Our March 16 Spokes/CUK hustings whilst polite and friendly throughout, revealed some clear policy differences, particularly on how, if at all, to tackle car numbers in the city. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was more agreement on the multi-faceted value of cycling as a means of getting around, whilst the issue of illegally ridden modified […]
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Under recent legislation, local communities (either geographic or based on a common local interest) can produce a ‘Local Place Plan‘ (LPP) which the Council must then take into account in preparing its development plan for the whole local authority. Many communities in the Lothians have already produced LPPs, and several in Edinburgh are now […] Spokes has published a new booklet of Favourite Rides. The rides are based on entries from our 2025 Favourite Rides competition. They feature not just the wonderful rides themselves, but also brief bios and explanations from the contributors, adding greatly to the appeal of the booklet. […] Spokes and Cycling UK are holding a joint election hustings, on Monday 16 March, for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, to hear from Holyrood candidates on cycling and related policies. Rather than the usual hustings approach, which can be rather boring, our meeting will comprise several sections, with speakers undertaking Initiation, Interrogation, Combination, Clarification […] Following the Council decision of 12 February 2026 on how to use revenue from the Visitor Levy, there is considerable uncertainty around projects to improve Princes Street and George Street, in terms of funding, timescales and project scope. Spokes has therefore written to Transport and Environment convener Cllr Stephen Jenkinson suggesting various options which […] The ‘Level 4 spreadsheet’ accompanying the Scottish Government’s draft budget shows Support for Active and Sustainable Travel rising by an incredible 66.3%, from £135.8m in 25/26 to £226m in 26/27. This has been widely commended. However, when the smoke and mirrors are removed, it seems likely that total funding for active travel will actually […] Will 2026 see Edinburgh City‘s new ‘Primary Cycle Network’ definition start to turn from policy into reality? And what of the City’s hugely ambitious 30% by 2030 traffic-reduction aims? What other decisions or actions may we see in the coming year? […] In the last ten years there have been three separate pedestrian-injury crashes reported in Rose Street, with seven persons injured in total, several seriously, all due to drivers of motor vehicles. There have been even more pedestrian injuries at the intersections of Rose Street with north-south streets such as Hanover Street. Meanwhile, despite east […] Spokes Planning Group has put considerable time and effort into preparing a thorough and thoughtful 15-page response to the tram consultation. We have received several plaudits, such as “fantastically detailed and comprehensive” from Edi.Bike. In summary, Spokes supports the tram in principle, but our response has identified some serious issues over cyclist safety, as […] Our biannual city-centre traffic count*, on Tuesday 11 November, unusually fell on a day with significant rain forecast. The morning hour (8-9am) did stay dry, though cold, and, despite the forecast, cyclists formed 14.2% of all vehicles, almost unchanged from the 14.4% in last November’s bright and sunny count day. However at lunchtime, when, […] |
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