Hustings: candidate Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green Party
Here’s the text of Patrick Harvie’s statement on active travel:
“Patrick Harvie MSP, Scottish Green Party Candidate for Glasgow Kelvin.
SCOTTISH GREEN PARTY – PROMOTION OF WALKING AND CYCLING
The aims of our transport policy are to help create a carbon-free sustainable future, to improve safety – especially for vulnerable cyclists and pedestrians – and to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. We also have to reverse the effects of car culture which has made walking and cycling increasingly unpleasant and sometimes dangerous.
We want to see a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable transport system for Scotland that prioritises pedestrians, people with mobility problems, cyclists, and public transport users. Driving tests and government information aimed at drivers should place an emphasis on the rights and needs of other road users, particularly the most vulnerable – pedestrians, horse riders, cyclists and motorcyclists. Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian, has championed the case for the introduction of presumed liability upon motorists in the Scottish Parliament to ensure better
protection for the most vulnerable road users.
We recognise the importance of walking and cycling as the most sustainable, healthiest, cheapest and most widely available forms of transport. By explicitly considering pedestrians and cyclists in the planning process and providing them with safe, attractive and well-lit routes to encourage more people out of their cars and onto our roads.
We will facilitate the widespread implementation of Home Zones and change legislation to enforce 10mph speed limits in order to give road-user priority to pedestrians and cyclists. Non-residential roads will be designed to give priority and allocate space to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, and to maximise road safety.
We will give priority to the maintenance of foot and cycle ways and the filling of deep pot holes to protect cyclists and motorcyclists. Green MSPs have been calling on the Scottish Government to progressively increase the proportion of the annual transport budget given over to active travel from the current 1% to 10% over the course of the next Parliament. We propose the full adoption of the European Charter of Pedestrians’ Rights.”
Find out more about the Hustings here
