This article in the Courier gives a vague idea of what is being planned for our town centres as shops reopen (sadly, we think 'preparing cycle paths' means preparing the existing cycle paths - not making temporary new ones ...)

We did have some input into plans for the council's Spaces for People bid but we have no idea whether any of our suggestions were taken up or not. For what it's worth, we suggested pavement widening, retiming of pedestrian lights so that people could cross in one go

We also suggested removing some of the barriers around pavements e.g. near schools and around English Street, selected road closures to reduce rat-running through streets where people live, and 'school street' closures (during school run time) when schools go back.

There are also some really easy places where more space could be made for walking and cycling - we have suggested these to @dgcouncil a number of times, so let's hope we see some of them implemented:

All of these streets (Academy St, Queen St, English St, Assembly St) are already no parking/restricted, so it would be no loss of parking to cone off wider footways to allow more space for pedestrians. We hope this is already on @dgcouncil's radar.

As we found on our survey, the Whitesands is getting very busy and is a major cycle route through town. There's room to cone off an extra cycle lane here (now, before the cars come back) so that pedestrians can have more space along the river

Do we really need three lanes here on Shakespeare St? Why not cone off a lane to allow space for people coming from Brooms Road car park to the High Street without squeezing through Globe Inn close?

Bank Street is another key route from the Whitesands into the town centre. It's actually wide enough to move the parking out and cone out a lane for pedestrians to move more easily (making the top end two way for cycling would also be great)

Finally, and this is really easy to do, why not move these bins. Just rotating round the one by Marmaris would provide more space for everyone, while moving the one by the KM bridge further down would allow people to cycle or walk past the bridge and avoid a narrow pinch point

If these (or other ideas to make Dumfries more pleasant for walking, cycling and wheelchairs) appeal to you then PLEASE write to your councillors about it. They need to know that there is support for these kinds of measures. Shy weans get no sweeties!