In 2019, the Council developed proposals for improving active travel along the route of Marchmont Road, Kilgraston Road and Blackford Avenue. This included advisory cycle lanes (white lines) and raised crossings at junctions to prioritise pedestrians. The vehicle route south from Kilgraston Road would permit movements only east to Grange Loan. Vehicles would not be permitted to exit westwards from Grange Loan at Kilgraston Road, thus effectively creating gyratory vehicle movements around Grange Loan, Blackford Avenue, Oswald Road and Kilgraston Road. This was designed to improve the safety and convenience of crossings at the junction of Grange Loan and Kilgraston Road for non-motorised road users.

The proposals were developed as TRO/19/67 for which the proposed layouts are available in sections:
• Melville Drive – Strathearn Road
• Strathearn Road – Grange Loan
• Grange Loan / Oswald Road (gyratory)
• Grange Terrace – Charterhall Grove

This TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) is no longer available on the Council’s website of pending Traffic Orders, so its status is unclear. Blackford Safe Routes gave a detailed response to the proposals and this remains available on their website. The Council’s Transport and Environment Committee still listed “Marchmont to Blackford TRO” as an “Upcoming Report” in Appendix 1 to the meeting of the Committee on 11 November 2021.

All pending and recently enacted TROs affecting the Grange area are listed under the “TROs” tile on our Roads and Pavements page.

As residents of Blackford Avenue, our Green councillor (Steve Burgess) put us in touch with consultants developing the "Marchmont to King's Buildings Active Travel route".

The current thinking is focused on slowing traffic at corners and at side road entries along the route. Objective being to address the poor safety for the many pedestrians and cyclists (particularly school and university). The Grange Loan / Oswald Road (gyratory) has been dropped.

From our perspective the biggest problem is high traffic volume and speeds, which creates the safety issue.
The discussion leads to a couple of ideas being considered to improve this
- Single lane chicane on Kilgraston Road, prioritised for uphill traffic.
- No additional double yellow lines as these simply increase speeds.

As above, the proposal should be published in early 2022. However any suggestions can be fed in, if posted here.

Quote from MLewis on January 3, 2022, 19:48

May I comment on Mark F's suggestios re Kilgraston Road?

Kilgraston Road is awful. The pavements are too narrow for the volume of foot traffic; the speed of vehicle traffic is much too high; and there are no safe places to cross between the Beaufort Road traffic lights and Grange Loan junction. The plans call for a raised junction at Blackford Road / Dick Place. I'm not clear exactly what this would consist of, but if it has the effect of slowing the traffic, even if only slightly, it would be most welcome.

I'm less sure about the proposed raised table at the Hope Terrace junction. This would reduce the speed of traffic entering Hope Terrace, but I don't see that as an important issue.

I also question the conversion of single yellow lines to double yellows. As Mark F points out, this would simply increase speeds.

I don't know how useful a chicane would be. But anything that reduces traffic speeds would be very welcome.

What about speed bumps ?