Edinburgh to chase £60 milion cycling tourism market

If they were serious, they would not be in the process of removing off-peak bus lanes.

So only a month or so after PlanetX announce they are having to shut their Edinburgh store, the council announces it wants to encourage cycling in the city. It seems to me like a good place to start would be to help (bicycle) stores remain open on the high street. Well done Edinburgh

I wouldn't say the cycle tracks are disconnected. It's just that they only cover part of the city. They're fine if you're in the north of the city and want to go from west to east.

Politicians don't ride bikes.

as always Councils see the Tourist $$$ before even thinking about spending money, rather than the local residents its supposed to be "representing" and spending the money anyway to make local cyclists safer and local cycling more appealing.

when i see the headline
"Local Council see's £60million in potential savings on road maintenance and Health Care / pollution/ obesity/heart/ diabetes problems by installing proper cycle lanes and facilities" i'll eat my cycle helmet.

As someone who have being trying to tell the City of Edinburgh Council about this stuff for year, I am worried that they don't really get it.

Councillor Bagshaw is spot on with his comments, but sadly has little influence on the Labour/SNP coalition that is currently in power. Trying to market a few disconnected cycle paths will simply make Edinburgh a laughing stock. Compared with cycle infrastructure that most tourist from Europe (the Americans and Chinese are unlikely to be the target market) have at home, Edinburgh is 20 years behind.

If Greg Ward is serious, then he should to giving proper funding to existing, community based projects like the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling, which is already recognised as one of the UK’s best cycling festivals, even though it is run on a shoe string by volunteers.

In France, every town it seems will have a tourism information office and can either point you to a local cycle hire shop or have half a dozen basic bikes available directly. By all means encourage tourists to use bikes around Edinburgh, but Scotland (and the rest of the UK), needs to think about a broader picture with bikes readily available in smaller towns and villages to explore the existing (free) network of country lanes, canal towpaths and bridleways. The investment is negligible - half a dozen unisex bikes from Decathlon would fit the bill, so even factoring in theft, maintenance you're only looking at £1500 a year!

'milion' ? Are the Scots too tight to use both 'L's now?

There are quite literally a thousand better places to visit to ride in Scotland than greater Edinburgh.

Surprised I am not! The roads are a frikin disgrace.
Lets not even mention the trams, and drivers in Edinburgh look at cyclist in the same regard as most people treat Peadophiles. Go eaat of Edinburgh and fellow cyclists are the most ignorant people you will have the misfortune to meet.

And Breath............

I'd hope that the local cycling bodies that know how to direct investment intelligently will get involved. I think it's great that local authorities have even got cycling on the table right now. Better to promote for what may seem like the wrong reasons rather than not promote at all.

Wonderful.
People with no idea about cycling, and even less about public transport, aiming to make money by 'promoting' the same.

Jumping on bandwagons while wearing kilts may well result in the exposure of ones bollocks....