The Details

Lochside has great potential for active travel for people of all ages both within the area and outside. However, at the moment, it can feel quite cut off from the rest of Dumfries by the A75 and A76. Planned regeneration will bring more houses and could create more traffic which would make cycling less attractive - but it also offers the opportunity to upgrade the roads and active travel routes within Lochside.

Routes within Lochside

Lochside already has many of the characteristics of a low traffic neighbourhood in that most of the side roads are dead ends or do not provide through routes for motor vehicles but do for people on foot or on bike, and this should be maintained. All of Lochside has a 20mph speed limit except for Hardthorn Road at its southern borders. Most of its roads are quiet and safe for cycling without any additional infrastructure, except for the four main through routes: Hardthorn Road, Lochside Road, Carrick Road and Alloway Road.

Lochside Road and Alloway Road

Lochside Road is the main road through Lochside and the least pleasant to cycle along. It has “speed cushions” (see photo) along most of its length and between those and the parked cars, creating conflict between bikes and motor vehicles. It is only really comfortable to ride on this road at times when there is not much traffic, and many cyclists who do use it, especially children, ride on the pavement which creates conflict with pedestrians. As more housing is built in the neighbourhood, increasing traffic will make Lochside road even more hostile.

There is a shared use cycle and pedestrian path along Lochside and Alloway Road, from the McDonald's to Hardthorn Road, but it is busy with pedestrians, especially during school run times and the school lunch break. There are wide grass verges along all of Lochside Road, so there is plenty of scope to create a segregated cycle and pedestrian path along its full length, which would reduce conflict with pedestrians and drivers alike. More crossings, including zebra crossings, would help make this road safer for children.

Hardthorn Road and Carrick Road

Hardthorn Road also has a shared-use path which runs from Carrick Road, and crosses the A75 on a bridge at road level, to reach the Maxwelltown Path entrance. There is also room here to create separate provision for cyclists and pedestrians, and to extend it west, to avoid the need to use Carrick Road as a cycle route.

Carrick Road has a narrow shared use path from Kindar Drive to Lochside Road (with paths on both sides of the road for some of its length) There are grass verges along this stretch of road so there would be scope for wider provision or segregated cycling and pedestrian paths as far as Kindar Drive. It's disappointing that even though this end of Carrick Road was built from scratch in very recent years, it only has narrow shared provision for bikes, to the detriment of pedestrians, and even a stretch with no footway at all, right next to the bus stop near Kindar Drive, despite there being plenty of space. This could easily be upgraded to a separate cycle track on the east side of Carrick Road as far as Kindar Drive.

However, the stretch of Carrick Road from Kindar Drive to Hardthorn Road does not have space for cycling provision as it stands. Rather than try and squeeze in sub-standard provision on that road it would make more sense to provide an alternative, well-signposted route making use of the quieter streets around Carrick Road. The most obvious option would be to extend the Hardthorn Road path as far as Kindar Drive and direct cyclists along that route.

Connections in and out of Lochside

Better connections to Lincluden would join the two communities. It also provides an alternative route to town (via College Road and the 'curly wurly' bridge) as well as a slightly shorter route to Heathhall for anyone willing to use the shared use path from Lincluden alongside the A75 (not for the faint hearted). There is also a cycle route that runs along the A76 corridor on the Lincluden side which would open up routes to the countryside to the north.

There are a number of crossings of the A76: a toucan crossing at the garage and crossing points without lights but with traffic islands at various points. Not all of these crossings line up with the paths within Lochside, which makes them less useful. The most important are those at the McDonald's roundabout, which form are the most direct connection to the foot and cycle bridge over the A75/A76 roundabout. Unfortunately these crossings are substandard - they take two cycles of the lights to cross, and have narrow caged islands in the middle which are inaccessible to adaptive bikes.

The foot and cycle bridge crossing the A75/A76 roundabout at Cuckoo Bridge is a well-used route from Lincluden to Dumfries, but it is less direct for residents of Lochside, and you can see even on Google Streetview that pedestrians are instead crossing the A75 at the roundabout on the Lochside Road side, which is very dangerous. In addition, the foot/cycle bridge is accessed via an alleyway which is not that welcoming after dark - it curves round between two fences, making it impossible to see anyone lurking round the corner.

The other crossing of the A75 is via Hardthorn Road, where the shared use cycle path extends as far as the Maxwelltown Railway path. This provides good access to the hospital to the west and the railway station to the east but the most direct route into town requires rejoining the Hardthorn Road and then onto Terregles Street. Both of these roads are quite hostile to bikes, being busy and with speed cushions making the route only really accessible to more experienced cyclists.

Cycle parking and storage

Only the YMCA and North West Campus provide any bike parking stands - there is no bike parking at the Scotmid shop or the social club, nor at McDonald's or the retail strip opposite it. Employees commuting by bike especially need secure parking, ideally covered and with CCTV coverage for security, but even for shoppers and visitors this helps to allay fears of bike theft. Putting in some secure cycle parking at bus stops might also encourage people to try multi-modal trips if they work further afield. Employers should also be encouraged to provide changing facilities for active commuters coming from further afield.

Every household should have access to secure, covered bike storage on the ground floor with enough space for multiple bikes (or buggies, mobility scooters or other valuable but awkward items). The flats at Dunlop Road have some 'breadbin' style cycle stores which are a good way of retrofitting storage to existing properties and converting a car parking space into space for multiple bikes. Charging points for e-bikes should also be considered.