Draft Budget for Scotland

The Scottish Government has an ambitious target of having 10% of all journeys be by bike in Scotland by 2020 (well, we say ambitious – it’s ambitious in UK terms, where around 2% of trips are by bike; compared to the Netherlands where already 27% of trips are by bike it’s a little feeble). This is part of the Scottish Government’s plan to meet its statutory climate change emission targets, and to tackle obesity, a growing problem across the country. The SNP manifesto for the election last year promised to increase the proportion of transport spending on active and sustainable travel, including cycling. This would be welcome because even after a record year of spending last year, the amount spent on cycling per head in Scotland from all sources has been £4 per head – nothing like the £10 per head that would be the minimum needed to achieve significant levels of cycling (according to research by Cycling England – more details here).

So now that the election is over, what has happened? The transport budget as a whole will go up from £1804 million  in 2011-12 to £1884 million in 2012-13. Spending on motorways and trunk routes will rise by 17% from £558 million to £655 million. And spending on active travel, including cycling? That will fall – from an estimated £17.5 million to £14 million, or 0.74% of the overall spend.

The breakdown is as follows (all figures provided by Spokes who have done an excellent job of teasing out the details):

• Sustainable and Active Travel is to be cut from £25.1 million to £16.0 million. Assuming the proportion spent on active travel (currently 32%) stays the same, this means £5 million for both cycling and walking.
• The Scottish Futures Fund will be £6.5 million – of which £1 million is likely to go on active travel.
• The future of Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets  – the ringfenced money given to Local Authorities for active travel – is still under review. Even if it survives and remains ringfenced, given the overall cut to local authority funding, it is likely to be no more than £6 million
• The Trunk Road Cycling initiative is assumed to stay the same at £2 million (although there are rumours that this too may be scrapped.

This is not a party political point. Whether you’re an SNP voter or not, the fact is that a manifesto promise is being broken here and more importantly that a key government target will almost certainly be missed. We urge every Scottish voter reading this to write to their local MSP and lobby them to make the Scottish Government deliver on its election promises.

Summer’s Coming

No, really!

Oh, OK it’s still November and dark and cold and as I write this the rain is battering against the window. But summer will be coming eventually and we’re already starting to think about what to do when it does arrive.

A couple of summers ago, the local CTC group offered a very popular series of Saturday rides aimed at families and beginner cyclists, starting at Dock Park and using the network of reasonably safe routes available around the town. Unfortunately, despite getting 30 or more people coming, the group simply did not have the numbers of volunteers needed to lead (and follow) these rides. Mike Gray, who is a member of both CTC and Cycling Dumfries (as are a number of our other members) has suggested that we join forces to resurrect these rides next summer.

We haven’t quite worked out the details yet but the first thing we need is an idea of numbers – how many of you would be interested in helping out with this, and how many of you are already CTC members (which helps with the insurance). And for any novice cyclists out there, an idea of whether you’d be interested in taking part. The idea is to do week rides, on Saturday afternoons, from mid June to mid August. Let us know in the comments or email us on cyclingdumfries AT gmail DOT com

Local Transport Strategy – our response

Here is the text of our response to the proposed Local Transport Strategy (which is summarised here):

We largely agree with the analysis of the problems, particularly that car-dependency is an issue in the region. However we fail to see how the proposed ‘balanced management of demand’ interventions will do anything to prevent congestion within the region’s towns, particularly with the likely deterioration of the rural bus service.

We regret that better subsidies for public transport was not considered to be affordable within the current climate as, along with cycling and walking, we feel that public transport is one of the key ways of reducing car usage within the town.

We feel that the targets for 6% of people cycling ‘regularly’ as a means of transport by 2016 – up from 5% currently – is unambitious, compared to Edinburgh’s target of 10% of all short journeys being undertaken by bike.

We welcome the proposal to develop a cycling and walking strategy although we feel that, as a means of transport, cycling and walking should have been given more prominence within the actual local transport strategy, and not lumped together on a single page.

We dispute the description of the current cycling infrastructure as ‘good’ and are disappointed that more improvements aren’t planned, particularly if you look at the provision in the towns beyond Dumfries. We do however welcome the recognition that ongoing maintenance will be needed and hope that this will extend to winter maintenance such as snow clearing and gritting of both cycle tracks and pavements.

For Dumfries we would suggest the following proposals to make a real difference to cycling rates within the town:

• Blanket 20mph speed limits within the town limits
• Reduced permeability for through traffic within the retail heart of the town, except for buses, bikes, deliveries and collections, and disabled drivers
• Restrict the bulk of town centre parking to time limited (and enforced) short stay parking, except for residents, while directing motorists to the existing more peripheral car parks, which the strategy notes are under used.
• Create a network of  safe well-signposted cycle routes around the existing Maxwelltown Railway and Caledonian Cycleway paths, suitable for all cyclists, including novices, taking people to all the places (work, shops etc.) they might need to reach by bike.
• Create a network of ‘safe routes to school’ for all of Dumfries’s schools.
• Extend the provision of bike-enabled buses at the least to the Lockerbie route, and preferably across the region