Taxi firm's video exposes challenges faced by Edinburgh's cabbies due to council's new road scheme
A video put together by Edinburgh taxi firm, City Cabs, highlights the ongoing challenges faced by taxi drivers and motorists since the council introduced its new Spaces for People scheme.
Speaking with TaxiPoint, a spokesperson for City Cabs, said: "We were very much in collaboration with the local shop keepers, restaurants and cafes, to put together this video.
"Like many other cities, there has been an explosion of new extended pavements and cycleways.
"It's pretty clear that many of them are not thought through and have been introduced in haste under the emergency powers handed to local authorities during this Covid 19 period.
"Local businesses need a period of calm to regain our customer base not to come back and find a large part of the city is hostage to cycleways. Badly thought through cycleways at that."
According to Edinburgh Evening News, City Centre councillor Karen Doran, Labour vice convener of the council’s transport committee, said in response to the video: “The changes introduced on George IV Bridge have not only created a protected route for those travelling by bike into the city centre, but will provide extra space for people to walk and wheel safely once restrictions begin to be lifted in the near future. This scheme has been risk assessed and has been subject to a road safety audit, in addition to our own tracking of vehicles to ensure sufficient space for passing, and we are confident it is safe for all road users, assuming they travel in a responsible manner.
“We have had a good deal of positive feedback from people using this route, and have made sure there is still space for loading and dropping people off where needed. However, as with all Spaces for People measures, we will continue to monitor it and make any tweaks to improve it where necessary.”
