Separately to the WoL discussion...
I tried a different simulated commute tonight, this time cutting straight from the canal to Currie on something called the donkey track, or similar.
http://app.strava.com/activities/36794711
Despite being half a mile longer and spending about five minutes repeatedly getting my phone out and doubling back on myself in Currie (you can see I eventually gave up and just went on the A70, which was extremely busy), it was a few minutes quicker than riding up the WoL.
Overall it's a much, much better surface, for all that about fifty feet of the actual donkey track has been massively erroded by a watercourse (I just rode over the verge - benefits of big tyres!) and is certainly a contender.
There's one set of lights between the canal and donkey track and it feels like a shifty bit of town, driver-wise, but soon left behind. Obviously the canal is extremely rapid in comparison with WoL.
Strangely you don't seem to spend much time going up on this route, although it has the same start and end point. One quick climb on road and then the donkey track is generally upward too, but fine on my 2 speed.
I then rode back using the "Lymphoy road" and woodhall/blinkbonny path:
http://app.strava.com/activities/36794753
Lymphoy rd was relatively rapid (compared with the WoL) until the end which has obviously recently been remade - that will need some heavy traffic to pack it down before it will be pleasant even on 40mm tyres. With a head-mounted light of greater power it would have been a bit faster.
Path to woodhall was surprisingly good apart from one short section where it turns uphill and has been gutted by another watercourse - I had to dismount as it was too steep for my gearing with the depth of the trenches.
Then suddenly you pop out on a super smooth road, carve past the bypass and you're in Colinton. I wasted a lot of time finding the cut-throughs I wanted to get back towards Blackford. Overall not a fast route by any means (40 mins for 8.5 miles, life might be too short for that).
All that's really left is to ride up there and back on the main road at rush hour, just to see. So far I'm not convinced as a place we'd want to rear a family, although it must be said that links from where you live to town are not absolutely everything. ;-)
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