🚲 edi.bike | issue 14 | 13th Nov ‘23
salty like november tarmac
👋🏼 Welcome to your weekly roundup of cycle travel news, events and infrastructure progress in Scotland’s capital city.
📰 News this Week
🌆 Locally
📦 Local Bike Shop Hart’s Cyclery posted about upcoming stock of Ca Go bikes - a range of good quality cargo bikes, with some interesting photos;
🍋 Councillors have been in early talks about a replacement bike hire scheme in Edinburgh, with both Lime bikes and Dott. This week a handful of bikes appeared on the Lime app during some testing, including trial geo-fenced zones 📸 where the bikes will refuse to park 📸, refuse to go faster than e.g. 8mph 📸 or even provide any assistance at all, and spaces designated for parking 📸. Cllr Arthur posted a short video 🐦 riding through these zones and describing the various effects on the bike, and there was some later coverage in the Evening News;
🌻 This Thursday, 16th Nov sees the council’s Transport and Environment Committee convene once more, ahead of which its Business Bulletin [PDF] has been released. This includes a list of school bike / walking buses currently running in the city, and also the Council’s response to the ongoing HES consultation on the future of Holyrood Pk (see below). We’ll round up the committee meeting next week 🍿
🫂 Help Needed
🏫 George Heriots’ School Bike Bus from Fairmilehead (Tues) could do with more volunteer marshals - contact Jarlath Flynn via Twitter 🐦
🗨️ Spokes are in need of new members for their Planning and Resources groups;
🆘 Support Bikes for Refugees following their recent break-in with an SMS donation 🐦or on EasyDonate;
🎭 Edinburgh Festival of Cycling have looking for new volunteers and additional directors
🛠Edinburgh Tool Library still seeking donations of unused bike tools – get in touch.
🏴 Nationally
🖥️ Cycling UK are hiring for a Scotland-based Senior Project Officer for their Rural Connections programme;
From last week: 🧑⚖️ Transport Action Network gained legal permission to challenge the UK Gov cuts to walking and cycling funding by 75% - Donate to the crowdfunding here.
🌈 Infrastructure Progress & Consultations
🚗 The ongoing public consultation on the future of Holyrood Pk is still available to respond to until 19th December - Car Free Holyrood have a great and thorough blog post about it;
🪣 Lanark Rd yellow line / bollard reinstatement grinds on as per these 🐦 tweets from Alan Gordon.
📆 Events and Happenings
🎏 Porty Community Energy will be hosting a Fundraising ceilidh on the 25th Nov 5-10pm, get your tickets at Ceilidh Collective;
⚡“Would you benefit knowing how e-bikes, electric cargo & adapted cycles can assist in creating healthier & fairer communities? This online event will explore the ways that electric cycles could support health equity in Scotland. 30th Nov, 1.30pm – 4.30pm”
🚺 Infrasisters #OurStreetOurNights: “Our next ride will be on Friday 1st December at 7.30pm from Middle Meadow Walk, and we're planning a wee tour of central Edinburgh. Light up your bikes and come along!”
🔧 At The Wee Spoke Hub there’s alternating puncture repair sessions and introductions to bike ownership and maintenance every other Saturday, see their schedule for details and times;
🛣 Road Closures and Route Issues
🐴 Access issues through King Stables Rd - slated as “road closed to north / westbound traffic except cycles between Lothian Rd and Barrace Steps” from Nov 19th to mid December - but there are already reports on TwitXter 🐦 that it’s been blockaded by the Christmas Consumption machine and may require use of the pavement to pass;
🟢 Causewayside has now reopened between West Preston St and Grange Rd earlier than expected;
⛏ City centre resurfacing works are wrapping up this week, East End junction works currently ongoing overnight at Waterloo Pl and Princes St until tomorrow, Tues 14th;
👓 ‘Minimal restrictions’ on Viewforth from today for carriageway resurfacing between between Bruntsfield Pl and Gilmore Pl - main works start next week;
🕳️ Lane closures and off-peak restrictions on South St. David St today until Weds 15th for ‘trial holes’. Don’t fall down a trial hole. What’s a trial hole?
🔨 Drainage repairs to Lothian Rd at Castle Ter start 7pm Thursday and run overnight, closing the Southbound inside lane;
🧑🎄12hr daily partial closures of Castle St for Edinburgh’s Christmas have commenced (Almost™ Not Quite™ Christmas Time): between George St and Rose St, plus North Castle St at George St, 10am - 10pm daily;
🕯️ Diwali sees various closures on Sun 19th:
St Andrew Sq - south leg closed 10am - 1.15pm;
Rolling road closure along westbound George St 12.45pm - 2.30pm approximately, with traffic held as required at North / South St. David St, Hanover St and Frederick St;
Castle St closed between Rose St and Princes St midnight to 3.30pm.
🦩 Water of Leith: later in November, a lengthy closure of a Leithward section of the shared walkway commences:
“From 27th November the route in Leith through Coalie Park will close for Park Improvement works for 25 weeks!”
Ongoing…
⛏️ CCWEL-adjacent works on Charlotte Sq and North / South Charlotte St running until March 2024:
Phase 2 underway until 23rd Nov - daytime closure of Charlotte Sq (north side);
Phase 3 from 8th Jan ‘24 - daytime lane closures on Charlotte Sq (east side), North and South Charlotte Street, daytime closures of Charlotte Sq (south and west sides).
🪣 Lauriston Farm Rd closed for resurfacing until Fri 17th, Silverknowes Rd to the junction of Cramond;
💡 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, running until March ‘24;
💧 9-month programme of Scottish Water drainage improvement work on Longstone Rd 🐦;
🧰 Braidburn Ter 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 🐦 Cllr Scott Arthur recently posted a 12m video walking through these works 🐦.
Ongoing updates on the Council’s Road reports page as the week unfolds and via @edintravel 🐦 on TwiXtter.
Thanks for reading - ride safe and be well 🚲
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