas Booth mentioned that feedback from constituents in the Leith Low-traffic Neighbourhood schemes has been overwhelmingly positive - even from residents who didn’t expect to benefit prior to the commencement of the trials - and he testified to the huge difference a simple modal filter can make to an area. This was in the context of a new works programme entitled ‘Local Traffic Improvement Programme’, and the suggestion seemed to be that modal filters should be considered as an effective tool in that context also;
🌆 Councillors discussed the actions around the City Mobility Plan (‘CMP’) following recent consultation and market research:
👥 Responses to consultations tend to self-select respondents - folks with the time, inclination and opportunity to fill them out, meaning that there are often somewhat biased results that over-represent particular population groups (and demographic information is usually captured alongside responses, to measure this). To help even this out, market research is often conducted across an intentionally broader cross-section of the city’s population to ensure there is a clearer understanding of public will than from consultation alone;
➕ Looking across consultation and market research responses regarding the CMP, public views are largely positive - which is a great boost to the work of implementing its moving parts with a fresh mandate. Somewhat unsurprisingly, certain councillors who don’t like the results went on to side-eye the consultation process’s wording, methodology and validation and expressed a concern that none of the stakeholder organisations involved were pro-car (wOn’t soMeboDy thiNk of the dRiveRs!) when in fact the organisations approached as representatives of the pro-car lobby did not respond to the request to take part.
🔴 20mph zones were discussed - we found it interesting to note here that the threshold for council officers to look into additional measures to reduce speed in these zones is excesses of 24-28mph before moving from signage and road marking into more intrusive measures. 86% of Edinburgh’s roads are now 20mph limits, and in spite of some pretty wild factual flailing around in this session the increase to journey times – when actually measured rather than simply fretted about – tends to be quite low and actually results in less emissions and fuel consumption rather than more;
🌳 Regarding the consultation on the future of Holyrood park, this was broadly welcomed by the committee. Cycling without Age and the use of trishaws for park access both got a mention, and an excellent quote shared from Cllr Aston – “if we didn’t already have these roads in place, would we be talking about building them now?”
🚦 Also mentioned was the possibility of introducing traffic light technology that will turn red if an approaching motorist has exceed the speed limit, rewarding better motorist driving behaviours - which council officers will look to report back to the committee on in March.
For a bit more detail, Spokes have a great round-up thread over on X.
🏴 Nationally
⏱️ The Scottish Roadworks Commissioner thinks that roadworks should factor in keeping cycle lanes and walkways open even if it delays other traffic. We think we’d agree, but also think nationally-funded conversations about how we move around shouldn’t be behind a Scotsman paywall;
🏭 Stop Climate Chaos Scotland has published a Climate Manifesto, “highlighting over 100 positive actions that governments should take to accelerate action to reduce Scotland’s contribution to the climate emergency, whilst securing sustainable jobs, improving health and wellbeing, and reducing inequality.”
🤔 Help Needed
⚙️ The brilliant folks over at Cargo Bike Movement – “shifting hearts, minds & other stuff by cargo bike - for fairer, greener, healthier communities” – are looking for new trustees;
☸️ Lothian campaign stalwarts Spokes are in need of new members for their Planning and Resources groups, which meet monthly online and have lost some regular members in the past few years - and without support the vital work that Spokes’ undertakes may be somewhat hindered, as a lot of its activity is in those areas;
📣 As mentioned last week, Cycling UK in Scotland’s Scottish Advisory Committee is looking for new members, and excellent local org Edinburgh Festival of Cycling have put out a call for new volunteers and additional directors.
Previously…
🔍 Please keep an eye out for this recently stolen Mycle longtail electric cargo bike and additionally The Wee Spoke Hub’s cargo bike that was stolen in the last month or so.
🛠Edinburgh Tool Library continue to seek donations of unused bike tools – get in touch.
🛣 Road Closures and Route Issues
🫠 A disappointing but worthwhile thread from Andy Arthur on X regarding the various ways in which the Picardy Place gyratory is still not passable by cycle in spite of being ‘open’. One wild idea seemingly cropping up repeatedly in the area is ‘how about not installing things in the middle of brand new cycle paths’, along with ‘don’t publicise the opening of a thing still wrought with fenced off parts’. More firebrand notions as they occur;
🏃🏼Ongoing, Buccleuch Street at Gifford Park is gaining a crossing upgrade which will involve some lane closures and temporary crossing facilities, should finish up this week;
💡 Beginning today and running until March, a programme of footway works and street lighting renewal on Polwarth Gdns, involving lane closures and parking restrictions. Polwarth Pl, Polwarth Pk, Harden Pl and Mertoun Pl will be closed as work progresses;
⛏️ CCWEL-adjacent works on Charlotte Sq and North / South Charlotte St commence today and run until March 2024:
Phase 1 - nightshift closures of North AND South Charlotte Street, 7.30pm - 6.30am each weeknight until 3rd Nov approximately;
Phase 2 from 6th Nov until 23rd Nov - daytime closure of Charlotte Square north side;
Phase 3 from 8th Jan ‘24 - daytime lane closures on Charlotte Square east side, North and South Charlotte Street, daytime closures of Charlotte Square south and west sides.
⚒ For the next fortnight work continues on Roseburn Pl at Roseburn St with raised table repairs relating to the CCWEL route.
Still ongoing…
⛏ City centre resurfacing works on Regent Rd, Waterloo Pl and Princes St should last approximately another 2 weeks;
💧 9-month programme of Scottish Water drainage improvement work on Longstone Rd;
❌ Braidburn Terrace closed (dismount to pass via pavement) 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;
Ongoing updates on the Council’s Road reports page as the week unfolds and via @edintravel on “X” - There’s Better Places but Let’s Stay Here, The Trash Fire is Warm™
🌈 Infrastructure Progress & Consultations
⬆️ Recent improvements to Brunswick Rd include, amongst other measures, a contraflow cycle lane with segregation measures at pinch points;
⚠️ The Greenbank to Meadows Quiet Route open consultation continues; and was very well summarised and justly criticised by Green Party Councillor Ben Parker here. Please do respond to the consultation if you are able to and feel it’s relevant to your journeys or residence - closes this week on 22nd October;
⛰️ Also ongoing is the aforementioned consultation on the future of Holyrood Pk – including key aims favouring active travel over vehicular access – available to respond to until 19th December.
📆 Events and Happenings
👶🏼 Balance Bike classes for under-6s at Bridgend Farmhouse on Saturday mornings - two classes (10am and 11am) available and run for 6 week blocks from 4th Nov ‘23 and Feb 17th ‘24; run by A Wee Pedal who also do excellent beginner cycle coaching for all ages (3.5yo to 60+!);
🔧 Also at Bridgend Farmhouse — the last of this season’s Basic Bike Maintenance Sessions 10am til 12pm Friday 27th Oct, £5 donation. Borrow a bike or bring your own;
🌈 Jorvik Tricycles of York are hosting a free ‘Try-cycle’ test of their wares, at The Pavilion at the Royal Highland Centre on Friday 20th [10am - 4pm] & Saturday 21st Oct [10am - 3pm];
🍂If you or someone you know is considering starting cycling this autumn, the team at Porty Community Energy are offering free cycle training with classes for absolute beginners, on-road riding and family cycling;
🏴 26th Oct sees the Cycling Scotland Conference 2023 at Pollock Halls.
✊ 28th Oct - as always, meeting 2pm last Saturday of every month - is the (presumably spooky!) Critical Mass Edinburgh protest/mass group ride, route announced a few days before;
Thanks for reading - ride safe and have fun doing so :) 🚲
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