*Waves to Stephan, Roibeard and newtoit*
The Inch is a funny old place. It dates from the early fifties and was initially used principally to house people from the Caltongate tennements, but also included special purpose housing for certain professions. There's a street that originally housed only police officers for instance.
When it was built it was used as a test-bed for council housing prototypes. It's for this reason that there are rows with copper-sheathed roofs, rows with pan-tiles and rows with slates. The build quality of the houses is superb - hard Niddrie brick - and the garden spaces are generous.
The combination has led to a very interesting 'community'. The last of the original inhabitants are still on the go, but ageing. Their children have often inherited the houses after they were sold by the council - very few are still in municipal hands. Because the area has a reputation for being slightly tasty (it's actually anything but) the houses were quite cheap and for a while now professionals have been moving in to get the garden space and good bus links and access to the green spaces.
So, you have a mix of old school working class and their kids (often in trades) alongside slightly hippyish bourgeois types. There are many European citizens too. So what of cycling and walking?
The original population include some people who used to cycle as recreation, back when cycle clubs were aligned with left-wing politics and associated with the working class. They don't cycle now because they can't or see bikes as low status. Their kids don't seem to cycle at all once they're adult though they do mope about on bikes when they're younger.
Beside that there are several hard-core bicylist households. I know of six, but there will be many more. They're all 'incomers' as far as I can make out.
The Inch is of course perfect cycling distance from town - it's a casual cycle but a long walk. However, there are some real physical obstacles in the shape of the Lady Road junctions and the slope to the south up to Gilmerton. I never see anyone cycling to the high school.
I'd guess that the main issue is the association of car use with social aspiration. There's also, I suspect, a feminist issue in the perceived incompatibility of a highly-groomed appearance with wind, rain and chain-oil. I have no idea what to do about either other than just building proper cycle lanes and letting people find them. It would make a great pilot project.