Looks like we'll just have to wait for the oil to run out before they start investing.
Could be a long time...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Vision" for 2030!!!
(98 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
-
@ e
I mostly agree.
Though for some reason (irrational) I'm not as pessimistic as logic suggests.
I think the 'arguments' re 'the (cost) benefits' are unarguable.
We have an SNP Gov which is 'managerial' and fairly 'business friendly' and 'it's our oil to exploit' conventional.
BUT the new leader is openly talking about "social democracy" and "tackling poverty".
The challenge for #ActiveTravel campaigners is to get NS - her colleagues and civil servants - to understand that INVESTING in walking and cycling will not only save money, but WILL also reduce inequality, improve employability, improve Health, differentiate Scotland as 'a modern European country' etc. etc.
OK a 'Challenge', but now that Scotland is more politically aware/active (because of the Referendum) and so are 'we' (because of PoP) - it's DOABLE...
Posted 9 years ago # -
"it's DOABLE"
I'd love to believe that, but the way things are going, the sheer momentum the SNP has behind it, makes that unlikely in my opinion. The SNP look in an increasingly unassailable position electorally, with an opposition weaker than at any point since Holyrood came into existence.
More than ever, the party hierarchy are convinced they are in the right, that the people are behind them, and that anyone carping from the sidelines is in the wrong. That will include anyone who doesn't buy into the SNP vision for a future Scotland: and despite the so-called "vision" for active travel, it's very clear that the actual delivery will be more and more roads schemes. Just have a look at the Scottish government investment 'pipeline' for infrastructure. Nary a single mention of any active travel facilities, but dual carriageways galore, high speed rail 'twixt Glasgow and Edinburgh, etc.
A few bawbees may be found behind the metaphorical sofa for cycling, but forget about any serious commitment. It's not on the SNP policy radar in any meaningful way. The "vision" is just there to placate campaigners, to make the right noises, while doing sweet FA about it except for token gestures.
Car sales are up again to record levels this year, haven't you heard? Good news for the Scottish economy! Rejoice!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"That will include anyone who doesn't buy into the SNP vision for a future Scotland: and despite the so-called "vision" for active travel"
Yes, but even conviction politicians, sometimes notice 'facts' and react to pressure from people. (Also, although SNP has held things together, internally, very well for years, they are not wholly 'of one mind' - then there are the new members...)
Just listened to RScotland's Out of Doors.
Good interview with Helen Todd from Ramblers, basically saying 'Scotland needs more paths - for walkers and cyclists - and that compulsory purchase should be used more (as would be for proposed roads)'
Also complaint from 'a listener' about behaviour of (some) cyclists on Canal and WoL.
Plus presenter saying he was too scared to cycle on some main roads AND mentioning that Netherlands 'didn't have a cycling culture until they started putting in segregated infrastructure'.
Things are changing, expectations are rising. NS is talking differently from AS.
There is some potential just now. Don't give up (yet).
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04pm4g1 - towards the end)
Posted 9 years ago # -
One thing that would help in the delivery of more paths, and probably make compulsory purchase more likely would be trying to get LAs to have implementation plans for their core path networks. When a path is identified as being necessary it ought not be enough just to draw a line on the map. There ought to be a plan produced to show how that path with be delivered and in what time scale. To my mind, this omission is a great failing in the Access Legislation. It would have helped delivery, including compulsory purchase when required, in some circumstances, such as the Drem/Gullane path.
Posted 9 years ago # -
IWRATS - an outrageous slander! Cider in the morning - I'm not a barbarian. I generally find a can of Special Brew gets the day off to a good start.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Morningsider
My great aunt Sadie gave me a can of Special Brew when I was fourteen. It's one the most memorable feelings I've ever had, and I haven't touched the stuff since out of respect. I must have another can some day and see what my hard-bitten adult alcohol dehydrogenase quotient makes of it.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Look what the press do to a politician they want to paint as a snob;
they picture them on a bicycle. Simples.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Posts picture of van outside england fan's house and puts the words picture from Stroud. Then has to resign for being a snob. Margins are getting very fine between staying ina job and having to resign? Maybe Bob geldof will save her?
William Carlos Williams wrote a poem where the narrator is apologising for eating the strawberries someone had been saving in the fridge. Tom Leonard wrote a poem about someone apologising for drinking someone else's cans of special brew from a very different fridge. 9per cent ABV I think. What was Sadie thinking? My uncle Ownie Polonie (not real uncle) made me drink whisky when I was five but I spat it right into the coal fire where it flared up. I have never touched spirits since (or I might be misrembering)
Posted 9 years ago # -
The cyclist not so much a snob as a bossy lefty do-gooder.
Better than a no-hoper or joke, which is what a cyclist would have been 30 or 40 years ago. Bossy left do-goodism does go mainstream.
As for resigning over that - it's idiocy ramped up by the Sun and a stupid over-reaction by Labour. It would have gone the way of all twitter storms in a week or so.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
Spokes CycleCampaign (@SpokesLothian)
23/11/2014 16:54
.@CyclingSurgeon '10% by 2020' Our #FirstMinister @NicolaSturgeon said is 'target' [SP Official] http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/2013/02/1-by-2020-vision-or-target@roadcc @POPScotland
"
Posted 9 years ago # -
I can't decide whether to be charitable about this or not. If the SNP were so completely cynical and their position so unassailable, I can't see why they would feel the need to produce this. It's not like it's going to convince anyone interested in active travel. And it's not like it's the sort of music that would appeal to the ears of what's left of Labour's core vote (or cement in the bloc of Labour supporters they've gained). Maybe it would appeal to potential Green voters but unlikely.
Also, if this is their vision for 2030 then they'd best get a move on. They've only given themselves 15 years to get it all done. People will start looking for costed commitments for the next election. It might be a Westminster election but all the questions for the SNP should be about what they'll do in Government in Scotland.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"if this is their vision for 2030 then they'd best get a move on. They've only given themselves 15 years to get it all done"
Except that there is no evidence that "they" intend to so anything!
Or at least no suggestion that they will provide adequate money so that this becomes true -
"
I am confident that, with our delivery partners, we will be able to achieve this
"
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Look what the press do to a politician they want to paint as a snob;
they picture them on a bicycle. Simples."
Or pictured coming out of their huge Islington townhouse (but not one of the other homes she owns).
What's interesting about this whole affair is that Labour are taking on the role of the Nasty Party (or at least the London-based leadership is) in people's eyes. She didn't have to say anything, but people assumed that her tweet was sneering. Which it probably was.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Which it probably was."
Yes, seems she also thought a house with flags and a van was 'unusual' (as well as - perhaps - making consequent assumptions).
Easy to 'blame the press', but even assuming the tweet was 'innocent'/'approving' she ought to have understood how it might be 'interpreted'...
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yeah, I get it that they haven't actually created an action plan for it but it seems reckless to set a out vision that can be continually thrown back at you (and at each of your "delivery partners"). Because although it's easy to see it as warm words it's actually quite specific in terms of what it wants to see.
It generates simple general questions for each of their delivery partners: do you support the SG's vision for 2030? What are you doing to achieve it?
You can start to judge what these supportive partners are doing. Support for the vision means supporting the idea that "The built environment puts people and place before the movement of motor vehicles." Seems to me that that has profound implications for local councils and for Transport Scotland. It allows me, for example, to imagine that Transport Scotland will now look at the A985 and ask how it can change that road, which doesn't have a pedestrian island for about 13 miles, into a place that puts people and place before the movement of motor vehicles.
It's like a campaigner's charter - a green light to quote that vision at everyone responsible for making it happen.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@ Instography - A good point. We should hold their feet to the fire then?
Posted 9 years ago # -
I guess so. I suppose I could provide my local MSPs with some lines they could use to make the new Transport guy's life a misery.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"it's actually quite specific in terms of what it wants to see"
Suppose I should re-read it and memorise what it says, but my impression is that it's a fantasy list of what might be IF ScotGov changes a lot of policies AND re-/directs MONEY.
"It generates simple general questions for each of their delivery partners: do you support the SG's vision for 2030? What are you doing to achieve it?"
Did it say who the DPs are?
Posted 9 years ago # -
"I suppose I could provide my local MSPs with some lines they could use to make the new Transport guy's life a misery."
Interesting...
Certainly think he needs to explicitly say if accepts/endorses the report - and, if so, what he plans to do (and when he will provide some details).
Saying 'too busy dealing with the 2015 election' won't work.
Saying 'it will all be in the 2016 manifesto' would also be a bit of a cop-out, BUT are there any signs 'we' won't have to wait that long?
Posted 9 years ago # -
" ... my impression is that it's a fantasy list".
Yes, it's always a gamble to articulate you fantasies. People might think you actually want that to happen. If these are his private transport fantasies then they're out there now. I'm more than happy if his dreams come true. If they become his nightmares, I'm OK with that. I suppose my only point is that we have nothing to lose by taking this literally.
Did it say who the DPs are?
Can't remember if it was explicit but we know who they are: local authorities, Sustrans, Cycling Scotland. The usual suspects.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"The usual suspects"
Yes.
The crucial one (on your list - and in reality too) is the LAs.
How will SNP SG, 'here's some money but we won't tell how to spend it' get any 'buy-in'?
Perhaps it needs to give Sustrans a lot more money AND only make LAs come with 10% to 'match'(?)
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yeah, yeah. However all this optimism seems to forget that Broon played a blinder just about any time anyone asked what he was doing to deliver CAPS: "Cycle infrastructure is a matter for local authorities". So, I fully expect the new minister to do a similar buck passing routine every time anyone asks him about delivery of the "vision".
Meanwhile, costed commitments to bridges, dual carriageways, high speed rail, etc. are all in the infrastructure investment and delivery "pipeline" at ScotGov HQ...
Therein lieth the difference.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Whoops! Bursty inter web the nicht led to double post...
Posted 9 years ago # -
"If these are his private transport fantasies"
Keith Brown's!
Really??
If they are, do they even bind the new guy? (I know KB is his boss, but he probably knew he was moving up when he signed off his civil servants' wishlist...!)
Posted 9 years ago # -
"This active travel network ensures continuity of routes and linking of key destinations, encouraging people to travel safely on foot or by bicycle within and between settlements."
This active travel network. There's going to be one and it's going to ensure continuity of routes and line key destinations. That's a promise.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'm still thinking that the *best* chance of progress is to get other ministers to realise the importance of #ActiveTravel and not just 'leave it to 'Transport'.
Posted 9 years ago # -
They'll be delivery partners then.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"This active travel network"
That'll be the existing road network (well the bits that LAs are responsible for) plus anything Sustrans can do without the help of compulsory purchase.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"They'll be delivery partners then."
Hope so.
Posted 9 years ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
posts
