Spaces for People - Programme

Overview

Spaces for People is making temporary travel infrastructure changes across our City Centre, Neighbourhood Space and Active Travel Routes. 

City Centre

A street-by-street approach has been adopted, with temporary measures introduced to allow priority to be given to pedestrian space around our transport centres, core shopping streets and any identified pedestrian pinch points.

Work completed to date includes footway widening around Glasgow Central Station High and Low Level entrances to provide additional queuing space, as well as footway widening and road closures in and around George Square, including North Hanover Street at Queen St station. A bus/cycle/taxi gate has also been added to George Square (south) and South Frederick St (north), and a bus/cycle/taxi lane on Cochrane Street to speed up journeys and support sustainable transport.

Footway widening around core streets within the city centre was also implemented last year at locations including Hope Street, Union Street and Bath Street as well as Renfield Street and West George Street. Extra space has also been created on Montrose Street to support students.  Following a period of monitoring and review however, the barriers which were initially deployed to extend footways out into the road are in the process of being removed at the majority of locations apart from around George Square and the train stations. As part of an ongoing review, consideration will be given instead to the construction of temporary, level surface footways and/or the installation of more attractive infrastructure designed to ease pedestrian movement. Full details about these revisions was published in January 2021 and further updates will follow as soon as possible.

Current initiatives to ease pedestrian movement in the city centre include the installation of two temporary bus boarders - one on Glassford Street outside Marks and Spencer, and the second at Trongate next to Tesco Express. This infrastructure extends the footway out into the road, ensuring continued accessibility onto public transport whilst providing extra space for pedestrians at noted pinch points. Additional temporary bus boarders are also planned for other locations within the city centre and should be complete by the end of February 2021.

We have also implemented traffic light automation in the city centre which removes the need to touch the button to prompt the green man to display.  The automated lights will also where appropriate, be set to either minimise pedestrian waiting time or increase the duration the green man is displayed; with both adjustments made where possible.

Full details of temporary city centre projects deliveredalready in place, and ongoing can be found here.

Neighbourhood Space

This workstream enables the temporary re-allocation of road space for physical distancing outside shops, and primarily involves the removal of kerbside parking. We have also acted to widen footways where pinch points have been identified at Shawlands Primary School and Lourdes Primary School.

The first phase of work at the height of lockdown restrictions, was focused on providing additional space for walking and wheeling in neighbourhood shopping streets, with priority given to areas requiring additional support further to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation; as well as those spaces where issues with queuing have been observed.

We initially widened footways at Easterhouse, Cardonald, Tollcross, Parkhead, Cessnock, Shawlands, Bridgeton, Partick (Dumbarton Rd), Finnieston and Byres Road.

Whilst some of the footway widening measures have since been removed following a period of monitoring and review, the infrastructure can be readily reinstated should the need arise.  This flexible approach also applies to other areas such as Berryknowes, Cathcart, Croftfoot, Gorbals, Govan, Duke Street, Possilpark, Shettleston and Springburn - with detailed plans already drawn up for these areas which can be mobilised quickly if required.

Projects implemented to date:

Cardonald (Paisley Road West)		Easterhouse (Westerhouse Rd, Bogbain Rd & Shandwick Street)
Parkhead (Tollcross Rd and Westmuir St)		Tollcross (Tollcross Rd)
Partick (Dumbarton Rd)		Shawlands (Deanston Dr)
Cessnock (Paisley Road West)		Bridgeton (Main St)
Finnieston (Argyle St)		Hillhead (Byres Rd)

Potential Future Projects:

Berryknowes (Paisley Road West between Bucklaw Pl & Lamermoor Ave)

Cathcart (Cathcart Road)

Croftfoot (Carmunnock Rd, Drakemire Dr and Carmunnock Rd)

Gorbals (Crown Street)

Govan (Govan Road, Langlands Road and Burleigh Street)

Duke Street

Possilpark

Shettleston

Springburn

Schemes that discourage 'through traffic' within areas we know are routinely used as rat-runs, are also in development with the first low traffic neighbourhood currently in progress at Dennistoun. These projects aim to make neighbourhood streets calmer and more people-friendly, and so encourage connected walking, wheeling and cycling.

We have also reconfigured the road layout on Kelvin Way to balance the provision of extra neighbourhood space for walkers, wheelers and cyclists whilst enabling vehicular access into the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - see Sustrans' video of how locals are enjoying the new space.

Full details of temporary Neighbourhood Space projects already delivered, and ongoing can be found here.

Active Travel Routes

This workstream seeks to provide additional active travel routes to encourage cycling for everyday journeys, and ultimately aims to deliver 36km of new (soft) segregated cycle lanes across the city.

So far we have created temporary pop-up cycle lanes at Broomielaw, Dumbreck Road, London Road (Phase 1 and Phase 2), Great Western Road (Duntreath Avenue to Lincoln Avenue), Gorbals Street, Cumbernauld Road, Provanmill Road. Bilsland Drive, Hawthorn Street and Kelvin Way.

We have also added soft segregation to existing cycle lanes on Corkerhill Road.

When determining which schemes to take forward, a variety of factors are considered including, population density, areas requiring additional support further to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), road safety, access to local facilities, impact on public transport corridors and connectivity into the wider cycle network.

Full details of temporary Active Travel Routes already in place and ongoing can be found here.

Other initiatives proposed include cycle parking at 50 new locations, such as in George Square and an expansion of Glasgow's popular cycle hire scheme operated by nextbike.

To further encourage the uptake of active travel, the first 30 minutes of standard nextbike cycle hire is currently at no cost to the hirer. Available until March 2021, this free hire offer is funded by Transport Scotland through the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme. More details can be found here.

School Car Free Zones

Following a sucessful trial in 2019 that saw significant reductions in traffic around the six primary schools involved, Spaces for People funding has enabled the council to introduce on a temporary basis, a further 20 School Car Free Zones. The zones are designed to prohibit cars and other vehicles from driving up to school gates between 8.30am and 9.15am and then 2.30pm and 3.15pm each weekday, during term time.

Visuals of Measures in Place

Where possible, delineation of road space converted to walking and cycling space will be done as unobtrusively as possible using signing and lining, however in most cases physical barriers will be required.

Example of Measures now in George Square and on Montrose St:

Example of a Pop-Up Cycle Lane on Cumbernauld Rd:

Example of Footway Widening in Easterhouse:

Use of Shared Space on Kelvin Way:

Visualisations

•  View illustrative images of Spaces for People temporary measures [885kb]

Visualisations by Stantec