Car sharing coming to Scotland

Hiya

This week's Oban Times carried a small article entitled "Residents urged to car share" (OT, 30 Oct 08, p. 23):
I can only applaud this. Car sharing makes eminent sense by helping to reduce traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and expenses on fuel.
According to the article, the scheme launched by HITRANS, http://www.IfYouCareShare.com, "is free to register, easy to use and can be used for both regular and one-off journeys. [... It] can be used by everyone, giving members the opportunity to share their journey no matter where they are going. Travellers can identify other poeple who are travelling the same route at a specified time and can register their own preferences, such as travelling with non-smokers, people of the same sex etc. You also have the option of whether or not to participate in a particular arrangement. To register with the scheme, log on to www.IfYouCareShare.com or call 0845 058 3926."
Excellent idea!

Cycle Routes in Scotland, No. 78: Oban - Ganavan - Dunbeg (or the other way round)

Ganavan Sands, a lovely beach about two miles north-west of Oban.
This standing stone bears the inscription giving the opening date (17 June 2008) of the 1.25 mile cycle and walking path from Ganavan Sands to Dunbeg, built by Argyll and Bute Council and sponsored by HITRANS, the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership in Scotland. Plans are to extend to Connel in due course and together with Transport Scotland.
It is the starting/finishing point of the first leg of the Oban to Fort William cycle route. But you have to earn your right to use the path: first by negotiating the rather awkward cattle gate that first doesn't and then opens so completely you have to run downhill to catch and close it behind you. Next, to your right as you leave the beach behind you, you can …
... admire some attractive "landscape art installations" …
... and allow yourself to be inspected by various beautiful Highland bull calves, shy and friendly rather than aggressive (at this stage anyway).
The ascent up the hill is very steep indeed. I don't think the track was laid by a cyclist with a family in tow... Most of the path lies inland, away from the worst of the seaborne gales, I suppose, and within sight of the main road north from Oban (and the rumbling of the lorries -- but it is very nice to be away from them and not have them bearing down on you as you cycle as close as you dare to the soft shoulder.
The approach of Ganavan from the north (or a look back as you reach the top of the first hill) allows you to catch a glimpse of the sea:
On the day I cycled or walked, plastic and all manner of rubbish were much more in evidence than pristine nature. The path is still too fresh to be truly attractive, with verges and ditches raw and only the most intrepid of vegetation beginning to cover the rough soil with a bit of greenery. In one or two places, the plastic is even built into the road surface: While what I assume to have been a gravel bag has been left lying in the woodland …
… the most benign interpretation being that it does make for a huge shelter for earwigs, woodlice, slugs and the like. Beautiful? I don't think so.
As you reach Dunbeg, this is what greets you just outside the gate: I simply cannot understand why this kind of junk does not get removed -- it speaks of carelessness, uncaringness, even a kind of disdain for the people who use the path, and for those who paid for its creation.

While the plastic/jute bag and this monstrosity were far too big and/or heavy for me to remove, I did, on my way back, pick up a large plastic bag full of litter. Here's the inventory of what you can only see the tip of in the next two photos:
plastic cups, 2 choc-dip cups, sweet and crisp wrappers, beer cans, cigarette packs, soft-drinks and mineral water bottles from 1.5 l to 0.5l, bottle caps, mastic pump drum, blue plastic bag containing well-matured dog poo, plastic bags, sheeting and strips in various states of disintegration, a catalogue for ladies' fashion, a pair (!) of blue plastic gloves found about 500 yards apart, a child's sand shovel in perfect condition, carton of sixpack of beer, cigarette stubs …

I would have needed more time and another bag like this to pick up all the trash lying in the ditches and on the ground along the first five hundred yards of the cycle path from the Sands up to the top of the hill. Unbelievable!
Any ideas how this can be changed? I don't feel like becoming the "voluntary trash picker upper" of the cycle path... ;)