Two different reports have been released this week detailing research on cycling in Scotland. The first, the latest Scottish Transport Statistics (2019) from Transport Scotland, which clearly show that cycling rates continue to remain desperately low, the general cycling modal share of journeys remaining at around 1% for Scotland.
Compare that with the money being spent on trunk roads alone. £580m compared to the annual £80m having been spent on cycling over the last few years and it’s not hard to see why.
The active travel budget has just been increased to £100m per year, which we do welcome, but in a climate emergency this is still far too low, particularly considering these terrifying emission stats.
The other cycling research published this week has come from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and outlines a review of cycling casualties, near misses and under reporting.
“Several recommendations are made including the need for new and accurate reporting of cycling casualties and more detailed monitoring of who cycles in order to really understand risk, behaviour change and trends; sustained government investment to increase spending levels in line with European cities with high–levels of cycling; lower road speeds; a comprehensive safe cycling infrastructure; and improvements in police enforcement and investigation of cycling casualties.” See the report here.
Both reports back up GoBike’s stance that far more investment is needed in quality cycling infrastructure (and that means getting the design right as well as getting putting the spending in the right place). Until this happens, active travel will not be an option for everybody, of all ages and abilities.
We have a massive resource of evidence pages on our website, including the reports above. Please take a look.