Time for city council to stop seeing car drivers as bogeymen

Edinburgh has long been waging an ideological war on motorists, but it seems the more council leaders argue they are not persecuting drivers, the more extreme the measures have become.

- Sue Webber

Only when obvious outcomes become reality, like the Corstorphine bus gate fiasco or the West Craigs low traffic neighbourhood, are more sensible measures adopted.

Along the way the council manages to alienate people who are just as enthusiastic about reducing the city's carbon footprint as transport officers, but have the benefit of detailed local knowledge which would produce better schemes, if only they were listened to in the first place.

It will be the same with the Low Emission Zones, which cost over £13 million of taxpayers' money to set up here and in the other three big cities, making a minimal difference to air quality within the boundaries, but generating significant increases in the immediate periphery.