Ellersly Road Safety Improvements

Latest:

According to a forthcoming article in the Murrayfield Grapevine (Feb-March 2025 issue), the long-running campaign for traffic-calming on the Ellersly/Kinellan rat-run is optimistic that there will be improvements starting in 2025. These include a new crossing, pavement widening, new signage and road-marking. The campaign is extending the zone of interest to include Murrayfield Road. The authors, John Bishop, Don Page, Jim Forbes and Rab Houston, write:

After 10 years of demands for road safety improvements, local residents in the neighbourhood of Ellersly, Kinellan and Murrayfield Roads finally have some cause for optimism. Last year, a City Council report endorsed action on three proposals to control traffic speed and improve safety, particularly for walkers and wheelers [...]

Our campaign has recently been broadened to include Murrayfield Road as a natural extension of the high-volume traffic corridor of Ellersly Road and the Kinellan Road “rat-run”. We welcome updated traffic volume and speed surveys which are in the pipeline for each of these residential roads, to confirm the need for traffic calming and provide a baseline [...]

Previously:

[19/04/2024] A petition by Murrayfield Community Council and residents of Ellersly/Kinellan was recently submitted to the Transport and Environment Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council, and was covered by The Edinburgh Reporter.

The petition had 121 signatures of local residents who, for 10 years, have been seeking safety improvements for walkers and wheelers on heavily-trafficked Ellersly Road. Some of these measures have been promised since 2021. In 2021 traffic data confirmed that both Kinellan Road, a popular high-speed rat-run, and Ellersly Road meet criteria for traffic calming. The 20mph speed limit is not enforced and is respected by only a small minority of drivers. Since 2022 traffic volume has visibly increased still further. Footways, particularly on the north side of Ellersly Road, are very narrow and abut high stone walls, leaving little separation between footway users and traffic speeding close to the kerb.

The petition sought:

1. As the highest and most immediate priority, to implement traffic calming, promised since 2021, on both Ellersly and Kinellan Roads;

2. To take advantage of carriageway resurfacing scheduled in 2024 to widen the footway on the north side of Ellersly Road from Belmont Drive to Murrayfield Road; and

3. To develop a firm plan for a pedestrian crossing at the east end of Ellersly Road (“Benjamin’s crossing”).

Image credits: (c) J Forbes (Ellersly Road corner); E Forbes & The Edinburgh Reporter (petition)