Crossings Continental
We pressed the case with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP. City of Edinburgh Council move to ask Scottish and UK Governments to speed up needed changes.
RSG
8/31/20262 min read
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Our Road Safety Group's desire for cheaper, "continental style" crossings for people on foot at junctions is shared by Living Streets Edinburgh Group, local MSPs (see below) and City Councillors. A motion to ask the Scottish and UK Governments to speed up the needed legislation was made at City of Edinburgh Council's Full Council meeting on 27 August. You can view the motion on their website here and its presentation here.
Previously
[12-07-2026] You can request a pedestrian crossing on the City Council's website here. But even the "uncontrolled crossings" they list are expensive and so are not built often enough.
Take, for example, the junction of Ellersly Road and Murrayfield Road (pictured). This has been narrowed to help pedestrians, but that has made little difference. There is a major north-south traffic artery from Saughton to areas north and east of Corstorphine Hill. The Ellersly Road / Murrayfield Road junction is the only junction on the route that continues to have no crossing and it is much used by schoolchildren. Despite a 10 year campaign and a recent set of upgrades (see our website here) there remains no crossing. In theory, cars should give way to pedestrians at junctions like this, whether they are turning into or out of them. But without any sign to say so, they don't. We think cheaper, "continental style" crossings (which have zebra-painted road surfaces but no beacon) should be adopted. This a major theme of our Road Safety Group's work.
[09-08-2026] Our Road Safety Group (RSG) has pressed the case for continental-style crossings with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP. These cheaper crossings (described below) would provide much needed help at junctions such as between Murrayfield Road and Ellersly Road (pictured). According to the RSG they are in use in some English local authorities (including Westminster) and by the Welsh government who have already created legislation. They have been discussed by City of Edinburgh Council and Transport Scotland but do not seem to have moved forward. Mr Cole-Hamilton said he would write to Transport Scotland to ask it to explain any delay and to press the case.
[Image credit: H Ross 2026]
[Sources: notes RSG meeting with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP 03-08-2026]