There has been a recent rash of Cllrs voting to block or worse still have ripped out protected cycle lanes. At the same time the Daily Mail is running headlines about "Cycle lanes lunacy!"
What is noticeable about this, is that Cllrs in Scottish local authorities and the DM are using the same ill-informed nonsense to suggest that "no one uses these [protected] cycle lanes", they "cause congestion", they "increase air pollution" and are bad for local economies. There is of course no evidence to support any of this, but when did that stop the Daily Mail?
However we should expect more from our local Cllrs, they are elected to be leaders of our communities. It is only reasonable that we require them to base their policies on clear evidence, not unsupported knee jerk assumptions. All of the main political party is Scotland had a statement about supporting active travel in their manifestos this year in May. So why are so many Cllrs taking against protected cycle space? Anything to do with the council elections next year?
What can we do? Well if there is anyone who is going to a party conference (the SNP are holding theirs next week in Glasgow), ask why their elected representatives are spearheading the Daily Mail campaign?
There are few parties in Scotland that would welcome to been seen as supporting the Daily Mail campaign. So lets start shaming them, until they start taking a evidence based approach to promoting active travel and protected cycle space.
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