Latest news - November 2011
Campaigning for more investment in active travel in the draft budget
The Scottish Government's draft budget has decreased the amount of funding for active travel (walking and cycling) from around 1% of the transport budget to approximately 0.8%. At the same time, spending on roads is increasing! This flies in the face of the government's own commitments in terms of climate change, air pollution and health. Along with other organisations, we have contributed to letters to John Swinney from the National Access Forum, Paths for All Partnership and Scottish Environment LINK, the forum for Scotland's environment NGOs. You can read the LINK letter here.
Ramblers Scotland also made the argument that investment in walking and cycling for transport is crucial if we are to make a lasting physical activity legacy from the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. You can read our statement here.
NEWS RELEASE 19th April:
Canavan welcomes Salmond's A9 underpass commitment
Convener of Ramblers Scotland, Dennis Canavan (right), and local campaigner Ruaridh Ormiston led a protest on 20 April 2011 against the failure of Transport Scotland to protect the interests of walkers, cyclists, horse riders and other non motorised users when trying to cross the A9 Trunk Road between Perth and Inverness.
Dennis Canavan, the former MSP and MP, was joined by representatives of local ramblers, community interests, cycling and horse riding organisations and candidates seeking election to the Scottish Parliament for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Constituency.
In addition, support came from a steam train travelling on the nearby Perth to Inverness railway line as it passed by Crubenmore, blowing its horn and indicating widespread public support for this protest.
The aim of the protest was to persuade all political parties seeking the election of candidates to the Scottish Parliament to commit to the construction of a bridge or underpass at this location. This will enable all those wishing to travel along General Wade’s Military Road from Dalwhinnie to Ruthven Barracks near Kingussie, which crosses the A9 at Crubenmore, to continue to do so once current road construction operations have been completed. This route has been blocked by Transport Scotland as they have been converting the existing single carriageway at Crubenmore into a dual carriageway. Transport Scotland have made no provision for non motorised users to cross the new dual carriageway once it is completed in August 2011, despite their Environmental Statement saying:
"Existing travel patterns for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians should be unaffected by the preferred scheme."
Samples of recent press coverage relevant to this issue can be found at:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport-environment/protesters-promise-summer-of-action-on-highway-to-highlands-1.1088823
http://www.strathspey-herald.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6099/Crubenmore_road_plan_raises_crash_concerns.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12125487
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/134736-teenage-pedestrian-killed-on-a9/
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1696322?UserKey=
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Perthshire/article/693/action-demanded-after-a9-death.html
Background
Transport Scotland is currently dualling a section of the A9 south of Newtonmore at Crubenmore. Unfortunately, the new road will have an impassable barrier along the centre, stopping walkers, cyclists or horseriders from crossing the road - despite the fact that this is the route of a General Wade Military Road and non-motorised users regularly cross here. Heavily trafficked roads are difficult for walkers to cross anyway, but dualled roads are even more dangerous, forming barriers to access which are being built throughout Scotland. We believe all road users need to be taken into account when trunk roads are upgraded or built.
Please sign the A9 petition (text below):
"We, the undersigned, call on Transport Scotland to provide a safe and sensible road crossing at the new A9 Dual Carriageway at Etteridge / Crubenmore to allow walkers, cyclists, horse riders and carriage drivers and all other abilities of outside access users to cross the new faster and more dangerous road and continue to make use if the 300 year old Wade's Military Road that runs from Ruthven to Dalwhinnie and Laggan and onto Fort Augustus.
"Closing this road crossing at Etteridge for good is just not an option because this HILL TRACK route has been recognised for years and years. A simple livestock type underpass will be the most sensible, safe and economic solution in this case."
Scottish Parliament Active Travel Inquiry
June 2010: Read our Briefing for the Scottish Parliament's debate into the report of this inquiry on 9th June 2010 here. We call for the Scottish Government to invest in Active Travel to help combat the effects of the recession.
March 2010: Ramblers Scotland has welcomed the Report from the Scottish Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee Inquiry into Active Travel. You can read the full report here.
The conclusions of the Committee were as follows:
"The Committee believes that active travel has huge potential to benefit the health of the people of Scotland as well as contributing to meeting Scotland’s ambitious climate change targets. Yet it is still very much a minority pursuit in Scotland. Attitudes to active travel will only change if walking and cycling are viewed as safe and convenient alternatives to other transport modes. The Committee has recommended in this report a variety of measures which could increase participation in walking and cycling, including improvements to infrastructure and a new nationally co-ordinated cycle training scheme.
The challenge will be to implement these initiatives in practice. The Scottish Government has set a target of 10 per cent modal share for cycling. However the Committee believes that this target will be meaningless if the Scottish Government fails to match its stated ambition with a realistic level of funding. The Committee therefore recommends ambitious increases in resources with robust mechanisms established to ensure that these are carefully targeted and effective. Stronger, more effective and sustained leadership is required from the Scottish Government in order to implement improvements to walking and cycling policies in Scotland."
Read Ramblers Scotland's submission to the Inquiry here.
Ramblers Scotland also responded to the Scottish Government's Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) in June 2009. The final report on this plan is being delayed to take account of further evidence heard at the TICC Committee's Inquiry.
Read the Ramblers Scotland response to CAPS here
It is a shocking state of affairs that a 28% of all driver journeys in Scotland are less than two kilometres.There is clearly much scope for people to leave the car at home and shift to healthier, more sustainable modes of transport for many journeys. Walking is the most sustainable form of transport there is, with cycling a close second. Walking not only has the potential to get the Scottish population fitter and healthier, but also to cut traffic levels and congestion and the related air and noise pollution.
The government aims to get 10% of journeys to be done by bike by 2020 through its Cycling Action Plan for Scotland. Yet the government also stubbornly refuses to increase the transport budget allocation for walking and cycling beyond the miserable 1% where it now languishes - and this amount is decreasing each year.
No wonder there has been a 16% drop in those children in Scotland who walk to school in the past 20 years. In the absence of safe walking and cycling routes, more children will be driven to school.
Elsewhere in Europe governments are much more committed to delivering real active travel improvements. In Amsterdam 40% of all journeys are by walking or cycling, while Copenhagen spends 20% of its transport budget on cycling, with a third of all journeys being by bicycle. Scotland will continue to live in the Dark Ages with its transport agenda, if we do not learn from our European neighbours and spend real money on promoting walking and cycling.
The opportunities for safe, direct travel for walkers and cyclists between communities in Scotland are generally very poor. This is a reflection both of the road pattern in Scotland combined with the failure, over many decades, to protect the paths and tracks which formerly linked Scottish communities.
The Scottish access legislation, with its requirements for the development of core path networks, provides the basis for correcting these problems, through recognising that core path networks should include routes which connect communities. The development of such routes should be a key component in the development of a modern Scottish transport system based on sustainable development principles.
National Transport Strategy
In April 2006, the government published its draft National Transport Strategy (NTS). Our consultation response called for more support to be given to enabling people to choose sustainable transport options, particularly walking and cycling for short journeys such as the school run. We felt this should be a key element in the NTS and in the work of the Regional Transport Partnerships.
Read our response to the draft NTS here.
Community Links
In October 2005, Ramblers Scotland met the then Transport Minister, Tavish Scott MSP, along with CTC – the national cyclists’ organisation, the British Horse Society and sustainable transport organisation, Transform Scotland. We discussed a specific proposal, namely the development of “Community Links”, as a means of facilitating non-motorised transport throughout Scotland.
We asked for a commitment to the development of offroad routes, well separated from existing carriageways, which would provide for direct connections between communities for walkers, riders and cyclists, as well as other non-motorised users. Such Community Links should be established throughout Scotland, bringing benefit to all communities, and both residents and visitors. A programme of this sort would need to be recognised as a major transport initiative, led by the Scottish Government, delivered in part by the government as a component of its trunk roads programme, but also by local authorities wherever existing and projected traffic volumes indicate that Community Links for non-motorised users are needed. Every trunk road in Scotland would have a path in parallel, separated from the main carriageway, which may mean a specially-constructed multi use path, the use of parallel minor roads, or other infrastructure such as old railway lines, canals or former routes used by the roads before upgrading.
We were advised by the Minister to put forward this proposal during the consultation phase of the NTS. However, the published NTS did not take any of our ideas on board and the strategy does not even mention the Land Reform Act or core paths plans. It leaves the impression that the government's transport department and Transport Scotland are packed full of motor-mad officials who are not concerned about the 30% of Scottish households who do not have access to a car - or the many other people who would like to leave their car at home a bit more often.
Read the full text of our paper to the Transport Minister
Access and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route – read our letter to the Transport Minister
