We can’t miss this opportunity
The Spaces for People scheme put in place by the Scottish Government during the lockdown was undoubtedly a welcome move, but as restrictions ease there’s a growing risk that it becomes a missed opportunity.
The scheme, administered by Sustrans, granted Perth and Kinross Council £1.1 million to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists and to help maintain physical distancing.
This included additional signage and road markings, reduced speed limits, widening pavements and temporary cycle lanes and cycle segregation.
That last point is crucial. There’s been a marked increase in people cycling during the lockdown, but while places like Dunfermline and Dundee have experienced truly enormous spikes in cycling rates, Perth and Kinross Council appears to have lagged behind.
It’s not enormously surprising.
Making the city centre safer for pedestrians and cyclists doesn’t seem to have been a priority for the council over the years and the tragic death of a cyclist on Main Street in 2018 will have understandably made others afraid to go out on their bikes.
Outside of Perth the roads linking villages to the city and each other are entirely unsuited to cycling, and the speed of cars on rural roads is a massive deterrent for people looking to cycle.
These are long term problems that simply can’t be fixed by £1.1m in funding for temporary measures.
As lockdown eases and more cars start to reappear on roads, the risk of losing what little gains have been made in Perth is very real.
The Scottish Government and Perth and Kinross Council must not let this opportunity slip through their fingers.
The transport minister Michael Matheson recently announced that a further £3.4m would be allocated to the already oversubscribed Spaces for People programme.
On the face of it, welcome news. The trouble is in the detail.
This cash is being reallocated from the active travel budget, meaning the pot of money available to make long term permanent changes to walking and cycling infrastructure is diminished.
Meanwhile, the roads budget, which dwarfs the active travel budget, remains entirely untouched. Only a tiny fraction of the Scottish Government’s roads budget could have made an enormous difference to the Spaces for People fund while leaving cash free to invest in long-term improvements.
Parts of Perth suffer from some of the worst air pollution in Scotland and a huge bulk of that comes from vehicles. It’s no surprise then that air pollution plummeted during lockdown with fewer cars on the road. When there are fewer cars on the road everyone benefits, not just cyclists. Air quality improves, streets are safer and public spaces finally belong to people not cars.
There is a real opportunity here to undo years of neglect towards cycling infrastructure and give more people the chance to feel confident getting on their bikes.