Cycle scheme for the middle class few, not the many - Iain Whyte
Most Edinburgh people make regular complaints about the council’s transport policy and many make feel that it is solely focused on cycling. This week the council proved that when it celebrated opening its “Leith Connections” cycle route.
The scheme spent £4.6m ripping up recently laid setts on Henderson Street to create a cycle lane on a quiet road with no through traffic. But its real impact is a negative one for pedestrians and bus users in the area.
Pedestrians are meant to be top of the council’s “transport hierarchy”, given the greatest priority because we all use pavements. While buses and trams are the most popular mode of travel in the city both for number of journeys and distance.
As the Transport Convener cut a ribbon at Sandport Bridge, the nearest bus stop to the busy Kirkgate, remodelled as part of the scheme, remains closed.
Pedestrians, including those with mobility issues must go much further to get a bus. The bus stop itself “floats” outside a two-way cycle lane with a very narrow area to wait for and board the bus. Its pair across the road has been moved further from the destination.
Buses themselves are clogged in the traffic at the Foot of the Walk causing congestion and journey delays for passengers, delays that discourage bus use and leave passengers waiting in more polluted air.
The Sandport Bridge is closed to traffic while the much more obvious pedestrianisation of the Shore hasn’t happened. This could have been a welcoming outdoor area for the hospitality businesses there. It’s already very busy in good weather.
Meanwhile, as a local said on social media “Henderson Street is deid”.
Traffic is constrained by all the closed roads in the centre of Leith with no resilience when there are roadworks on all the few remaining routes as happened a couple of weeks ago. Buses regularly miss out whole areas when roadworks occur, with no alternative routes left.
The Kirkgate is a vital shopping centre for walking locals. Many older people and those from some of the more deprived areas in northeast Edinburgh use buses to get there.
In contrast, the bits of cycle lane that are used only assist the young fit middle class and their modern day “servants”, the takeaway delivery riders on e-bikes. This is truly a scheme created by the middle-class in left-wing political parties for the middle class few, not the many.