Led by Edi.Bike and Spokes, Edinburgh active travel groups have combined to urge councillors to approve the traffic orders which make permanent the legal framework for the ‘Travelling Safely’ segregated bike lanes on main roads in the city. Without urgent approval, the first of the orders, covering the East of the city, will fall – and these routes, used by commuters, school pupils and leisure cyclists, will be removed.
Under the Council’s Mobility Plan, the city’s future ‘Primary Cycle Network’ will mainly comprise segregated bike lanes on main roads, and it had been widely expected that the ‘Travelling Safely’ bike lanes would form the initial embryonic network.
To make this happen, the Experimental Traffic Orders (ETROs) which enable the bike lanes, have to be made permanent – the first of these, for East Edinburgh, expires in the near future. However, at the May 12 TRO Subcommittee (which makes the final decision) an intervention by Cllr Kevin Lang resulted in a decision being postponed. At a specially-called meeting on 7 August, the same happened again [transcript / video link].
The final opportunity to save the East Travelling Safely lanes, which include vital safe routes to schools sections, will be at a further meeting on 4 September, where the West and North schemes are also expected to be discussed, with their closing dates following later.
Now Edi.Bike and Spokes, supported by a wide range of Edinburgh active travel organisations, and affected East Edinburgh parent representatives, have sent this letter to the Conveners of the TRO Sub, Cllr Margaret Graham and the Transport and Environment Committee (TEC), Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, pointing out the above serious concerns.
Ever since the TRO Sub was created in 2024, Spokes has expressed concern over its role. It takes the final decision on whether to make Traffic Orders permanent, and yet all the previous debate on the schemes concerned, together with any experimental work and public consultations, which may have taken place over many months or years, has been at TEC.
Our fears have been confirmed by debates at TRO Sub. For example, the Committee is intended to be ‘quasi-judicial’ and adhere to the legal issues concerned, but it often strays far into matters which appear to be beyond its scope.
The Travelling Safely ETRO orders cover only the legalities which make the bike lanes possible – waiting and loading restrictions, bus lanes, etc. The orders do not cover the materials used (such as the bollards or other methods of segregation which are expected to replace the bollards over a period of years). Indeed, councillors on TEC can decide to change these materials at any time without the need for a further legal order, as long as the waiting and loading restrictions remain unchanged.
However, virtually all the discussion at TRO Sub, which led to non-decision on May 12 and August 7, was about the materials: when bollards would be replaced, what would be the costs, etc – all matters which are the responsibility of TEC once the schemes had been made legally permanent by TRO Sub. Furthermore, officers at the Committee, in response to this questioning, made clear that funding was allocated to upgrade the existing materials, a rolling programme of £2.5m over 5 years, although until all schemes are approved it was not sensible to decide on orders of priority and dates for implementation. Yet even this was not enough for the Committee.
With the final chance for TRO sub coming up in September, we are urging councillors to ensure the future, not just of the East Edinburgh schemes, but the city’s entire embryonic Primary Cycle Network.
What you can do
- Contact your local ward councillors regarding the open letter and the future of the Travelling Safely lanes. Find them here
- Repost our bluesky post
- Pass on the link to this article
- See also this Edi.Bike article
