Getting people out of their cars and embracing active and sustainable travel now lies at the heart of Edinburgh transport policy. But how can Edinburgh be sure it’s investing in projects that are in the right places and which will have the most impact?
At TRANSPORT Smart Class, Scotland 2021, our opening keynote – co-delivered by City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Convener (and Chair of Transport for Edinburgh), Lesley Macinnes, and Sustrans Scotland Infrastructure Coordinator, Angus Calder – highlighted why, for active travel in particular, significant modal shift is a genuinely emergent property of active travel network quality (particularly network extent, density and coherence), and how getting that right relies on “robust, evidence-led network planning”. Historically, active travel network planning in Scotland has “necessarily been fairly rudimentary because most LAs have simply not had access to best practice network planning tools”.
Lesley and Angus provided a snapshot of ongoing joint CEC-Sustrans work to build on the UK’s existing industry-standard network planning tool, the Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT), updating it for the CEC/Scottish context and reflecting the growing emphasis on equalities and inclusion.
They closed with a brief examination of how data has been used to inform ongoing discussions around Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone.
If you meet our regular delegate qualification criteria but were unable to join us on December 8th for the live in-person event at the RSE, CLICK HERE and complete the short “Download form” (located at the bottom of the post) to receive a unique link enabling free access to the presentation video recordings and slides (including the film footage and slides from Lesley and Angus’ keynote).
Those qualifying to receive the rich content from these presentations include commissioning, procurement, trialling and partnering leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers and planners from: local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public and private transport operators; regional transport partnerships, sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; highways authorities and road operators; government and supporting national transport agencies; fleet operators, vehicle manufacturers, parking operators, prime contractors etc.
