Meet Scotland’s first bicycle mayor – and she wants to shake things up in Inverness

Inverness has a “pent-up demand” from cyclists who currently don’t feel safe to take to the roads.

But a campaign to make the city more bike-friendly has now been stepped up by the newly-appointed bicycle mayor.

Among the targets is Academy Street where Highland Council plans to restrict vehicle traffic.

Cyclists say the case for change is made for reducing traffic in one of the most polluted parts of the city by recent air pollution studies.

First official event for bicycle mayor

Emily Williams, the first bicycle mayor in Scotland, says the World Health Organisation has declared air pollution a health emergency.

Another study by Imperial College in London has highlighted the impact air pollution has on health from before birth to old age.

Ms Williams, CEO of the Velocity Café, takes part in her first official event in her mayoral role today at the Kidical Mass North ride in Inverness.

It is part of Europe-wide gatherings over the weekend to press for child-friendly and cycle-friendly cities.

“The evidence in the recent studies is damning, showing that vehicle traffic causes harm in so many ways.

“As a parent, I want it to be possible for my teenager to cycle independently to the city centre and not worry for his safety in traffic or the air he’ll be breathing in.”

Dr Bridie Barnett, a medical consultant at Raigmore Hospital, said: “Academy Street is one of the most polluted streets in Scotland.

“While other cities have taken steps of the past few years to improve their active travel infrastructure and introduce low emission zones, with subsequent reductions in pollution, we have not seen this change in Inverness.”

She said air pollution is the single biggest environmental health hazard in the UK, accounting for 36,000 excess deaths annually.

At the same time, active travel has significant benefits to health as well as reducing car traffic.

“However, many people don’t cycle in Inverness due to the volume of traffic in the city centre and the lack of safe cycling routes through the city.

“It is critical that we address this now, for the benefit of residents and visitors.”

Rebalancing road space

Ms Williams says her work with Velocity to help people cycle has highlighted an issue: “Overwhelmingly, the feedback we get from participants is that they would cycle more if the roads were safe.

“I think there is a massive pent up demand for cycling in Inverness.

“But people are put off because it is not visibly safe and they feel intimated by cars, volumes of traffic and the fact there are no segregated spaces to cycle.”

She says rebalancing the road space in Inverness to enable people to cycle or walk if they want is important.

“At the moment there is pretty much no dedicated space given over for means of transport other than cars.

“Not every car journey is going to be replaced by a bike journey. But if we change the road share from 10% to 30% that would be transformational.”

Inverness has not yet followed Aberdeen in proposing a Low Emission Zone, but restricting traffic can reduce pollution.

Highland Council’s vision for Academy Street is to help make the city centre a more welcoming, attractive and healthier place.

It is predicted it will reduce traffic by 70%, which will also impact air quality in the busy street.

While the plans are opposed by some businesses, Ms Williams says infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, along with investment in public transport, is urgently needed to provide a viable alternative to car travel in the city.

Ms Williams’ appointment makes her part of a network set up by Amsterdam-based social enterprise BYCS.

“There are now 8-9 bicycle mayors in the UK and on pretty much every continent now.

What will the bicyle mayor do?

“A big part of what I want to do is encourage more bicycle mayors across Scotland.

“If there was a group of people it would add to the validity of the position and give us a really good network across Scotland.”

She aims to encourage better communications between the council, councillors and the cycling community.

“Other voices in the city have much better access to these people than a cycle campaign group does.

“Having a title certainly goes some way to opening doors to talk to people.”

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