Plans to install traffic lights at the picturesque “Atlantic Bridge” have sparked outrage from locals

Traffic lights are to be installed near the picturesque Clachan Bridge on Scotland's wild Argyll coast, despite fears the intervention will represent a “desecration” of a nationally important heritage site, The Guardian reports.

Known since the early 19th century as the 'Bridge across the Atlantic', the 233-year-old passage connecting Seil Island to the mainland attracts visitors eager to brag about a 'transoceanic journey'. However, there are fears that green-light drivers will soon adopt aggressive behavior towards pedestrians at this highly photographed landmark.

“We haven't been contacted by the council at all,” Sarah Nicholson, a local whose family has lived here for four generations, told The Guardian. “I found out about the plan only when the workers started breaking the road,” she said.

The next set of traffic lights south is approximately 56 kilometers away in Lochgilphead, the seat of Argyll and Bute County Council.

Cars and pedestrians currently share the bridge

Located about 21 kilometers south-west of Oban and built in 1792, Clachan Bridge is a signposted tourist attraction, with visitors often disembarking from cars and buses to walk across the narrow tidal channel that opens out into the North Atlantic. The pavement on the arched bridge is reduced to almost nothing, forcing pedestrians to share the narrow road with motorists, who now cross cautiously.

The council claims it needs to install traffic lights next to the bridge for “road safety” reasons and points out that it is barely wide enough to handle modern SUVs. However, The Guardian notes that it was only able to identify three collisions on the bridge in the 25-year period between 1999 and 2024, each described as having a “minor” severity.

Police Scotland said it “supports the initiative to reduce the risk of road accidents in this area”, but admits it “has not provided any advice on cyclists, horses, pedestrians or tourists using the bridge”.

The project to install the traffic lights is harshly criticized by the locals

Residents and a local councilor say the project was implemented without consultation, without evidence and without the involvement of heritage institutions. They point out that the bridge is part of a historic landscape and that the intervention risks affecting its scenic setting and visitor experience.

Local councilor Julie McKenzie, a seventh-generation local, organized a petition against the project, which quickly gathered 1,500 signatures, three times the area's population.

“If Clachan Bridge was a hotbed of accidents, nobody in this community would be opposed to a traffic calming measure,” she told The Guardian. McKenzie also raises heritage objections. She also accuses the authorities of failing to consult Historic Environment Scotland before starting work on either side of the bridge.

In response, a spokesman for the authority said: “It is for the planning authority to decide what approvals are required for a particular proposal.”

“The pedestrian is at the top of the road hierarchy”

Local resident Nicholson also says that the installation of traffic lights would harm tourism, as drivers would think they have priority guaranteed by the signal, which would make crossing the bridge on foot more dangerous.

Grant Baxter from Fife, who has worked for 30 years as a chartered town planner in Scottish local government, believes these fears are well founded.

“Someone in a car, a bus or a truck will think: 'I have a green light, no one is stopping me,'” he says.

Baxter added that the Scottish Government's official policy had long been to give priority to pedestrians.

“The pedestrian is at the top of the road hierarchy, and the car at the base. The installation of traffic lights is a typical intervention of the 1980s, which does not work at all in this context,” he points out.

In response to a request for comment, a council spokesman for Argyll and Bute said: “We are currently developing a traffic light design to support all users of the bridge.”