Monthly Archives: August 2015

Welcome to Living Streets Edinburgh

News

Edinburgh, with its generally dense population and walkable distances, could be a European exemplar of a pedestrian-friendly city. But the many sensible walking-related policies of the City of Edinburgh Council too often don’t translate in practice into a safe and attractive walking environment on the streets. Motor traffic continues to dominate the vast majority of the city’s streets – yet there are clear economic, environmental and social benefits in prioritising pedestrian movement within a high-quality public realm.

Our overall aim is to:

Promote walking (including ‘wheeling’) as a safe, enjoyable, accessible and healthy way of getting around Edinburgh.

To this end, we want to see:

  • walking given the top priority over other forms of travel in all council transport and planning policies;
  • a reduction in the volume of motorised traffic and its impact on people using the street;
  • better designed and maintained pavements, road crossings and other pedestrian facilities;
  • more effective and joined-up monitoring and inspection of the walking environment by CEC;
  • planning policy which encourages dense, sustainable housing over car-dominated, dispersed development;
  • more effective implementation of pro-walking policies ‘on the ground’.

Our priorities for action in 2024 are to:

  • Campaign for increased budgets (capital and staffing) for the
    pedestrian environment by the City of Edinburgh Council, especially
    to:
    • widen footways;
    • tackle pavement clutter;
    • improve priority for pedestrians at signalled crossings;
    • improve accessibility by installing dropped kerbs and continuous
      footways.
  • Secure better enforcement of controls on parking (including new
    ‘pavement parking’ provisions) and speeding.
  • Support specific local campaigns for place-making and traffic
    reduction.
  • Develop our work on walk-friendly environments at and around
    schools.
  • Influence planning policy and practice to aid walking and wheeling
    and reduce motor traffic.
  • Grow the number of our supporters and range of our campaigns.

If you would like to get involved in our work in any way, please email us at:
 edinburghgroup@livingstreets.org.uk

 

Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Call for Evidence – Response of Living Streets Scotland

Consultation Response, Trams,

The Living Streets Scotland official response to the Edinburgh tram enquiry can be found here – Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Call for Evidence – Response of Living Streets Scotland

The main points of the response:-

  •  Poor crossing facilities, using out-dated concepts such as barrier islands with inadequate space for volume of pedestrians (example York Place)
  • Unnecessary controlled crossings, not justified by the volume of traffic – which needlessly hinder pedestrian movement (example St Andrews Square)
  • Significant impacts on existing signalised crossings, causing extensive delays for pedestrians and dangerous crowding at junctions. This has led to risky crossing behaviour due to frustration (example Princes Street)
  • Conflicts with cyclists through poorly designed shared space (St. Andrews Square, / North St. Andrews Street)
  • Poor routes and integration between the tram route stops and major destinations and interchanges, creating indirect and diversionary routes to major facilities (Examples include: Gyle Shopping Centre / Edinburgh College / Bankhead Stop and Waverley railway station / St. Andrews Square)
  • Generally, worse conditions for walkers and cyclists in terms of safety, convenience and comfort (example Haymarket)