CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
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Fergus Boden (@fergusboden)
24/10/2014 09:14
@CyclingEdin this petition on an Edinburgh Bike Hire Scheme only needs 51 more signatures to get debated by Edinburgh City Council!
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http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory_record/435261/bike_hire_scheme
Signed.
I notice there's a (not yet validated) petition on removing all the changes from George Street there too? Won't be signing that one, however flawed the scheme may be.
From that George Street petition:
"I walk along the entirety of George Street every day, and thusfar have not seen a single bicycle. Equally, on many days the alfresco dining areas have been empty due to inclement weather (and this has been since the scheme started at the height of summer)."
I do hope the petitioner is not using hyperbole to overstate their case...
PS: shurely not?
From the George Street whinge: "Edinburgh used to be one of the easiest cities to drive in in the world".
Has that ever been the case? I very much doubt it.
Oh by the way, the bike hire scheme petition only needs another 32 signatures to be automatically up for discussion by Council. Come on CCE, we can do that! Where's the harm?
There was a fair bit of hostility to the George Street changes at the NTBCC meeting last week, but almost entirely from residents of Albany Street who understandably aren't happy about the increase in HGV/commercial traffic along their street since the tramworks (and the fact that it has been designated an arterial route on the 20mph maps), so seemed keen to lash out at any changes to traffic plans.
There may be some knock-on effect from George Street, but I'd have thought that was minimal. Chap stated he'd rather see George Street as a through street at one point, which is odd given it's never really been a through street. [The Cooncil's given people a stick to beat them with with its half-way house approach on George Street - although better than four lanes of traffic, it's still not a set-piece urban space because of the parking and two lanes for motors - it doesn't feel like Munich's Kaufingerstrasse or Theatinerstrasse, Dijon's Rue de la Liberte or even Buchanan Street.]
To be fair to the most vocal NTBCC complainant, he also made the very sensible suggestion that the north-south pavements at either end of Albany Street should be extended across the end of the street as raised tables to slow/discourage use of this as a rat run. I'd have thought some bollards would be even more effective.
Unclear whether the Cooncil is amenable to such as suggestion - I suspect the traffic planners do see Albany as an arterial route to relieve pressure from Picardy and York Place.
I've signed it. I can't see the council giving it the go-ahead - that would be a 180 from their current policy to reduce cycling - but let them shame themselves by trying to bury it.
Signed.
What's NTBCC?
New Town something-beginning-with-B Comunity Council?
"residents of Albany Street"
Used to work there two decades ago. Wasn't aware many folk actually lived there, except at the western edge. Mostly offices, small hotels, members' clubs IIRC. Mind you there were folk living in the Mews and the upper storeys of some townhouses now I come to think of it.
"Edinburgh used to be one of the easiest cities to drive in in the world"
Well, back in the early 90s, I remember being proud to pick up visitors from Waveley and drive them along Princes St on the way home, pointing out all the beautiful sights along the way.
I also remember parking on a single yellow outside Lloyds Bank on George St for 20 mins!
Life was easier for the few privileged motorists then, but a darn sight more unpleasant for pedestrians (and cyclists were virtually non-existant)
Shame it doesn't recognise non Edinburgh postcodes. Used my work one instead.
512 sigs :-)
@fimm B = Broughton
@crowriver Quite a few residents along there now. A lot of the houses are split into flats.
Back on topic, bike hire would work very well around the city centre and West End and would be great for runs down Leith Walk (infrastructure permitting). They'd need to budget for ferrying the bikes back to the old town from Stockbridge and Leith.
"They'd need to budget for ferrying the bikes back to the old town from Stockbridge and Leith."
Happens in Paris and London, and presumably elsewhere.
In London one reason for the Ken/Boris bikes was to reduce pressure on the tube/need to build more lines.
But they're doing that anyway.
There was 'talk' about LB/ET doing 'cycling' but I don't suppose that is going anywhere.
"They'd need to budget for ferrying the bikes back to the old town from Stockbridge and Leith."
Just stick a trailer on the trams, like a baggage car! They take folk to and from the airport so it could double as suitcase space, meaning more seats in the actual passenger cars. Passenger could take their bikes on too. Much like the old trains..... oh yeh... ;O)
"They'd need to budget for ferrying the bikes back to the old town from Stockbridge and Leith."
How do we suggest to the council's discussion-participants the idea someone had on a previous Edinburgh-bike-hire-scheme thread of recruiting hill-not-minding locals to ferry bikes back up to hilltop stations, perhaps in exchange for rental-credit (or at the very least in exchange for not being charged for 'restocking' journeys)?
I was imagining bike hire round the stations, Waverley and Haymarket. Of course exit Haymarket to head to Princes Street/Fountainbridge and what would face you would be tram tracks.
Velib/Boris etc hire bikes tend to have big fat tyres, so tramlines are presumably less of an issue. Of course, a sensible council would add segregated bike facilities to its roads at the same time as introducing a bike hire programme...
@Rosie,
Make the tyres fit exactly in the lines so you can trambulate all the way along to Princes St?
"I was imagining bike hire round the stations, Waverley and Haymarket. "
Well that might be happening anyway as part of the new Scotrail franchise.
Even so, no harm in forcing the Council to discuss it. Petitions committee may refer the matter to the Transport committee too. Then CEC may actually get prepared for lots of 'Bike & Go' folks pedalling around the city, and sort out cycling infrastructure connecting to the main stations?
Ahem. How likely is that? Oh well, we can hope...
"512 sigs :-)"
Result!
That didn't take long. ;-)
The petition has come at an opportune time. There is quite a lot of interest in the council and lot of lobbying going on to get a cycle hire scheme up an running in Edinburgh. Glasgow has a a hire scheme, so does Stirling, so why not Edinburgh?
Don't get me wrong. I signed and Facebooked the petition to other people to sign. Make 'em come, and then they will build it. I just wondered how it would work in practice with likely pick up and drop off points and where most people would be cycling to. Edinburgh isn't a sprawly city like London.
I have a seen a proposal which had 70 possible pick up and drop off points across the Edinburgh. This was from a company which is operating over 20,000 rental bikes, in 70 Cities, across 14 countries, spread over 3 continents, so I think they know how the business model works.
@kim Sounds about right. One every three blocks or so aound town, a bit denser in the centre.
There's a lot of Edinburgh where you do not need to overcome a massive gradient, and hire bikes would make almost every ped a potential "faster-moving pedestrian"... For instance, office workers at the east end of George Street could be in William Street in minutes. I hardly ever go to the West End, but being able to hop on a hire bike would open up a much wider radius of the city centre for me at lunch time.
My bike, parked at Waitrose in Morningside, was leafleted about this.
Link to the quite long URL. QR code would have been useful for once.
Also tells us to tweet about it using #edbhs
Up to 650ish signatures now.
Slightly OT, but the petition to get traffic lights at the Dalmahoy,(discussed here and here), had 1528 signatures but only 571 were considered valid, per the Transport Committee minutes.
Maybe influenced by 'outsiders' without an Edinburgh postcode who travel past but a surprising level of invalid signatures.
Something I said before (but don't remember!)
Rest of report worth a look -
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2.3 BSS in Edinburgh
Chris Hill, who runs the City Cycling Edinburgh blog, said the council was failing in its obligations following its "headline-grabbing" signature of the European charter. He said: "Certainly the council is lukewarm about the whole idea of a bike share scheme. Other schemes have been funded by advertising, but they have not got the sorts of money they had in London or Paris.”
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5 Discussion and Conclusions
According to the literature review conducted and the interviews with members from industry for the implementation for a BSS in Edinburgh to occur it will have to be funded through advertising and private funding. Whether it is funding that may have been spent publically anyway and now used as a greener mode i.e. car parking or docking stations paid for by companies or businesses the conclusion is that Edinburgh should possess a BSS.
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Next Bike who run the cycle hire schemes in Glasgow and Stirling are actively negotiating with CEC to introduce just a scheme in Edinburgh. Having used the ones in Glasgow, I would welcome then here...
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