Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, has a population roughly similar to Bremen. Like Bremen, it has an old port area, now de-industrialised and slowly being transformed into a residential area. But other than also having a football team that plays in green and white, the similarities end there.

Edinburgh is built around seven hills. Together with the steep descent from the centre to the old port of Leith and the coast, this makes it a particularly hilly city, challenging for cyclists. Despite this, the 2020s have the feeling of a break-out decade, with the city leaving behind the low cycling numbers typical of much of the UK.

Much of the impetus for Edinburgh’s early cycling development came from the city’s cycling campaign organisation, Spokes. Founded at a meeting organised by Friends of the Earth in 1977, Spokes soon advocated for the conversion of a number of closed urban railway lines into cycle paths. In 1981, Lothian Regional Council bought disused railways in north Edinburgh from British Rail. Spokes immediately set up a Railways group to press for their early conversion to cycleways. However the first such route was towards the south of the city, the Innocent Railway route, opened in 1982. The railway was originally built in 1831 as a horse-drawn tramway. The “Innocent” name is thought to derive from the fact it was horse-drawn in an age of expanding steam power. The railway line closed in 1968.

In 1986 Spokes got permission from the Council to create a cycleway on 1km of the Pilton railway path. It opened as part of the 7km North Edinburgh network. From there, the off-road network has slowly grown in a stop-start fashion as political leadership varied between cycling-friendly and cycling-disinterested.

For leisure cycling, these disused railway routes have proved attractive. Cycling’s modal share rose from under 1% to over 3% in 1995. But for utility cycling, such as commuting, the much more difficult task of joining up these cycleways has taken longer. The 1990s and early 2000s saw the development of a number of dedicated bus & cycle lanes on main roads. These helped the city’s more courageous cyclists. Cycling’s modal share for journeys to work rose again to 6%. Eventually both cycling advocates and local politicians realised that sharing road space with motor transport, even with well-trained and respectful bus drivers, was not enough to encourage more people to cycle. 

In 2010, Edinburgh Council published the city’s Active Travel Action Plan. The city chose to bring walking, cycling and wheeling together under the one umbrella of Active Travel. Perhaps because bus travel was already saturated – the new tram network was being built partly to relieve the bus network. Or maybe because walking was already the most popular means for children to get to school (64.3% of all school journeys in 2007/8). Either way, cycling needed to be the main focus, with city centre streets routinely jammed full with buses and cars.

The Plan was ambitious. Not only would it develop new and improve existing off-road routes. The Plan wanted to connect them as well. Certainly, off-road routes were significantly expanded, with the path along the Union Canal in the city’s south west, more work in The Meadows, linking it with the Innocent Path route, and much of the north Edinburgh railway routes all being developed. But key connections were still not in place when the Covid pandemic struck.

By 2020, the city had 211 kilometres of off-road quality cycleways. Then, during the COVID pandemic, and with help from the Scottish government, the city quickly created 36 kilometres of popup cycle lanes on main roads. These have been adapted and retained for long-term use. Soon after, work on 3 key connections got underway. In 2023, the new tram route from the city centre to Newhaven was opened. Alongside a key section on Leith Walk, new separated cycleways were built, connecting Leith to the city centre.

Then in early 2024, the City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL) was opened, linking the network of off-road paths at Roseburn to the city centre at Haymarket and farther east against a strong lobby of shopowners. And in December 2024, the most difficult link to date was completed. The £17m Roseburn to Union Canal link required two new bridges to cross a railway line and busy main road. 

Some key work is still to be completed. The transformation of George Street in the busy New Town will see a major pedestrianisation of the street, together with cycleways along its length. The stretch we cycled between The Meadows and George Street, will eventually see a separated cycleway along the east side of the road.

An important lesson for Bremen is how the city – and Scotland generally – are addressing the potential pedestrian-cyclist conflict. The term Active Travel is ubiquitous in Scotland. It aims to encourage co-existence between cyclists and pedestrians in the belief that their common aims are more important than their differences. Parks and green spaces are important for both walking and cycling. There is more to do, but recognising this important fact has meant that many traffic-free routes are being created and enjoyed by both pedestrians and cyclists.  

As of 2025, there is no up to date figure for how all of this has changed cycling’s modal share. However, targeted studies and data from specific routes provide insight into cycling trends within the city.In January 2024, an all-mode traffic survey was conducted at three locations along the newly opened City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL) route. The findings revealed that cycling accounted for 13% of the total traffic on this route. Additionally, in May 2024, data from an automatic cycle counter at Leith Walk/Picardy Place recorded an average of 1,812 cyclists passing daily, compared to 803 in May 2022. This significant increase indicates a growing number of people choosing to cycle in Edinburgh.

So is Edinburgh now a Cycling City? The New York-based  Institute for Transportation and Development Policy suggest 8 elements that define a cycling city : 

• Safe, direct cycle lanes – Edinburgh is on moving towards a safe, direct network, but there are major gaps.
• Safe roads through low speed limits – Between 2016 and 2018, Edinburgh Council increased the proportion of roads in the city with 20mph limits from 50% to 80%
• Gender balance in cycling – In Edinburgh, there is a notable gender disparity in cycling participation. According to the 2023 Walking and Cycling Index, 28% of men cycle at least once a week, compared to only 16% of women.
• Child-friendly cycling – Cycling to school statistics suggest a very low level of child cycling.
• Integration with public transport. First-last mile connections are being built into most railway stations in and around Edinburgh through cycle parking facilities.
• Dedicated cycling funding. This has increased dramatically in recent years both at council and Scottish national level. 
• Car-free days. Edinburgh has at least organised the closure of various streets to motor traffic on certain Sundays. However, there have been no widely reported car-free Sunday events since October 2022.
• Widespread bicycle retail and repair shops. The Spokes cycle map we bought lists over 40 cycle retail and repair shops. 

Edinburgh is more an aspiring, rather than an actual, cycling city. As such, the city will be confronted with important issues if cycling numbers continue to grow. The narrow sections of shared paths on some of the railway line routes will have to be widened. Indeed, much of the new infrastructure will be under strain if the numbers grow as hoped.

As someone from Bremen, there is also a simpler test of whether a city has really embraced cycling. Does your doctor or dentist or local shop-keeper routinely refer to cycling when offering advice? I know for certain that, after being vaccinated for example, my Bremen GP will tell me whether or not I can cycle. In Edinburgh, that day is not yet here. But perhaps by 2030 it will indeed be the norm.