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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 9h

*Controversial opinion alert*
Edinburgh's design guidance is mostly quite good. The problems are:
1. getting them followed in practice
2. bus stops being the first thing to be sacrificed in any street scheme.
But many Councils think putting up a pole is enough.

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/fi...

www.edinburgh.gov.uk

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 10h

@transform.scot

Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 10h

Your occasional reminder of just why a Bus Service Standard and a Bus Stop Guarantee should be in every Holyrood 2026 manifesto;
transform.scot/our-work/our...

https://edinburghbususers.group/ebug-suggestions-for-2026-holyrood-election-manifestos

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 12h

Liverpool is our poster child for Councils that cut bus lanes, realised what a mistake it was, and started putting them back.

How's it going? 🙂

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 12h

Never had @edtiss.bsky.social welcomes a 4x4 on an off-road path on our bingo card.
😉

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 1d

Fair point.

Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 1d

But where else would Edinburgh residents get the chance to win the £1m+ home in Saffron Walden that we're all pining for?

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 1d

Don't mock. Thanks to your repost, we discovered:
1. Edinburgh Live has a Bluesky account
2. @kevin-lang.bsky.social has one too (no posts yet)
3. Edinburgh Live cover Strictly in a lot of detail
4. Ross King is an Italian presenter

This has been a valuable learning experience.

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 2d

Where The Times' research beaks down...they took the headline promises, but didn't read the manifesto properly, otherwise they wouldn't have missed the most egregious example.
'invest over £500 million to improve bus infrastructure and tackle congestion'.

Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 2d

1. Of course it didn't remove most fossil-fuel buses by 2023. That was utter billhooks (as any fule kno) as it ignored the reality of operators' replacement strategies.
2. Free U22s bus travel; yes, done
3. Reduce car-km 20% by 2030; looks unlikely, but an X?

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 2d

Since The Times is putting the boot into the SNP's record (Conference time, innit?), here's our 'careful analysis' of that 'non-paywalled article.
www.thetimes.com/article/ffb7...

Promises, promises: How SNP’s manifesto pledges fell short

Analysis of pledges made before the 2021 Holyrood elections shows the party has struggled to live up to its ambitions, delivering on less than half of them

www.thetimes.com

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 2d

That's Glasgow Sub Users Group's manifesto.

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 3d

The Best Seat on the Bus is one looking onto an unobstructed bus lane.
@drscottarthurmp.bsky.social

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 3d

'4' is very much on trend for the number of changes that local groups want political parties and candidates to commit to ahead of the Holyrood 2026 elections.
edinburghbususers.group/ebug-suggest...

EBUG suggestions for 2026 Holyrood election manifestos

Elections for Holyrood (7 May 2026) are on the horizon. EBUG has sent a list of key bus-related ‘calls for action’ to every political party with an identifiable manifesto contact. RESTO…

edinburghbususers.group

Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 3d

Indeed. But wouldn't it be better if all Scottish card holders could use it on subway/tram just as they do on buses?

(In case policymakers are reading this, we venture most such trips would be shifted from bus to subway/tram, with little additional cost to ScotGov's budget)

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 3d

TOP TIP; save yourself time, money and/or clicks by going straight to www.transport.gov.scot/news/ instead of a paywalled article that just recycles the ScotGov press release.

News | Transport Scotland

www.transport.gov.scot

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 4d

OK Minister, 'By encouraging early adoption of public transport, the initiative has made a lasting impact', but how are you going to keep them there?
Our helpful suggestions (already sent to all parties)
edinburghbususers.group/ebug-suggest...

www.transport.gov.scot/news/over-25...

Over 250 million free bus trips made by young people across Scotland | Transport Scotland

www.transport.gov.scot

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 5d

The bridge that ScotGov proudly proclaims as a public transport link, even though it ditched the funding for bus priority stuff from the edge of the city inwards.

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 5d

That yin. The one that's connected to a bridge that one MSP thinks is empty, even though thousands of bus passengers use it.

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 5d

@stephenjenkinson.bsky.social @chasbooth.bsky.social @kate-c.bsky.social @sannedd.bsky.social @sw20.info @spokes.org.uk

(Correlation is not causation, but banging your head on a brick wall correlates with a lot of headaches)

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 5d

Handy link to www.edinburghinquirer.co.uk/p/mapping-th...
We read as much as possible (*declined to hand over our details*), but couldn't help noticing that the busiest urban corridor is the one without significant bus priority. 🤔

Mapping the radical changes in the way we use the city's roads

From the 'traffic-light' city centre to the cycle route that has proved a surprise hit

www.edinburghinquirer.co.uk

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 6d

Oooh; looks good even to our hyper-critical eyes.

'responsibly sourced from hand-selected trees in Scotland', so at least we can claim we contributed!

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 7d

Our curator's chief claims to fame:
1. Has met one of the Marples family.
2. Has been a transport activist since writing ‘Marples must go’ in the dirt on his father’s car.

(as Marples went shortly thereafter, our curator calls that an early win)
@sw20.info

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Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 7d

Meanwhile, in today's other news:

Countries that didn't start the climate crisis lead the way on renewables.
Countries that did start the climate crisis stall on renewables.

(Wonder how the 'ah, but China' brigade will spin that?)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
@nigelbagshaw.bsky.social

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

www.bbc.co.uk

Edinburgh Bus Users Group @edinburghbug.bsky.social · 7d

Zhou Enlai on the consequences of the French Revolution:
'It is too early to tell'

(Possibly apocryphal)

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