Back in March, we reported how Council transport officers had been instructed to look at the feasibility of introducing dedicated bus lanes along the length of Queensferry Road. This aimed to speed up bus times and make local services like the 41 and 43/x43 more reliable.
The report to the Transport Committee has now been published but concludes such lanes are “not feasible”.
The modelling showed new lanes would increase journey times for other vehicles by over 70%. It would likely result in a huge increase in rat running through Drum Brae; Whitehouse Road and Gamekeeper’s Road in Cramond; as well as Davidson’s Mains.
The increase in congestion would be so bad that it would also increase the time taken for buses to actually get to the bus lanes.
As a result, the report concludes that bus lanes should not be introduced along the whole of the road.
However it is clear that doing nothing is not an option. We need to try and speed up bus service times to make them a more attractive alternative to the car.
Some further, albeit more limited changes, are still planned. These include reintroducing the bus lane at the Dolphington on-slip near Queensferry and extending the existing bus lane at Hillhouse Road in Blackhall.