Edinburgh’s first ‘Quiet Route’ will be implemented between Greenbank and the Meadows, improving safety for children walking, cycling and wheeling to school, plus the many others who use the route.
We’re introducing the scheme on a temporary basis as part of the Spaces for People project, which supports people to travel by foot, bike or wheelchair during the COVID pandemic.
The latest measures will provide a safe way to walk, cycle or wheel, benefitting pupils from South Morningside Primary School, St Peter’s RC Primary School, James Gillespie’s Primary and High Schools, Bruntsfield Primary School, Boroughmuir High School and Edinburgh Steiner School. Improvements will also connect the south of the city to the Meadows and the existing active travel network there, as well as enhancing safe cycling links to Astley Ainslie Hospital.
Changes being introduced this week will include closures to motor traffic at the following locations:
- Canaan Lane, north of the Astley Ainslie hospital access
- Whitehouse Loan, immediately south of the junction with Strathearn Road and immediately south of the junction with Warrender Park Road.
Transport and Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes said:
This is an extremely popular walking and cycling route, in particular for the many children and families travelling on foot, bike or wheelchair to the local primary and high schools, so it makes absolute sense to make these improvements.
We’ve heard from residents, parents and school pupils about pinch points and traffic volumes, especially as people try to physically distance, and they’ve been extremely supportive of proposals to limit motor vehicles there. Not only will this provide a safer, more relaxed route once schools return but it will connect with our existing active travel network at the Meadows, and on to the city centre via the pop-up cycle lanes introduced through Spaces for People.
Transport and Environment Vice Convener Councillor Karen Doran said:
It is our duty to protect the health and safety of Edinburgh’s children and families and these changes are about providing protected routes for people taking daily exercise and making essential journeys to local schools, when they reopen.
Once in place we will closely monitor this scheme, as we have done with all Spaces for People measures, making tweaks where necessary.
Ewen Maclean of Blackford Safe Routes added:
The Meadows to Greenbank Quiet Route will greatly improve the safety and wellbeing of thousands of local school children and residents. As was evident from the demand for our biweekly bike bus, many parents who travel to school would do so by bike or walking but feel unsafe to do so on account of the danger posed by the traffic volume in the area.
Opening up a Quiet Route where more vulnerable road users feel safer, encourages modal shift from cars to more sustainable forms of transport, bringing with it many environmental and health benefits. Using planters to provide modal filters also produces areas where children can play more safely away from through traffic, and enhances the community. Experience of installing Quiet Routes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods elsewhere shows that reducing traffic is universally popular once the scheme is installed. Due to Covid it is even more vital that people are given safe alternative options to the car. Producing a Quiet Route facilitates these options and will benefit everyone.
Proposals for the Meadows to Greenbank Quiet Route were first approved by Transport and Environment Committee in November. Since then, we’ve made some amendments to the scheme, changing the location of modal filters, which restrict motor traffic, to limit any impact on residents.
We’ll be installing the measures tomorrow (Wednesday, 3 February) and these will initially include traffic management to mark restrictions, to be replaced by planters. Once changes are in place we’ll continue to monitor them and then make adjustments as necessary.
As part of the development of the scheme we’ve liaised closely with a range of stakeholders, such as the emergency services, Lothian Buses, community councils, equalities organisations, Spokes and Living Streets to ensure designs don’t impact on essential services or accessibility and that they provide an improved environment for pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists.
This project is one of a range of improvements being made across the city as part of the Spaces for People programme, which is helping to provide safe, welcoming routes for walking, cycling and wheeling while allowing people to physically distance during COVID-19 restrictions. Find out more about Spaces for People on the Council website.