Edinburgh Council's big travel plans: I've had my say, have you? – Steve Cardownie

Edinburgh Council leader Cammy Day took to the pages of this paper on Monday where he announced that the council had just launched “a major consultation to help shape the way people move around, to and from Edinburgh”.

The draft plan, now open for comments, covers active travel, public transport, parking, road safety and air quality action plans which aim to create cleaner, greener, safer, more accessible and affordable travel choices, while reinforcing the Capital’s net-zero 2030 goals. Suitably enthused, but still mindful of the council’s track record on dealing with feedback from previous public consultation exercises, I dutifully logged on and proceeded to fill in the questionnaire.

Taking on board Councillor Day’s insistence that the council needed the necessary information to balance different travel needs with Edinburgh’s limited space and that information would be provided by gathering views from communities alongside data and technical evidence, I diligently answered all the questions posed in the survey.

As far as I could ascertain, all the relevant aspects of travelling around in a busy city appeared to be covered and the whole exercise took me no longer than 20 minutes. I drive and use all forms of public transport, in addition to Shanks’s pony. It was remarkedly easy to complete so I was more than happy to play my part.

Edinburgh Council has published a draft plan for the future of the city's transport system (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

There is no shortage of interest in transport issues within Edinburgh, from critics and supporters alike, so hopefully there will be a meaningful response to this survey. Of course, gathering the information is the easy part – the implementation of transport measures which will not please everyone will probably be a tad more difficult.