A BID to slow down M8 traffic to 30 mph as it passes through Glasgow city centre will go in front of the council next week.
Greens councillor Christy Mearns wants the council to ask the Scottish Transport Minister for a six-month trial to cut the speed on city centre sections of the motorway.
As part of a motion to be lodged at a full council meeting, Mearns also hopes to request a “review of powers to extend the low emission zone (LEZ) to motorway roads” and for Transport Scotland to be involved in and help fund research into reducing the impact of the M8.
The motion also asks for a report on existing air quality monitoring along the motorway to be presented to a committee within six months.
SNP Councillor Angus Millar, convener for climate, Glasgow Green Deal, transport and city centre recovery plans to lodge an amendment to the motion calling for the city centre stretch of the M8 to be re-engineered or downgraded in the long term and replaced with an avenue or boulevard style road.
He has written to the Scottish Government asking for Holyrood to work with the council to scope out short, medium and long-term actions to reduce the impact of the M8 on the city centre and surrounding communities including looking at speed.
Calling for action, Councillor Mearns said: “The M8 motorway has of course brought benefits since its introduction in the 1960s, however it has also entrenched car-use in and around Glasgow, caused physical harm to the communities in its path, and undermined vital targets to reduce vehicle journeys and emissions, as well as air pollution and poor health.
“Alongside better, more coordinated, and affordable, public transport, it is essential that a future and alternative vision for the M8 is developed, not least given the eye-watering public cost of maintaining it as it is.”
Mearns added: “To do this, we need Transport Scotland to agree to a joint piece of work with Glasgow City Council; and we would like immediate actions to be explored which could lower air and noise pollution in the short-term. Other cities have seen transformations from incrementally downgrading or replacing their motorways and we should be urgently exploring it too.”
Councillor Millar said: “The M8 has had a deeply damaging impact on the communities it tore through, and to this day remains a deep scar in the centre of the city. As we begin to think about the long-term future of sustainable transport in Glasgow, it’s time to consider whether a city centre motorway, very much a transport solution of the 1960s, is the right solution for the 2030s and beyond.
“Following the recent passage of our city centre transport plan, council policy is clear that we will engage with the Scottish Government to seek action on addressing the legacy and ongoing impact of the M8 on the city centre. As the council’s transport convener, I have raised this issue with the Scottish Government directly in person, and most recently in detailed correspondence to start a formal conversation between the council, government and wider civic society.
“We need to explore immediate-term actions to reduce the impact of the M8, and secure Scottish Government support for longer-term work to explore feasibility for a potential transformation of the city centre stretch of the motorway. Other cities have replaced highways with lower-speed roads with greatly improved crossings for walking, wheeling and cycling, and have created vastly better and more joined up cities in the process – it’s time for Glasgow to start thinking big too.
“I look forward to the opportunity next week to discuss the work we have been taking forward, and to secure cross-party support for the council’s ongoing engagement with the Scottish Government on this issue.”
