PTP Funding Boost for Glasgow City Council

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Scottish Councils have recently received a funding boost from the Scottish Government to invest in projects that support the introduction of Low Emission Zones (LEZs) – a key initiative introduced to protect public health by reducing levels of air pollution from road traffic.

A total of £4.5 million was provided through the Public Transport Provision (PTP) Fund in 2019/20 to local authorities and regional transport partnerships, in order to establish Low Emission Zone related projects in their areas.

In Glasgow, a grant of £1.15m was greenlit for acceptance by Glasgow City Council in January 2020 to fund various projects and initiatives including those linked to sustainable transport and reducing congestion.

One of the projects that has benefitted from the PTP fund is Co-Wheels Car Club, a pay-as-you-go car hire scheme that boasts over 2,000 members. Co-Wheels offers a large range of vehicle types that can be found across the city in reserved on-street parking locations. The vehicles are available 24/7 and can be rented for as little as one hour. This funding has enabled Co-Wheels to replace eight of their vehicles with zero-emission alternatives, ensuring that all cars located within the Glasgow LEZ are fully electric.

As well as creating more opportunities for the public to access zero emission vehicles across Glasgow, the fund has also been used to install dual sided electric vehicle charging equipment across the city centre. These additional charge points mean that the public have greater access to charging points via parking bays that are adjacent to ones reserved for Co-Wheel vehicles. The locations of these are:

  1. North Frederick Street
  2. Rose Street
  3. Blythswood Square
  4. Bothwell Street
  5. Bell Street
  6. Wilson Street
  7. Ingram Street
  8. Cochrane Street
  9. West Campbell Street
  10. Holland Street

Other projects that have benefitted from the PTP funding include the Nextbike Cycle hire scheme, which will now have an additional six locations across the city. These new locations aim to improve the availability of cycle hire options for users across the city by reducing the amount of distance between each drop-off point.

Funding has also been used to improve traffic signal infrastructure at Hurlet Cross and Bearsden Road. These junctions were upgraded to allow the systems to run MOVA control, an adaptive traffic control system which reduces congestion and, as a result, pollution. Work started in January 2020 and included the total refurbishment of the junctions including poles, lanterns and controllers, and was completed by the end of March.