Introduction

Context

Cycling by Design provides guidance for cycling infrastructure design on all roads, streets and paths in Scotland. It aims to ensure that cycling is a practical and attractive choice for the everyday and occasional journeys of all people, particularly new, returning or less confident users.

Encouraging people to travel more actively and sustainably is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s National Transport Strategy (NTS2) vision and priorities and will contribute to the equality, health and carbon reduction targets that the strategy supports. High-quality cycling infrastructure can attract a wider range of people to take up cycling to meet these wider policy aims.

The guidance has been developed to respond to a key recommendation by the Active Travel Taskforce. The taskforce reported its findings in 2018 and sought to “improve delivery of the ambitious and inclusive walking and cycling projects in Scotland that will help to create high-quality places and communities that support health and wellbeing”. Cycling by Design supports this objective and the key infrastructure recommendations made by the taskforce.

The guidance supports the integration of cycling with people walking and wheeling in a holistic and attractive environment that serves the needs of all users, so that designs can facilitate the implementation of the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Travel Hierarchy, which prioritises travel in the following order, as shown in Figure 1.1.

  1. Walking and wheeling
  2. Cycling
  3. Public transport
  4. Taxis and shared transport
  5. Private car

The guidance provides designers with the information they need to make good design decisions and to prepare solutions which are appropriate in the overall context of each specific situation.

Feedback will be critical to the evolution and success of the document. It will remain under continual review and will be updated to reflect emerging best practice and comments from designers across Scotland.

Figure 1.1: Sustainable Travel Hierarchy (National Transport Strategy 2), as described in previous texttext
Figure 1.1: Sustainable Travel Hierarchy (National Transport Strategy 2)

Relationship with policy and strategy

Appropriate application of the guidance will allow designers to contribute towards national and local policy objectives to reduce emissions, tackle congestion, increase tourism and improve physical and mental health. It directly supports the Vision, Priorities and Outcomes of the NTS2 as detailed below.

NTS2 Vision

We will have a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, business and visitors. 

Role of Cycling by Design: To guide the delivery of high-quality infrastructure to help meet this vision.

NTS2 Priority: Reduce Inequality

  • Will provide fair access to services we need
  • Will be easy to use for all
  • Will be affordable for all

Role of Cycling by Design: Ensure cycling infrastructure is designed to attract all potential cycle users, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or disability, and is fully integrated with other modes.

NTS2 Priority: Take Climate Action

  • Will help deliver net-zero target
  • Will adapt to the effects of climate change
  • Will promote greener, cleaner choices

Role of Cycling by Design: Promote consistent and cohesive cycling infrastructure that encourages users to choose more sustainable ways of travelling. Allow opportunities for planting, sustainable drainage and other forms of blue-green infrastructure to enhance cycling facilities.

NTS2 Priority: Help Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth

  • Will get people and goods where they need to get to
  • Will be reliable, efficient and high quality
  • Will use beneficial innovation

Role of Cycling by Design: Guide designers on providing high-quality infrastructure that reduces cycle user journey times and provides space for sustainable modes of transport.

NTS2 Priority: Improve our Health and Wellbeing

  • Will be safe and secure for all
  • Will enable us to make healthy travel choices
  • Will help make our communities great places to live

Role of Cycling by Design: Put the safety of all users at the forefront of design, regardless of their ability or experience. Contribute to healthy travel choices by ensuring the delivery of high-quality cycling infrastructure. Provide guidance on integrating cycling infrastructure with placemaking opportunities.

Appropriate application of the guidance will also contribute positively to the development and application of the following key policies, strategies and initiatives:

  • National Planning Policy – by establishing national guidance on how to plan cycle networks, implement attractive cycling infrastructure, and support the enhanced integration of land use planning and sustainable transport planning as presented in National Planning Framework (NPF4).
  • Active Travel Framework outcomes – by improving the quality, safety and accessibility of cycling infrastructure and contributing to more people choosing to cycle.
  • Active Travel Taskforce recommendations – by providing best practice design guidance that will allow a more cohesive cycle network to be developed.
  • Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) – by ensuring that the national strategic delivery priorities that relate to active travel continue to be delivered in a consistent and high quality manner across the country.
  • Cycling Framework for Active Travel – by supporting the design aspects of the ambitious plan for cycling in Scotland over a ten-year period, and building on previous Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS).
  • National Cycle Network (NCN) – by creating enhanced design requirements to improve the quality and attractiveness of the existing network.
  • National Walking and Cycling Network (NWCN) – by improving the quality of paths designed for cycling as part of the growing network.
  • Developing with Nature Guidance – this guidance seeks to secure positive effects for biodiversity from local development, and as part of cycling and walking networks, to support NPF4 policy 3(c).
  • Local and Regional Active Travel Strategies and Action Plans – by ensuring the design requirements for future networks are well-defined. See also Active Travel Strategy Guidance.
  • The Highway Code – by providing consistent guidance on infrastructure that will afford greater priority to those walking, wheeling and cycling, that aligns to the recent changes to The Highway Code.
  • National Walking Strategy – by ensuring that the built environment is developed in a way that also allows for high-quality walking and cycling facilities.
  • Active Travel People and Place Programme – by supporting a place-based delivery model for active travel behaviour change initiatives.

Relationship with other guidance

Cycling by Design is the primary reference for the design of cycling infrastructure in Scotland. It has been developed to be used in association with the following policy and design guidance documents. Designers should refer to these documents to enable a full understanding of the requirements for the design of streets, roads and places, so that the infrastructure serves the needs of all users.

  • Designing Streets – This provides Scottish Government policy and guidance on holistic street design. It should be used to supplement Cycling by Design when integrating cycling facilities into wider street design.
  • National Roads Development Guide – This provides guidance on the application of Designing Streets to different local road contexts. It should be used to supplement Cycling by Design when integrating cycling facilities into wider street design.
  • Roads for All: Good Practice Guide for Roads – This provides Transport Scotland’s requirements for the inclusive design of road infrastructure. It should be used to improve designers’ understanding of these requirements alongside Cycling by Design.
  • Walk Wheel Cycle Trust Traffic-Free and Greenways Design Guide – This provides guidance on the design of traffic-free cycle routes (remote cycle tracks). It can be used to supplement Cycling by Design when designing remote cycle tracks.
  • Walk Wheel Cycle Trust – EQIA Tool Template – This provides a recommended template and associated guidance for conducting Equality Impact Assessments on projects designed to support walking, wheeling and cycling and has been tailored to the delivery of infrastructure, including projects with a high level of community engagement.
  • Local Authority design guidance (where available) – This provides local requirements for street design. It should be used alongside Cycling by Design where available. Unless stated by the local roads or planning authority, Cycling by Design requirements should be used as the primary reference for cycling facilities.
  • Green Infrastructure Design and Placemaking – This provides guidance on incorporating green (and blue) infrastructure into the design of streets and places. It should be used to identify opportunities for integrating blue-green infrastructure into cycle route design.
  • Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) – This provides design standards for trunk roads. It should be used to identify additional geometric standards when designing cycling infrastructure alongside the trunk road network.
  • Traffic Signs Manual – This provides guidance on the use of traffic signs, road markings and traffic control devices. It is the primary reference for the application of traffic signs and the requirements of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (TSRGD).
  • Inclusive Mobility: A Guide to Best Practice on Access to Pedestrian and Transport Infrastructure and Guidance on the Use of Tactile Paving Surfaces – These provide guidance on accessibility requirements and the application of tactile paving surfaces to support these requirements. These documents should be used as the primary reference for the application of tactile paving surfaces.
  • Guidance on Inclusive Design for Town Centres and Busy Streets – This non-statutory national guidance has been developed to support the design of town centres and busy streets that are inclusive for all.

Application of the guidance

Cycling by Design is intended to enable experienced designers to integrate cycling into a holistic and attractive built environment, and should be applied on all schemes delivering:

  • Cycling infrastructure
  • New and improved roads
  • New developments
  • Any other built environment feature where cycling should be considered

The aspiration is to achieve a high level of service for all cycle users across Scotland. Designers are expected to meet or exceed the design requirements set out in Cycling by Design in order to meet this aspiration.

Design requirements presented throughout this document are referenced by numbered clauses and highlighted to denote their status. These are presented in the format of the example below:

Clause Number Description
0.0.0 This element of the design should achieve the requirements set out in this numbered clause.

Where design requirements are defined as ‘Desirable Minimum’, this should be considered as the minimum requirement to provide a high-quality facility in accordance with the recommendations of this document.

Reductions below this level may only be applied where specific constraints or circumstances are identified, such that the desirable minimum requirement cannot be reasonably achieved. In such cases limited reductions are permissible, but the highest achievable standard should be provided.

‘Absolute Minimum’, where defined, represents the scope of permissible reduction to the requirement.

Where elements of the design are subject to statutory obligations these must be adhered to.

The Design Review process outlined in Chapter 2 enables designers and Overseeing Organisations to ensure that the cycling infrastructure being provided satisfies the objectives of the scheme and provides a high level of service for all users. Indicators of levels of service are described in Chapter 2. The process ensures that where reductions below the desirable minimum requirement are deemed justifiable, the reasons are identified and recorded, and appropriate mitigation considered.

The design of cycle facilities should be undertaken holistically to ensure that cycle infrastructure is integrated with facilities for non-cycle users. The process should include disabled people, to ensure that the movement of people walking and wheeling is a primary consideration, and reflect the risk posed by motorised traffic.

Holistic design will enable the correct balance of ‘place’ and ‘movement’ functions, which is aligned to Designing Streets policy guidance and expanded further in Chapter 3. It will ensure that communities and facilities are provided with the infrastructure they require to operate and thrive.

Key messages for designers

The following 12 key messages summarise how designers should approach the application of Cycling by Design’s requirements in this new context:

  1. We must plan and design for mass cycling by all kinds of people on different types of bike. Cycling infrastructure should no longer be something that we provide on the road network to only be used by the same people who are currently cycling. Instead it needs to be something that can be used by everyone.
  2. Cycle users must be protected from motor traffic by physical separation or by significantly reducing the volume and speed of motor traffic on local neighbourhood streets. Additional space for protected facilities should be taken from the road carriageway and not from
    the footway.
  3. Cycling infrastructure must be accessible by anyone who wants to use it, regardless of age, ability or experience. This means that gates or other access barriers which restrict the movement of many people, including disabled people, should not be included in design. Meaningful consultation is essential.
  4. Cycle routes must form part of fully connected networks and be of a consistent quality throughout. We would not design a road network that ‘abandoned’ drivers or required them to get out and push their vehicle between routes. Cycling must be no different.
  5. Cycles must be treated as vehicles. People cycling travel at different speeds from those walking and wheeling. In most circumstances these two user categories should be separated from each other.
  6. Cycling takes physical effort. By minimising the number of times that cycle users have to stop, slow down and regain momentum, designers can provide more attractive facilities that encourage increased uptake of cycling.
  7. Cycling infrastructure should be intuitive for all who use it or interact with it. It should be clear which space is allocated to different users, including pedestrians and motor vehicles, and how interactions are managed.
  8. Cycling infrastructure should contribute positively to a sense of place. Along with other aspects of street design, it should attract people to use the infrastructure and spend time in the places that it is part of.
  9. Design with maintenance in mind. Well-designed and constructed cycling infrastructure can be easily undermined if it becomes too difficult to maintain. This must be planned for at the earliest stage.
  10. Creating safe cycling infrastructure can often be done quickly and economically by removing through-traffic from networks of local streets and safely connecting these networks. Trialling these and other measures on a temporary basis can help to test, monitor and improve the infrastructure and to gain public support.
  11. Designers should cycle and experience each route they design to fully appreciate how the users of their infrastructure experience the network. Developing a practical understanding of how all users are affected by the infrastructure being provided through site visits and engagement is essential to providing facilities that everyone can use.
  12. For these reasons, designers are required to maximise Level of Service. Where compromises are absolutely necessary to enable completion of a full cycle network, due consideration of the impacts must be justified and recorded by the Design Review process set out in this document.

Definition of terms

For the purpose of this document, the following definitions are used:

Cycle (and cycle vehicle)

Any form of pedal-powered vehicle, including those that also include an electric-assist function, and all modes legally permitted to use facilities designated for cycles.

Cycle lane

A lane within the cross section of the road carriageway for use by cycle users and separated from motor traffic by road markings. A cycle lane may be either:

  • Advisory – Permissible for motor traffic to overrun the road markings where this cannot be avoided.
  • Mandatory – Not permissible for motor traffic to cross the road marking, other than the exceptions noted in TSRGD.

Cycle track

A track for cycle users that is separate from the road carriageway. A cycle track may be:

  • Cycle track at carriageway level – at the same level as motor traffic but separated by physical means.
  • Stepped cycle track – adjacent to the road carriageway and separated vertically from both the road carriageway and the footway.
  • Cycle track at footway level – adjacent to the road carriageway and separated vertically from the road carriageway. Pedestrians and cycle users may use the same space or may be separated from each other within it (where space is shared, this is commonly known as a shared footway).
  • Remote or detached cycle track (commonly known as a cycle path or shared path) – a route that is not adjacent to the road carriageway as set out in Chapter 3. Pedestrians and cycle users may use the same space or may be separated from each other within it.

Cycle traffic

Cycle vehicles moving along cycle lanes, cycle tracks or the road carriageway.

Cycle user

Any person using a cycle to travel.

Designer

Individual or party responsible for implementing the guidance for infrastructure design. May be roads authority officers, developers, consultants or others working on their behalf.

Motor traffic

Motorised vehicular traffic.

Overseeing Organisation

The roads authority responsible for overseeing the implementation of design and maintaining cycling infrastructure.

Pedestrian

Any person walking or wheeling.

Wheeling

Travelling by wheelchair.