November 2010
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

Quality Bike Corridor & 20mph consultation [updated 15 Nov]

Edinburgh Council is consulting on its proposed ‘Quality Bike Corridor’ between Princes Street and Mayfield/ Kings Buildings.   Running in parallel is a consultation on a 20mph zone for a wide area of south central Edinburgh.

Comments on both consultations must be in by 10 December.

November 15 update: There are additional exhibitions and drop-in sessions at various Edinburgh University Kings Buildings locations between Nov 15-26.   Full details on the University Travel Pages.

Update: Note the email address to respond to the 20mph consultation has a hyphen in it: the address shown below under ‘Responding to the Consultations’  is now correct.

The Quality Bike Corridor comprises many new cycle and bus/cycle lanes, new bike-turn lanes (e.g. Buccleuch Street to North Meadow Walk), and additional restrictions on parking and loading times in the corridor.  The above link takes you to a downloadable consultation summary leaflet (which will be distributed to all houses in the area) and detailed drawings of the proposals (many MB to download them all – but you can see them at the exhibition and drop-in sessions below).  Many people who get about by bike will be pleased to see this sentence in the consultation leaflet, “We’re also hoping to improve the maintenance of existing cycle lanes“!!  One puzzling point in the leaflet is that there is no mention of associated facilities and actions such as improved shop-side bike parking, promotion etc, although we believe these are intended.

The South Central Edinburgh 20mph zone extends from Blackford Hill to the Meadows and from Morningside Road to Prestonfield.  All residential roads would become 20mph (without new physical features), with ‘arterial’  roads remaining at 30mph (there will certainly be argument about which if any streets should remain at 30mph).   The above link again takes you to a downloadable consultation leaflet.

Spokes strongly supports the principle of both above proposals, which are one of the very first steps towards implementation of the Council’s Active Travel Action Plan.   However we will doubtless have comments on the detail and maybe on more general issues.

We have set up a QBC/20mph downloads page which includes preliminary Spokes thoughts on the QBC and preliminary Spokes thoughts on the 20mph zone.

It is very important for you to respond to the consultations if you support the proposals.  There will of course be a Spokes submission, but please don’t leave it all up to Spokes!! Councillors and officials need to be reminded that there is a wide constituency of support to improve conditions for everyday journeys around the city by bike.

There may well be individual aspects you disagree with, wish to comment on and get changed/improved, but if you support the general proposal please do say that at the outset before going on to list the improvements you want.   This is extremely important as there is sure to be opposition to parts of the plans.   For example there is likely to be strong opposition to the restrictions on car parking/loading hours, and the question of which roads should remain at 30mph may well also be very contentious.

RESPONDING TO THE CONSULTATIONS

Full details of where to respond (including postal addresses) are at the above links, but in particular the two email addresses are…

qualitybikecorridor@edinburgh.gov.uk and 20-zones@edinburgh.gov.uk

If you live in the area and receive consultation leaflets through the door please return the freepost reply slip on them as well as sending in any more detailed comments by email or post.

Spokes would also appreciate knowing your thoughts so we can consider them for possible inclusion in our own response.   If you have any major points it would be helpful to know them as soon as possible.    For the QBC consultation, copy your thoughts to richard[AT]blether.org.uk.   For the 20mph consultation, send to shane[AT]blether.org.uk.  (Replace [AT] by @).

COUNCIL EXHIBITIONS

Nov 15-19 Exhibition – detailed plans  on display at Newington Library, 17-21 Fountainhall Road, EH9 2LN.

Dec 1 and Dec 2 Public drop-in sessions 5pm-8pm, staffed by representatives of the Council, at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church, 61 Grange Road, EH9 1TY.

MEETINGS ORGANISED BY OTHERS

Weds 8 Dec Southside Community Council 7pm, Nelson Hall (corner of Bernard Terr and St Leonards St).   The first part of the meeting will be a presentation/Q&A about the QBC by Chris Brace, the council’s Cycle Officer.  All CC meetings are open to the public, and you can stay on after for discussion of other local developments.

Comments are closed.