The New Transport Initiative

Introduction

Traffic growth is causing increasing problems in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas. The City of Edinburgh Council, along with other local authorities in south east Scotland, is developing its New Transport Initiative to deal with these problems.

The Initiative proposes up to £1.5 billion worth of transport improvements over the next 10 to 15 years, linked to the introduction of a congestion charging scheme.

Why is traffic growing?

The Edinburgh area has experienced enormous economic growth in recent years. This has led to thousands of new jobs, a growing population and a rise in the number of people travelling into and around the city, especially by car. Traffic on some of the main routes into the city has increased by over 60% in the last 20 years. Over time, traffic congestion has increasingly affected larger areas of the city for longer periods of the day. Further increases are forecast in future years as traffic levels continue to rise.

The Challenge

Traffic congestion causes problems for everyone using the road network. It delays commercial vehicles as well as people travelling by car or by bus and, as a consequence, harms the economy. Traffic is also a major source of noise and air pollution. This pollution contributes to health problems as well as to wider environmental problems. The challenge is to bring congestion and pollution under control. While recent measures to increase public transport use have shown some success, much bigger improvements are needed to meet this challenge.