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Measures and Progress
The City of Edinburgh Council is continually working to solve these problems.
Edinburgh fastlink
Edinburgh Fastlink
Includes a 1.6 km kerb guided busway for use by buses linking central Edinburgh with the Edinburgh Park employment area and The Gyle Shoping Centre.
Leith to Straiton Quality Bus Corridor
A system of bus priorities together with improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. Work on a bus based park and ride site at Straiton, which will form part of the Quality Bus Corridor, has commenced.
A702 Route Action Plan
A set of bus priority measures and bus boarders at stops was introduced along the A702 corridor through the Bruntsfield and Morningside areas of southern Edinburgh.
Real Time Information
'Bustracker' real time information system has provided at 140 bus stop displays along the Leith to Straiton Quality Bus Corridor. The system is being expanded to cover the main bus corridors in Edinburgh. Bustracker will also be expanded into East Lothian and Midlothian.
Improved Bus Services
New bus interchange facilities, improved stops and bus shelters have been provided.
Park and Ride Sites
New bus based park and ride sites at Ingliston and Hermiston on the western edge of Edinburgh were opened. Preparatory work on a the bus based park and ride site at Straiton, which will form part of the Leith to Stariton Quality Bus Corridor, has commenced. Marketing Improvements
The City of Edinburgh Council has commissioned a consultant, Steer Davies Gleave (SDG), to market transport initiatives to employees in major employment areas. The marketing of travel improvements were to involve:
- Design and production of publicity material, targeted at employees (at major employers), about real-time information and public transport improvements.
- Personalised Travel Assistance programme for at least 400 staff, from at least two employers.
In working to their brief SDG:
- Manage OPTIMUM² in Edinburgh on a day-to-day basis.
- Established working relationships with 30 large employers across Edinburgh with total employees of around 70,000.
- Use social marketing techniques to assist employees in reducing their travel problems.
- Carried out personalised travel assistance with a total of 800 staff at large employment areas.
- Provided travel advice at an open week for staff moving to the new Royal Bank of Scotland International Headquarters at Gogarburn in during July 2005.
- Launched a project website www.clevercommuting.info in November 2005.
- Distributed three electronic and hard copies of the Edinburgh project newsletter.
- Conducted a Walking Challenge with employees at Fort Kinnaird retail park in April 2006, pictured and the University of Edinburgh in August 2006.
- In June 2006 provided employees in the Edinburgh Park area with a cycling guide.
- Provided Personalised Travel assistance to staff at Telford College, during August 2006, when their new campus was opened in the Granton area of Edinburgh.
- Provided lunchtime ‘Travel Clinics’ to staff at HSBC, Diageo, BT and Miller Group on Edinburgh Park, during 2006.
- Attended meetings of the internal OPTIMUM² Communications Group.
Further work by SDG will include:
- Final monitoring of travel changes during February and March 2007, using hard copy and electronic staff survey forms.
- Final Study Report in May 2007. The work of Steer Davies Gleave has been assisted by the following inputs from the City of Edinburgh Council:
- The provision of information from the database of bus services and stops operated for the Council by Pindar and
- Information on progress with public transport infrastructure projects.
- The City of Edinburgh Council has publicised the OPTIMUM² project to Scottish members of the National TravelWise Association.
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Future Developments
The Edinburgh OPTIMUM² Communications Group will consider how the benefits of the local project’s outputs can be continued after the project has ended.
The draft Regional Transport Strategy, prepared for the South East Scotland Regional Transport Partnership, (SEStran), refers to ‘OPTIMUM² type’ mobility management measures as a means of changing travelling behaviour.
Bustracker real time information
Transnational relevance
The Edinburgh project's success will be measured on two main counts using before and after monitoring carried out in 2004 and 2007: whether or not people become more aware of the transport alternatives available to them; and whether or not they actually change their travel behaviour and cut car use to the growth areas. The results may be useful to other areas in Europe as well.
Innovative character
The City Council has plenty of money for building things, but very little for services. OPTIMUM² will be used to make organisations in the growth areas aware of the measures that the city council is implementing. Key to the work by consultants has been the following inputs from the City of Edinburgh Council:
- the provision of information from the database of bus services and stops operated for the Council by Pindar and
- information on progress with public transport infrastructure projects and
- inviting them to publicise the project through European Mobility Week.
The City of Edinburgh Council has publicised the OPTIMUM² project to Scottish members of the National TravelWise Association.
This will ensure that Edinburgh's OPTIMUM² activities tie in closely with three pillars of the 5-pillar approach: it is user-oriented, includes marketing and is centred on information and communication. 
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