Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Iain McGill on September 22, 2009 at 14:47

Bicycles
Thanks for the question Charlotte - The Conservatives manifesto for the last Council elections in Edinburgh included the following on bikes -

We will further reduce congestion through the construction of cycle stations
throughout the city centre. Locations will include key tram stops and other public
transport interchanges. Privately run and self-financing, these bicycles will be
available to anyone for short-term hire. This will be similar to the high-tech Velo’v
system in Lyon – a rentabike system that is highly popular and low cost. The cycle
stations would also provide space for people to park their own bikes. All told, this
will provide another viable alternative for journeys in and around the city centre.

You can see from the following link that this proposal is being taken forwards at the moment - with lots of cycle stations planned for Leith as you can see on the map

http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocID=125487

Iain Mcgill - Conservative Candidate, Edinburgh North & Leith

Permalink Reply by Malcolm Chisholm on September 23, 2009 at 10:37

Can't get into the article but it sounds like a great idea. There's a Scottish Government target to have ten per cent of journeys by bike in a few years's time but that won't happen if we don't take some serious action to encourage cycling. Convenient places to park your bike could be an important part of that.

Permalink Reply by Chris Byrne on September 24, 2009 at 20:44

The article is here. Very convincing case put for an increase in secure cycle parking. One only needs to visit Amsterdam to see how it should be done. If you can't visit, have a look at this video instead...

Permalink Reply by Shirley-Anne Somerville on September 25, 2009 at 11:19

Hi Charlotte,

Very interesting. Many of the specific points raised are matters for the Council rather than the Scottish Government so I have forwarded it on to my colleagues in Planning and Transport for their information.

There are a number of issues which we do need to think about on a national level though. Do new developments cater for cyclists sufficiently? Does street scaping take this into account? People may disagree on the rights and wrongs of the trams but one thing that I think we can all agree on is that it does give the city an opportunity to take on some of the points raised in the article as some of the major streets in the city centre and Leith will be redesigned.

The Scottish Government has recently carried out consultation into a Cycling Action Plan for Scotland and I look forward to seeing the finalised document when it is published.

You might also be interested to know that the Scottish Parliament’s Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee, of which I am a member, will be holding an enquiry into active travel later on in the year. I would urge Kim to send the article in as a submission into that piece of work.

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP