7 Questions for an Active Travel Activist in Edinburgh

Ewen Maclean is an active travel activist from Edinburgh, UK. He has been closely involved with Blackford Safe Routes, which is “an initiative to help children safely cycle en masse to school”. This group campaigns for the creation of “quiet routes” which are sections of road protected from motor vehicle traffic by the use of modal filters. The group also organises “bike buses”, in which a large group of parents and guardians can cycle their children to school. The bike buses ride along the quiet routes.

Would you mind introducing yourself and what concerns and motivations you have about the local area hello um my name is Yan mlan uh I’m a dad primarily here two kids at James KES primary school and I’m interested particularly in how the kids get to school but then more widely than

That how our local community travels around the area uh and I’m particular particularly interested in sustainable travel and all of the benefits that come with people moving actively around the area with that walking or cycling or Wheeling or scooting uh and spaces that are more livable for people than that I

Mean for everyone so I’m particularly concerned with that uh predom in the area would you mind giving a rough timeline of The blackf Quiet route the bike bus how it was created and your involvement with it so far sure so it’s about 5 years ago we set up the first uh

Bike bus and the reason why we were motivated motivated to set up the F bike bus is because this road behind us house loan at the time and the route from Blackford which is part of the catchment of James KES Primary School had a lot of traffic and it was very dangerous for

People to cycle by bike and we’d heard about the Sheen’s bike bus and we wanted to replicate that to show uh the evidence of the need for lots and lots of kids to be able to get to school safely so we set the bik bike bus up

With a big event and we did it by- weekly and that involved up to up to 200 people at one point I think cycling along from the Blackford area to the school that was around about 5 years ago uh at that point a lot of the focus was around what was happening with

The as hospital then as covid came in but before covid came in we designed what we referred to as a livable neighborhood which is follows the principles for the low traffic neighborhood so for example wolf and Forest where you have such things as filters motor filters like this which

Which allow everyone to still drive to every part of the area but it prevents through traffic so it allows the traffic to be invested in the area and it means that people then feel more safe to cycle and walk within the area uh so we worked

On that and then covid came along and the council implemented a small subsection of that route what impact positive or negative have you seen the quiet route have on the local community I’ve I have only seen very very positive impacts the main positive impact strangely enough is that the bike

Bus has got much smaller in number and the reason for that is because people cycle before and after the bik bus and on days when the bike bus is not there because they don’t need that big group anymore and the reason for that is because these motor filters prevent

Through traffic it means people feel safe enough previously didn’t feel safe enough and that means of course that there’s less traffic volume those people that previously were driving and now cycling so this is a virtuous circle the other impact that you see all the time

Is not only this bit here for the for the kids themselves when they come out of the school and go over to the links there’s a great sense of community people standing around for example also elderly people who live down the road can go and sit on on benches and have a

Chat it increases the sense of community kids can interact with each other they have a sense of free play outside there’s a great notion that now this car as opposed to being given over to cars is now being taken over by people and community and life what are your

Immediate concerns for the future of The Quiet grou well my immediate concerns are that people have a short-term view uh and in the short term people will say for example that traffic traffic was previously going down here take a different route the reality is that every single bit of evidence will tell

You that traffic evaporates when you provide safer routs for people to walk and cycle so modal shift happens that that is what all of the peer reviewed research tells us we know that and what concerns me is that politicians are not being brave enough to take the known

Peer-reviewed research to show what is necessary to allow people to to have safer way of traveling around the area and in fact the shortterm view is that some people will say well I can no longer get through the this area so I have to go somewhere else and there are

Some very anecdotal comments that people make and what worries me is that these emotive anecdotal comments are now driving for example the need for more consultation which is just a prevarication of what we know we need to happen in fact we know full well what needs to happen and what needs to happen

Needs to be implemented through political will by saying we know this is the case the equivalent being for example in the past with a smoking ban we know full well what should have happened with the smoking ban but if you’d ask people who were smoking in beforehand what they wanted to happen

They wouldn’t have told you they want to stand outside in the rain and smoke it’s exactly the same situation now lots of people are saying I don’t want to drive uh around the corner all the rest of it I’m now having to go a different route it’s causing problems and they’ll give

You all sorts of anecdotes of why that is but in fact we know the reality is the evidence tells us that traffic evaporates and people then choose safer and more sustainable ways of getting about what’s your thoughts regarding the concerns that residents have expressed to local counselors which prompted Mar

Clair Monroe and Neil Ross to put forward motions against the quiet through so uh I referred to my previous answer I think it’s a very good question my concerns are that anecdotally people are giving reasons why it is that this is not ideal for certain people in certain

Situations they will quote for example the needs of disabled people or the elderly to be able to get around by car and my response to that is that I feel that it’s unfair on disabled people in the elderly to deny them access to areas which are nicer quieter Greener better

Air air quality and a more Community Spirit actually this sort of thing benefits everyone because the real problems we’re facing at traffic volume and what what concerns me is that the solutions it’s effectively a Magic Bullet a silver bullet to be able to deal with inactivity crisis to deal with

Lack of community engagement for people people that are feeling lonely all sorts of problems that happen within our society both Health economic and and to do with the environment the we have all the evidence to say that these are the measures that need to be put into place

And any prevarication by that by by pretending that we need more consultation is something which I feel is disingenuous and very unhelpful what do you think about ideas to break up the route into smaller sections wouldn’t this mean that certain sections easier to protect it’s a very good question but

Actually it’s all the evidence shows that peacemeal approaches to implementing low traffic neighborhoods don’t work work and the reason for that is you would still be encouraging through traffic in various bits of the low traffic neighborhoods in order for things to work properly you have to and

Implement them all as a whole and the route as a whole has to exist with the motor filters that prevent through traffic and in fact I would argue for more modal filters on this route to prevent rat running in roads like Clinton Road for example that’s been

Said that there’s rat running and I completely sympathize with the fact that there’s rat running in Clinton Road but I would argue for more modal filters what advice would you give to others in Edinburgh and the rest of the UK who would like to implement something similar in their

Community the advice I would give is to try and implore your politicians to read the peer-reviewed literature to understand what the solutions are that they’re well known from all cities around the world Paris is doing the same thing all man manner of cities around the world that are doing these things

And they know this is the right solution for Liverpool cities implore your politicians to read that and to be brave and show political will all of the disingenuous and bad faith arguments that were given here were also given before Amsterdam for example and what happened in Amsterdam’s political will

Was shown but equally I would show evidence to your politicians that’s one thing that our bike bus has done for example our bike bus is evidence that we can show videos and images and we can show you hundreds and hundreds of minutes of children being incredibly

Happy to actively get to school and I think that’s great evidence to show your counselors