Healthy Transport
We want safer streets that will encourage people to walk and cycle.
We need walking and cycling to become the norm for short trips if we are to improve public health.
Our unsustainable transport system inflicts major health problems on the rest of society: injuries and deaths in road crashes, and the damage to health through air pollution and noise pollution. But the ‘active travel’ modes – walking and cycling – have the potential to make a major improvement to Scotland’s health.
Walking and cycling, the healthiest and most sustainable modes of transport, need to have much higher priority if Scotland is serious about improving national public health levels and tackling obesity. Walking is still the second most common mode of transport in Scotland yet remains a marginal consideration within most branches of government.
For decades roads have been designed predominantly for vehicles, ignoring the needs of those on foot or on bike. For almost as long, the ‘transport hierarchy’ has placed walking and cycling as the modes that should be given highest priority – but this is almost never carried through into reality by politicians and transport planners.
For public health and quality of life reasons, and in order to drive reductions in climate change emissions, the ‘zero carbon transport’ modes should be given priority, not be treated as an afterthought.
The move to sustainable transport will require:
- 20mph speed limits in residential areas
- Investment in walking and cycling to at least match its importance in terms of modal share. London is about to launch an ambitious cycling investment programme, and we need to see similar levels of investment for walking and cycling across Scotland.
- Road traffic law enforcement to tackle bad driving, and in particular speeding – an anti-social behaviour that deters people from cycling or walking.
- Safer, less dangerous roads – including the widespread adoption of ‘Home Zones’, 20mph zones and traffic calming in residential areas.
- Scotland’s cities to meet the air quality targets laid down in EU law. If they don’t meet these targets, they face the prospect of legal action from those affected by dangerous levels of pollution.