Edinburgh roads: Call for low traffic neighbourhoods across city as car mile reduction target 'incredibly unlikely' to be met

Latest official statistics show 1.89 billion vehicle miles were travelled on Edinburgh's roads in 2023, 1.45 billion of them by cars and taxis - up on the previous three years, but still below the pre-Covid level of 1.52 billion.

Spokes say Low Traffic Neighbourhoods should be rolled out across the city | supplied

In a written submission to the council's transport and environment committee today, cycling campaign group Spokes said: "Unless something radically changes, it is now incredibly unlikely that the council will meet the 30 per cent reduction by 2030 target.

"We believe that these figures clearly make the case for increased levels of active travel investment, and much faster implementation of projects in the pipeline.”

The group noted that construction of the cross-city cycle route City Centre West East Link (CCWEL) had started in 2014 and was still not finished.

And it said other active travel projects, such as Meadows-George Street and Meadows-Canal, were likely to have similar or longer timescales.

"There are also cheaper and quicker interventions which are known to reduce car usage and enable people to walk, wheel and cycle more. These include Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which should be rolled out citywide."

Spokes said it was not aware of any city in the world that had achieved anything close to a 30 per cent reduction in car-kilometres without strong "demand management" policies, such as congestion pricing or workplace parking levies. 

"We believe the figures make a strong case for revisiting the decision to reject a workplace parking levy.

"We also believe it is important that the council increasingly reallocates road space from private motor vehicles to sustainable modes of transport.  This should be done as a matter of course in all resurfacing projects, with particular importance at junctions.

"Edinburgh’s target of reducing car-kilometres driven by 30% by 2030 is ambitious, but achieving it will have multiple major health and economic benefits for people who live in, work in or visit Edinburgh. It is now time to make it happen."