The publication of cycling charity Walk Wheel Cycle Trust’s major nationwide report into the state of active travel in the United Kingdom has prompted significant political back-and-forth in Edinburgh, the council defending the importance of cycling infrastructure schemes amid attacks from rival politicians.
The discussion around cycling levels, investment, and active travel infrastructure has played out in the Edinburgh Evening News, Conservative Party councillors and campaigners accusing the council of covering up figures they argue suggest a decline in cycling in the city.
However, Edinburgh City Council’s transport chief insisted active travel continues to fare positively.
The row was sparked by the local authority calling the publication of Walk Wheel Cycle Trust’s Walking and Cycling Index for 2025 “positive new data on walking, wheeling and cycling”.
As we reported last week, the report by the charity, formerly named Sustrans, highlighted the huge economic and health benefits of active travel, the index suggesting cycling saves the NHS £72m per year and helps avoid 1.6 million GP appointments and 6,000 serious long-term health conditions.
The report also analysed regional attitudes towards cycling, walking and wheeling, Edinburgh City Council sharing the insight that 69 per cent of Edinburgh residents walked or wheeled at least five days a week.
However, critics highlighted that the local authority avoided sharing the finding that the proportion of people cycling at least five days a week was down from nine per cent previously to six per cent. Likewise, the proportion of people who cycle at least once per week was down to 18 per cent, from 22 per cent in 2023 and 26 per cent in 2021.
Conservative councillor Jason Rust said there was “a lot of spin on the council’s part” and they were “just skirting over that”.
He added: “Given that budgets across the board are tight and taxpayers are feeling the pinch, we want to ensure money is being allocated in a way that we get the most out of it. And if we want to encourage people to cycle we need to see why current schemes, on the face of it, are just not working.”
Likewise, a campaigner who opposed other pro-active travel measures in the city claimed “the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust has produced a glossy booklet saying how wonderful it all is, but it isn’t wonderful at all”.
The council’s transport chief Stephen Jenkinson said any downturn in cycling levels needed “to be understood”.
“I’m a big fan of statistics. We need to understand why there has been a dip and we need to know whether it is a dip or a trend. If we were on a downward trajectory that would be concerning,” he explained.
“Significant investment has gone into infrastructure and as part of that it is reasonable to expect modal shift. If it is a trend rather than a blip, we need to understand the reason for that. I do want to encourage more people out of their cars and cycling is an important element of that. If the data and the evidence is telling you something different, you have to adjust.”
A potentially significant development Mr Jenkinson highlighted was that next year’s data will include the newly re-introduced cycle hire scheme in the city, run by Voi.
“We have built infrastructure to make cycling more accessible and safer for people who already cycle, but ultimately what we are looking to do is encourage modal shift,” he said. “The way to do that is make it cheaper and accessible to more people and that’s why we introduced the new cycle hire scheme.”
The Walk Wheel Cycle Trust’s nationwide report was clear “everyone gains when more people cycle” and suggested huge value. The index said cycling adds up to “£1.11 billion in economic benefit for residents and society from 688.9 million miles cycled by those that could have used a car”.
Likewise, the picture of cycling’s impact on the NHS is positive too, the index suggesting that cycling in the included areas saves the NHS £72.7m per year, the equivalent cost of 1.6m GP appointments.
The report also estimates that 5,736 long-term health conditions are avoided each year across the UK thanks to cycling, and 545 early deaths are prevented annually.
Walk Wheel Cycle Trust also reports cycling instead of driving saved 190,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the carbon footprint of 170,000 people taking flights from Heathrow to New York.
The charity also highlighted “considerable appetite” to start cycling from residents who do not currently, around 26 per cent putting themselves in this category.
When looking at support factors which could increase the number of people cycling, 54 per cent highlighted access to secure cycle parking at or near home as important.
More than three-quarters raised improved and increased off-road active travel routes as significant too — while 58 per cent backed building more cycle paths physically separated from traffic and pedestrians, even if this means less room for other traffic.
Last summer, a report by the Institute of Occupational Medicine found that during the first six months of enforcement of Edinburgh’s low emission zone, there was a marked increase in walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport use within the LEZ, with a notable drop in car usage — findings which have been welcomed by both NHS Lothian and Asthma + Lung UK.
5 thoughts on “Political row erupts over Edinburgh cycling levels amid claims of cover up and cycle lanes “just not working”, but council insists active travel picture remains positive”
Meh. Edinburgh Conservatives picking a fight about bicycles.
Compete anecdata but (in north Edinburgh – travelling a lot on the paths made from former railways) I’d say there are more people cycling than before covid. And I’m noticing women riders, people with their children…
If there’s an issue it is the usual – not going quickly enough. And “bikes are OK I suppose, but we can’t inconvenience motorists!”
In fact they’ve even become OK with doing a little of that … but we’re still eg building shared use paths which give way to the tiniest side road (West Craigs, new development), still making places “permeable all-ways for motor traffic”. And still not grappling with the “difficult” places eg junctions.
Would it though? Perhaps it just reflects a shift to more people not commuting to a place of work five times a week, and therefore not needing to travel anywhere that often. Seems like the modal share would be a more useful metric here, or at least a measure that doesn’t make outdated assumptions about social norms.
Correction: the Institue of Occupational Medicine report declared only that there was a -perception- of increased levels of walking/cycling etc. It made no actual measurements of the levels of any mode of transport, relying instead on the robustness of Twitter surveys.
Their actual report: https://openresearch.nihr.ac.uk/articles/5-33/v1
That study appears to be measuring self-reported behaviour. It’s true that that makes for lower quality data than actual counts, for example, but it’s pretty inaccurate to characterise it as “a perception of increased levels of walking/cycling”.
Edinburgh council have managed to turn residents against cyclists due to some of their mad road closures that are hardly ever used. Meanwhile cycle lanes are clogged with debris and paths overgrown and have massive potholes for two years!