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Riverside Way Online Consultation Workshop on 9th August, 7pm
The project team will be hosting a public consultation on the 9th August at 7pm on MS Teams. This workshop will allow members of the public to speak with officers and share their questions and comments. Join us by following this link at 7pm on Monday 9th August 2021: Riverside Way - Public Consultation .
80 percent of Inverness residents surveyed identified their desire for more protected cycle lanes
The UK’s most comprehensive assessment of cycling in cities, Bike Life, has revealed that four out of five people in Inverness (81%) think that more cycle tracks physically separated from traffic would help them to cycle more.
The report , the first of its kind in Inverness, also found that cycling was the least safe way of travelling around the city with 66% of residents thinking that cycling safety needed to be improved.
Run by Sustrans Scotland in partnership with The Highland Council and the Inverness Active Travel Network Programme, Bike Life is part of a wider piece of research by Sustrans covering 17 cities across the UK and Ireland, assessing cycling development, attitudes and behaviour in each city.
A representative sample of 1,452 residents in Inverness was interviewed to find out more about their cycling habits, satisfaction, and the impact of cycling in the city.
Currently, Inverness has 20 miles of traffic free routes and 52 miles of signposted routes along quieter streets, however there are zero miles of cycle track physically segregated from traffic and pedestrians
Presently a quarter (25%) of residents cycle at least once a week. The health, social and economic benefits are clear, Bike Life calculated that 3.4 million trips were cycled in Inverness in the past year. Every day 3,200 return cycle trips are made by people that could have used a car, equating to a £5 million annual benefit to the city based on aspects such as vehicle costs, medical costs and work absenteeism, travel time and congestion.
Despite concerns over safety, 62% of residents agree that more people riding bikes would make the city a better place to live and work whilst just less than three quarters (71%) of Inverness residents think space should be increased for people socialising, cycling and walking on their local high street.
Commenting, Sustrans Scotland Head of Partnerships Kirsty Rankin, said:
“The message from the Inverness Bike Life survey is absolutely clear: residents want to see more people choosing to travel by bike.
“The Highland Council can rest assured that they have the backing of the public to build on the work they have already started to enable people to choose healthy, clean and affordable journeys by getting on a bike.”
Highlands Councillor Trish Robertson (Chair of E&I Committee) said :
“The survey findings are very interesting and will help inform our future planning and decision-making where there are opportunities for the creation of cycling infrastructure in new developments across the Inverness area.
“The interventions planned through the Inverness City Active Travel Network have the potential to encourage people to travel actively. Already we have seen significant numbers of pedestrians and cyclists using the new Active Travel bridge at Stoneyfield, proving that there is demand for more infrastructure.
“Couple that with the active travel elements of the city region deal at the Longman junction and the new East Link, and Inverness is showing the ambition worthy of Scotland’s cycling city.”
New active travel bridge in Smithton
A new bridge linking Smithton and Culloden, on Old Smiddy Lane, has been opened by pupils from Culloden Academy. This improvement is one of 5 project areas funded as part of the Inverness City Active Travel Network (ICATN).
The bridge is on the popular walking and cycling route to Smithton Woods and Culloden Academy, and replaces a previous bridge which had come to the end of its life and which restricted people from walking and cycling across at the same time. The replacement of the bridge means that pupils from Smithton can enjoy a largely traffic-free walk or cycle as part of their school journey.
The new bridge has been constructed to allow walkers, cyclists, people with prams or buggies and those in wheelchairs or mobility scooters to pass each other more easily. The path on both sides of the bridge has also been improved to tackle drainage issues so that the path remains suitable for use in all weathers.
For more information have a look at our Smithton Bridge webpage .
Introducing: Erz Studio
Developing the Inverness City Active Travel Network is not just about changing the layout of the roads based on modelling and traffic engineering. To create and develop environments and streets that are safer, more attractive and more enjoyable to use for a wide variety of people, we also look at the spaces directly around the actual roads and how we can improve them.
Erz is an award-winning landscape and urban design studio who will assist us in developing those spaces around the streets. They will explore and find out what places are important to you and propose how we can improve them, for example by using eye-catching materials and making sure facilities such as benches and lighting are in the right places. Erz will also help us with signs and wayfinding materials, which we will put in place to assist people who are not familiar in the area to find their way around.
To do this, we would like to better understand how you use the space when you are on foot, wheeling, or scooting. Therefore, Erz will be organising events to engage with local communities . It is an opportunity for everyone to learn more about how we can transform places, and for Erz and the project team to find out how you want to make your place more attractive, more enjoyable and safer.
Felicity Steers, director of Erz: “Murray, Emily, Jenna and I are really looking forward to working with the people of Inverness to explore the added value that community knowledge can bring to Active Travel. Places have communal history and shared meaning, and this can be used to enrich the design of footpaths and cycle routes, ensuring these new ways are fully connected and useful to the neighbourhoods they pass through”.
Erz work with communities throughout Scotland, to develop ideas and create designs for convivial and delightful landscapes. They are not new to Inverness, having provided plans and designs for New Craigs Hospital including enhancements of walking routes, the design and implementation of waymarking features and structural planting, Recent work has included the new Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow, visitor routes around the Callanais Standing Stones and designs for the Active Travel Boardwalk at Balgray Reservoir in East Renfrewshire. Their team includes landscape architects, architects, artists and urban designers, and all their work is based on community and client dialogue and collaborative processes.
Website: Erz Studio