Infrastructure hokey-cokey
As COVID-19 restrictions have been easing, local authorities in many parts of the world have been considering the future of their temporary ‘pop-up’ measures to enable walking and cycling. Examples of these measures include widened footways, protected cycle lanes and modal filters which restrict access to motor vehicles but allow walkers, wheelers and cyclists through.
The process for changing road layouts in the UK is cumbersome and time consuming — and the legal complexities of TRO processes is now creating a perverse situation which I describe as ‘infrastructure hokey-cokey’. A bike lane goes in, is taken out and then goes back in again. It would be unthinkable for any other mode of transport — imagine doing that for a railway?!
Two streets in particular demonstrate the problem: Forrest Road (shown above) and George IV bridge (shown below). These were among the many Edinburgh streets to benefit from temporary installations funded by the Scottish Government’s Spaces for People scheme. The measures installed in these streets — a protected cycle lane in Forrest Road, and both pedestrian and cycle space in George IV bridge — have been well-used, helping to provide an important protected cycle route between the north and south of the city. However, because plans were already underway to create new walking and cycling infrastructure in these streets, the council has been advised that it will need to remove the temporary schemes while the Traffic Regulation Order for the new schemes are advertised and sought. In other locations in the city, the council is retaining temporary measures through experimental traffic orders (ETRO) which allow a further 18 months of operation and revision. But, given that final plans have already been drawn up for Forrest Rd and George IV Bridge, then there appears to be no basis for an experimental order to extend the temporary installation. That means that the council will now need to remove the temporary Spaces for People measures while waiting for the new TRO process to be completed. A colossal waste of resource and opportunity. While the strong, able and fast will continue to cycle in spaces shared with cars, the loss of protected cycle infrastructure will discourage the young, the wobbly, the slow, the nervous and the risk averse.
As I have commented before, Scotland’s TRO processes are decades old and seem entirely inappropriate for a world where rapid climate action is needed. The decarbonisation of our transport system is a pressing priority and enabling more people to make everyday journeys walking, wheeling and cycling is fundamental to that transition. But, we need the transition to happen fast. As Paris has demonstrated, rapid change is possible — with booming numbers of cyclists there, including a higher proportion of women making journeys by bike.
These difficulties are as frustrating to the Councillors and officers as they are to the active travel campaigners. In Edinburgh, a joint deputation was made by Spokes Lothian and Better Edinburgh for Sustainable Transport to the Council’s Transport & Environment Committee, pointing out the absurdity of the situation on Forrest Road and George IV Bridge. There was much sympathy for this viewpoint from the Transport Convenor Cllr Lesley Macinnes, as well as senior officers and committee members. But, the ultimate conclusion of the debate was:
the lawyers say no.
The Committee accepted the recommendation that the temporary schemes in Forrest Rd and George IV bridge be removed.
Any lawyers or traffic regulation order experts with further insights are welcome to share their thoughts about getting round this issue! One would hope that the review of TRO processes being conducted by the Scottish Government might resolve this problem — but it seems unlikely that will happen in time to save the Edinburgh schemes from removal later in 2021. So, we’ll just have to enjoy them while we can. All together now:
you put a bike lane in, a bike lane out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about…
