The underlying principle of the Council’s approach to dealing with these problems is to recognise that for Edinburgh, a first class economy and a first class environment must go hand in hand. The key is to provide a better environment, and better accessibility for all residents, businesses and visitors to the activities they want or need to undertake - neither of these can be achieved by a laissez-faire attitude to car traffic. The balance in the way city space is used must be restored.

Reducing vehicular traffic reduces the problem at source, rather than treating the symptoms. It has been considered unrealistic in the past - the growth in car use was seen as inexorable. But perhaps this approach is now becoming more acceptable. A recent survey in Edinburgh found that 82% of residents felt ‘the increase in car use is a serious problem in Edinburgh’. Only 14% agreed that ‘capacity for cars on the roads should be increased’, while 73% disagreed with the statement ‘there is no real alternative to the car for transport’. 60% agreed that ‘more money should be spent on improving public transport, even if it means slightly higher local taxes’.

The Council is taking a holistic view of land use, transport, the environment and the local economy. Edinburgh was one of the first local authorities to set clear targets for stabilising and reducing car use (see table below), aimed at ensuring that all policies were working towards clearly defined objectives for maximising accessibility rather than movement per se.

To achieve these objectives, the Council is pursuing a wide range of different types of action:

An Action Plan identifies the major projects to be implemented in pursuit of the objectives. In addition to this a number of more innovative proposals aimed at creating a vibrant city that is less dependent on car ownership have been developed, and these are elaborated in rather more detail in the rest of this paper.

1. Locational policies
1. A sustainable suburb

The "South-East Wedge" is a significant expansion of the City to meet future housing and business location needs. The Lothian Structure Plan identified a need for new land for 19,000 houses up to 2005, and this area can accommodate about 5,000 of this total. The location is however controversial, as it is largely within the City’s Green Belt. It is however located within the urban envelope, and for this reason was perceived to be more attractive from a sustainable development point of view than the main alternative locations which were linked with settlements outside the Green Belt and at a greater distance from the main employment locations which are in and around the city itself.

Three key development objectives for this area were established from the outset as follows:

• To maximise integration between new development and existing urban areas and deliver significant economic and social benefits to the adjacent communities (which currently have above average levels of unemployment and deprivation);
• To plan the new urban areas in a responsible, sustainable way, encouraging the use of public transport and reducing the use of private cars for non-essential trips, and
• To provide an appropriate setting for development within a strong landscape framework which respects the context of the area, protects important views and provides public access to green space.

Proposals for the area include:

• Up to 5000 new homes
• The new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
• Up to 30 hectares of business land, including a medical business park
• Craigmillar Castle Country Park
• Concentration of Edinburgh University’s medical and veterinary facilities
• Community and local retail facilities

In transport terms, the development will focus on an effective public transport network linking the area to the existing built-up area and the city centre, with higher than normal development densities along the corridor. Several park and ride and rail station sites have been identified. A comprehensive cycle network will also serve the area. It is intended that new development should have a strong urban shape and scale, presenting a strong townscape image which is a pleasure to walk through.

The development will take place around neighbourhood centres, and a new town centre for the area will provide retail and employment opportunities. A mixed use approach to development is being encouraged.

The mechanism that is being adopted to put this in place is through the development of a masterplan, agreed between the two local authorities involved, the City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council, which these authorities will then incorporate into their Local Plans. This will be supplemented by detailed codes for landscape, civic design including density and permeability issues, and environmental and sustainability principles to guide developers and assess projects.

Developers will be expected to submit proposals with a civic design analysis demonstrating an understanding of townscape groupings, building form, skylines, access and mobility issues, and the design of the public realm.

1. Car-free residential areas

At present virtually all new urban housing is dominated by the need to provide parking and access for vehicles; such buildings generally sit in a sea of tarmac covered in cars. Developers see this type of development as meeting customer requirements and cannot envision a market for an alternative. The aim of this Council in promoting car free housing developments is to provide some good examples to demonstrate that there is a market for an alternative approach; an approach which uses the space normally consumed by parked vehicles to improve the inhabitants’ immediate environment, and enhance their quality of life.

Car Free Residential Areas (CFRA’s) are based on the principle that in return for the improvements in their quality of life, each resident of the estate would agree not to own a car. Residents living in a car free environment would gain the following benefits:

Car-free housing therefore provides an alternative housing market choice not currently available, in which residents undertake not to own cars. Non car ownership is rewarded by higher environmental quality, lower costs of housing (because of less need for road and parking space) and the elimination of road traffic danger. Cars could be available in a City Car Club for use by residents when required.

The benefits of CFRAs are obviously attractive, although there remain some areas of concern:

The limited evidence available, especially from Europe, suggests that in spite of these concerns, the development of some pilot or demonstration car-free housing areas is justifiable. Construction of such a site commenced at the end of September this year at Gorgie, to the west of the centre of the city.

The site covers 1.4 hectares and was formerly a railway goods yard. It is identified in the Local Plan for industrial use, but in recent years has been the subject of interest from housing developers. It is located in a mixed use area with easy access to a main bus route into the city centre which by the end of 1998 will form one of the city’s "Greenways" bus priority routes. The site meets many of the parameters for a successful car free housing development. However it is not within the controlled parking zone.

On 13th December 1995 the Council agreed to grant outline planning permission for the erection of 120 flats based on the principles of "car free development", subject to a Section 75 agreement. The developer, Canmore Housing Association, has extended the "car-free" concept to a much wider definition of "sustainable housing", including low energy, recycling, low maintenance characteristics and an "ecological" approach to the open space. The housing is seen by Canmore and Scottish Homes, the national housing agency, as a model for housing for the new millenium. Canmore, together with the RIAS have held a design competition for the development. The first stage of this competition attracted over 40 submissions from the UK and the Netherlands. Six designs were shortlisted. The second stage to select a winning entry was completed in April 1997, and the winning design is the basis for the detailed planning application. The design is for 2 to 4 storey buildings reflecting the traditional tenement style of building that is characteristic of Edinburgh’s inner suburbs. Funding has been agreed by Scottish Homes, with an approximate cost of £8.5m. The development should be occupied in summer 2000.

The proposal seeks to meet the needs of disabled residents and will include 4 ground floor flats with parking spaces specifically for wheel chair users. The development will only include a further 8 parking spaces to be used by essential visitors and a possible car ownership co-operative. Secure cycle parking will be provided, and the main common area will contain information on public transport and cycle access routes. One of the problems to be overcome with regard to this car free scheme relates to the site's location well outwith the controlled parking zone. At present, unrestricted parking is available in nearby streets. Parking controls would have to be introduced to avoid displacement parking by residents of this development.

However the Council have sought to address this issue and other requirements of car free housing through the drafting of a detailed Section 75 agreement. The Heads of Agreement include:-

In addition, the developer has undertaken to require tenants to agree to management rules voluntarily in addition to the tenancy agreement. The management rules as presented by the Housing Association state that residents should not park any vehicle on nearby streets, and should discourage visitors from doing likewise. However these rules do not form part of any legally binding agreement. A residents association will be encouraged in the development to further reinforce the "car-free" ethos through peer group pressure. Finally, the Housing Association will give priority to people requesting transfer to "conventional" housing because their circumstances have changed so that they require to use a car.

1. Reallocating road space

As traffic demand has grown, the pressure on transport planners has been to increase road capacity to accommodate additional demand. Outside built-up areas this has manifested itself in extensive new road building, which in turn has generated new development pressures adding yet further to traffic growth. Within urban areas, the constraints are much greater. Some towns and cities have constructed new roads, others have maximised the traffic throughput of their existing network. Neither option has provided a long term solution to traffic pressures in any city, and congestion remains a problem virtually everywhere.

One of the reasons that congestion continues to increase is that the main alternative means of transport to the car in most cities - buses - have become increasingly disrupted by congestion, and hence become a less and less attractive alternative. Similarly, congestion and increasing traffic levels make cycling an unpleasant and dangerous activity, and affect the comfort and safety of pedestrians.

In cities in particular, the roadspace available has become more and more dominated by the car. Pavements have become narrower to accomodate extra traffic lanes, pedestrians have been given less crossing time and have to take tortuous routes to cross roads, and everyone is affected by increased pollution. This makes no sense in transport terms, and it also damaging to the economic viability of the city as it becomes more polluted and provides a reducing quality of life to its inhabitants and visitors.

A rational and environmentally sustainable transport system requires a re-assessment of the way in which roadspace is used. In cities such as Edinburgh where rail or other segregated public transport is limited, it is necessary to ensure that the roadspace available is used efficiently - and this means removing buses from the general traffic congestion. This is the rationale for the Councils "Greenways" scheme, which allocates significant capacity specifically for the use of buses through extensive and well enforced bus priority on major radial routes. The first routes, on the A8 between the Maybury junction and the city centre and between the city centre and Leith came into operation in August.

More roadspace and priority also needs to be given to pedestrians who have been increasingly squeezed. In Edinburgh, a pilot pedestrian route, with widened footways and alterations to road layout and to traffic signal settings to make crossing of side roads and the major road easier, has been introduced on a route into the city centre. In the city centre itself, footways in the Royal Mile and in Princes Street have been widened, and zebra crossings reintroduced. Such changes are seen as essential to maintain the viability and vitality of the city centre as a shopping and tourist centre.

 

2. An alternative to conventional car use: City Car Club

A City Car Club is a form of shared car ownership providing access to a car where this is needed without the need for ownership. City Car Clubs have significant potential for reducing both parking pressure and car use.

City Car Club (pay as you drive car sharing) is a relatively new concept which has developed furthest in Germany. Members of car sharing clubs can book use of a car 24 hours a day at short notice, and the cars are located at reserved parking within local neighbourhoods. Costs are very attractive especially for low mileage car users (see table below). City Car Clubs - which go under various names in Europe - are now operating in more than 300 European towns and cities. Membership is typically growing very fast (eg average yearly growth rate in Berlin 1991 to 1995 was 76% with 3000 members in 1995). In Switzerland the clubs are diversifying into the shared ownership of sailing boats, specialised cycles and video cameras, and charging structures are increasingly integrated with public transport. The clubs are linked in a Federation, enabling members of any club to book the vehicles of other clubs. This enables, for example, the ‘trunk haul’ of a holiday trip to be completed by rail with a Car Club car at the destination town being used during the vacation.

Costs based on typical German scheme. Source: Car Free Cities Network, Boulevard de Waterloo 27, B-1000, Bruxelles

From the transport policy viewpoint, there are two main advantages of car sharing clubs:

1. The ratio of households to cars in car sharing clubs is about 12 to 1. This has the potential to greatly reduce residential parking pressure in inner urban areas. Up to 8 cars owned privately can be replaced by each car in a sharing club.
2. Because users pay as they drive, the relative costs of using alternative means of transport reflect their real costs much more closely. This considerably increases the attractiveness of public transport, walking and cycling. As a result, the mileage travelled by car by former car owners who sell their car to join clubs typically reduces by nearly 50%.

Benefits for the member of the car sharing club include:

1. Cost savings for car mileages of less than around 6000 per year.
2. Convenience (Insurance, maintenance etc dealt with by club).
3. Access to a range of vehicles from town cars to vans and minibuses.
4. Access to clubs all over Europe when away from home on holiday or business.
5. Release of the financial capital which would otherwise be tied up in a car.

In 1996, the Council commissioned local market research on the potential for car sharing clubs in Edinburgh. This research focused on target groups seen as especially likely to consider and/or benefit from car sharing, including people who find themselves forced to buy a car to get to work, people working for large employers including central and local government and people who want to help the environment but need the use of a car on occasion. This research concluded that there was potential for a scheme to succeed in Edinburgh, and an area of the city was identified as a suitable area for a pilot.

The area chosen is a high density, turn of the century, tenemental area about 1.5 km from the city centre with a mixed population ranging from professional people to students. Parking in the area is becoming an increasing problem as car ownership grows, in spite of reasonable access to public transport, and the city’s major employment areas in and around the city centre being within easy walking distance.

Substantial funding was secured from central government to assist the project: £150,000 from the then Department of Transport and £30,000 from the Scottish Office, with £48,000 contributed by the Council. This funding supported the development of a business plan, and the transfer of booking and vehicle management technology.

A strategic decision had to be made at an early stage on the nature of the technology to be adopted. For a City Car Club scheme to function effectively, there needs to be an effective booking service, with 24 hour cover, users have to be able to access the cars, and there has to be a record of distance and time for each user. Many of the German schemes relied on a low-tech approach. The booking service was often provided through a local taxi firm, with specialised booking and scheduling software. Access to the vehicles was through a key held by all members that provided access to a safe provided at the parking location, within which were the car keys, and also possibly accessories such as a child’s seat for the car. Time and distance were logged by hand on forms, by the user, who returned a copy to the central office.

It was felt that in the UK environment, such an approach would deter users, and that there could be a problem of vandalism or misuse of the safes, and theft of the vehicles. An alternative high-tech approach has been adopted, providing each user with a smartcard to activate the vehicle and record usage, and each vehicle with a direct link to the central control point that can activate/deactivate an immobiliser and detect the vehicle’s location at any time. The development of this telematics based hire management system has been an important element in the development cost.

From the customer end, local publicity in the pilot area has led to the setting up of a local user group that has been involved in the development of the project. It is anticipated that such user groups will ensure a clear customer focus in the operation of the scheme.

It became clear from the business plan that a significant financial commitment would be required to underwrite the enterprise, with a likelihood of significant losses during the first two to three years. This was indeed the experience of the equivalent German organisations, where these costs were met by local authorities. However, in the current budget climate, the City of Edinburgh Council could not provide this financial support, and the decision was taken to seek assistance from the private sector to secure the existence of the Club.

This has taken a considerable amount of time and effort and the Council has now reached a decision on a preferred operator for the Club. The selection process involved inviting several private operators to submit proposals based on a detailed prospectus outlining the principle requirements for the operation of the car club. The user group was invited to comment on the prospectus and representatives of the user group were present at a presentation to the potential operators.

Following this process Budget Car & Van Rental was selected as the preferred operator for the Edinburgh City Car Club. The approval is subject to the completion of a formal agreement between the Council and Budget and this is currently being negotiated.

It is clear from the discussions to date that the scheme has an operator who has the resources, expertise and infrastructure to provide an efficient and reliable service. Budget has made a positive long term commitment to the scheme and have indicated that they wish to develop the scheme on a citywide basis very quickly. They have proposed a flexible and competitive hire tariff structure and will be offering members useful discounts for daily and weekly hired vehicles locally, across Scotland and the rest of the UK. The Club will be promoted and offered to both private and business users in Edinburgh. Budget also propose to develop strategic partnerships with other transport providers that will enable members to choose the most appropriate means of transport for any given journey from a range of options available to them through the Club.

One of the unique features of the Edinburgh scheme in comparison to those on the continent, is to use on-street parking space for the vehicle stations. In the pilot area of Marchmont/Sciennes, there are no possible off-street locations. The statutory procedure for the first on-street parking stations in this area is already underway. Provision for a number of on-street parking stations in other parts of the city will be started in the near future. The potential for off-street stations (which do not require a traffic regulation order) in other areas will also be explored and Budget have indicated that they will find ways to deliver the service in advance of parking stations being set up in areas where there is a viable level of demand for the scheme.

The start up date for the Club has yet to be finalised but it is expected that this will be early in 1999 or sooner if possible. However, this date is dependent upon the final stages of development of the computer and telematics based hire management system. We expect to run trials of the system in Edinburgh in the Autumn. Both the Council and Budget are agreed that start up will only take place once the system has been fully tested and proven as we know that quality and reliability of the service are crucial to the success of the Club.

1. Conclusion

This paper has highlighted some of the measures being undertaken by the the City of Edinburgh Council to try to match economic performance and environmental quality and thereby to ensure the continuing central role of the city.

The approach adopted is a holistic one - it is clear that no single policy or project is on its own going to achieve the ambitious objectives and target that the city has set itself. Implementing such a wide range of "hard" and "soft" measures has put considerable pressure on personnel and financial resources. In the current climate of public expenditure constraints it is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve the first class transport system the city needs without finding alternative sources of funding for transport. The Council will therefore have to take difficult decisions to pursue options opened up in the recent Transport White Paper for road user charging or a Private Non-Residential Parking levy.

Edinburgh consistently appears high on the lists of "desirable places to live" prepared by academics and businesses. We believe that the approach to its future development outlined in this paper can keep it in that position.

8 September 1998