Edinburgh reports positive effects of its 'pavement parking ban'

Edinburgh's banned pavement parking scheme commenced at the end of January 2024, issuing fines of £100 for vehicles not complying. In total, 2,313 tickets have been issued to offenders in the first three months up until the end of April. 

However, the City Council are seeing the ban as a success case - the number of tickets issued per month has dropped from 925 tickets in March to 644 tickets in April. Complaints on pavement parking, double parking and parking at dropped crossings have also almost halved, from a peak of 1,316 in February to 687 in April.

The pavement parking ban was introduced to keep pavements free of obstacles, mainly for people with reduced mobility, such as wheelchair users, or people with buggies or prams. Prior to the start of the ban, 556 "red" streets were marked by the council as having problems with pavement parking. After the first three months of enforcing the ban, this figure was down to just 7 streets. These streets continue to see problems such as cars parking on the road, leaving too little space for bin lorries to pass by. Edinburgh Council is considering measures such as yellow lines on the pavement to safeguard sufficient space for bin lorries and emergency vehicles to pass by parked cars.

Councillor Scott Arthur, Convener of the Transport and Environment Committee, stated: “The number of complaints is starting to fall because compliance is quite high. Things are starting to normalise. I'm proud of how the council officers have implemented this ban, but even prouder of how the public in Edinburgh have responded to it. It really has been transformative in a lot of areas, making it a safer and more equal city.”