Consultation

… a built environment that is more inclusive of people than at present, and where people willingly choose to travel by sustainable modes over short distances.  There is greater emphasis on providing the public with the opportunity to make better travel choices…

This is the vision of the future developed by local authority officers, Regional Transport Partnership representatives and the Scottish Government Sustainable Transport Team during a series of regional workshops.

The workshops, in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow during May, were held to consult key stakeholders on the role and direction of the National Assessment of policy, strategy and delivery. 

All three sessions were very well attended and some healthy discussions and debates were stimulated.  The delegates welcomed the improved partnership approach to the project and there was agreement that the National Assessment has a vital role to play in benchmarking and driving improvements in the delivery of cycling. 

We thank all those who took part in this process for their valuable contributions.  The Workshop Report contains a full summary of all three sessions.  The Workshop Presentations can be viewed by using the links on the right side of this page.

Tackling the lack of political will
At the workshops, delegates were asked to consider the main organisational barriers in getting more people cycling.  The most fundamental barrier identified was the lack of will among decision-makers and politicians to actually deliver change. 

Many delegates suggested that decision-makers and politicians are too often of the opinion that there is little demand for cycling.  In many organisations the link between the supply of the correct environment for cycling and public demand has not been accepted.

It was recognised by delegates that most of the other barriers discussed, such as lack of staff and financial resources, public reluctance to change, lack of top to bottom consistency on strategy, a lack of cross-departmental working, and poor professional understanding of the benefits of cycling, all stem from the overarching problem that decision-makers and politicians are not fully committed to increasing cycle use.

A number of actions to overcome this barrier were identified by delegates.  Just some of these are to:
• Deliver promotional tools aimed at councillors;
• Introduce obligations on local authorities;
• Consistently measure demand to demonstrate the size of the market and the level of success of projects to increase cycling;
• Set up Cycle Demonstration Towns; and
• Use the National Assessment to publicise the difficulties, motivate effort and catalyse action.

Developing the Ideas
These discussions, and the many more held during the workshops are summarised in the Workshop Report and will be developed further during the National Assessment process.