More than a decade ago I wrote a couple of blog posts for the now sadly defunct birminghamcyclist.com forum (reproduced below in PDF format). With Birmingham city council building new cycleways so slowly that they are currently disappearing faster than they are being built, there's not much to report on (just the occasional consultation that goes nowhere). So I thought I would take the opportunity to update what I wrote all those years ago about Edinburgh, and report on what is new there. Could this article also be called Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3)? Let's find out - one, two, three...

Much of what I wrote centres around the old railway paths. These are still there, but sadly Edinburgh City Council would like to wreck one of them for another length of tram line. Whilst I have cycled the Roseburn Path several times, I've yet to use the Edinburgh tram. That's because just like the Birmingham tram, it doesn't allow me to make any journey I make in Edinburgh, whereas walking, cycling, the train, and the bus all do. On the subject of buses, I was really pleased to discover that on Lothian Buses I just need to tap my credit or debit card when I get on the bus, so no forward planning or special card required. The system notes the credit card number so that multiple journeys can be capped in price, effectively buying a day pass. So Lothian Buses have at long last done the blindingly obvious, and hooray for that. But returning to cycling, let's take a look at some of the specific places I mentioned, to see if anything has changed.

When I reached the end of the Trinity railway path back in 2013 I found myself having to cross a busy junction with no pedestrian or cycle phase on the traffic lights. Beyond that cyclists were offered nothing to help them along the A901. In 2014 the junction was remodelled to create better active travel connectivity, including to the (now improved) path alongside the A901:

The path alongside Lower Granton Road was improved in 2019 to facilitate safe cycling. Note the fully occupied cycle stands where previously active travel was very unpleasant because there was just a very narrow footway (still visible next to the carriageway):

I've not been as far as the awful, car-sick Granton Square recently, but as far as I can tell things are a'changin' there. Alas nothing is changing with regard to water quality, other than me now knowing why this coastline is polluted with raw sewage. This summer was cold and wet, but on the one day I could conceivably have gone swimming, the sign at Portobello rated the water quality as too poor for swimming, which is just great if you don't want tourists cluttering the prom boosting the local economy.

Moving on to the second blog post, the completely useless non-mandatory cycle lane in Canonmills that is National Cycle Network Route 75 is still there, though after 2018 one of the three motor traffic lanes was deleted, allowing an equally useless cycle lane to be painted on the opposite side. There is still way too much of this garbage in Edinburgh, and unfortunately it's marked on the official cycling and walking maps the same as protected cycleways. But on the whole I do find those maps useful, and certainly better than what Birmingham City Council offers.

Chambers Street and Royal Mile remain car-sick. But much work has been done in the last year to address the lethal mess created by the tram lines at Haymarket (part of National Cycle Network Route 1).  It's confusing and poorly signposted, but once you've figured out how to navigate it it's a big improvement, and it connects with something new that is genuinely good (more on that in a following article).

One thing that has not improved is the state of the carriageway, which is often simply abysmal. This year (2024) there were times when drivers had to wait patiently behind me as I used the entire carriageway to plot a route between the pot-holes on roads that looked like they had been shelled. Of course drivers too will not be wanting to wreck their vehicles, so maybe they entirely understand why the cyclist ahead is weaving slowly all over the road.