BEST has its say
Coalition wants to retain Spaces for People
BETTER EDINBURGH for Sustainable Travel, the BEST coalition of Edinburgh community groups and organisations, is calling on the council to do its best for public health by supporting the retention of the Spaces for People schemes across the city.
The Transport and Environment Committee will meet on 17 June to decide whether or not to support the continuation of the schemes.
BEST, in its support for healthier, safer, more inclusive streets, believes that the schemes, developed in response to the pandemic have benefitted children and adults alike, from the closure of Links Gardens in Leith to through traffic, to protected cycle infrastructure on major arterial routes such as Lanark Road and Comiston Road. School schemes have been particularly popular, with schools across Edinburgh benefiting from lower pollution and safer streets at drop off and pick up times. For example, Corstorphine Primary has had a package of measures implemented, including roads closed to through traffic, widened pavements, narrowed junctions, and double yellow lines.
Twins, Maisie and Sandy Wood, aged 11, who live near the Spaces for People cycle lanes on Duddingston Road, cycle regularly with their parents and their wee brother, and are thrilled with the new infrastructure. Sandy says he loves the cycle lanes because he can cycle to places he couldn’t cycle before. Maisie thinks the same, and says that the lanes are great because she can get to places much easier.
Charlotte Maddix, from Newington Safe Routes, a member of BEST said: “Active travel is critical for our public health. The ability to move around the city without using a car has never been as important as it is now. It is vital that the city continues to provide safe, convenient infrastructure for those who want to walk, wheel and cycle for both leisure and functional trips wherever they are in the city. This means retaining wider clutter-free pavements, protected cycle infrastructure, routes that are genuinely quiet and or traffic free, and junction and crossings improvements. Many of the new schemes have been game changing for communities, with people now able for the first time to cycle safely with their children to school, or to the shops, or into the city centre, or to parks for a game of football. Ripping out these schemes would not only be a backward step in terms of air quality, climate change, and public health, it would also be inequitable for those without access to cars, and particularly those on low incomes who should have travel choices beyond public transport.”
Shelagh Sharp, who lives in Midmar, said:
“I am afraid to cycle in traffic so I have been cycling locally so much more because of Spaces for People. I completed the consultation asking for the measures to be retained permanently and I hope the council decides to retain the schemes. I have cycled some of the Quiet Route to the Meadows, and also up Braid Road when it was still closed to traffic, to get to Braid Hills Drive, which I hear will have a protected lane too. I welcome this because it is opening up new places I could reach by bike. Unfortunately Braid Road has reopened to traffic and I feel more anxious about cycling from my house.”
BEST believes the Council must retain the Spaces for People schemes and says that many people across the city depend on these schemes for day to day journeys. Returning to the status quo of pre-Covid, where there was hardly any protected on-road cycle infrastructure, is neither safe nor equitable, they claim.