Morningsider

Road Traffic website - City of Edinburgh

Those same DfT figures used by Cllr Whyte, from the full 156 count points in the city, show that vehicle mileage increased by 7.4% between 2002 and 2025. roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/local-author...

To be fair to Edinburgh Council, they actually refused permission for this development. It was only granted approval on appeal to Scottish Ministers.

Rather than reserach looking at tweets or posing hypothetical situations people know will never be implemented, consider the 'natural experiment' of what happens with actual cycling proposals in Edinburgh. It could certainly be argued that more consultation is the last thing we need.

Which means for every pound invested, it is predicted to produce benefits of between 52 pence and 81 pence. Even when you include the "courageous" assumption that removing driver frustration produces a monetised benefit of £228 million.

It includes this incredible nugget "The A9 Dualling Programme demonstrates a BCR [Benefit-Cost Ratio] of 0.52 that rises to 0.81, when including Driver Frustration and Wider Economic Impacts, which equates to Low Value for Money."

Given the recent announcements about the A9 dualling, I had a quick dig to see if a revised Outline Business Case had been published. Nothing recent that I can see, but I did spot a November 2023 version, released under an FoI request that I haven't seen before.

Don't worry, you can rest easy that the trunk road budget has increased by £109,900,000 (a 12.5% increase - this is minus the figure for 'trunk road depreciation' as that isn't actual cash).

YouTube video by Transport Accident Commission Victoria There's no one someone won't miss - Man on the street - Towards Zero

Great road safety advert from Victoria (Australia) based on just this premise: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2tO...

Excerpt from an Edinburgh Evening News article that states "The response says Living Streets Edinburgh supports the provision of alternative routes for cyclists to the congested Union Canal towpath, but suggests this should be achieved using traffic-free and quiet streets in Shandon and North Merchiston rather than Dundee Street".

This sounds good. Can describe the cycle route you have in mind, say between Harrison Park to Lothian Road, that avoids both the canal and Dundee St and uses only traffic free or quiet streets? Thanks.

So Ministers can approve vehicle mounted cameras. There doesn't seem to be any reason why the vehicle couldn't be a bus. In all likelihood, the front facing cameras on Lothian Buses probably meet the technical requirements for approval - assuming video is time stamped and geo-referenced.

and:

The key parts are:

The regulations are available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2011/444...

The unique to Scotland 'Redetermination of Means of Exercise of Public Right of Passage Orders' are a bit more complex. If anyone objects, and that objection is not withdrawn, then a public hearing must be held and then Ministers make the final decision.

Ministers don't have 'call-in' powers for Traffic Regulation Orders, although public hearings do need to be held if the TRO would prohibit loading or unloading of vehicles at certain times, or if the passage of public service vehicles would be restricted or the TRO creates one-way streets.

Scottish Ministers have the power to approve vehicle mounted cameras for bus lane enforcement under the provisions of the The Bus Lanes (Approved Devices) (Scotland) Order 2011.

Remember, the Greenways network was created without any special Government funding (it pre-dates devolution and was planned and largely delivered under a UK Tory Government). It just took a determined chair of the transport committee to see it through.

Off the top of my head. A Council can do the following without reference to the Scottish Government.

1. Create bus lanes.
2. Bus priority at signalised junctions.
3. Bus gates.
4. Bus lane enforcement cameras.
5. Parking controls.
6. More parking enforcement.
7. LTNs (not really a bus thing).

Thought it worth highlighting, on the day the Scottish Government ruled out reducing the speed limit on single carriageway rural roads to 50mph, that research (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...) into just such a move in France found that:

The headline of the original article is a bit misleading. The researchers speculate EVs are only as safe as ICE cars as they tend to be premium models with advanced safety features (braking assist etc.). If every car had these features then EVs could well be more dangerous to pedestrians.

Don't be scared to get off and push. Road too busy for comfort or you have to make a right turn across traffic and it doesn't feel safe? Hop off, push past it and then get on again. You will build confidence over time - although even after 30+ years of regular cycling I do still sometimes do this.

Now there's a litter tray I wouldn't fancy emptying.

I see where you are coming from, but would signs really affect the behaviour of folk happy to stand up against a be-horned, half tonne animal they have never met? Probably be as well putting up signs warning the cows to give tiktokkers a wide berth.

I have found the app to be easy to use, bikes comparable in price to the bus but with far quicker journey times, and best of all it's great fun. Most bikes are parked in the geofenced docks and very few seem to be blown over. Can't wait to see the scheme expanded.

Also, these over-specified schemes are never well maintained. Just look at Rose Street or the High Street - pock marked with the cheapest black-top patches after utility company repairs.

I've been ranting about the gold-plating of active travel schemes in Edinburgh for years. How much smaller is our network due to the cost of granite paviours and hand laid setts? Places like Copenhagen use robust, cheap materials almost everywhere, which can be installed by machine.

Leith (Edinburgh) | Forth Ports Forth Ports Leith is Scotland's largest enclosed deep-water port with a capability of handling vessels up to 50,000DWT. With direct access to Edinburgh.

Sorry, been busy. I don't have a contact at Forth Ports - I suppose you would just have to start with the contact web form: www.forthports.co.uk/our-ports/le...

I mean, I suspect they will do hee-haw if you report it but they are the right people to contact.

Forth Ports are the responsible authority. This would be a "Tier 1" incident that requires a local response, as set out in their "Clearwater Forth Oil Spill Contingency Plan". See www.forthports.co.uk/wp-content/u...

The A9 dualling project – crucial for Scotland? An overview of the economic and road safety impact of the project to dual the single carriageway sections of the A9 trunk road between Perth and Inverness.

This is a few years old now, but probably worth four minutes of your time: spice-spotlight.scot/2020/02/18/t...