Sustainable Travel | BioLife | Edinburgh BioQuarter

Edinburgh BioQuarter supports sustainable travel choices and as part of an ongoing project, we are consistently looking at ways to improve access to sustainable travel for staff, patients, tenants and visitors to BioQuarter.

Sustainable travel options include active travel – such as walking, wheeling or cycling – and also making use of public transport and car sharing.

Data on travel demand and behaviour, collected from the 2022 Edinburgh BioQuarter Travel Survey (made available to staff, patients and visitors), assisted in guiding our efforts and investment aimed at improving infrastructure and service provision, and updated our travel planning to better provide for those travelling to BioQuarter.

Active Travel Breakfasts – events throughout the year. Walk, run or wheel to work on BioQuarter and be rewarded with Breakfast Vouchers (limited availability) for those who register. For Active Travel – May, vouchers are valid from 30 May – 16 June.
Active Bingo – activity challenges hosted over a 4-week period for participants to complete and cross off bingo card activities to be in with the chance of winning prizes.
Adult Cycle Training – a course of sessions to build confidence on a bicycle, from learning to ride to refreshing on-road cycling skills. Please email for more information.
Love to Ride – join the Edinburgh BioQuarter: Love to Ride team (select ‘Join Club / Group’) and win prizes for logging your cycles throughout the year.
Love to Ride offers a wide range of fun challenges and resources throughout the year, aimed at encouraging and supporting people to incorporate biking into their daily lives.
BioQuarter Trail – launched in August 2022 with QR tokens placed along a landscaped trail on BioQuarter during the summer months.

For future activities, please check back for more information and follow our social media channels.

Doctor Bike provides free monthly bike checks on Edinburgh BioQuarter. These sessions are extended through the summer months from April through July 2024.

The service is available the last Thursday of the month – next visit Thursday 30th May. No need to book, just drop by.

12:00 to 2:00pm Hospital Square, outside Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh entrance*
2:30pm to 3:30pm outside NINE Building

* In the event of bad weather, this session will be conducted at the back of the Chancellor’s Building, by the bike shed.

This service is provided by Edinburgh Bike Doctors and funded by Smarter Choices Smart Places, a Paths for All programme.

Walking and Cycling Routes

To encourage more people to travel by bike or on foot for everyday journeys, Edinburgh Council are investing in improving conditions for cycling and walking in and around the city. Explore your options for routes to Edinburgh BioQuarter.

Quiet Route 61 is a quiet route crossing the City Bypass between Roslin and Portobello. This route has been been extended and is now sign posted all the way.

Midlothian has many designated cycleways and walkways. There are many linear and circular routes to explore, some of which act as a link between towns and villages and offer a great variety of landscapes, from the Pentland and Moorfoot Hills to rolling farmland, woodland and river valleys.

Walking is the simplest activity to encourage and promote in the workplace. It fits easily in and around the working day. It’s free. No special equipment is required, and most people can take part. It can also improve mental health – regular walking can reduce your risk of depression and dementia by 20-30%, improve your sleep, and prevent and reduce anxiety and stress.

Little France Park was created by reclaiming unmanaged grassland and carving out a green corridor from Edinburgh city centre to Midlothian, improving the access to quality green spaces for both wildlife and people.

The park is a diverse range of habitats – grassland, hedges, standing water /wetland (part of a flood alleviation scheme), moving watercourses, and woodlands with interpretation panels help to identify local wildlife and the different routes. Biodiversity improvements and activities are ongoing.

CycleStreets is a UK-wide cycle journey planner system, which lets you plan routes from A to B by bike. It is designed by cyclists, for cyclists, and caters for the needs of both confident and less confident cyclists.

Out and About

Historic Environment Scotland is offering free access to Craigmillar Castle (and many other castles throughout Scotland) to everyone living in Scotland – you just need a Scottish postcode when booking.

Craigmillar Castle is approximately a 25-minute walk from Edinburgh BioQuarter via Little France Road, along dedicated footpaths and cycleways making this ideal for a visit before or after work or with family or friends for a day out.

The scheme is running from October 2023 to March 2024 on the first Sunday of the month (spaces subject to availability).

Plan your visit

Edinburgh BioQuarter is ideally located for bus travel from across the city and beyond. BioQuarter has a dedicated bus hub and additional bus stops on site, all served by frequent buses.

Edinburgh’s two mainline railway stations, Waverley and Haymarket, cover the entire UK network. From Edinburgh Waverley, BioQuarter is only a 15-minute bus journey.

Travel Options

A two-week community engagement survey launched closed on Sunday 17th December 2023, aimed at gathering feedback on four proposed sections of walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure within Edinburgh BioQuarter and connecting to Sheriffhall.

The main method of feedback collection was through an online survey, with a paper version available to collect from the reception at NINE, Little France Road, Edinburgh BioQuarter, Edinburgh, EH16 4UX.

If you have any questions relating to the survey, please email Sweco at edinburghbioquarter@sweco.co.uk.

Find out more about the background and benefits of the Active Travel Gaps project.

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Sustainable Travel Choices

Promoting Sustainable Travel Choices

Active Travel Initiatives on BioQuarter

Dr Bike Service

Walking and Cycling Routes

Edinburgh Council Quiet Routes

Explore local routes

Paths for All Health Walks

Little France Park

Sustrans Cycle Network

Cycle Streets Route Planning

Out and About

Historic Sundays

Getting to BioQuarter

Active Travel Gaps

Community Engagement Survey

Contact

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