Council leader says £245m Dundee active travel plan ‘necessary’ to get more people cycling.

Mark Flynn spoke about the intentions at the Cycling Scotland conference in Dundee.

Dundee’s “ambitious” active travel plans are required to encourage more people to cycle, according to council leader Mark Flynn.

The local government is now collaborating with external partners to create six so-called active travel motorways.

The goal is to promote walking, wheeling, and cycling by creating “direct active travel routes” that are separated from traffic on busy roadways.

The proposed active motorways are Arbroath Road, Pitkerro Road, Macalpine Road, Harefield Road, Perth Road, and Lochee Road.

They are part of a larger, ten-year sustainable transport delivery plan revealed by Dundee City Council (DCC) last year. In addition to developing active travel infrastructure, the initiative seeks to improve public transport in the city and zero-emission automobile infrastructure. The project is projected to cost approximately £245 million.

Council leader addresses national Cycling Scotland conference

On Wednesday, the national Cycling Scotland conference was held in Dundee for the first time since 2018.

It brought together a variety of organisations that encourage more people to utilise cycling as a mode of transportation.

Mark Flynn, the DCC leader, was one of the event’s primary speakers.

During his speech, he described the council’s “ambitious” attempts to encourage Dundonians to cycle.

He stated, “We are fairly ambitious in what we attempt to do, and our aim is to attract more people cycling and to implement the required programs and infrastructure to enable that.

“We’ve been working hard in recent years to invest what we can across the city to connect peripheral districts to the city centre.

“Installing active travel motorways is an important approach to encourage people to cycle in cities. “They are crucial for connecting communities and key attractions.

“By installing active travel transport corridors on these routes we can encourage people to use even more sustainable transport such as cycling.”

How much will the Dundee active freeways cost?

The Arbroath Road active motorway is projected to take between four and six years to complete and will cost around £20 million.

Meanwhile, the £10 million Pitkerro Road active motorway is deemed a ‘long-term’ project, which means it will not be completed for another seven to ten years.

This also applies to the active motorway on Perth Road. The Macalpine Road active motorway is anticipated to cost £16 million and take between four and six years to build.

Another long-term project is the Harefield Road Active Freeway, which is expected to cost £20 million.

The most expensive active motorway is the Lochee Road project, which is anticipated to cost £24 million and take four to six years to build.

All of these projects are expected to receive funding from the Transport Scotland Active Travel Transformation Fund.

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