Cycling pressure groups will tell the Scotttish government next week that nothing less than a revolution in attitudes is required to make the country’s towns and cities fit for cyclists and pedestrians.
Cycling Scotland, Sustrans and other lobbyists are to meet Keith Brown, the Transport Minister, on Wednesday, in the wake of two recent fatalities in Edinburgh, resulting from collisions between bikes and motor vehicles. Underpinning the campaigners’ arguments is a belief that decades of urban planning, predicated on the needs of motorists, must be redesigned to put people first.
John Lauder, national director of Sustrans, said: “Given the financial situation, we know we can’t go out overnight and redesign our infrastructure, but we can prioritise: identify the most dangerous road junctions, set speed limits, create safe corridors, and so on.”
Mr Lauder was speaking little more than a week after Brian Simons, a cyclist, was killed during rush hour on the A8 Corstorphine Road. In January Andrew McNicoll died on the A70, another heavily used commuter route in and out of Edinburgh. Campaigners believe that the deaths might have been prevented had Scotland adopted pro-cycling policies, which have become embedded in parts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
Nationally only 2.3 per cent of journeys to work in Scotland are made by bike, though the Scottish Government hopes to raise the figure to 10 per cent by 2020. That ambition has been applauded by health lobbyists and anti-pollution activists , but they believe it can be achieved only by adresssing safety concerns.
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“Rather than cyclists being seen as an inconvenience, they have to be a very credible part of the transport culture,” said Mr Lauder. “Road safety bodies and cycling organisations must get together with government, agencies, HGV associations, motoring groups and the police to make the streets work safetly.”
Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark are held up as models of good practice. Despite high rates of car ownership, all three countries have achieved high overall bike shares of urban travel, ranging from 9 per cent in Germany to 19 per cent in Denmark and 27 per cent in the Netherlands. Four out of every ten journeys in Copenhagen are made by bike. Campaigners recognise that roads and public spaces will have to be redesigned for bikes, if safe cycling is to be achieved. Strict speed limits of 20mph in residential areas will be required, along with filtering systems in busy areas to keep cyclists safe from much bigger and heavier vehicles.
Ian Aitken, chief executive of Cycling Scotland, said: “It’s clear we still need to provide more support for cyclists to make it feel safer and reduce accidents rates even further and work towards zero fatalities on our roads.
“Better infrastructure to protect cyclists at junctions and more segregated and on-road cycle lanes are certainly what prospective cyclists say they want to see more of. There’s also a need for better driver education in terms of how to pass cyclists.”
Having set a target for active transport, the Scottish Government should intervene to give strategic direction to a national campaign promoting cycling, said Mr Lauder. “The Cycling Action Plan has set an eminently achieveable target. That being the case, we need to start now adressing our road network and how it works. In essence, cyclists are designed out of our road network. We have not thought through how we accommodate people and how we share space.”
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Some small steps are being taken. A 20mph limit will soon be enforced in residential streets of Edinburgh between Arthur’s Seat and Morningside, while a “quality bike corridor” is being established between George Square and King’s Buildings, Edinburgh University’s two main campuses. In Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, activists are urging East Dunbartonshire Council to honour a year-old commitment to safer cycling by making the area a 20mph zone.