Edinburgh snub pothole repairs for more cycle paths

"So why are we taking £1m that is specifically assigned to roads when really the benefits are usually given to all road users and almost all modes of transport – car, bus, bike, even pedestrians?”"

Pull the other one - how much of the roads' maintenance budget benefits pedestrians - or even cyclists?

The roads have been prioritised for cars for decades, but because (very few) cyclists use them, because there's no alternative, suddenly they are cyclists' roads?

Cycle infrastructure, if of good quality, *is* the long term view. It means fewer vehicles damaging the roads in the first place. It means a healthier populace, improved air quality, reduced noise, more pleasant cities. It possibly even means better driving conditions if enough unnecessary private car journeys are taken off the roads.

The '£50 a pop' style of pot-hole repair probably won't last the year, or even the winter in some places. How can it be anything other than short-term thinking?

The Edinburgh Evening News loves to make these into either / or decisions. Is it wrong to hope for pot-holes filled and cycling budgets supported, considering Edinburgh's fireworks budget and annual festival revenues?

My feeling is that Edinburgh will benefit from seeing and reflecting on the other cities pushing ahead with bike lane segregation. Our "Quality Bike Corridor" is permanently out of action because of car parking - 10 or 12 unused cars ruining the main town-uni link for hundreds of commuters on bikes. That's a vision thing, not a money thing.

Tarmacking off road tracks like the union canal will be a good way to spend the money as the bumpy dirt track puts me off using it where its not properly surfaced. We definitely need good off road paths for cycling so we don't have to mix with traffic.

Roads that don't necessitate reconstructive dental work or more car parks. Tough choice.

Lived in Edinburgh for years and there are roads that are bad but on the whole not bad, moved to Glasgow and ever since the Scottish way to repair a pothole doesn't last. A 'repair' gets worked into a bigger hole in about 4 weeks. Don't think it's the right thing but that 1M is sure wasted on potholes.

Seems reasonable enough in principle, after all its too many cars which cause the damage to the road surface. So if you can drop the number of cars by providing for cyclists then your future repair bill comes down.

I'd rather see potholes fixed than cycle paths created.

Some of the roads around Bristol are getting very dangerous due to poor surfaces, whilst most of the 'cycle paths' are useless. I mainly cycle on the roads, and observe that this is also the case with approx 80% of other Bristol cyclists. For me, and all those other cyclists, repairing more potholes would be very welcome indeed.

I assume this is a similar situation to other towns & cities, including Edinburgh.

There is no such thing as road tax.the tax you pay is excise duty on fuel emissions,bikes don't make emissions so cyclists don't have to pay.the road upkeep comes from your council tax,not from emission tax.so everybody who pays council tax pays for the roads.

Fair enough to complain really, how far can £1m be realistically expected to go towards cycle paths in a city the size of Edinburgh?

Not sure how much it's changed from when I last rode a bike in Edinburgh maybe 2 years ago but the roads round there are shocking, an absolute disgrace. Far worse than London or Manchester.

But Edinburgh Council have squandered hundreds of millions on a tram line, now going to waste another million on what will essentially be a few bits of paint and maybe a few "cyclists dismount" signs. Call me cynical but I can't see £1 million getting a comprehensive network of segregated cycle lanes...

In this instance I agree that the money would far better spent on some proper road resurfacing.

if the cyclepaths are "high quality" go where people want to go, are separated from the roads, offer priority over cars etc etc. Then taking money from the pot-hole repair budget can at least be justified. If it is the usual paint a few lines, then no it can't.

However no cycle path is ever going to go from door to door, those potholed strewn roads are going to see cyclists using them. If the condition of the roads is to bad, they become dangerous.

This is without considering that some road users wil ask why there "road tax" is being diverted to non tax payers.

* what was it, £700M in bike sales last year which means £140M in vat, how much is being spent on cyclists!!!!