Tag: active travel

Play your part in active travel planning

Local councillor Lesley Hinds outlined initiatives to keep the city moving at last week’s Inverleith Community Conference. You can be involved  …

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A recruitment drive is now under way for members of two groups involved in developing active travel policy for Edinburgh.

The Council is setting up a new Active Travel Forum, to be chaired by Transport Convener Councillor Lesley Hinds (above), which will be supplemented by a Cycling Forum and a Walking Forum.

Applications are now being sought from four members of the public to join the Cycling and Walking Forum (ie eight in total), alongside one lobby group representative for each group.

The Council is also looking for a business representative to join the Active Travel Forum, to give a perspective on active travel and staff commuting.

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Councillor Adam McVey, Vice Convener of Transport and Environment, will chair both the Cycling and Walking Forums. He said: “This is a great opportunity for anyone who’s interested in active travel in Edinburgh. We want these forums to reflect a broad range of viewpoints to help us develop new policies and design principles for future walking and cycling initiatives. If you’ve got ideas on how we can do things differently or if you just want to play a bigger role in the City’s active travel plans, we’d love to hear from you.”

The full membership of the Cycling and Walking Forums will be made up of existing Transport Forum members, elected members and officers from the Council’s Transport division.

The first meetings of the Active Travel Forum, Cycling Forum and Walking Forum will take place on Wednesday 26 November 2014.

To apply, complete the online application form by Friday 14 November.

Just capital! City to invest £1.4m in cycling

ON THE ROAD: yesterday’s Pedal for Scotland event

Initiatives to make Edinburgh a better city for ‘active travel’ will be considered by councillors this week, with cycling set to recieve a considerable chunk of the council’s transport budget.  Inspired by Olympic success, there’s been a sharp rise in bike ownership over the last month so the measures are likely to prove popular with the Edinburgh public.

An extra dedicated cycling officer will also be appointed to take forward the design and construction of schemes that are already in the pipeline.

A further £460,000 will be spent on routine maintenance of cycle routes and on marketing and  promotion. This year the Council has also attracted £425,000 of matching funding for cycle projects from the Scottish Government via Sustrans.

Councillor Jim Orr, vice-convener of the Transport committee, said: “This programme is evidence of the capital coalition’s commitment to making it easier, safer and more attractive for people to cycle and walk in Edinburgh. It represents a record investment by the Council with 5% of our total transport budget going on cycling, and we believe this is more than any other Scottish authority in both total and per head spend. Encouraging active travel makes sense for environmental, health and traffic reasons, but Edinburgh is also a fantastic city to explore on foot or two wheels. Our investment will make the most of that.”

There will be further spending on promoting walking, with a new post focussed on improving design for pedestrians and  upgrading popular routes.

The measures form part of the Council’s Active Travel action plan, which was drawn up in 2010 with NHS Lothian, walking charity Living Streets, Sustrans and the city’s leading cycling group Spokes, among others. The Council’s progress will be measured under Scottish and European schemes to promote cycling, as well as annual reports to the Transport committee.

Edinburgh’s own Sir Chris Hoy’s herculean Olympic exploits have doubtless encouraged many more citizens to get on their bikes. Yesterday council leader Andrew Burns was joined by Inverleith councillor Nigel Bagshaw and Forth’s Cammy Day among others on the freshnlo Pedal for Scotland Glasgow to Edinburgh charity cycle – his tenth in a row! It seems the capital’s gone cycle crazy!

8500 cyclists registered for yesterday’s Pedal for Scotland event which was started by cycling star Mark beaumont and Scottish Transport minister Keith Brown