Bike Morningside

24/01/2025

Today doesn't seem like a day for cycling, or even going outside, so we won't be; open as usual tomorrow..

28/11/2024

Come ride with us!

29th November 7.30pm
Middle Meadow Walk Edinburgh

As part of UN Women's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, we're back for another ride, calling for safe infrastructure for women and girls.

for forcing us to keep choosing between unsafe roads and unsafe cycle paths
for not investing in active travel infrastructure

Light up your bike with as much Sparkle and lights as you want and help us make an illuminated convoy. We'll travel as a slow safe group around Edinburgh city centre. The ride is organised and led by women, but everyone is welcome.

16/11/2024

SAVING LIVES IS NOT CONTROVERSIAL SAY CAMPAIGNERS

Edinburgh Critical Mass are holding a peaceful protest outside City Chambers on Monday 18th November at 9am, asking Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) councillors to dial down the rhetoric, support the facts and make Edinburgh safer.

In a statement Edinburgh Critical Mass, which rides monthly to give visibility to people in Edinburgh who cycle, and to call for safer streets, said:

“Nine people have already been killed on Scotland's roads in November alone - six of those were pedestrians. Delays cost lives.

One fatality could have been avoided if a proposed bus gate on the Cowgate had been implemented. Councillors discussed this proposal at the February Transport and Environment Committee, as part of a wider Our Future Streets plan for Edinburgh. When councillors repeatedly delay road safety improvements with amendments and consultations, whose interests are they serving? Not the majority of residents who elected them, the person going to the shops, the parent walking their child to school or people having a night out.

Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), bus gates and modal filters make everyone 50% safer, whether they walk, cycle or drive. That’s not controversial. Keeping access for cars and adding access for people walking and cycling, by creating safer streets, is not controversial. That bus gates, LTNs and modal filters are low cost and effective is not controversial. This is a win-win-win for Edinburgh residents but councillors aren’t showing leadership.
People are fed up with culture wars, they want to be safer, they want their loved ones to be safer. So we are taking our protest to the TEC, who are meeting today, to hold them to account and say “Saving lives is not controversial”. These are our streets and Edinburgh’s people deserve the best in road safety design.”

When: 18th November, 9am
Where: City Chambers, 253 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ

01/03/2024

Sturmey Archer X-FD
A nice new hand-built front wheel for a particular sort of small-wheeled bicycle.

27/10/2023

Our good friend Julian Sayarer will be visiting Topping & Company Booksellers in November to celebrate publication of 'Türkiye: Cycling Through a Country’s First Century.'

Applauded by Caroline Eden as "the complex story of modern Türkiye, is a deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer’s trademark style from the saddle and the roadside", Türkiye is not to be missed by fans of Jan Morris, Colin Thubron, and Dervla Murphy.

https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinburgh/julian-sayarer-on-cycling-across-turkey-2023/

https://juliansayarer.com/

Hop on your bikes and travel across Turkey with award-winning travel writer, journalist and adventurer, Julian Sayarer. This November, Julian joins us in the Bookshop to celebrate publication of Türkiye: Cycling Through a Country’s First Century.

14/10/2023

*New consultation* The council are consulting on options for the area around Whitehouse Loan and Clinton Rd as well as the Braid estate (or “the Clunys”). Three options for each area are given. Below we give an appraisal for each. Thank you to all who have taken part in the previous consultation...

17/08/2023

18/04/2023

"There is more than enough space, we just have to commit to making it safe for all who use it"

28/01/2023

DRAFT ACTION PLANS FOR TRANSPORT PUBLISHED
Bold plans for future of transport in Edinburgh

An integrated suite of draft action plans to help transform the way people move around Edinburgh has been published ahead of Transport and Environment Committee on Thursday (2 February).

The Active Travel Action Plan, Public Transport Action Plan and Parking Action Plan each support the delivery of Edinburgh’s City Mobility Plan to 2030, which envisions sustainable, safe, accessible and affordable travel around, to and from the Capital.

If approved next week, an extensive public consultation will take place on the three draft plans alongside the draft Road Safety and Air Quality Action Plans, which were previously approved.

Consulting on the five plans together will help people understand the common issues and further shape the proposed actions. These actions are intended to work together towards key Council objectives including cutting car kilometres by 30% by 2030, reducing congestion and improving health and wellbeing, as well as the vital net zero goal.

Each of the plans sit under the emerging Circulation Plan and its associated Streetspace Allocation Framework. This framework considers how to best use the limited space on our streets to better support people walking, wheeling, cycling and using public transport, while taking the needs of other street users into account. This approach is essential to helping the city transition towards a lower traffic, more liveable, healthy and sustainable place.

Active Travel Action Plan

The ATAP sets out to deliver a walkable and fully accessible city, where cycling is a realistic choice for all through major enhancements to Edinburgh’s walking, wheeling and cycling networks. Actions, which are estimated to require between £824m and £1,124bn investment, include –

- Improving walking and wheeling: Create easy-access, step-free, uncluttered pavements through measures like ensuring every junction has 'dropped' kerbs, levelling pavements (for example where the gradient at places like driveways makes them hard to use in a wheelchair) and delivering more and better pedestrian crossings.

- Improving cycling: Deliver a joined-up network of routes which are within 400m of every household and that feel safe at all times of day using segregated cycle tracks on main roads, as well as unsegregated routes on streets with low volumes of motor traffic. Alongside this accelerate the roll-out of cycle parking.

- Better shopping streets and neighbourhoods: Measures in support of the 20-minute neighbourhood strategy. Work with businesses to transform shopping streets, focusing on making them better places for people. Implementing low-traffic, liveable neighbourhoods in residential areas to address rat-running and improve conditions for active travel. Lower speed limits, especially on rural roads.

- Street design and supporting active travel in and from new developments: Use Edinburgh Street Design Guidance in the planning process for new developments to ensure active travel and public transport use, rather than car-dependence, are encouraged.

- Access to green space and cycling for leisure: Improved crossings and accesses to support Edinburgh’s Open Space Strategy and better signing and path upgrades to support leisure cycling.

- Supporting and encouraging active travel: An expanded behaviour change programme focusing on campaigns to complement new infrastructure.

Public Transport Action Plan

By delivering an enhanced public transport system, including bus priority measures and higher quality infrastructure supporting faster journey times, Edinburgh will be connected by a safer and more inclusive net zero carbon transport system. Amongst the actions are –

- Addressing the climate emergency: Deliver a programme of behaviour change interventions to encourage public transport use and working with operators on options for a net zero carbon fleet.

- Providing safe, affordable and accessible public transport: Deliver integrated ticketing across Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams, as well as rail; strengthen partnerships with taxi and private hire car trade and car club partners as key providers of the city’s shared mobility offering.

- Delivering a reliable and efficient network to support growth: Proposed extension of bus lane hours and bus stop realignment to improve journey times, while maintaining access for all along with other bus priority measures.

- Enhancing regional connectivity: Develop mass rapid transit plan for the city and region, deliver North / South tram line linking Granton to the Bio Quarter and beyond and consider future use of South Suburban Rail Line as well as the opportunity for a cross-Forth ferry.

- Place - reducing vehicular dominance: Support Edinburgh City Centre Transformation and review opportunities to reduce bus stop dwell times.

- Improving governance and coordination: Deliver new governance arrangements for Council owned public transport operators; align operational management of the public transport companies with the city’s transport policies.

Parking Action Plan

By being ambitious about expanding controlled parking zones and restricting parking in new developments, we can reduce car usage and, in turn, congestion on streets, particularly as the city’s population expands. Key areas are –

- Communications: Increasing awareness of parking operations, proposals and consultations while improving data gathering and customer insight.

- Parking controls: These play an important part in many people’s everyday lives by determining where deliveries are made, where local residents including people with mobility difficulties can park and where people can cross the road, cycle and access public transport more safely.

- Parking management: The Council has a duty to manage and maintain public streets, with parking management important for achieving this aim through permits and pricing to help manage demand and ensure parking opportunities are available.

- Parking enforcement: Vital for parking management to function effectively, with on-street parking regulations and enforcement applied to establish an orderly use of the available urban space.

- Reducing vehicle emissions: Managing kerbside space differently by allocating space to support electric vehicle charging and car sharing through car club vehicles. This can help to reduce vehicle emissions and encourage sustainable mobility.
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/13637/bold-plans-for-future-of-transport-in-edinburgh

19/01/2023

10/01/2023

Photographer, bike mechanic and rider David Martin documents the decline and demolition of the Scottish capital’s outdoor track