Ellie Harrison, GoBike member and Chair of Get Glasgow Moving, shares her view about SPT’s Regional Active Travel Strategy consultation which closes this Sunday 1 September.

Featured image: ‘Dutch’-style junction on protected cycleway – West Mains Rd/Torrance Rd, by East Kilbride train station, South Lanarkshire (Sept 2023).

The Regional ATS sets out three ambitious targets which are meant to be delivered by 2030:

• Target 1: By 2030, car kilometres in the region will be reduced by at least 20%.
• Target 2: By 2030, transport emissions will be reduced by at least 53% from the 2019 baseline.
• Target 3: By 2030, at least 45% of all journeys will be made by means other than the private car as the main mode (p.31).

Yet the Strategy itself runs to 2038 with many of the proposed interventions being ‘long-term’ in that they won’t be fully-delivered until the end of the Strategy’s term. It is therefore highly unlikely that these three targets will be met by 2030 without proper investment and an accelerated delivery plan.

Cost of Transport

In order to achieve modal shift to sustainable forms of transport on the scale that is necessary by 2030, the cost of transport must be regulated. This is so that it aligns with the ‘Sustainable Travel Hierarchy’ which is the guiding principle of both Transport Scotland’s NTS2 and SPT’s Regional ATS (p.25). This means ensuring that cycle hire is always cheaper than public transport, and that public transport is always considerably cheaper than taxis and private car use.

In order to deliver this, it is vital that SPT takes over the governance of the cycle hire scheme (currently managed by Glasgow City Council and run by German company NextBike/Tier). Transport for London (TfL) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) already run the schemes in their respective city-regions. It is essential that we have one consistent cycle hire scheme rolled out across the whole of Strathclyde (not a hotchpotch of various schemes). This is so that commuters by rail or bus from one local authority to another can easily use bikes at either end of their journey.

“Only a fully-integrated system… will be capable of delivering modal shift on the scale we need to see.”

Ellie Harrison, Get Glasgow Moving

SPT governance of the cycle hire scheme should ensure it can deliver an integrated payment system across all modes, with an affordable daily price cap. Provided that the region’s bus network (and its suburban rail network) is also brought under SPT’s control – as is the ambition of the concurrent Regional Bus Strategy. SPT could also deliver an integrated journey planning app (like TfGM’s new Bee Network app) which shows cycle hire stations and availability alongside bus/tram routes, stops and live timetables. It recommends the quickest/cheapest multi-modal journey from A to B. This is what is required to achieve SPT’s stated aim of “Integrating Walking, Wheeling and Cycling with Public Transport” (p.33). And it’s only a fully-integrated system, like that currently being rolled out by TfGM, which will be capable of delivering modal shift on the scale we need to see.

In order to “promote and incentivise active travel” (p.39) it is also vital that people using their own bikes do not face additional costs – i.e. secure cycle storage should always be provided free of charge.

Access

In terms of “Promotion, Travel Behaviour Change, and Information” (p.39-40) it is important to prioritise schools, where we have the opportunity to normalise cycling for all young people as they are growing up. Every child in every school in Strathclyde should complete Bikeability training and be able to borrow a bike from their school to use on a daily basis. This policy should be looked at in conjunction with the local authorities’ and SPT’s statutory duty to provide free transport to schools. It may be possible to save costs and deliver better health outcomes if some of this is done by active travel, particularly if organised on mass as a ‘Bike Bus’.

The normalisation of active travel will only truly happen as a generational shift, which is why it is vital to focus on education and training for children and young people. Alongside building the Regional Active Travel Network, this is what will make cycling safe and accessible to all.

SPT Board

The Regional ATS is an important document. Its aim to create a “regional active travel network which is safe and attractive for all users, and that offers an inclusive way for people to travel actively regardless of age, gender, or disability” (p.34) will be transformational for Strathclyde if/when it’s fully delivered. It is therefore a serious concern that SPT’s Board members do not appear to have read the Strategy or to understand the vital role that active travel plays in any fully-integrated public transport system. Recent comments from SPT Board members in Strategy & Programmes Committee meetings bemoaned the amount of Scottish Government funding going into active travel. This is despite the fact millions of pounds of this funding is now being channelled through SPT! These illustrate that senior figures like the Chair and Vice Chairs seem to be ignorant of this area, which threatens to undermine the delivery of the Strategy.

In order to overcome this, two urgent actions are necessary:

1. To use the spare capacity for appointed members on the SPT Board (currently only 7 out of a possible 9 seats are filled) to bring in people with specific expertise in active travel (i.e. representatives from GoBike, Cycling Scotland or Sustrans), and,
2. To ensure all SPT Board members undertake Bikeability training. As far as we are aware, there are only two current Board members (Cllr John Ross from South Lanarkshire, and Cllr Christy Mearns from Glasgow) who have any experience of cycling and/or use a bike as their main mode of transport. Such training can be done in an inclusive way by using fully-accessible bikes like those available at Free Wheel North, and will be vital for enabling Board members to properly appreciate the problems with current active travel provision and the need for urgent investment.

Despite the clear ambition set out in the Strategy, SPT currently lacks any visible leadership in active travel. And so when the Regional Bus Strategy and the Regional ATS are ready for implementation, SPT should also seek to adopt the delivery model being deployed by TfGM with two high-profile and qualified Commissioners. In Greater Manchester, Dame Sarah Storey as the Active Travel Commissioner works alongside Vernon Everitt as the Transport Commissioner (overseeing bus franchising). They are able to give an equal platform to the different sustainable transport modes and to oversee and ensure total integration across them.

Update: see Ellie’s Scottish Parliament petition – PE2116: Accelerate the implementation of bus franchising powers. Further info on the Get Glasgow Moving website.

As the case for supporting cycling and sustainable travel is made at #COP27, here in Scotland we continue to do the same nationally and locally. Sadly, despite positive commitments and policies in the past couple of years, financial pressures are once again creating uncertainty for budgets and priorities. Climate targets can’t be met without boosting active travel and that means we need more spending on projects and infrastructure which helps people to cycle, walk and wheel.

Police Scotland are also experiencing financial pressures and have put all projects on hold. This includes the National Dashcam Safety Portal – an online system for the public to upload camera footage and simply report incidents of bad driving.

The ongoing development of the new portal is under threat, so Cycling UK has a new e-action where you can write to the Chief Constable to say ‘Don’t scrap Scotland’s Dashcam Safety Portal’.

Read more in the blog post I wrote for Cycling UK.

*TAKE ACTION NOW* take the e-action – write to the Chief Constable and personalise your email by adding why road safety and the portal is important to you.

Section 1: Current Consultations

(in date order for responses)

1.1: Scottish Sentencing Council – Death by Driving

Only a few days remaining.

The sentencing council is seeking views on their draft guideline on the statutory offences involving causing death by driving. The guidance is for the courts to use when setting sentences in cases where death has been caused by careless or dangerous driving.

The consultation asks questions on:

• the overall style and structure of the guideline and its interaction with other guidelines
• the content of the guidance contained within the guideline
• the potential impacts of the guideline

The proposed guidance itself is well set out and clear – it makes sense to have the offences ordered by seriousness with the most serious appearing first.

However, what many people want to see are tougher sentences and courts using their sentencing powers to give out tough penalties. It’s interesting that the consultation document explains that currently the public generally expects tougher sentences than the courts deliver. This has to work for the public and victim’s families as well as being fair to offenders.

This consultation is not the ideal format to call for tough sentences for causing death by driving or other driving offences but there’s no harm in stating clearly what you want to see in order to make the roads safer.

Cases of drivers killing other other people whilst behind the wheel and receiving a short sentence are all too familiar. Pleas for tougher sentencing for road crime seem to go nowhere. Now is the chance to tell the sentencing council what you think.

Closes 22 November 2022

1.2: Transport Scotland – Cycling Framework for Active Travel

Transport Scotland is consulting on an important new strategy for cycling – specifically cycling for active travel. The draft Cycling Framework for Active Travel outlines the Scottish Government’s priorities for cycling up to 2030, and specifically aims to boost transport cycling (everyday cycling) for short local journeys.

This new strategy is the follow-up to the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland 2017-2020 and to be honest its a whole lot better. So if you agree and think that, on the whole, its a positive strategy please use this opportunity to praise Transport Scotland for going a good job.

Sadly, as cycle campaigners we are all too familiar with having to review draft documents which don’t promise to deliver what is needed for cycling. This new Cycling Framework is better but we can still provide input to improve it.

Cycling UK has produced a guide to responding to the consultation which includes suggestions for answers to supplement your own ideas.

Closes 19 December 2022

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

None this month.

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

The Scottish Government has now published the independent analysis report of the responses to the Draft National Planning Framework 4 consultation.  Further information, and the Revised Draft NPF4, is available at TransformingPlanning.scot.

The route of the March for Climate Justice on Saturday 6 November started on Kelvin Way and passed more Spaces for People measures in George Square. An order has come out to help make the temporary Spaces for People measures around the square permanent.

The march couldn’t get anywhere near the COP26 venue at the SEC. It has just lodged a planning application for its sometimes public cycle/footbridge. Looking further to the future, this Digest also includes two long term strategies for Glasgow and another for South Ayrshire.

Image credit: Julia L via Pedal on Parliament Flickr group

Contents
(new consultations in bold – link jumps to article)

Section 1: Current Consultations

1. South Ayrshire Active Travel Strategy
2. Tarbet to Inverarnan A82 road/active travel improvements
3. Glasgow’s Active Travel Strategy (Consultation draft)
4. Nitshill Road (40mph Speed Limit) Amendment Order
5. SEC Arrival Hall & Minerva St pedestrian/cycle bridge (planning application)
6. George Square: City Centre Traffic Management Order 2010 (Variation No. 31)
7. Draft Glasgow Transport Strategy: framework
8. Draft Parking Management Plan (EDC)
9. Ayr Road (South) Active Travel Improvements 
10. Langside to Toryglen Liveable Neighbourhoods
11. Ruchill to Cowlairs Liveable Neighbourhoods
12. Raeberry St Quietway (Connecting Woodside)
13. Ayr Road (North): Spaces for People, Phase 2
14. Helensburgh to Garelochhead active travel route
15. Rethink Glasgow

Section 2: Consultation Feedback

1. COP26 Active Travel route closures
2. City Deal Avenues: Programme update

Section 1: Current Consultations
(in date order for responses)

1.1: South Ayrshire Active Travel Strategy 2021–2031

Council: South Ayrshire.
Subject: Active Travel Strategy for South Ayrshire Council region, covering Ayr, Prestwick, Troon, Girvan, etc. Includes a list of infrastructure proposals but not much detail on the standards they might use for construction. Apologies this almost slipped through the net – email any last minute comments about the strategy to: saats@sweco.co.uk.
Website link: South Ayrshire Active Travel Strategy consultation page, South Ayrshire Active Travel Strategy (PDF).
Deadline: 12th November.

1.2: Tarbet to Inverarnan A82 road/active travel improvements

Organisation: Transport Scotland.
Area: Loch Lomond north west shore (A82) in Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park.
Subject: New shared path added to re-aligned/improved A82. Scenic route north from Tarbet to Inverarnan (at head of Loch Lomond).
First covered: Digest 97, Item 1.11.
Website link: Tarbet to Inverarnan ‘storymap’.
Deadline: 19th November.

1.3: Glasgow’s Active Travel Strategy

Council: Glasgow City.
Subject: Active Travel Strategy to replace the previous Cycling Strategy. It certainly talks the talk’ and has some good case studies. However, will it be robust enough to ‘walk the walk’ and be implemented properly?
First covered: Digest 97, 1.5.
Website links: GCC Active Travel info and downloads and GCC Active Travel Survey.  There’s also, an Active Travel ‘Storymap’ and now a CommonPlace map for the proposed city network. 
Deadline: 22 November (not 24th as previously stated).

1.4: Nitshill Road (40mph Speed Limit) Amendment Order

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: South-west Glasgow.
Subject: A few 40mph signs to be moved along Nitshill Rd for a new development.
First covered: Digest 98, Item 1.6.
Website links: Nitshill Rd map, Nitshill Rd report, Nitshill Rd press notice.
Deadline: 22 November.

1.5: SEC Arrival Hall & Minerva St pedestrian/cycle bridge (planning application)

Organisation: Scottish Event Campus.
Area: SEC and Minerva St, Finnieston.
Subject: Proposal for the pedestrian/cycle bridge from Minerva St at Exhibition Centre train station. It will keep the same footings north of Stobcross Rd, so will still have its hazardous right-angle corners (but might lose the gates at the southern end). A new ‘arrival hall’ building will be added at the SEC end of the bridge (starting roughly where the current ‘kink’ is, south of Stobcross Rd). This is part of the wider redevelopment plans for the SEC.
Website links: SEC Arrival Hall & Minerva St bridge planning application.
Deadline: 25 November.

1.6: George Square: City Centre Traffic Management Order 2010 (Variation No. 31)

Council: Glasgow City.
Subject: Order to make Spaces for People temporary measures permanent in George Square. These include walking/cycling only areas on the west and east sides of the square and at the junction with Hanover St. Also, the southern side is restricted to bus, taxi and cycles from 7am–7pm. There are other restrictions and disabled parking bays on the streets next to the square plus a few restrictions on parts of West Nile St.
Website links: George Sq map, George Sq City Centre TRO Report, George Sq press notice, George Sq Statement of Reasons.
Deadline: 26 November.

1.7: Draft Glasgow Transport Strategy: Framework

Council: Glasgow City.
Subject: “The new transport strategy will be city-wide, and provide a framework for investment and decision-making on transport issues up to 2030.” Note: specific transport projects won’t be covered until the ‘Glasgow Transport Strategy: Spatial Delivery Framework’ in 2022.
First covered: Digest 98, Item 1.7.
Website links: Glasgow Transport Strategy page, Draft framework document (39MB!), GTS ‘Story Map’ (some parts load slowly or are broken), GTS online survey.
Deadline: 26 November.

1.8: Draft Parking Management Plan

Council: East Dunbartonshire.
Subject: A “coordinated, operational plan for parking management.”
First covered: Digest 97, Item 1.6.
Website links: Draft parking management plan consultation page and survey.
Deadline: 30 November.

1.9: Ayr Road (South) Active Travel Improvements

Council: East Renfrewshire.
Area: Ayr Rd south from Newton Mearns.
Subject: Build a replacement shared-use path on the north/west side of Ayr Road, between North Hillhead Road and the M77 overbridge.
First covered: Digest 97, Item 1.7.
Website link: ERC Ayr Road South consultation page.
Deadline: 24 December.

1.10: Langside to Toryglen Liveable Neighbourhoods consultation

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: From Langside (at edge of Shawlands) across Battlefield, Mount Florida and part of King’s Park to Toryglen (and Polmadie).
Subject: GCC says Liveable Neighbourhoods are to “rebalance the way streets are designed and used, to make them more people friendly” and “to place active travel and public transport as a first choice”. See also GCC’s LN overview and UBDC’s article.
First covered: Digest 96, 1.4.
Website link: Langside to Toryglen LN Commonplace map, About the Langside to Toryglen LN.
Deadline: No obvious deadline.

1.11: Ruchill to Cowlairs Liveable Neighbourhood consultation

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: From Ruchill (at edge of Maryhill) across Possilpark, Hamiltonhill, Rockvilla, Craighall, Keppochhill and Port Dundas to Cowlairs (plus Sighthill Park).
Subject: As above. One model that Liveable Neighbourhoods may follow is Quietways – see the next item for an example.
First covered: Digest 96, 1.5.
Website link: Ruchill to Cowlairs LN Commonplace map, About the Ruchill to Cowlairs LN.
Deadline: No obvious deadline.

1.12: Raeberry St Quietway (Connecting Woodside)

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: Raeberry St, North Woodside (west of Maryhill Rd).
Subject: Quietway on Raeberry St, part of the wider Connecting Woodside project (via GoBike member Alasdair). Key points include junction redesigns at either end of the street and new secure cycle parking. The eastern end (above) is narrowed at Maryhill Road and the crossing moved to make a direct link to Trossachs St (helping access to the Garscube Rd cycleway and the canal). Car parking bays in the street are set by the new North Kelvinside/Woodside Restricted Parking Zone (which should reduce the amount of vehicles in the area).
Website link: Raeberry St Quietway ‘storymap’, Raeberry St plans PDF, Raeberry St survey.
Deadline: No obvious deadline.

1.13: Ayr Road (North): Spaces for People, Phase 2

Council: East Renfrewshire.
Area: Ayr Rd through Newton Mearns.
Subject: Phase 2 consultation about replacing the phase 1 cones with light segregation.
First covered: Digest 91, Item 1.5.
Website link: ERC Ayr Road Phase 2 Commonplace page.
Deadline: No obvious deadline.

1.14: Helensburgh to Garelochhead active travel route

Council: Argyll and Bute.
Area: Gare Loch east shore (A814/B872).
Subject: Active travel route between Helensburgh and Garelochhead (by Faslane naval base).
First covered: Digest 95, 1.5.
Website link: Helensburgh to Garelochhead active travel consultation.
Deadline: No obvious deadline.

1.15: Rethink Glasgow

Organisations: Lateral North/OnePlanet/After The Pandemic
Area: Glasgow.
Subject: A “region-wide conversation to re-think a new vision for Glasgow’s future”. After The Pandemic have held a few events during COP26 and have a display in Strathclyde University Students Union until 12 November.
First covered: Digest 95, 1.6.
Website link: Rethink Glasgow, Commonplace site.
Deadline: No obvious deadline. 

Section 2: Consultation Feedback

2.1: COP26 Active Travel route closures

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: NCN7/Clyde Walkway (Riverside to Lancefield Quay), West City Way (bridge over M8), Finnieston, etc.
Subject: Further (and final?) response about active travel diversion routes from Get Ready Glasgow.
On signage: “We can confirm that the routes were re-signed on Thursday 4th November.”
On ramps at security gates for accessibility: “Cyclists approaching the gates should dismount. Ramps will not be provided.”
On a site visit with Cllr Christy Mearns and GoBike: “Unfortunately there is no-one available for a site visit as we are all in our operational roles.”
First covered: Digest 94, Item 1.2.
Website links: GoBike on Facebook/GoBike on Twitter.

2.2: City Deal Avenues: Programme update

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: City centre.
Subject: Report for an upcoming council meeting on progress with the Avenues project. Part of Sauchiehall St has already been upgraded to add cycle lanes, trees, etc. However, the timetable for other city centre streets has been seriously delayed. Appendix A shows there will be no new Avenues completed in 2022. Only one (Cambridge St) might be completed by July 2023, when Glasgow hosts the World Cycling Championships. The timetables for some others stretch to 2028.
Website links: Avenues GCC committee document.