YOUR VIEWS: Changes to Academy Street in Inverness
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Ahead of a council meeting on Monday to decide whether to progress planned changes to Academy Street or not readers have been sharing their views.
It’s been well reported over the years that whenever politicians want to cajole the public into doing something, there needs to a ‘carrot and stick’ approach.
The difficulty Highland Council face in convincing people of the part closure to cars is a good idea is that alternatives and incentives to use other transport options aren’t really there.
Buses are still unreliable for commuters and leisure passengers: every weekday Stagecoach publish a wide list of cancellations. Also, many settlements beyond Inverness have very infrequent services.
As for cycling options, road conditions are still not good enough to convince vast swathes of people that they are safe and easy to use. Cycle lanes are few and far between around the city and road surfaces can be very poor.
I am a cyclist and frequent bus user, but both options frankly really are a poor second choice compared to using the car at present.
What is needed is wide ranging investment for cycling and better regulation of buses, not just a redesign of Academy Street.
James Rorison
Skye Court
Inverness
Would it be altogether too simplistic to suggest that Academy Street be made one way northward?
Surely this would halve the traffic using the street, solving the problem of congestion and traffic congesting, not to say getting lost in, the Crown area.
As the hospital, the new treatment centre, the main supermarkets, the garden centres, the airport, main car parks etc are all in the north side of the city, the traffic from there have no urgent need to come down Academy Street.
Right turns into Queensgate and Union Street would exit right and out by the bottom of Church Street on a light-controlled junction.
The vacated left lane could be dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists with a pedestrian crossing halfway along the street allowing pedestrians and cyclists access to the shops etc on the other side.
Catriona Morrison
Strathaird
Fort Augustus
I see that Highland Council has pushed out a puff release on their pet project to remove most cars from Academy Street. This project is deeply flawed, and the council has strayed from following proper procedures. The idea to remove cars came out only days before a meeting that approved it be developed and had not previously formed any part of the “consultation” process. The council repeat past behaviour, telling us this is the only thing that can be done and, if it is rejected, nothing can be done, and that the council would suffer “reputational damage”. Arrant nonsense.
The council could listen to the 90 per cent of businesses and 5000 signatories to a petition who oppose this plan and they could develop sensible plans that improved Academy Street but continued to keep that important artery open for traffic. Tying off such an important artery, through which traffic flows, would have serious consequences for Inverness. It would limit the ability of residents to move where they want, damage businesses, and create huge shifts of traffic on to other routes, creating traffic chaos. The proposed narrowed carriageways would be less suited to bicycles than a wider lane width.
When on a wide lane, vehicles can flow past bikes and then bikes can roll to the front at traffic lights. With narrow lanes that just does not work.
It is hard to see that something which is intrinsically anti-car can be bad for bikes, but Highland Council manage to achieve that. I hope councillors will listen but, so far, the council administration is circling the wagons and denying all the problems this project would bring.
Donald M MacKenzie
Crown Drive
Inverness
I share the concern of the Eastgate Centre spokesman I heard suggesting that, if traffic were denied Academy Street, many travellers from the west would alternatively use the Southern Distributor Road (SDR)/West Link and probably stop off to shop at Inshes instead.
Apart from the Eastgate Centre’s trials, this also highlights Highland Council’s apparently persistent refusal to give straight answers to vital questions on Academy Street. Where would the displaced traffic go, and in particular what would the implications be for the Crown, the Longman and the SDR/West Link? Specific, quantified answers please.
And how big an increase in carbon footprint would result from the considerable detours imposed by effectively shutting Academy Street?
Answers here shouldn’t be too much trouble, given how accurately the council seemed to be able to measure pollution when they needed this to make a case for neutering this thoroughfare.
Then there’s the SDR/West Link – 4.6 miles, 13 roundabouts, 15 surface crossings with traffic lights, still expanding development and an ever-increasing frequency of tailbacks of between half a mile and a mile, especially at Inshes and Culduthel.
At one end, a chaotic roundabout that the council apparently intends to ignore until 2026; at the other a pair of swing bridges that the operators frequently appear incapable of making work simultaneously.
So how much more traffic does the council propose dumping on to the burgeoning traffic nightmare which is the SDR/West Link?
Highland Council’s longstanding traffic policy for Inverness seems simply to be to antagonise motorists so much that they will just go away, irrespective of the many, serious consequences for the city.
Charles Bannerman
“What is the point in giving your view as nobody is interested in what the public view is.” – Fiona Watson
"The Academy Street proposals are ‘bonkers’ to use an apt description of the now completely revised plans from Highland Council for a bus gate in Raigmore. Just because a plan is anti-car does not make it good for cyclists. The Academy Street plan would narrow the roadway to create insufficient space for bikes and vehicles to easily coexist. When cycling, I prefer a decent width of road, so vehicles can pass me while they are moving and I can pass them, to get back to the front, when they are stationary. That would not work with the narrow lanes proposed. Traffic banned from Academy Street would clog up (much longer) alternative routes through Crown or the Longman. Highland Council has made a mess of this and should reopen Academy Street fully or go back to the drawing board and develop something less damaging, something that would work.” – Donald Mackenzie, Inverness
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