Public exhibition events
The exhibitions were held in Aviemore Community Centre on Wednesday 5th June 2024 between 3pm and 8pm, and in Carrbridge Village Hall on Thursday 20th May 2024 between 2pm and 6pm.
Attendance
Attendance statistics were recorded at the in-person events using a counter.
The exhibitions were well attended, with a total of 48 attendees over the course of the two exhibition events. There were 14 attendees at Aviemore on Wednesday 5th June 2024 and 34 attendees at Carrbridge on Thursday 20th June 2024.
Photographs
Illustrative photographs showing the venue are available in the PDF version.
Exhibition Leaflet
A copy of the Aviemore to Carrbridge Non-Motorised User (NMU) Route Public Exhibition leaflet was made available to visitors to the exhibition. Members of the public were invited to take extra copies for members of the community if they wished to do so. A copy of the leaflet can be found in Appendix F.
Carrbridge NMU Campaign
At the Public Exhibition at Carrbridge Village Hall on the 20th June 2024, a local group identifying as the Carrbridge NMU Campaign erected their own signs and posters outside the venue in order to publicise the event further to local residents. The poster and text signposted the reader to the local shop where a petition was placed encouraging local residents to sign in favour of the scheme, with the purpose of the petition being to accelerate the timescale for delivery of the northern section of the route between Carrbridge and the Kinveachy Junction. The petition, with 188 signatures was sent to some Members of the Scottish Parliament as well as other key stakeholders involved in the project, refer to the feedback comments and responses in Appendix G for more information. The sign and petition extracts can be found in figures 5 to 7 below.
Figure 5 Carrbridge NMU Campaign Poster 20 June 2024
Available in the PDF version
Figure 6 - Carrbridge NMU Campaign Petition Received by Transport Scotland on 4 July 2024
We, the undersigned, fully support the construction of the long promised non-motorised walking/cycle path between Carrbridge and Aviemore.
We would also request that urgent priority is given to the B1953 section between Carrbridge and Kinveachy. This is a fast and extremely dangerous stretch of road with blind bends and an ever increasing amount of traffic. This road is also used as a diversionary route whenever the A9 is closed due to an accident or other incident.
We believe there is likely to be a further increase in traffic once the dualling gets underway and therefore request that the NMU is constructed as a high priority in advance of the start of the road works.
Thank you.
Figure 7 - Carrbridge NMU Campaign Petition Anecdotal Comments Received by Transport Scotland on 4th July 2024
Any discussion regarding a request for urgent priority to be given to the construction of an NMU alongside the increasingly busy B1953 gives rise to a number of unsolicited comments from both cyclists and motorists. A selection of these compiled by the Carrbridge NMU Campaign can be found below.
...”I am terrified both as a cyclist and a motorist. That road is so just so dangerous.”
...”I hate driving that road. You come round the bend and there is a lorry trying to overtake a cyclist. The lorry can't get round and then you see in the mirror other cars coming up behind. All you can do is put the hazard lights on and hope they'll not just run into the back of you.”
….”That road is a nightmare. You get no end of cyclists including tourists. Families with little children wobbling along. They've taken that route because it is marked up as a Route 7 Sustrans cycle route.”
...”Someone is going to get killed. There are blind bends and suddenly there is a bunch of cyclists right in front on you. You just have to jam on the brakes and hope no-one smashes in to the back of you.”
…”We desperately need an NMU. You literally take your life in your hands trying to cycle that road.”
...”It's ridiculous to have that road marked as a Sustrans route. It's the worst cycle route ever!”
...”How many lives are to be lost or cyclists injured before we get an NMU?”
...”Since the installing of 20mph limits the whole way through Carrbridge, traffic appears to be travelling at a far great speed as frustrated motorists accelerate to make up for lost time.”
...”My son uses a disability scooter. For him, to be able to get out of the village and through to Boat of Garten or as far as Aviemore would open up a whole new world.”
...“It's madness for anyone to walk or cycle that road.”
...”The other day, I got stuck behind a queue of traffic. A bus had got held up by a bunch of cyclists and because of the stream of oncoming traffic, just couldn't safely overtake. The traffic just crawled along for the whole of the three miles all the way from Carrbridge to the Kinveachy junction.”
..."Driving out from Carrbridge I've been run off the road onto the verge once by an oncoming car overtaking a cyclist and had to do an emergency stop another time to avoid being hit by an oncoming motorist overtaking a cyclist. I'm a cyclist too and am too afraid to cycle those three miles. It's just not safe."
...“As well as the safety aspect, consideration could be given to the economic impact to the village. If cyclists and walkers from other surrounding communities can get to Carrbridge easily and safely, then they will come and spend money to help support our village shop and cafe.”