Inverness gets Scotland's first 'bicycle mayor' backed by international not-for-profit organisation BYCS
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Scotland’s first ‘bicycle mayor’ has just taken office in Inverness.
Crown resident Emily Williams, CEO of the Velocity Café & Bicycle Workshop, joins a growing global network of similar bicycle advocates across five continents.
Enlisted by an Amsterdam-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) called BYCS, the Inverness mum is now on a mission to revolutionise our roads.
Having accepted the two-year voluntary, unpaid post, the 45-year-old sees her big task as being to mobilise a “silent majority” in Inverness who she believes favour calmer, more family-friendly streets.
Cycle mayors are already found in significant numbers in parts of Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Europe.
Seven have so far been appointed in English cities, with BYCS saying they provide “a human face and voice” for the grassroots cycling lobby.
Convinced that a majority of local people support safe cycling and fewer cars on the street, Mrs Williams wants to balance what she called “car-brained” opposition to proposals such as traffic reduction on Academy Street by encouraging supporters to speak out.
“I’ve become aware of just how powerful local democracy is, and how much you can achieve just by mobilising people to email their councillors,” Mrs Williams said.
“A lot of people stepped up and contacted councillors ahead of the vote on plans to transform Academy Street, and I think it had an impact.
“It is very difficult for councillors to vote for a scheme, even if they think it is the right thing, if all they get is an inbox saying ‘I hate this’.
“We want to show there is a majority who are for it. These people need to make themselves heard.”
With 20 years’ experience as a civil engineer, Mrs Williams, originally from the Aberystwyth area in rural mid-Wales, moved to Inverness in 2004.
She gave up her profession during the pandemic to focus on home schooling her son.
As a mum, she has encountered the challenges and perils of avoiding car use and using bicycles to get around the city.
She became active in helping with the Government’s bikeability scheme at Crown Primary, while also becoming involved in the local Kidical Mass movement that campaigns for safer streets.
Energised by the challenge of becoming the first bicycle mayor north of the border, Mrs Williams stressed: “Many people feel transforming our streets is a totally obvious and right thing to do against the backdrop of climate change.
“Walking down Academy Street in its current form, why would anybody want it to stay like that?
“Compare it to the pedestrianised High Street. Which one is the busier, with more people entering shops?
“There’s a massive body of published evidence showing that we need to act urgently and decisively to change things but, equally, that the changes will benefit businesses.
“There is always going to be a slightly car-brained opposition to it, that’s inevitable, and I guess my role is not really to change their minds.
“It is to encourage the people who support it to be more vocal.”
As a bicycle mayor for BYCS, Mrs Williams will be able to draw on the international organisation’s vast resources of publicity and informational support.
“It is very exciting – I only got the official go-ahead for it on Saturday. I’m still slightly reeling,” she admitted.
“BYCS is a social enterprise based in Amsterdam, but runs an international network of bicycle mayors.
“The experience is that there is a tipping point where, as bicycle mayors become more common, other parts of the country follow suit.
“That’s something I would really like to push with other people in other Scottish cities, through our Kidical Mass network.”
While supportive of the current Academy Street proposals to reduce but not eliminate traffic flow, she would like to see them go farther.
“If we really want to change the culture in Inverness, we have to have dedicated road space where people feel safe,” she said.
“I support a massive reduction in traffic. I actually think it is crazy people use Academy Street so much to get from one place to another.
“There are justified concerns about the displacement of traffic into other residential areas, but I would support mitigation measures to prevent rat-running, rather than the ditching of a really important scheme.
“I’ve already had talks with the council on where they think traffic is going to be most displaced to and what can be done.”
Other ideas she is keen to promote include giving Inverness residents more control over their own streets.
One is the ‘parklet’ idea, popular in the Lambeth Council area of London, allowing local residents to apply to convert a parking place into a green space.
The ‘playstreets’ idea allows neighbours to apply to close streets to traffic for a few hours at the weekend to allow children to play safely outside.
“It all has to go hand in hand with improving public transport. Not everybody wants to cycle everywhere and that’s fine,” Mrs Williams added.
“I just want equitable access to road space for all modes of transport.”
