It is good to see the number of city bike hire stations slowly (very slowly) increasing, but does anyone know what their station strategy actually is?
I see that a fairly large station has now been added at Ocean Terminal, which is sensible as it is a significant trip attractor.
There is also now a very large station at the junction of Easter Road, Lochend Road and Leith Links, which, although a sensible "node" which is accessible for people living in multiple directions, seems rather too much of a concentration of bikes at one point. It is not really quite close enough to be properly convenient for the nearby major destinations of the shops in the Kirkgate Centre and the Foot of the Walk area (if you have to walk more than 2 or 3 minutes from the docking station to your destination, it's no longer really particularly convenient). I can't help but think that it would have made more sense here to have split the number of docks into two halves and have had a docking station in the Kirkgate as well, which would be much more useful for more people who might want to "just quickly nip around to the shops"?
There are also still no docking stations in Marchmont, which you would think would be an early stage addition to the scheme: it has slightly less frequent bus service than many places, and although it is not an excessively long walk from Tollcross, Bruntsfield or the UoE central campus, or even Waverley Station, there would be definite time savings for hopping on a bike instead. There is also a swimming pool and a popular street of greengrocers in the heart of the neighbourhood.
On the subject of stations, Haymarket seems a very strange omission. Depending on where train travellers are going to (or whether it is a more convenient station for you), you could save 5 minutes not travelling on the train to Waverley, and another 5 minutes at least not climbing out of Waverley station, which puts a lot of places within 10 minutes' cycling distance instead.
(I would also be curious as to whether, being a "sump", the Waverley Bridge docking station gets used much as a starting point (uphill in all directions, apart from towards the Parliament, which also oddly lacks a docking station), or more as a drop-off point for people coming downhill to catch trains?)
There are also a lot of other "gaps" or trip generator locations which you would think would be obvious for filling-in sooner rather than later?
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