The first recipients of Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund, a £2 million Scottish award promoting environmentally sound travel options, have been announced.
Nominees were selected from a pool of public, third and community sector innovators who had developed new means of improving awareness of and access to sustainable transport. 11 winners of the Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund received a combined total of £210,000, distributed as match funding grants between £5,000 and £50,000.
Projects which received a portion of the Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund included:
- Trossachs Rural eBike Demo (TRED) – a National Trust pilot scheme to promote the use of e-bikes in rural and deprived areas;
- Borders Buses Web App – an app showing bus locations in real time, designed to reduce uncertainty over whether a bus is en route and improve uptake of services among the over-60s;
- Deaf Safe – increasing availability of information and resources for deaf cyclists and raising awareness of the issues faced by deaf cyclists for other road users;
- Walk ON – a combined walking group and book club in Fife; and
- Green Passenger Transport in Rural Areas (G-PaTRA) – a campaign promoting the introduction of a new electric bus service in rural Morayshire, which had not previously had any public transport links.
The winners of the Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund were announced at the Transport Scotland Bus and Active Travel Summit in Edinburgh.
Presenting the awards, Michael Matheson MSP, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, said: “I’m proud that the funding from this government has supported a variety of organisations across Scotland. [The Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund] responds to requests from third sector and community organisations, alongside a wide range of public agencies, who want to contribute in making Scotland’s transport cleaner, healthier and more sustainable. Even in its first few months the fund is already creating new opportunities for people to walk and cycle for everyday short journeys and to choose sustainable options for longer journeys.”
