'The only jam we encountered all day was in a sandwich'

DID you get stuck in that traffic jam on the Kessock Bridge late last Friday afternoon?

Even if you weren’t, chances are you’ll have experienced one at some point in the A9 link’s 30-year history.

Indeed, some Ross-shire folk heading in to Inverness at peak times, or in the wake of accidents, have been left feeling like their journey has taken 30 years!

Anyway, there I was heading for a pretty important appointment with bags of time to spare, so I thought.

The snarl-up was caused by a simple two-vehicle shunt on the Inverness-side of the bridge, and suffice to say it caused chaos for those trying to get from A to B within a fixed timescale.

It can be therapeutic to try to find a silver lining in life’s minor inconveniences on occasions such as these.

Given tragedies happening elsewhere on the roads at exactly the same time, the obvious one was that no one had been hurt and presumably everyone got to where they were going eventually.

On a personal note, I was able to test my car’s BlueMotion technology. The gist of it is a drive towards greater fuel efficiency — and given the price of diesel, I’ll happily sign up to that.

Whether it works or not I have no idea. All I know is that the engine cuts out when I take my foot off the gas and restarts when I touch the clutch again.

I sit there smugly thinking of all the money I’m saving. The next visit to the filling station wipes the smile off my face sharpish.

Of course, there is another way. A survey done ahead of the launch this week of Transition Black Isle’s ambitious Million Miles project found that almost all households who responded own at least one car, covering 13,600 miles per year on average.

Most had used public transport during the previous week (58 per cent), with half travelling by bus and just over a quarter by train (no traffic jams on those!).

Almost all households took at least one journey by “active travel” in the previous week — 86 per cent walked and 41 per cent cycled.

Most people showed an interest in reducing their car mileage – the majority to save money and also because of concern over climate change.

The two most frequent suggestions to make travel more sustainable were improvements to bus services and cycle paths.

In the interests of research I tried to make the same Kessock Bridge crossing by bike, with two small children in tow just to keep it interesting.

Granted, it was also a cheap day out at a time when there was way too much time left ahead of payday.

There’s an H G Wells quote I like to trot out when banging on about transport: “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.”

You’ll notice he specifies “adult” there. Now it may be I could have chosen a better route, but our north-bound approach towards the bridge along a path next to the A9 was pretty grim. Intimidating is the word that comes to mind.

The relentless rush of vehicular traffic coming from behind was strangely draining. You can be left feeling pretty isolated too — until the occasional heartening meeting with someone else on two wheels.

For the sake of the nerves I would not recommend crossing a dual carriageway with children in tow either, unless there’s a helpful policeman or traffic warden calling the shots.

That said, following the little blue cycle route signs marking the way turned into something of an adventure for us as we made our way across the bridge on the dedicated path before heading down a steep, blessedly deserted road into North Kessock.

A well-earned picnic next to the lifeboat station was a delight.

The Million Miles project will have its challenges to break our love affair with the car. That said, the only jam we encountered all day was on one of those picnic sandwiches.

Hector Mackenzie's on Twitter @catsback

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