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Aug 13 14 tweets 7 min read Read on X
🚌Bus lane trials and tribulations:

Edinburgh Council meets this week to decide whether to trial something it already knows will work & is well supported - extending bus lane times🧵

But simultaneously it will allow 2,600 private hires cars to use them🤦‍♂️
The councils own analysis says when bus lane times were reduced in 2015 bus time journey times and reliability suffered.

So why are we trialling it?

We know it works! Image
Well just trial it for a few weeks right?

No. 18 months.

So we’re probably YEARS AWAY from this going out across the city @EdinburghBUG, right? Image
Just last week @on_lothianbuses chiefs admitted the bus timetable can’t cope with the volume of passengers and congestion in the city?

So why are we trialling extending bus lane times - it’s needed across the city?

This is the typical mid-afternoon scene affecting locals:
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£80k public money on marketing, consulting and monitoring something we know will work?

Why are we trialling it? Image
Worse: 2,600+ private hires might be allowed to use bus lanes 🤦!

Yes over 2,600 further things to delay buses even more.

This reducing capacity further as buses crawl through the city - so how can you tell the bus lane extension trial is effective?
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There are many draw backs:

♿️Private hire vehicles are generally less accessible than taxi equivalents.

🚙They often just look like ordinary cars - simply encouraging others to jumps queues too. Enforcement of bus lanes is already weak.

We don’t need 2,600 more obstacles.

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In other news, it’s semi-good news that Polwarth Roundabout will be looked this week too.

But someone has to ask the question why public funds were spent on “renewing” and resurfacing it just months ago, despite the clear proposals from @MerchistonCC?
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Also, why do all resurfacing schemes not adopt the same practice as any sensible city with the same sustainable goals as Edinburgh - put it on a road diet!

Prediction: years of consultation despite a willing local community, just like @The_Causey (hopefully proved wrong).
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And while we’re on the topic of public money - why is Roseburn to Canal going for ANOTHER consultation!

Proposed in 1980, consulted on multiple times since 2011.

It takes sooooooo long in Edinburgh to do anything you spend extra public money on having to re-consult!
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Meanwhile, cars, not people and businesses are prioritised in the City Centre during the world’s biggest arts festival.

Safer pedestrian space? Accessible pavements? Bus reliability? More cafe space?

No. Queues of cars.

And city residents suffer with an unreliable bus service.
Edinburgh aims high with the rhetoric of its transport plans, but the execution…🤦
And it looks like corporate interests will win out against pedestrianised public space - so well-off visitors can drive to the door of a hotel with an existing car park - yards away from tram and train stations.

👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

The all-powerful active travel lobby, huh?
In some good news the #PavementParking Ban has worked well. Credit to @DrScottArthurMP, predecessor @lmacinnessnp and cross party support.

Basically because it’s a simple message - which is why we need blanket 20mph rather than a patchwork of different rules.

End 🧵 Image

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More from @SW20Ed

Sep 22
🚨 SW20 on tour 🚨

🇳🇱🧵
Read 19 tweets
Jul 4
It’s time for an #Edinburgh congestion charge.

Here’s why🧵 Image
The planned 2006 £2/day charge to pass one of the boundaries would have raised £50mn a year had it been introduced.

By now, the city might have raised an extra £850mn to spend on public transport.

Possibly above a billion if adjusted for inflation.
Almost two decades later, Edinburgh has ambitious car km reduction targets backed (in principle, although sadly not in practice) by 4/5 council parties.

But without measures like a congestion charge to both cut traffic AND raise funds for public transport, those will be missed.
Read 23 tweets
May 6
🚨 SW20 on Tour 🚨

What can #Edinburgh learn from 🇫🇷?

🌳⬆️more trees
♟️⬆️more bollards
🌷⬆️more greenery
🚶⬆️walkable neighbourhoods
🚃⬆️prioritise public transport
🪑⬆️more places to sit
👂⬇️less noise
🚗⬇️fewer (but not no) cars Image
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France is consistently adding green to grey spaces.

And it does so not as an exception, but at the point streets are resurfaced - often filtering them too.

Rather than planters, #Edinburgh needs to add proper rain gardens and greenery as well as… Image
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…street trees.

Trees are either lacking or don’t feature enough in #Edinburgh plans for George Street, Teviot Place, Dalry, the recent tram routes, the West Edinburgh link etc.

#Edinburgh designs are grey, late-1990s designs and not welcoming or climate-friendly.

Image
Image
Read 11 tweets
Feb 28
Every day approximately 7,650 pupils at Edinburgh’s Independent Schools are driven some of the way to school.

Despite being only 20% of the total pupils educated in Edinburgh - they form 53% of the kids driven to school in #Edinburgh

They are a huge part of city traffic.

🧵1/4
65% of kids are driven at least some
of the way to Edinburgh’s independent schools.

A high proportion of privately educated kids are driven all of the way (44%).

It’s likely their journeys, on average, will be longer too.

“The school run” is a huge part of congestion.

2/4 Image
The trends are sticky though. Let’s see what happens as free bus travel really beds in.

Predictions:

1. Negligible difference to the 7.5k independently educated kids being driven.

2. Slight decreases in kids walking or being driven to state schools.

Let’s see 📊 📈

3/4
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
Who holds a Drivers Licence? Scotland-wide data:

🙋‍♀️A third of women don’t drive

💸 The more you earn more, the more likely you are to be able to drive and the more frequently you will drive.

🤷‍♂️Men are much more likely to drive and do so more frequently.

🧵…. Image
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In Scotland:

🚗 Drivers are more likely to to male

🙋‍♀️A third of women do not hold a drivers licence

⬆️ But the % of women holding licences has increased - a lot.

📈10% more men hold a license than women. Image
This plays out locally in #Edinburgh census data.

c9-10% more women have commutes of less than 5km. Men commute further, are more likely to drive and therefore emit more carbon.

Better local public transport and walking and cycling routes would benefit women disproportionately. Image
Read 11 tweets
Dec 9, 2023
Viewforth should’ve been wider pavements as a minimum, but ideally the filtering of rat runs.

Instead four parking spaces have been prioritised.

But it’s part of a long list of council failures to take opportunities, making their own car reduction target harder to achieve 🧵👇
Removing not enhancing temporary measures:

George IV & Forrest Rd
Braid Road
Longstone
Silverknowes

Failure to capitalise on lengthy closures and filter, bus gate or narrow:

North Bridge
Shandon
Craiglockhart

Poor design:

Elm Row
Ocean Terminal
CCWEL
Picardy Pl
Leith Walk
Read 26 tweets

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