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 2023 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