Council’s Traffic Regulation Orders Sub-Committee meets on Monday

This committee was set up to be completely separate (apart from a handful of councillors who are members of both this and the Transport committee) and to decide upon the traffic orders which change the layout of our city streets.

The meeting on Monday has what looks like a lightweight agenda, but the New Town and Broughton Community Council (NTBCC) would beg to differ.

The community council has written an article on their website which is almost an open letter or a replacement for a deputation – since they are not able to make a deputation to this quasi-judicial meeting. They say they have significant concerns about the council planning to make some experimental traffic regulation orders permanent.

NTBCC have concerns about the request to the committee to make Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs) in two places permanent – on Waverley Bridge and on London Road. The community council believes the issues which they raised previously have not been properly addressed in the report before the committee and ask for it to reconsider what it might make permanent.

Waverley Bridge

The bridge was previously more or less a pedestrian zone apart from a taxi stand and the many delivery vehicles which continued to use it.

It used to be stopped up at Princes Street where buskers had an unofficial ready-made performance space.

In light of the continuing work at Jenners which spills out onto one lane of South St David Street, the decision was made to allow airport buses back onto the bridge and open up the road at Princes Street on a temporary basis.

The community council argue that this made streets such as Waterloo Place busy with buses to the danger of pedestrians. They also point out that there are two regulation orders which do not end on the same date and recommend that these are amended.

London Road

This is possibly one of the widest streets in Edinburgh – it used to have four lanes of traffic – and there are wide areas either side for pavements and verges.

The council chose to put in black and white wands (NTBCC say these are unusable in the World Heritage Site) and create a segregated cycle lane. Except it is not completely segregated as cyclists have to rejoin the carriageway at several points to avoid bus stops and junctions.

The community council say that Montrose Terrace and Regent Road would have been the better option. They point out that the cycle lanes are not well used (although the council has not provided data on the use of this route) and are not connected to other cycling infrastructure.

The community council refer to the coach parking at Baxter’s Place just down from the Playhouse which they say is connected to the loss of parking on London Road. They also object to the ETRO on the basis that the measures do not help cyclists or pedestrians and have a detrimental impact on surrounding streets.

The papers for the committee meeting are here on the council website.