WRITTEN SUBMISSION FROM ALASTAIR MORRISON This is in response to the Call for Views on Walking and Cycling in Scotland. I am both a walker and a cyclist, but I find that provision for active travel on foot is generally adequate, whereas I meet many difficulties when I try to cycle instead of going by car, so I will confine my comments to cycling. Since retiring in 2001, moving to a new part of Scotland, and attempting to return to my youthful preference for cycling, I have felt justified on several occasions to write to the authorities about difficulties I have met. As your deadline is close, I thought the most effective way to respond would be enclose extracts from these letters. This means that I am not responding specifically to the 6 questions in your Call, but the letters mainly relate to questions 3, 4 and 5. Basically the letters describe difficulties which people meet when they try travelling by cycle, and which will presumably discourage anyone who lacks experience or confidence from trying a second time. I leave it to you to draw general principles from the specific examples of problems described in these letters. For brevity I have omitted parts of all the letters and, assuming that this submission may be made publicly available, I have also omitted names and full addresses. Yours sincerely, Alastair Morrison. Letter 1. Sainsbury’s Cycle Park. To: Sainsbury's Dear Sir, My home is roughly equidistant from Tesco and Sainsbury's. I sometimes use my bicycle (equipped with paniers) for shopping. Sometimes I go to Sainsbury's, but more often I go to Tesco because Tesco has a convenient facility for securing cycles, whereas Sainsbury’s facility does not work for me. 1. I secure my cycle with an elongated D-lock of standard design with an opening of 70mm, but the fixed tube of the existing cycle-securing facility is too thick for this. The tube should not exceed 65mm in diameter. 2. The existing cycle-securing facility is in an unfrequented location, not visible from inside the store. I worry that, even if the frame of the cycle was securely locked to the fixed tube, accessories such as lights, paniers, or even the quick-release wheels, might be stolen. This also prevents me from using my wire padlock, which does fit over the fixed tube, but which could be quickly removed with wire cutters. The new cycle-securing facility should be in a location frequently passed by customers, and visible from at least one part of the interior of the store. 3. One reason for using my bicycle instead of my car would be that it is quicker, partly because one avoids the time needed to park and unpark a car and walk to the store from a remote corner of the car park. The present cycle-securing facility is further from the front door of the store than many of the car parking spaces. Please place the new cycle-securing facility close to the main door of the store. Letter 2. National cycle network near Cambus, Clackmannanshire To: Sustrans (Scotland). 27 Sept 2008 Dear Sir, I have been a member of Sustrans for many years, and enthusiastic about the idea of long- distance cycle routes, though I have not used many myself until the last few years, when the network came closer to where I live. I was disappointed to hear many of my fellow cyclists making scathing remarks about the National Cycling Routes, and recalling terrible experiences they had had when trying to follow them, such as having to carry their cycle up a flight of steps. I dismissed this as just expecting too much. But on Sunday 14 Sept 08, I met a section of NCR 76 which I seriously consider should not be marked as a cycle route: an alternative should be signposted. I was making a circuit which involved following the NCR 76 from Stirling to Alloa. After following an excellent traffic-free route due east passing Manor Powis and Manor Steps, one reaches a junction. Here a large cycle signpost points along the road to the south. The tarred road passes many bonded warehouses, then ends, but a narrow footpath continues, and adhesive signs for route 76 clearly show that the cyclist is intended to follow this path. The narrow path is about 0.6 miles long. It emerges at the confluence of the River Devon and the River Forth. A wider path continues from there for another 0.6 miles along the banks of the River Devon to join the road network at Cambus village. My complaint relates only to the first 0.6 miles of ‘narrow path’. This path has hedges on both sides, about 4 feet apart, centre to centre. Allowing for the branches of the hedges, this leaves about 2 feet of width for the cycle at the level of the handlebars. The path has no surfacing, only the natural soil, which is covered by long grass, except for a central strip of bare earth, only 3 inches wide. A cyclist stays upright by slight side-to-side balancing movements which require a certain minimum width which is greater than the width of the tyre. I do not know what this minimum width is. In Aquitaine I have managed to follow concrete cycle paths 18 inches wide, but only with difficulty. My experience on 14 Sept indicates that more than 3 inches is required! I did my best to remain upright for a hundred yards or so, but the cycle finally fell to one side and I ended up on top of it with my face in the mud! When I stood up, I found the path was not wide enough for me to walk beside the bike. This was a touring cycle with tyres 1.25 inches wide possessing a reasonable amount of tread. I presume that the national cycle network is primarily designed for touring cyclists, not mountain bikers. I can see the attractions of the signposted route, partly following the River Devon, but this does not justify directing cyclists along the ‘narrow path’ I have described. You will be aware that there is a satisfactory alternative, which I suggest should be signposted as NCR76: east of mile 39, a traffic-free cycle route already exists as far as the roundabout at the junction of A907 with B9140. From here to Cambus, traffic on the A907 is bearable. At Cambus, NCR76 could re-join the existing route. Letter 3a. Suggestion for Signposting routes to Palacerigg Country Park for Cyclists To: Technical Officer (Cycling), North Lanarkshire Council. 30 Oct 2008 Dear Sir, I have to send this letter by Royal Mail because I am enclosing a sketch map. [Not included in Active Travel Views, but one can understand the problem without the map. ] The gist of my suggestion is as follows. At present the only approach to Palecerigg Country Park which is signposted is the motor car approach from Cumbernauld. I suggest that signposts leading to the Park should be erected at several junctions of roads and paths to the east, south and north of the Park, directions from which cyclists and walkers are likely to approach. Details are below. I am not sure to which department of the Council I should address this letter. It might be the Department which runs the Park (Leisure and Tourism), or the Roads Department who erect signposts, or the Access Officer who is concerned with footpaths, but I am addressing it to the Cycling Officer in the first instance because the problem arose from cycling. The am worried that no Department may take responsibility for it. During 2007 and 2008 I have attempted to cycle to Palacerigg Country Park 5 times, approaching from Slamannan or Jawcraig. Only on the fifth occasion did I manage to get to and from the park without getting off-course at some point. You would be bored by the details, so I have put them in an Appendix below, but they represent the evidence to justify the signposting which I suggest. Specifically I suggest erecting signposts as follows: (letters refer to locations on the map) [There followed a list of 7 locations A to G, with the direction in which the sign should point, and the proposed text. Some signs would say ‘Cycle route to Palacerigg Country Park’, while others would say ‘Walking and Cycling route to Palacerigg Country Park’. ] These signposts would not necessarily be the large black-and-white signs intended to be legible by motorists. They could be smaller green signs. APPENDIX - REASONS I COULD NOT FIND PALACERIGG COUNTRY PARK FIRST ATTEMPT I only knew that Palacerigg Country Park existed, because it was marked on a small scale road atlas as a dot .... This map gives no indication where the entrances are .... The Ordnance Survey Landranger sheet 65 which I usually use when cycling ... but does not quite reach the Park. The Park is also outside the West Lothian Cycling map, and I believed there was no cycling map of North Lanark Council area, because none is listed as available through the Sustrans website. I approached from Slamannan on B803... we did not find an entrance to the Park ... We noticed that the track at E ...but, in the absence of a signpost, we did not want to risk it, and were forced to lose a great deal of height, emerging on ‘Forest Road’, where we had to ask our way twice. We noticed the track at G ...but again did not want to risk it without the re-assurance of a signpost.