Step Two – Gather Your Data and Identify your Stakeholders
The Island Communities Assessment for the NTS2 stated that island communities face similar and also many greater challenges to those living in remote and rural areas. These include longer commuting distances in combination with higher fuel prices, additional costs to make occasional trips to the mainland, additional freight costs and deliveries, and ferry/air costs for inter-island travel. The findings were obtained during the consultation and stakeholder engagement and one of the concerns raised that is relevant to island communities is insufficient active travel infrastructure on islands.
Input from a range of local authority representatives was gathered during technical Working Groups between 2019-2020. These Working Groups scoped the requirements of Cycling by Design and provided feedback on early draft content for the following topics:
- Cycle Links – programme of 3 meetings completed March 2020
- Junctions and Crossings – programme of 6 meetings completed October 2020
- Street Function – meeting held November 2019
- Development Planning and Audit process – held February 2020
- Rural context specifics – held in March and September 2020
- Follow up meetings held in October 2020 to consider early feedback on document structure, language, continuous footway layouts and bus stop guidance.
During this development phase, consultation with HITRANS (Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership) and associated local authority representatives was undertaken in March 2020 and September 2020, with findings feeding into the working groups and the developing guidance.