National Cycle Network Route 1 between Dundee and Arbroath, August 2019
As a Sustrans Senior Engineer, Marie-Claire delivers new routes on National Cycle Network and improves and maintains existing infrastructures in other road networks.
Her role gives her the chance to empower and encourage people to travel actively and feel safe while doing so. Prior to Sustrans, Marie-Claire worked with Technical Academy Scotland as a Qualifications Advisor where she developed a Road Inspectors Training in Scotland, a training endorsed by Institute of Highways Engineers (IHE).
Prior to that she has worked for 9 years on South West Scottish Trunk Road Network, West Lothian Council and Kigali City Council in Rwanda where she is originally from.
The Strathmore Cycle Network is an ambitious plan by three
Community Development Trusts to create a cycle network between Alyth,
Blairgowrie & Rattray, and Coupar Angus.
The idea of a traffic free path from Blairgowrie to Coupar Angus, giving locals an alternative to driving or using local bus services, was suggested at a Climate Café event in 2016. This spurred Alyth, Blairgowrie & Rattray, and Coupar Angus into applying for support from Sustrans’s Places for Everyone programme and regional transport partnership Tactran, with plans to deliver a phased network of walking and cycling routes between the three towns.
A Phased Approach
The first phase of the Strathmore Cycle Network was successful thanks to good engagement with local landowners. Working with the Development Trusts and with support from consultants Walking the Talk, they were able to apply to the Improving Public Access Fund, securing £200,000 for the construction of the first 2.5km of path link Alyth and Rattray.
The success of the plans boosted the community’s enthusiasm
for the project, and led to the development of phase 2; Blairgowrie to Coupar
Angus. The commitment of the volunteers in delivering the first phase impressed
Perth and Kinross Council and led to £100,000 funding contribution.
Having a supportive member of the Perth & Kinross’ roads team on the steering group also proved invaluable. The officer was able to positively feedback to other officers in the Council, and offer support and expertise to the Development Trusts to ensure the project progresses smoothly.
Engaging the
Community
Support from the Sustrans Places for Everyone programme and
Perth & Kinross Council allowed the development trust to appoint the Scottish
Community Development Centre to engage the local community. The initial route
chosen by the Trusts was locally unpopular but by involving a neutral third
party, the Trust were able to make sure there was an objective engagement
process.
The engagement sessions worked well; two main route options
emerged. Further discussion is on-going in an attempt to avoid a steep
gradient, with the Trusts committed to work with the community and Sustrans to
identify the best option. As there has been such positive public involvement so
far, there is a strong willingness to find a solution and create this key part
of the network
Successful
Partnership Working
The benefits of a Local Authority supporting in a community-led
infrastructure project can be considerable. Many groups have huge amounts of
enthusiasm and local knowledge to take projects
such as the Strathmore Cycle Network forward.
Development Trusts can be well placed to lead walking, cycling and wheeling projects. They are embedded in the community and often have experience of handling grant funding, working with elected members, and planning processes. Having multiple partners involved can open up additional funding potential. Each of the three Trusts has received grant funding for support activities, including staff time. This was a very deliberate move by the Trusts, and is a reflection of the strong working relationships that they have built. The model used by the three trusts could benefit many rural or sub-urban communities with poor connectivity.
Project representatives at Centre81, Whitecrook, Clydebank. The Community Centre, supported by the local authority, a local housing association and Sustrans have been working to design a new ramp to give the centre a direct connection to the Forth & Clyde Canal/NCN Route 754, allowing residents easier access to the centre and facilitating an existing programme of led rides and other activities on the tow path.
A cyclist arrives to join a led ride from Centre81
Inspired by residents’ reported barriers to walking and cycling, Clydebank Housing Association has been working to create a new accessible path between the Centre81 community centre and the Forth & Clyde Canal.
Working in partnership with Sustrans Scotland, Clydebank
Housing Association (CHA) established a steering group with local residents to
work out ways to encourage people to walk and cycle for more of their every-day
trips.
Residents suggested that creating an accessible route from Centre81, to the nearby canal towpath – part of National Cycle Network Route 754 – would help more people access the canal as well as local shops, bus links and other neighbourhoods along the canal.
CHA took on the task of working with the community to identify how best to design this path.
CHA made full use of its existing connections with groups throughout Clydebank. ISARO Social Integration Network – which works to promote integration and understanding amongst communities – provided support for the consultation, along with local disability groups, youth clubs and schools.
The honest feedback about the issues that visitors to Center81 faced on their everyday journeys gave CHA clear understanding of their needs and how they could be addressed through construction of a new access route.
Resources for
Behaviour Change
Funding from other sources can help spur interest in walking and cycling in the local area. A successful bid to Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Climate Challenge Fund saw CHA work to refurbish bikes for people in the local area and provide maintenance training so people could keep their bikes on the road.
Led rides and social cycles also began and finished at Centre81, taking advantage of the café and other facilities. The new ramp will give ride groups direct access to and from the canal, avoiding an alternative narrow path. This will give people new or returning to cycling a safe, off-road link to practice and ride freely on.
Designing links for everyone
An area of land at the side of Centre81 will be ravamped for the ramp
Inspired by their work with local residents, CHA and their designers created six designs for the ramp. Feedback also came from local stakeholders, including planning and roads officers at West Dunbartonshire Council, representatives from Clydebank Community Council and community officers from Police Scotland. Work with Scottish Canals and Sustrans Scotland ensured that proposals fitted with the requirements around the canal and the National Cycle Network.
Ensuring that local residents and users of Centre81 remained involved, CHA presented the six designs to the community, who voted for their favourite. The successful project was put forward to Sustrans Scotland for Places for Everyone construction funding.
Sustrans awarded CHA £170,000 through the Places for Everyone programme to finalise the technical design of the ramp and carry out construction. The option choose by the community will include local history, artwork, colourful tarmac and lighting to create an interesting new place. The school are keen to contribute by creating content to make this new space reflect the history and culture of Clydebank.
Key Learning
Staff from Clydebank Housing Association and Centre81 join a led ride
This project shows how partnerships with other organisations can create additional capacity and make smaller projects easier to deliver.
CHA staff were confident in engaging with their community, but had no experience of delivering an infrastructure project. West Dunbartonshire Council did not have the capacity to work in-depth with the community to develop a proposal for the canal ramp.
By pooling their knowledge and expertise, the two organisations were able to work together to create a useful route which meets the needs of local people and encourages them to travel by foot and bike.
Through their work with local people, Glasgow-based charity Urban Roots realised that residents of a new housing development, funded as part of the regeneration of Toryglen, were finding it hard to access local services and greenspaces.
The charity applied for funding through Sustrans’ Places for
Everyone programme to design local walking and cycling routes. These will link
the new estate with nearby shops, football pitches and woodland.
To gather information on the links that would be most useful
to the community, Urban Roots held focus groups tailored to their different volunteer
groups, held engagements at existing meetings and ran standalone events.
Urban Roots works to support many vulnerable people and
groups with protected characteristics. This experience and the trust built up
with volunteers, locals and service users let them carry out in-depth
consultation with groups that may have been hard to reach for a local authority
or developer, including a mental health and wellbeing group and the Orchard
Grove care home
The charity focused on identifying solutions to problems faced by the community in the area. They created concept boards to spark ideas at consultations. By working closely with the community and design agency LUC, Urban Roots were able to make sure that feedback from the targeted consultations was meaningfully translated into the concept designs.
This meant the proposed designs suggested walking and
cycling routes which recognised the everyday journeys made by local residents,
formalised desire lines and which were accessible, safe and welcoming to all.
“I think this would be a great space to use and for everyone from elderly to disabled people. Really well thought about!”
Consultation Response
Changing local travel habits
Urban Roots used their consultations as a chance to find out
more about individual and social barriers to walking and cycling in the area. This
led to the charity setting up a behaviour change project in partnership with
Camglen Bike Town.
The project supported local people to be more active in
their everyday trips. Cycle training for adults and young people gave locals
the confidence to use bikes to get around the local area. Bike maintenance
sessions and guided rides help to make sure that people had the skills and
knowledge to ride safely and confidently.
“ At Bike Town, we believe local communities and the organisations representing them are ideally placed to facilitate walking and cycling activities that support the development of new cycling active travel infrastructure. ”
Jim Ewing, Senior Team Leader, Camglen Biketown
Partnership working
Urban Roots were well placed to lead on the community
engagement but did not have experience of project managing significant
construction projects.
To take the designs forward, Urban Roots engaged with Glasgow City Council and local regeneration agency Clyde Gateway This has resulted in Clyde Gateway applying for £50,000 of detailed and technical design funding through the Places for Everyone fund, to further develop Urban Roots’ concept design work.
Key Learning
Community organisations have key local contacts and an
understanding of their local area. Local authorities could contract them to
help with the planning of new routes or to encourage a more meaningful
engagement process.
Community organisations may also have capacity to help drive
local authority projects and foster local ownership.
This approach could be replicated through all stages of a project, from initial design creation to supporting activities after construction and ongoing maintenance.
Case study photos taken as part of Bike Life Perth 2018 report Children
by Chiquita Elvin, Sustrans Scotland Infrastructure Manager, Places for Everyone
Our transport infrastructure and built environment needs to adapt in order to provide people with genuine sustainable travel choices.
We need fundamental changes to the way we travel.
In order to respond fully to the climate
crisis we need to reduce our dependency on cars altogether, not simply change
the type of cars we use. The importance of this cannot be over emphasised
enough.
Too often electric cars are seen as the
answer to how we respond to the climate crisis, be that as individuals or
within the transport planning and design community.
But although electric vehicles appeal to our sense
of newness and novelty, whilst keeping the status quo, they do not address a
number of the key issues faced by professionals working to ensure climate adapted infrastructure is
integrated into master planning and regeneration.
Ultimately, an electric car is still a car, and
they impact on place, safety and sedentary lifestyles in the same way as
conventional cars.
People need genuine sustainable travel choices
Our transport infrastructure and built
environment needs to adapt in order to provide people with genuine sustainable
travel choices. And not just in Scotland, but across the UK and across the rest
of the world as well.
Not only would this bring many positive
environmental impacts, from lowering net carbon emissions, reducing noise
pollution and the environmental cost of building and maintaining news roads,
but active and sustainable travel infrastructure offers improved health and
economic benefits too.
Designing for everyone
In practice, this means accounting for the
most vulnerable groups in society first in the design process. By designing our
streets and public places to be accessible to all, we end up with places that
work for everyone.
So, for example, if we make our footpaths
safe, attractive and appropriate for the setting, then this has a knock on
effect for other road users and the natural environment.
Slowing and/or reducing traffic volumes and
the types of vehicles which use our streets then makes them safer and more
pleasant for people to walk, wheel or cycle through.
Making sure we include green and blue
infrastructure, such as trees, rain gardens or other sustainable urban drainage
systems, means that our streets and public places are more pleasant to spend
time in.
Thinking about the context
As planners and designers we must also consider
the context in which people travel and how their lives can often dictate
this. Responding to the needs of women as a group, for example, means taking
into account travelling with children, fears around personal safety and
recognising that women more often trip-chain than men.
By then, for example, ensuring there is widespread,
affordable public transport which is more accommodating of all users, would
provide people with a realistic option to leave their car at home for more (if
not all) of the journeys they make every day.
Equally, creating an extensive network of
continuous, safe walking and cycling routes in an urban area would enable
parents with children, along with everyone else, to travel more actively and
sustainably. This could be through addressing the way traffic flows through our
streets, as above, or by incorporating protected cycle lanes where this is more
appropriate.
The knock on effect of this would allow all
groups access the vast range of benefits that active and sustainable travel
brings. From a boost in
health and wellbeing through increased physical activity, air pollution and
carbon emission reduction, inclusivity, economic benefits (can we add a
hyperlink?) and a number of other outcome areas.
The best way
to ensure that future urban transport systems support people’s wellbeing, and
support flourishing, healthy communities, is to invest in infrastructure that
can be shown to make a positive impact.
Clackmannan Development Trust was established to regenerate
the town and make it a better place to live, work and visit.
A public consultation identified two key priorities for the
group. Firstly, to make the town a more attractive place to spend time with and
secondly, to improve links for people travelling by foot and bike.
A portion of £2.2million of funding was awarded to the Trust
and Clackmannanshire Council through the closure of the local power station.
This was used as match funding to work with Sustrans through its Places for Everyone fund.
This resulted in wider pavements, new trees planted, cycle
parking installed and traffic restrictions at peak times outside Clackmannan
Primary school.
Although the Trust’s remit was much wider than encouraging active travel in the town, they recognised how promoting walking and cycling activities could complement their other aims and objectives.
“The achievements of CDT to date and their ambitious but deliverable programme shows that when communities and local authorities work effectively together, even smaller communities can achieve sustainable and prosperous futures”
Alan Murray, Traffic & Transportation Team Leader
Transforming the
school run
To help encourage children to travel actively to school
along the new route, the Development Trust set up ‘Saddle Up Clackmannan’. This
led to:
The training of six volunteer ride leaders, who lead monthly rides to promote local routes
Regular cycle confidence and maintenance sessions
A fleet of bikes available to borrow free of charge.
Inspired by the popularity of the project, the Trust then
applied for funding from Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund to employ an
Active Travel Coordinator.
The Coordinator delivered in-depth, tailored behaviour change programmes throughout the town. This helped encourage all residents to travel by foot or bike for more of their everyday journeys.
Key Learning
Interventions on Port Street made it easier for pupils at Clackmannan Primary to get to and from school on foot, by bike or by scooter
After a new route has been built, it is important to think
about how people may be supported and encouraged to use it.
Community based organisations, such as Development Trusts or
charities can be well placed to help.
These activities don’t have to be led by a group that only
focus on cycling or physical activity.
Even if there are currently no cycling or walking groups in
an area, it doesn’t mean that there is not the desire or capacity to carry out
active travel activities. Organisations working in other sectors will also have
local knowledge and could be well placed to lead on these.
Next steps
Through the regeneration of Clackmannan, the Trust have developed a strong working relationship with the Traffic and Transportation team at Clackmannanshire Council.
The two groups share a long term vision for active and
sustainable travel in the community. The Trust are now working with the Council
to see if it would be possible to create new paths linking Clackmannan to other
towns.
By creating a culture where it is normal to travel by bike or on foot, the Trust hope to show there is local demand for these projects.
Bike for Good, interior and exterior shots, Glasgow
The new Bike for Good Hub provides servicing, repair and a community base
A proactive approach to reaching new audiences has seen a
surge in the number of people trying cycling for the first time along the South
City Way in Glasgow.
The South City Way project is a partnership between Glasgow City Council and Sustrans, funded through Transport Scotland. The 3km route, from Queen’s Park into the City Centre, seeks to rebalance the streets in favour of people walking and cycling and to make journeys in the area more pleasant.
Local charity Bike for Good were funded by Glasgow City
Council to deliver behaviour change measures before and during construction of
the project.
They offer bike recycling, cycle training, outreach
activities and maintain the city’s Nextbike public bike hire fleet.
The charity has strong partnerships with local organisations
around the cycle route and provided tailored support activities to different
audiences.
Bike for Good’s purpose was clear: to reach people new to
cycling and help them to overcome their barriers to being more active.
By organising a wide range of events that mixed food, music, films and socialising they reached people who would not have been interested in purely cycling-focussed activities.
As a result, two-thirds of cycling activity participants were new to cycling.
Removing barriers
Bike for Good run a wide range of programmes from their two Glasgow centres
Bike for Good worked hard to make it easier for more people
to come along to their engagement sessions.
The sessions are free to attend and the charity proactively
took their services to different areas along the route.
As well as reaching new audiences by partnering with other organisations
working on health, integration and rehabilitation programmes, they offered
activities for specific audiences including:
Women only rides and cycle skills training
Kids afterschool club with occasional trips away
“Spokes Not Blokes”, a monthly maintenance session for women and non-binary people
Finally, Bike for Good also ran a pilot project aimed at giving people affordable access to bikes. Aimed at people on low or no income and population groups who are less likely to cycle the “Bikes for All” pilot provided access to Glasgow’s Nextbike public hire scheme for £3 year – a discount of 95%.
This meant that as well as Bike for Good
activities being accessible to a wider range of people, they have increased
their understanding of ways to effectively encourage participation in cycling among under-represented and minority
population groups.
In a two-year period (July 2017 – July 2019), 414 people were signed up, representing 8% of all new annual members of the nextbike scheme in Glasgow during this time. In the same period, 10,253 bike rentals were made by Bikes for All participants, representing 2.3% of all nextbike hires in Glasgow. (from the Bikes for All impact report, November 2019).
Key learning
Tapping in to existing social and support networks helps increase engagement with a bigger range of audiences, especially those who may be seldom heard.
Activities that encourage people to use new infrastructure should be tailored for different target groups or individuals. As a person starts to make more journeys by bike, their needs will change. This means that there needs to be a range of ways to support them.
Local Authority Support
Glasgow City Council provided funding to Bike for Good
through Smarter Choices Smarter Places funding. This two year agreement has
enabled them to provide a visible and welcoming community space to promote
active travel to those living and working around this new route.
The targeted use of this fund to support this significant
new route is to be commended. It has supported and complemented the changes to the built environment carried out
by Glasgow City Council and, by coming from a trusted, local organisation, will
help lead to longer, more impactful changes in the community.
Key learning
Just as individuals will have specific active travel needs, different infrastructure projects will require different approaches to how they encourage people to walk and cycling more in the surrounding area.
Based on the reported success of Bike for Good’s activities, a relatively small investment in providing support activities can have a large impact. The number and type of people using the route will be key measures of success, so the benefits of supporting a wider audience to be cycle-ready are clear.
Shoreditch is not the first area of London you think of when you think “parks”. Shoreditch High Street is a hub of trendy shops, with high tech start-up stretching off to either side and on fleek bars peppering the area. It’s the place to go in London for an artisanal coffee or a craft beer rather than relaxing in the sun.
In 2017, the urban greens and design agency Meristem was commissioned by three local authorities to create a modular system which would bring park life to Shoreditch’s Calvert Avenue. Taking over just two parking bays, an outdoor seating area for up to fourteen people was created outside the paper&cup coffee shop. .
The seating alone isn’t the biggest impact on the local area. The parklet contains twelve meters of planters with hardy shrubs, which screen the seats from the road and help to adsorb pollution in the local area. There are also two trees providing shade and increasing urban biodiversity, as well as parking for eight bikes.
The new seating created by the parklet provides more space for customers visiting local businesses and encourages people to linger in the area, helping the local economy. More cycling spaces encourages people to cycle or use public transport rather than driving to their destination.
A Parklet for People
The Shoreditch Parklet is one example of what can be done in a small space to open it up to the community. Temporary parklets, as Friends of the Earth created on George Street, Edinburgh, can help show the impact that reduced traffic can have on an area, while we can support the creation of permanent or semi-permanent parklets through the Community Links scheme, to let communities create a new space for relaxation.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out how a parklet can be added to your town, street or village through Places for Everyone.
Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity at Places for Everyone Launch 2019
Five major transformative projects in Perth, Edinburgh, Arbroath and Glasgow (x2), will benefit from Sustrans funding, expertise and support to make walking, cycling and wheeling more accessible to all. They will receive almost £60m over the course of their development.
During the next year (2019/20), a further 200 projects across Scotland will benefit from the Places for Everyone expertise, support and funding.
The investment was announced in Perth by Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, Michael Matheson, alongside the launch of the public consultation for Scottish Government’s new National Transport Strategy (NTS2) for Scotland.
Speaking in Perth, Mr Matheson said:
“The National Transport Strategy sets a clear direction for a future where we have a sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system that helps deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland.
“We know cycling, walking, use of public transport and shared transport options all need to be more affordable, accessible and attractive if we are to make this vision a reality.
“The Strategy is being launched alongside the allocation of £60 million for five new active travel projects, underlining the importance of sustainable transport and the added benefits that it can bring.”
By putting people back in the heart of places – whether in cities or smaller towns, Places for Everyone makes it easier for people of all ages and abilities to travel actively and to create healthier, happier places to live, work and play.
SUSTRANS SCOTLAND DIRECTOR, GRACE MARTIN
Sustrans Scotland Director, Grace Martin, said: “We are delighted to announce the projects that will be supported by Sustrans Places for Everyone programme, funded by Transport Scotland. Five large scale projects that will make a real difference to the residents of Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Arbroath.
“Working in partnership with the Sustrans Places for Everyone programme provides support and expertise through all stages, from concept and design to delivery and construction. The programme helps to connect communities and create liveable towns and cities.
“We’re excited by the new National Transport Strategy designed to make sure transport helps Scotland to meet its priorities for prosperity, reducing inequality, tackling climate change and healthier people.
“Sustrans Scotland looks forward to working with our partners to deliver these goals by helping more people to walk, cycle and wheel.”
The funding comes from the South City Way Small Grants Fund, which was created to inspire communities and organisations along the 3km segregated active travel route to form new places for people to gather and mingle, new artworks and projects to encourage walking and cycling.
Projects receiving grants of up to £5,000 have been put forward by a range of local groups including the Govanhill Baths, local cycling charity Bike for Good and South Seeds, who have previously developed a community croft for the area. Other funded projects will see the creation of a new mural in the Queens’s Park Arena, development of a new public space by residents of Albert Avenue and new additions Glasgow’s rich landscape of city murals.
Lucy Gillie, General Manager of South Seeds said, “This small fund has enabled us to run some short life projects which we hope will have a big impact, the first is to brighten up Queen’s Park Station and we already have loads of volunteers.”
Several projects are focused on the challenges facing locals who want to cycle more. Soul Riders is restarting and expanding a group encouraging women to start cycling by hosting led rides, training and cycling events to inspire those who are unconfident on a bike or new to cycling. South Seeds are seeking to tackle bike storage issues common in tenements by installing a new secure cycle locker in the local area. Other projects include new facilities to secure bikes along the route and creation of sculptures from recycled bike components.
Tierney Lovell, Infrastructure Manager for Sustrans Scotland said, “We have had tremendous support from the local community for South City Way. We wanted to make sure that the project reflected the diversity and the passion of the communities along the route, and we have been able to give our support to an amazing array of projects as a result. We’re really pleased that South City Way is going to create an artistic and cultural legacy for the area.”
South City Way was the first project to be awarded funding from Transport Scotland though Sustrans Scotland’s Community Links PLUS scheme (now Places for Everyone), with match funding from Glasgow City Council. The project will see the creation of a segregated cycle route from Queens Park to the Trongate, with improved pavements and crossings. A brand new artwork is being created in cooperation with the New Gorbals Housing Association, Glasgow City Council and Pidgin Perfect.
Phase 3 of the project is currently underway, with the construction of new cyclelanes, pocket parks and upgraded pavements along Victoria Road between Queen’s Park Station and Coplaw Street. Phase 3 of the route is expected to be completed in early 2020.
