I've found the perfect way of keeping cool on the move in the heat of Edinburgh and Glasgow

The surge of heat being enjoyed in parts of Scotland may be a joyful tonic if you’re able to relax and enjoy it, but a right pain if you to need to travel across a sweltering city.

I don’t cope well with even moderately warm temperatures, and having to move around, especially while working, can be unpleasantly tiring when the sun starts beating down.

The Scotsman Transport Correspondent Alastair Dalton riding to its Edinburgh office on Tuesday | The Scotsman

I’ve excluded air conditioned cars from my options because they aren’t feasible in many situations, not least the cost and availability of parking, the uncertainty and stress over journey times because of congestion, and the fact you can do little else safely or legally while driving.

Taking a bus or train, even those which also have air con, can be a temperature lottery depending on whether it’s working and how many other passengers are aboard.

Cyclists on Leith Walk in Edinburgh on Tuesday | The Scotsman

And forget walking, other than for the shortest journeys, unless you have time to slow down or want to arrive a sweaty wreck.

Instead, I’ve hit upon the perfect solution, which has come as an additional warm weather benefit to the form of transport I use most often anyway - electric bikes.

A rider on a Voi hire e-bike on Leith Walk in Edinburgh on Wednesday | The Scotsman

I’ve found they are already the quickest way of reaching The Scotsman’s Edinburgh office in Bonnington from Waverley Station when I come through from Glasgow.

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But I’m now also enjoying the amazing cooling effect as the breeze rushes past me as I whizz along the cycle lanes down Leith Walk.

The beauty of e-bikes is they require virtually no effort if you don’t want to put any in, and that also goes for uphill too, albeit that it will slow your speed.

I recall being told that Scottish Government staff trialling e-bikes loved the fact they could get up the hill between their offices at Victoria Quay in Leith and St Andrew’s House in the city centre without perspiring.

That’s certainly been my experience, having forsaken my manual bike - for which little of the above applies - for renting e-bikes from the city council-run Voi schemes in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

I’m just hoping they will soon be expanded further so even more of both cities become in reach of what literally is a cool form of transport.