Spokes Public Meeting 21 Nov. 2007, St Augustine's

Transport in a New Era for Edinburgh

Speaker: Cllr Phil Wheeler

1 Cllr Wheeler listed recent achievements and short-term goals for the future. These
included:

Focus on missing links in the network and on links to outside Edin.;
Grant of £885K from Sestran which will be used for following projects:
Upgrade A8 path south side AND NORTH SIDE (did he really say that?! - see DdF note below);
Gilmerton Station Rd (I think he means the Sustrans proposal for Loanhead to Danderhall
old rail line, currently the subject of a planning application);
A8000 footway (TG comment that spending our budget on this is shameful - should come from
M9 Extension budget);
Newcraighall to QMU path to be lit;

[DdF note - the 885K is year 2 of the 'Key Connections from Edinburgh' £4.6m project,
which Spokes long and successfully lobbied for, and comes after last year's 300K. 
Unfortunately if the government is stopping funding to SESTRAN then the entire project
will end, so we get only 1185K of the 4.6m, unless Edinburgh funds it instead. The 885K
re-instates all the money that was cut from the project at the start of this year,
showing how critical was the big lobbying campaign we mounted when the cut happened - if
not reinstated this financial year, we would probably *never* have received it!  The 885K
is funding all the above schemes, which *does* include the A8 north side. I'm not certain
if the Gilmerton Stn Rd scheme is for the road itself or for what PH suggests above. 
Finally, the schemes below are to be funded - if at all - from other sources, they are
not part of the Key Connections from Edinburgh project].

Toucans for Water of Leith path main-road crossings at Balgreen Rd and Gorgie Rd;
Rodney St tunnel [possible Sustrans funding];
ASLs at all light-controlled crossings.

Other aspirations are:
To provide segregated routes where cycle lanes can't be made mandatory or where they are
regularly blocked by parking - example the A7 (presumably Old Dalkeith Rd);
Faded markings to be re-marked - can be reported via Clarence;

Coloured surfaces - he said this was on hold pending the consultation on a 'map' of where
coloured surfacing will be allowed.

[DdF note - our submission on that is at www.spokes.org.uk in downloads - technical,
'coloured surfacing - justifications.'  The position now is that CEC is considering that
letter - I believe that Caroline is to discuss it with the dreaded Streetscape Committee].

Trams:
Bike lockers to be provided at tram stops;
1.5m lanes for Princes St and Leith Walk (have TIE agreed that?!)
But no carriage of bikes on trams - nowhere else in UK does it as part of regular service.

[DdF note - many members have emailed councillors about tram issues, and most are getting
standard replies which show that councillors - including Phil - have received briefings
about onroad issues and about bike carriage which are very misleading.  The bike carriage
one is from the Director of City Dev, and basically says what Phil kept repeating - that
there is no bike carriage in the uk because it is not safe in emergency stops, and
because it uses valuable space - but it doesn't discuss or even mention the fact that
bike carriage happens successfully in many European and US trams.  I don't know where the
onroad briefing originated - it would be fascinating to know.  Councillors believe, as
Phil repeated, that there will be 1.5m bike lanes rather like Princes St is now.  This is
rubbish.  The current plans are what TIE showed us at the last consultation - 1m strips
*within* the 3.45m(?) traffic carriageway, not marked with colour or cycle logos, and in
Leith Walk right up against the parked cars.  Let us hope we can persuade TIE to think
again based on Hans's report].

Extend 20mph areas;
100 Parking racks to go in;
Cycle training for schools now to be done by Active School Co-ordinators rather than
Police;
Bike hire schemes fr short journeys to be investigated;

A90 route to be pursued - est cost £900K;
[DdF note - Good to hear that the council are pressing the *govt* for this money, not
other sources meantime.  Following John Swinney's statement, and especially with the
probable de-funding of Sestran, this is our current best chance, even if it's not a too
high one.  However, if it does succeed then money shouldn't be as much of a problem as if
it was a council scheme - Transport Scotland works in £m's, the council works in £k's!! 
Many members have emailed MSPs and there is a bit of a head of steam.  Also, I complained
to CEC that they hadn't commented to the Parliament Transport Cttee about this route in
their submission on Tolls.  As a result Caroline sent in quite a strong statement (it is
on the Parliamentary Transport Committee website and in their report) - and she put the
cost at £2m, not 900K, so I think if we are quoting a figure in letters we should use the
£2m].

Cycle politeness campaign - Spokes gets an award from Cycling Scotland - presented to Tim
Smith in Ian Maxwell's absence;
New Cycling Officer Chris Brace will start at end Nov. and he introduced himself.

2 Questions from the floor:
(DdF) 1) LibDem manifesto mentions making Edin a "model city" for walking and cycling.
This implies a major initiative, and the audience have been given a questionnaire to
complete, for suggestions;
2) see Spokesworker for actions - especially A90;
3) a new count of cyclists took place, same locations as before, Lothian Rd north- and
south-bound, and Forrest Rd north- and south-bound. At similar time of year as last year
viz mid Nov. weekday morning 7.45 - 9.15am, even the weather was similar. Number of
cyclists was up, from 450 to 500, and number of motor vehicles down, from 4200 to 4000,
meaning bikes an even higher percentage now, from 10% to about 11%. Cyclists were also
10% of traffic on Princes St. Many more (about double) were heading into town than out of
town which indicates not students (university opposite way). High percentage indicates
need for complete redesign of Lothian Rd, Geo IV Br, Princes St, on European lines - this
would enable Lib Dems to claim they were moving to manifesto promise of a 'model
cycle-friendly city'.

(David Somervell, Ed Uni Energy Officer) Critical need for a champion, for vision, and
for a major initiative involving reallocation of resources, if we are to be anything like
European cities or take sustainability seriously.

(Bill Brockie) Bikes on trams - refusal puts UK out of line with rest of Europe - not
justified - excuses given don't hold up (audience symapthetic to this); cars parked on
corners and pavements and elsewhere - PW said CEC would try to get law about parking on
pavements changed so motorists can be prosecuted.

(?) Canal towpath - complaints about speed bumps and dangerous chicanes - not visible at
night. Need for mirrors at blind bridges. Need for the Polwarth section to be lit at
night - very dark, lots of users. CEC has limited leverage as this is British Waterways.
TG defended the chicanes but agreed visibility needs improved. One person argued path
should be segregated for peds vs bikes.

PW is working to improve joined-up thinking between Transport and Planning in the Council
- eg traffic generated by new developments is currently looked at piecemeal instead of
whole picture.

(B Curtis) Applauds Spokes counting of cyclists but argues this should also be done,
systematically, by CEC - need for accurate statistics long-term on cycle use.

(Heather Goodare) Need for more paths on Bruntsfield Links to be designated for
shared-use - many paths are wide enough.

(TG) We need re-allocation of road space, as in Europe;
ASLs are NOT at all lighted crossings - they were promised at all light controlled
junctions as and when they were resurfaced or installed and this is definitely not
happening. Torphicen Place was just an example because it would have been particularly
useful there.
Previous Cycling Officer promised an assessment of all one way streets for counterflow
opportunities whereever possible, but nothing has happened;
Traffic calming the A8000 once downgraded was actually contained in the design
consultation for the M9 Link Road. Traffic on the road has dropped from tens of thousands
to a few thousand and, if traffic calming was carried out as promised, there would be
absolutely no need for a cycle track. This is a disgraceful waste of precious cycling
funds especially when there is a very substandard railway path from Newbridge to S
Queensferry via Kirkliston, parallel to the A8000 and belonging to CEC.

(TG) Trams - Spokes has been in discussions with TIE, but where is the CEC Cycle Project
team's input into all this? Why does it only seem to be the voluntary sector pushing the
opportunities and problems associated with trams.

(DdF) Trams - will Cllr Wheeler implement the recent council decision [Green amendment]
to re-investigate the question of cycle carriage, which he had *not* mentioned in the
earlier discussion on cycle carriage.  Cllr Wheeler - yes, he had accepted the amendment
and would do what it says.
Will Cllr Wheeler look favourably on the proposals of our Dutch consultant Hans van der
Stok?  Cllr Wheeler - no commitment, depends on what it says and what TIE thinks.

(?) Getting police to encourage helmets was in LibDem manifesto - PW didn't mention it -
has it been dropped?  Answer - not time to cover everything in the speech, but he now
recognised there were differing opinions.  Audience clearly split on value of helmets. 
SS made clear to PW that spokes is neither for nor against helmets - we are against
compulsion or excessive promotion, and it is a matter of personal choice.

(SS) RTPs won't get the money in future - it will go straight to Local Authorities, will
not be ring-fenced, so very likely it will be spent on other areas (social work,
education, as usual) and not on transport. This is a grave situation and, for Edin, we
must make sure the money for walking and cycling is spent on that. If RTPs get no money
what role will they have?

(Heather Goodare) Route from Canal Basin via Conf Centre to West End - valuable route,
but West End junction a disaster for cyclists. General agreement with this - PW promises
to look into it.

(PH) Maintenance - need for EXISTING road network to be brought up to standard - cyclists
forced out into traffic stream by broken surfaces, esp at bus stops - extra reinforcement
of surface needed there. Princes St, Haymarket Terrace are esp bad. Where roads HAVE been
repaired, big improvement for cyclists.