Let’s work together to…
Travel More Actively & Sustainably
What is active & sustainable travel?
Active Travel
Active travel is anything that only involves using your body’s own energy to get from A to B! Most commonly this is walking, scooting, wheeling or cycling. Travelling this way, even for short journeys, not only reduces your carbon footprint, it also improves your health and wellbeing, and can save you money too!
Sustainable Travel
Sustainable travel is choosing the lowest carbon emitting option when active travel isn’t possible. This simple hierarchy from Energy Saving Trust provides a visual to show modes of transport from the most sustainable option to the least sustainable. Click on the image to read more about each level on the Energy Saving Trust website.
We aim to increase uptake of active travel.
Our Future Kirrie Active Travel (AST) group meet regularly to keep each other up to date on various activities, events, collaborations and plans for all things active travel.
New volunteers are always welcome to come along; check our events page for details of upcoming meetings or email us.
If you are interested in our Restoring Nature, Reducing Waste or Growing Food groups you can find out more about those here too.
What impact does travel have on Scotland’s carbon emissions?
36% of Scotland’s GHG emissions in 2018 came from the transport sector, with 68% of this from road transport such as cars and vans. Unlike other sectors which have seen big reductions in emissions in recent years, transport emissions have only seen a small decrease since 1990, which is slowing down Scotland’s progress towards meeting net zero in 2045.
Did you know, each mile you walk rather than drive saves 276g of CO₂ emissions?
So, what can I do?
One of the easiest actions you can take is to spend some time thinking about the journeys you take and whether any of them could be replaced by more sustainable modes of transport. Even small changes add up, especially when lots of people are making these changes. Why not try some of these?
- Walk or cycle for short journeys e.g. to the shop, school, or to work. Find out about Sustainable Kirriemuir’s e-bike loans here.
- Work from home where you can.
- Park a street away from where you need to be and walk the rest.
- Reduce the amount of trips you need to take by allocating one day per week/month to do all of your errands together.
- Arrange to car share where it is safe to do so, following Covid-19 guidance.
- Make use of your local shops before taking a trip to Forfar or Dundee when buying groceries. You can visit our Local Food Directory (coming soon!) to see what’s available in Kirrie and the surrounding area. I bet there’s more than you think!
- Fancy getting social on your bike? Ladies Leisurely Cyclists is an all-women group for all abilities. The focus is on socialising and having fun! Contact them by joining their Facebook group.
The good news is that travelling actively actually makes us feel better, and building cycling or walking into your day-to-day life means that you don’t need to find additional time to keep fit; it’s a win, win!
There are lots of places around Kirrie that you can park your bike, with more being added all the time. Have a look through our gallery below to see where there are bike racks in Kirrie. Have we missed any? Please let us know and we’ll add them in!
Bikeability in Schools
At Team SK we LOVE cycling! It’s quicker than walking and it’s great for your physical and mental health! Rumour has it, kids who travel actively to school concentrate better in class too; win-win!
In the Kirrie Cluster schools, Bikeability is organised in partnership between John Bremner, Bikeability Coordinator for Angus, and Magnus Moncrieff, Active Schools Coordinator Kirriemuir Cluster.
During the last academic year, a total of 90 children completed their Level 1 training, 123 children completed their Level 2 training, and 6 pupils from S1 also completed their Level 3! Well done kids!!
The training is delivered by qualified instructors who achieved their Bikeability Scotland Instructor qualification through courses organised by John Bremner.
Plans are in place for Bikeability in schools again in 2023-24. Would you like to support John and Magnus to deliver Bikeability training next year? You can contact either Magnus at moncrieffm@angus.gov.uk or John at john.bremner@cyclehub.org to find out more – they’d love to hear from you!
You can find out more about Bikeability on the Cycling Scotland website.
Partnership Working
We know that feeling confident and safe whilst cycling on a road is incredibly important to making sure more people feel able to travel actively. We are collaborating with a number of partners to make this happen. You can read about our recent award from Cycling Scotland for being a Cycle Friendly Community here. Find our more about what our partners are also doing to ‘drive’ change by clicking on their logos to visit their websites.
Get in Touch
Together we can make good choices and live better, join Sustainable Kirriemuir!
If you would like to know more about what we are doing please get in touch. We are always looking for new members to join our organisation. If you have particular knowledge around climate change issues, or growing, making and mending skills you’d like to share, or just want to know more, we want to hear from you. Everyone is welcome, together we can make a difference.