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A traffic census in Edinburgh is reporting the highest recorded number of bikes (up even on May numbers) and the lowest ever November count of private cars. The census, carried out by volunteers from Spokes, the Edinburgh cycle campaign group, is supplied to the city council in order to equalise provision for the different modes of transport in Scotland’s capital.
"More than one in every five vehicles heading for the city centre along bike-unfriendly Lothian Road was a bike," said a statement from Spokes. The traffic census also found that 70 percent of cars are being driven solo, which Spokes said was "a huge waste of precious roadspace."
In 2008 Spokes proposed a sustainable transport corridor from South Edinburgh along Lothian Road to the city centre, with cycle facilities of the sort seen in Copenhagen, together with higher priority for buses and walking and greatly reduced private motor traffic. "But the council has shown little enthusiasm so far," reports Spokes.
Nevertheless, even with sometimes hostile conditions for cyclists, the numbers of cyclists using Edinburgh’s roads continue to rise, a pattern also seen in the centre of London, where bicycles are the dominant vehicles on certain key bridges at peak times.
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Pic by Chris Hill
