🚲 edi.bike | issue 49 | 15th Jul ‘24
your weekly edinburgh cycling digest
📰 News this Week
📗 Edinburgh’s ‘City Plan 2030’ Emerges
“City Plan 2030 is our Local Development Plan for Edinburgh for the period 2024-2034. A Local Development Plan protects places of value, sets out locations for new homes and businesses, and ensures essentials for a good quality of life are in place - such as public transport, active travel, schools, healthcare and green space.”
While the 216-page plan [PDF] has a broader focus than solely transport, there are of course some really interesting goals and ambitions within it - including a 2030 outcome of being “A city where you don’t need to own a car to move around”, and a good deal of mentions of Active Travel. Page 29 asserts the plan ”…aligns with and assists in the delivery of the City Mobility Plan’s commitment to make Edinburgh a city that welcomes everyone, where the streets are for people not cars, and with accessible and pleasant places to safely walk, wheel and cycle around.”
Sounds great - if the pace of investment and change is significantly increased to actually get this done in a mere decade, or ‘one CCWEL’ in campaign years…
👩⚖️ Scott Arthur Confirms a New TEC Convenor is Coming
Following news last week of the council’s Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) Convenor – Cllr Scott Arthur – being elected as the new MP for Edinburgh South West, it was confirmed this week that he will step down from his role as Councillor and Convenorship ‘after summer’. The delay seems intended to avoid triggering the necessary ward by-election so soon after the General Election - behind the scenes, we’re sure this also buys valuable time for the Labour Group to find the next Convenor for TEC;
Local Bits
📙 A book recommendation on X this week from Critical Mass Edinburgh - ‘Movement: how to take back our streets and transform our lives’;
⛔️ Ahead of the Edinburgh Festivals kicking off, the Council have announced a pile of timed full or partial road closures - including High St, St Giles St, Parliament Square(s), Cockburn St, Blair St, Lawnmarket, and Johnston Ter;
⚒️ Spokes shared [x] the project page for a partial resurfacing of Lasswade Rd that includes a stretch of segregated cycle lane at each side, close to Gracemount High School. This looks to be following the ‘capital maintenance’ playbook previously employed for resurfacing works including active travel measures on London Rd and Holyrood Rd, wherein we don’t spend an extra year worrying about how life will adapt to slightly less private car parking, and just get on with building in an appropriate share of road space. While this is welcome - and Spokes’ response makes mention of various interesting aspects and suggests changes - one can’t help but notice the mere fraction of the overall project actually gaining any cycle infrastructure, and might wonder how a real joined-up cycle network will emerge in the coming decades if the Council continues to only build in a third of what’s needed for every stretch of road they tackle;
From Last Week:
- ‘Chasing Rainbows’ bikepacking video [8mins];
- Bikes for Refugees CEO interviewed for this article at healthandcare.scot;
- Why Edinburgh needs a congestion charge by SW20 over on Thread Reader
🐘 Active Travel on the Fediverse
If you have an interest in Active Travel social media, particularly in Edinburgh / Scotland / UK, and encouraging folks to shift to friendlier climes than X - along with experience of Mastodon, Federation in general, or online community - consider sending over your email using our submissions form or pinging @edi.bike@mastodon.scot as there’s been some rumblings and it would be good to connect up folks looking at this…
🛣 Route Closures and Issues
- As shared on X by Ella, a section of riverside path on the Water of Leith has been blocked by a gate welded shut - potentially due to bank erosion - at the Stockbridge end of Rocheid Path;
- The Crawford Bridge - between Albion Ter and Bothwell St off Easter Rd - is closed until the 30th of August for refurbishment;
- 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
💰 An eye-watering figure of between £126-152 million just to prop up (not repair!) the M8 Woodside viaducts in Glasgow was compared in a thread by Angus Calder this week with the meagre £220m/yr for Active Travel across the nation;
🏗️ Happier news nearby as impressive footage shows sections of a new pedestrian and cycle ‘swing’ bridge over the Clyde between Govan and Partick being lifted into place, ahead of an opening in the Autumn;
✨ Also looking good out west are the new segregated cycleways on Byers Rd - also in Glasgow - some positive photos posted to X, some less positive photos on X showing the traditional Scottish cycleway welcome ceremonies of parking in the lane and dumping rubbish in it; and lastly, a great update video from Youtuber Glasgow Cyclist;
🌍 Elsewhere
💨 /via EdFoC, Schwalbe are proposing a new type of cycle valve they’re calling ‘Clik’;
🇸🇪 Cycle manufacturer Larry vs Harry shared these images of new IKEA-branded cargobikes available for customers to use at a store in Uppsala, Sweden;
⚜️ “How Cities Can Use Paris as a Model for Implementing Safer Street Infrastructure” - cataloguing, among other things, the city’s dramatic decline in car use over the last decade or two;
💶 “One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss” - Grist on Copenhagen’s ‘Bicycle Account’ report;
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📆 Events and Happenings
📆 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.
🧓 Edinburgh Leisure have added more cycle skills course dates to their Ageing Well Programme, whose goal is to increase the number of older adults who are active and connected in Edinburgh. Check out the wider programme page and the flyer for the next 11 week course [PDF] that starts today, 15th July;
✊🏼 🎭 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
🚵 Every Friday in July; All-inclusive social guided bike rides with A Wee Pedal, 2-4pm from Bridgend Farmhouse. Check out their flyer for more;
⚡️ Porty Community Energy are trialling a weekly Wednesday evening advice drop-in [fb];
⚙️ The Wee Spoke Hub host a weekly ‘Bike Cleaning and Oiling’ drop-in session at their shop every Saturday, 2-4pm;
🛠️ 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.
✴️ Other regular events on at The Wee Spoke Hub - follow their schedule here including a Bike DIY Session this Thursday 18th, 5pm - 8pm.
🫂 Help Needed
🔧 The Bike Station are hiring a refurb mechanic for their branch in Perth, deadline 31st July;
🚴🏼♀️ Bikes for Refugees Scotland are hiring a Community Hubs Manager, “responsible for coordinating, monitoring & managing operational activities and service delivery” between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Deadline 28th July, see full details here;
Ongoing:
- 🚴🏼 Friends of the Skelf bike park and pump track just off Holyrood Park are [raising money currently;
- 💁 Help Fund a New Specialised Active Chair for Porty Community Energy Activist Roseanne Sinclair at her campaign page;
- 🚌 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
🐳 Ends this Week: Connecting Granton Waterfront
A new Granton-focused consultation running until Tomorrow, 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.
✍🏽 ‘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.
🌊 Seafield Regeneration
Regeneration plans are afoot in Seafield, including active travel links to Porty, Craigentinny, and Leith. Leith Feeder Ride [x] have a great roundup thread (unrolled) on the scheme; you can also view the masterplan proposals [PDF] and respond to the consultation survey which is open until the 31st July;
🏖️ 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.
👣 Foot of the Walk to Ocean Terminal
⚓️ 'Signs of life' [x] - 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;
🌷 Midlothian’s Active Travel Strategy
🚴🏼♀️ 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'.
Thanks for reading - ride safe 🚲
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