Road traffic numbers in Edinburgh have risen for the fourth year running since covid – but Edinburgh’s transport boss says he is still trying to cut the figure down.
New figures published by the Department for Transport said 2.38 billion kilometres were travelled on Edinburgh roads in 2024.
It marks an increase of 39 million kilometres over last year – and is up 560m km from 2020, where figures were depressed due to the pandemic.
But it is still down on 2019’s figure, which was at 2.46bn kilometres. In 2021, it was 2.05bn kilometres, while in 2022 it was 2.29bn, and in 2023 it was 2.34bn.
Despite Holyrood axing its target to drop car kilometres by 20% between 2020 and 2030, Edinburgh has still retained an ambitious goal of dropping it by 30% in the same timespan.
The city’s baseline is set at 2021, meaning kilometres travelled will have to be at 1.44bn per year by the end of the decade – under two thirds of the number this year.
Transport and Environment convener and Labour councillor Stephen Jenkinson said: “It’s quite a stretch target, because 2021 was obviously when we were in the midst of covid.
“We’re still determined to do absolutely what we can to achieve this target. It’s certainly still an admirable goal, and one I think we should keep pushing towards.”
He said that public transport was an important tool for reducing the figure, and celebrated the success of the city’s transit network during the festival period.
Both Edinburgh Trams and Waverley Station had their busiest days in history on the date of the Oasis concert on Saturday, August 9.
And Lothian Buses had almost one million more passengers than normal over the first three weeks of the festival season.
When asked by reporters about the possibility of a congestion charge, Cllr Jenkinson said he was committed to exploring all options available to the city for reducing traffic.
He added: “I certainly have committed to exploring options, and I’ve previously said that I was comfortable to start having discussions with colleagues in the Glasgow city chambers to see where their head is.
“We’ve got to be careful we don’t rush into making decisions about what the art of the possible is without considering all of the options.
“But I don’t think it does any harm when, if legislation is provided for that, exploring to see whether that would work for the city or not.
“I think I’m quite a pragmatic person about that until I know what the legislation allows us to do or not.”
Cllr Jenkinson also said the council needed to be mindful of taking a regional and national approach to the transport challenges Edinburgh faces.
The city is currently carrying out a consultation into an expansion of the city’s tram network, adding a north-south route between Granton and the area of the Royal Infirmary.
There are proposals to run it out further to either or both Midlothian and East Lothian, which would help make the system take on more of a regional characteristic.
Proposals have also been made for building new bus rapid transit links between communities south of Edinburgh and the new tram line.
Bus rapid transit usually involves running high-frequency bus services along bus lanes and bus-only roads.
Such schemes currently exist in several parts of the UK, including Greater Manchester, Cambridgeshire and Luton, and elsewhere in the world.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
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