Cllr Uisdean Robertson, Uibhist A Tuath, Chair Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and HITRANS

Active Travel in the Western Isles

While the National Cycle Network route No.780 – The Hebridean Way – from Barra to the Butt of Lewis offers visitors a signed route to walk or cycle the length of the Western Isles, the long distances between settlements on the islands often mean that the private car is how most people choose to travel for many everyday journeys.

However, Census data also highlights that 23% of households in the Outer Hebrides do not have a car available at home (for those living in social housing this figure rises to as high as 49% (Census, 2011)) and a third of journeys to work within the Outer Hebrides being three miles or less.

These figures illustrate that there is both a lot of scope for more short everyday journeys to be made on foot or by cycle and that encouraging more people to use active travel more often is key to realising a variety of wider positive outcomes from the Scottish Government’s targets for net zero and a 20% reduction in car traffic, and can also bring benefits to the physical, mental, and social health of our people.

The Comhairle in partnership with HITRANS (Highlands and Islands Regional Transport Partnership) developed a five-year Outer Hebrides Active Travel Strategy in 2021. The Strategy sets out a number of objectives for increasing the number of journeys made by active travel, presenting a vision for high quality places where walking and cycling for everyday journeys to school, work, or shopping are easy, pleasant and safe.

It highlights that there are many small communities, such as Tarbert and Balivanich, where vehicles and through-roads are dominant, which would benefit from placemaking to make it easier and safer to choose to walk, wheel or cycle, with a particular focus on safe routes to schools and community hubs. The vision and objectives for active travel within communities across the Outer Hebrides is summarised as follows:

*Safe routes to school are established in settlements with schools so local children have the opportunity to safely walk or cycle to school.

*A holistic approach is taken in settlements with community hubs to ensure there is appropriate infrastructure to travel safely by foot or bicycle.

*A place-based approach to high quality infrastructure and a review of speed limits makes it easy and safe to choose walking and cycling for everyday journeys within communities.

*Safe active travel routes to access attractions and trip generators within or near settlements.

And between Communities the priorities are:

*Develop a coherent network of routes connecting communities within comfortable walking or cycling distance of each other.

*Improve safety of Hebridean Way cycle route to enhance tourism offer and connect dispersed settlements.

Since the Strategy was published progress has been made in a number of areas. A series of masterplans were initially developed for the main settlements: https://bit.ly/42xCLld. These identified a series of priority projects for improving infrastructure for active travel locally.

The plans have been used to support applications for funding to develop detailed designs and then the construction of various different projects. The Comhairle has recently applied for capital funding for 11 projects to be delivered in 2023/24: these include Lochboisdale Active Travel Links in partnership with Storas Uibhist, Balivanich Safe Route to School and the Barra Herring Walk, with Barra & Vatersay Community Trust. Projects valuing a total of £3.2m were submitted to Transport Scotland’s Active Travel Transformation Fund. The Council expects to find out if applications have been successful this Spring.

Again, working in partnership with HITRANS, the Comhairle has also been able to secure funding for a new post to support the development of Active Travel and Public Transport initiatives across the islands. The post is supported by the Scottish Government’s ‘Smarter Choices Smarter Places’ fund which is administered by Paths for All. It is hoped the new recruit will be in post in April and can begin work to support improvements to public transport information, delivery of the Active Travel Strategy, and promotion of the HItravel Liftshare platform for ride sharing.

It is hoped this work will encourage more people to walk or cycle for everyday functional trips such as going to work or school, or to the shops. This can be for all or part of the journey, for example walking or cycling to a bus stop. As for other forms of transport, having a strategy ensures that the many benefits of increasing physical activity levels, in the form of active travel, are framed, planned, funded, delivered, and measured in a structured way. Active travel is one of the most sustainable ways to build physical activity into our lives, combining exercise with getting from A to B. Walking and cycling as part of our everyday routine can contribute to the recommended levels of physical activity to promote physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Greater investment in and promotion of active travel is an effective way to meet climate change targets and contributes to reducing congestion and pollution.