News on Edinburgh Spaces for people

Spaces for People improvements continue in the right direction

Our Spaces for People team is still working hard to put in place measures to give more space for people to walk, cycle and wheel, and to address the issues you raised in your feedback.

We’ve already installed segregated cycle lanes on key routes, widened pavements in shopping streets, removed street clutter to help people who have mobility issues or other disabilities and improved signalling for pedestrian crossings. Improvements have also been made around schools to help children get to and from school safely.

One of the next schemes we aim to implement is a low traffic neighbourhood in East Craigs. Through the Commonplace interactive map, people told us that they want to see better conditions for active travel in the area, feedback echoed in our recent work on the West Edinburgh Link project.

In his recent Leader’s Report , Council Leader Adam McVey said:

“This will be the first of what I hope will be more schemes to prioritise residents’ spaces. We’ll be closely monitoring the temporary changes as they’re introduced, reducing through-routes for rat-running traffic to create a safer, more relaxed neighbourhood for residents and families.”

In the coming weeks, we’ll be adding to our temporary network of segregated cycle lanes, increasing pavement widths at more schools and enhancing measures in key shopping streets by replacing cones with more robust, space-defining cylinders.

Adam added:

“We all know just how much shops, cafés, restaurants and other businesses have suffered over recent months and these changes aim to support economic recovery across the city by making it easier, safer and more pleasurable for people to spend time in their local shopping streets. Recently we published a report highlighting evidence from around the world on just how beneficial high-quality spaces and accessibility for walking and cycling can be for the economy, and we remain committed to bringing those benefits to residents and businesses across the capital.”

You can continue to keep up to date with our progress over the coming weeks and months on the Council’s website.

Posted on 28th August 2020

by Project Team