Lothian cycle campaign group, Spokes are holding a meeting on 24 May discussing the topic “A City where you Don’t Need a Car”.
Speakers at the meeting in May include:
- Cllr Scott Arthur, Edinburgh City Transport Convener – the Council’s plans
- Phil Noble, Strategy Manager for Active Travel and Streetspace – more detail on the policy delivery documents, including the Active Travel Action Plan
- Adrian Davis, Professor of Transport & Health at Napier Transport Research Unit – he will critique the policies – are they sufficiently ambitious? will they work?
- … followed by a one hour panel Q&A, chaired by Dr Caroline Brown, Spokes member, Transform Scotland policy adviser, transport academic – a chance to interrogate and challenge the speakers.
VENUE and DETAILS
- Where Augustine United Church 41 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL
- Date Wednesday 24 May 2023
- Time Starts 7.30, Ends 9.30. Doors open 6.45 for coffee, stalls and chat
- Queries & Questions Queries, or questions for the speakers, can be emailed to spokes@spokes.org.uk. However, questions in person from audience members are likely to have greatest priority on the night
- Online Spokes hope to live broadcast on our youtube channel – details nearer the time on Spokes website. We also intend to make the recording available a few days later.
Spokes explains the background
The City of Edinburgh Council is consulting on a new Active Travel Action Plan (ATAP) and a series of other Mobility Plan delivery documents all aimed at supporting Edinburgh Net Zero 2030, and a 30% reduction in car km by 2030. The public meeting will hear from the council, from an expert, and then there’s a full hour panel discussion – an opportunity to challenge the speakers.
Do the delivery plans live up to the Council’s ambition to cut car km 30% by 2030, alongside greatly increased travel by foot, bike and public transport? Will they enable more people to live car-free? Will they lead to speedy implementation? Spokes’ meeting is your opportunity to find out!
The ambition “to create a city where you don’t need to own a car to get around,” mentioned in several of the documents (e.g. Parking Action Plan, p8) is very welcome, for reasons of climate, public health, congestion and equalities. Such an ambition is also essential if the Council is to achieve its ultra tough target to reduce car km by 30% by 2030.
A top cycling takeaway from the draft ATAP is the new focus on main road segregated routes. It says [chap 5],
“The (off road) traffic-free routes will continue to play a vital role, and we will seek to improve their comfort,safety and security. However, we now plan to develop a joined-up network of routes that feel safe to everyone at all times of day. This network will need to use segregated cycle tracks on main roads, as well as unsegregated on-street routes that have low volumes of motor traffic.”
The three highlighted phrases above [Spokes emphases] neatly summarise important major developments, which we strongly welcome, in the Council’s approach to cycling policy, and we urge determined implementation.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
