As part of the Places for Everyone event programme – Engage · Inspire · Learn – partners from local authorities and organisations around Scotland were invited to hear from a variety of voices on the challanges of Low Traffic Neighborhoods.
Split into several sessions, we explored a range of topics from engagement and design to research and monitoring. All of the sessions were recorded and have been made available to view online.
Designing & budgeting for LTNs
Giulio Ferrini, Head of Built Environment at Sustrans London, shares the lessons learnt from a year of trial LTNs in London. Watch to learn more about designing successful LTNs and the costs involved.
Making the Case for LTNs
Will Wright, Evaluation Manager at Sustrans, talks through some the existing research on LTNs, Sustrans’ Introductory Design Guide and the importance of monitoring and evaluating interventions.
Katie Pennick, Campaigns Lead and Caroline Stickland, Partnerships Lead at Transport for All, share more information about the Pave the Way report, which is the product of six months research into how disabled people have been impacted by LTNs.
You can download Katie and Caroline’s slides here.
The Importance of Engagement
Why do we want to engage? Who do we engage with? How do we minimise risk and maximise equity? Ben Addy, Head of Collaborative Design at Sustrans London, runs through the principles of why engagement is important and what meaningful engagement looks like.
Lessons Learnt: City of Edinburgh Council
We hear from Paul Matthews from AECOM, who shares some of the lessons they’ve learnt since implementing LTN interventions in Edinburgh.
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
Mapping pavement widths can help local authorities identify pinch points in urban centres or where physical distancing is otherwise unachievable. High Street, North Berwick. Neil Hanna/Sustrans
Responding to a crisis
With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the scarce amount of space allotted to people across Scotland’s towns and cities is firmly in the forefront.
Attempting to maintain a two-metre physical distance from other pavement users whilst navigating by foot or wheel can be a nuisance at the best of times and an impossibility at others.
In aid of this, Sustrans’ Spaces for People programme, funded by the Scottish Government, has distributed almost £40 million to local authorities to provide temporary infrastructure to help people walk, wheel and cycle.
Spaces for People is delivering temporary infrastructure throughout Scotland to help people walk, wheel and cycle safely through the Covid-19 pandemic. Forrest Road, Edinburgh. Sustrans/Neil Hanna
With a common bid by local authorities’ being to widen public footways, Sustrans have set to calculate and map pavement widths in towns and cities through Scotland to help identify potential crowding pinch points and support physical distancing.
Early mapping in Edinburgh
In 2010, City of Edinburgh Council began work on developing an Active Travel Action Plan, a long-term city-wide project to improve the accessibility and safety of walking, cycling and wheeling infrastructure.
One of the ways Sustrans has been assisting the council with this ambitious project is by undertaking the painstaking work of mapping individual pavement widths throughout the city.
Princes Street allows 6.8m of pavement width. However, for such a busy street this often is not enough
Morningside Road has been widened with traffic wands in several locations in order to bolster the 1.7m width the pavement currently allows for.
Edinburgh is an historic and densely packed urban centre within which pavement widths vary greatly.
With physical distancing guidelines now in effect as a matter of public health, the construction of a working pavement width database for the whole of Scotland has taken on a new urgency.
Once lockdown was announced, Sustrans accelerated work on providing City of Edinburgh Council with a comprehensive dataset of pavement widths.
This was achieved by adapting code developed for New York to complement Ordinance Survey data.
From this initial success, Sustrans has been able to develop further datasets for Glasgow, East Lothian, Dundee, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire, with the offer being extended to any other local authorities who would find such data useful.
The coding process
Infrastructure Coordinator for Sustrans Alasdair Anderson was a key player in developing the mapping datasets. As lead on the project, he explains:
“The Python code used to do the analysis utilised Ordinance Survey’s most detailed Mastermap Topograpic Area mapping.
This identifies pavements and paths within a given local authority and accomplishes the surprisingly difficult task of measuring the width of an irregularly shaped object by using a tailored algorithm.
By first calculating the centreline for each of the thousands of bits of pavement that have already been identified, the algorithm then measures the distance back from individual pavement centre point to the pavement edge to calculate the width.
Finally, the results are compiled into a GIS dataset which can be analysed statistically or displayed on a map”.
Even Edinburgh’s busiest shopping streets have very narrow pavements. Raeburn Place, Stockbridge. Ordinance Survey.
Using the data
An immediate benefit of this data is that it can be used to help people navigate routes which only follow wider pavements.
For example, Sustrans officers have been looking to use pavement widths data to enable them to plan led walks with volunteers or school children once lockdown restrictions are sufficiently eased.
The larger impact, however, of these mapping capabilities is apparent when the data is combined with other information in order to identify the narrowest or busiest streets in order to prioritise them for widening interventions.
While the £38.97 million available under the Spaces for People fund is a lot of money, it is not nearly enough to widen every pavement in Scotland. As such, working out how to prioritise pavement widening initiatives becomes crucial.
Pavement distancing description
Width
km
%
Easy
>4.7m
133.97
4
Comfortable
3.8 to 4.7m
105.93
3.1
Possible
2.7 to 3.8m
362.75
10.7
Difficult
2 to 2.7m
608.84
18
Too narrow
1.5 to 2m
975.01
28.9
Less than minimum design guidance
<1.5m
1192.8
35.3
Total ‘difficult’ or narrower
<2.7m
2776.65
82.2
Table demonstrating the widths of pavements throughout Edinburgh as they relate to physical distancing health guidelines.
Applications in Dundee
One of the first practical applications of Sustrans’ pavement mapping capabilities took place in Dundee city centre.
While nearly empty during lockdown, Union Street in Dundee has been closed to traffic in anticipation of crowds of people returning as businesses reopen. Union Street, Dundee. Paul Reid/Sustrans
A dataset of shops and services in Dundee was first created. This was then overlaid with the footway width dataset Sustrans had created to help identify narrow pavements where high footfall was likely to occur. From this, a unique set of Covid-19 emergency proposals for shopping streets in Dundee was able to be generated.
Using these emergency proposals, Sustrans was then able to highlight particular areas where it would be most crucial to prioritise pavement widening interventions.
Areas in blue are streets which would most benefit from widened pavements. Similar approaches have now been utilised in Edinburgh and East Ayrshire.
Looking forward
Looking beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, the datasets Sustrans has created provide local authorities with an invaluable resource with which to maximise the benefit of footway renewal programmes.
Initial progress can be made by first focussing on pavements which fall short of 1.5m, normally considered to be the minimum.
Interventions in areas such as these would improve accessibility for those with additional mobility support needs immensely, such as those manoeuvring a wheelchair or a pram.
Recent adaptations in the code used to calculate pavement widths have now enabled Sustrans to calculate the widths of entire streets.
This new capability could be instrumental in helping Scottish local authorities understand where it would be most beneficial to deliver cycling infrastructure in the future.
Gallery
Take a look at some of the Scottish towns and cities Sustrans has created GIS pavement width maps for in the image gallery below.
The finished mural at The Barn youth space on Abbotsford Place.
Run by Crossroads Youth & Community Association, The Barn is a space for young people in Laurieston and the Greater Gorbals to relax, have fun and receive the support that they need.
Youth Workers at the charity had been looking for a bold and creative way to make their organisation a destination point, in a way that also included the local community.
Their application to the South City Way Small Grants Fund proposed installing an artwork designed by young people in the area on at the front of their building.
Creative Planning
Created to inspire local community and charity groups to propose new gathering places and artworks along Glasgow’s South City Way, the Small Grants Fund offered these groups the chance to apply for a share of over £100,000 to fund their projects.
The funding inspired local young people to tour the murals and street art around Glasgow in order to develop their own ideas. This took them along cycle paths and into unfamiliar parts of the city that they wouldn’t usually see.
The group then put their designs together for the new collective artwork on Abbotsford Place. A local artist was recruited to help with this process as well as to assist with spraying the final piece on the wall.
The finished collective artwork at the youth centre on Abbotsford Place.
The completed piece sees the community group’s name Crossroads and Youth Community Association spread across the wall against the backdrop of a pastoral meadow. A quote from the group’s founder, Geoff Shaw, is also included, and reads: “Everyone has the right to live gloriously!”
They also installed planters and bike racks at the front of the centre.
Local Impact
Crossroads and Youth Community Association youth worker Nick Miller, saw The Barn project through to completion from the start.
‘Now you’re just drawn to the building, and through that we’ve had people dropping in and grabbing teas and coffees. We’ve had people taking photographs of stuff, and just leaving a couple of pounds donation. So hopefully it just draws more people to the building’.
Nick Miller, Youth Worker, Crossroads Youth and Community Association
Sustrans Officer Michael Melton, is delighted with the enrichment of the South City Way.
“The Barn stands out now as a safe and creative hub for young people to gather. The mural is a really valuable addition to the South City Way route and a great example of exactly what the Small Grants Fund is for”.
Michael Melton, Infrastructure Coordinator
This piece is part of a series on the South City Way Small Grants Fund. This fund was created to inspire community groups and charities to design artworks and gathering places which encourage walking and cycling. Find out more about the South City Way.
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.
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.
