@crowriver, do you have a source for that map?
It appears to use the existing East Craigs paths which may be a simple as a TRO removing the current cycle part of the vehicle prohibition. Despite the police calling the footpaths cycle paths in their press releases about Mayberry(sic) my understanding is that cycling is still officially not allowed on the local paths. I hope they will have the foresight to include all the whole East Craigs path network in the project and associated TROs.
The route goes through Craigmount so the steps which are already the subject of a feasibility study will be included if they are not already fixed by the time this goes live.
These are both things which Hankchief is/has been actively campaigning for. Is that why they invited you to perform the role of "Member of Public"?
It then crosses the railway line somewhere at the west end of Gyle park which would be an entirely new crossing over (or under) the railway and far more direct than the current route which is best avoided.
I'm not as familiar with the area south of The Gyle but the route appears to be fairly direct with only a little bit of wiggle so I assume it is another road with segregated lanes through Bankhead towards Sighthill.
Despite the press releases it doesn't appear to directly link the 1600 new houses at West Craigs (at least I assume that is the ones they meant, although as this route will hopefully be largely built before the first residents are living there that is presumably to be expected. I imagine that the developers might try and use it to wangle out of paying for the new bridge at Edinburgh Gateway though so we will need to watch out for that. Connecting the main active travel path through this development to the East Craigs paths now feels even more important to me.
While it will provide a nice route for travelling from the East Craigs area it doesn't appear to me to be direct enough to replace the requirement for a direct route from NCN1 to the north via Maybury to the Gyle. The large number of cyclists who currently use the pavement will probably continue to do so until Maybury Road itself is dealt with. Perhaps if the new route were to be given full priority when crossing any non arterial road it could serve this purpose for some commuters.
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