Cyclists the length and breadth of Scotland have this weekend been participating in the eighth national Pedal on Parliament, with imaginative and inspirational ‘Pop-Up’ protests taking place from Dumfries to Inverness and Glasgow to Aberdeen.
While the previous seven editions of the campaigning event, first held in 2012, have included a mass ride in Edinburgh that finishes outside the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, this year the focus has been on campaigning at local level.
From Friday until Sunday, grassroots campaigners highlighted local barriers to cycling in a co-ordinated weekend of action spanning the country, taking such diverse forms as people protected bike lanes, bike buses for schoolchildren, a search – with the aid of Jelly Babies – for “Edinburgh’s most ridiculous bike lane, fancy dress protests and even a ‘chicane challenge’ in the capital.
Here’s some examples of what has being going on across Scotland this weekend, with descriptions provided by Pedal on Parliament.
In Stirling, campaigners coned off a cycle lane that is often ignored by drivers – and cheekily installed the ‘no parking’ notices that the council ought to have put up almost 14 years ago.
Pedal on Parliament Stirling Pop Up (credit Andrew Abbesss) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Meanwhile in Glasgow, cyclists took more direct action on Howard Street with a revolving human bike chain occupying a bike lane that is notorious for illegal parking.
Pedal on Parliament Glasgow City Centre Pop-up (credit Iona Shepherd) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Elsewhere in Glasgow, the GoBike Board of shame revealed its latest location on Kilmarnock Road beside a notorious narrow cycle lane painted in the door zone. The board read “Roll Up! Roll Up! For Glasgow City Council’s FREE ride of danger rollercoaster THE DOOR ZONE!! Ride in it and get whacked! Ride out of it and get smacked! No height restrictions apply! Mind how you go!”
In Edinburgh things took a more surreal turn, with one campaigner fed up of dangerously narrow cycle lanes, taking his “Jelly Baby Warriors Stick” to the streets to measure the width of some of the cities more terrifyingly narrow lanes – some even with streams of traffic on both sides. With 1.5 metres (50 Jelly Babies) being the minimum safe distance for overtaking a bike, narrower lanes have been found to encourage dangerously close passes. After a call out for Edinburgh’s worst bike lanes,.
Pedal on Parliament. Jelly baby Measuring Cycle lane width. the jelly baby measure is half the recommended lane width (credit Iain Jack) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Elsewhere in Edinburgh, a caravan of cargo bikes, tandems, trailers and other non-standard machines took on the Chicane Challenge. Attempting to navigate the barriers on NCN1, protesters demonstrated that this safe route can actually be impossible for some of the more vulnerable cyclists to use.
In East Dunbartonshire campaigners gathered with stuffed bears to complete the Bears Way which was controversially stopped before more than a mile had been built. Since then, at least one cyclist has been injured in a collision on a section that ought to have been separated from traffic had the route been built in full.
In Scotstoun in Glasgow, local father Andy Watson organised a protest and launched a petition to ask the council for a safe route to Victoria Park. Families, assembled with signs calling for safer crossings, attempted to re-enact the famous Beatles Abbey Road album cover but, without a real zebra crossing, it was too dangerous to attempt.
Elsewhere in Glasgow, the GoBike Board of Shame made its second appearance of the weekend – outside the University of Glasgow who, along with Glasgow City Council, have recently been slammed by cycling advocates for failing to include safe cycling provision in their redevelopment of University Avenue.
In Cambuslang, guerilla action turned a painted bike lane into what is thought to be the world’s first ‘Hoover-protected cycle track’ in recognition of the town’s industrial past. Toy Hoovers formed a temporary barrier between cyclists and motorised traffic, showing how easily safer cycling could be achieved.
In Dumfries, local cycle campaign group Cycling Dumfries were also calling for safer crossings – by dressing up as cows to protest the absurdity that dairy farms get signalised crossings on the A75 while people on foot and on bikes often have to wait for a gap in the traffic or are fenced in on narrow traffic islands while waiting to cross.
Meanwhile, in Aberdeen {below) and Dundee, mass rides were taking over parts of the cities where traffic dominates all too often.
Ahead of the weekend of action, Pedal on Parliament organiser Sally Hinchcliffe said: “This year we want to take the battle to local authorities to highlight the sort of issues our supporters face every day in just trying to get about by bike.
“While the Scottish Government has started to increase investment in active travel, many local authorities are falling behind and whether you can cycle safely or not is becoming a postcode lottery.
“With climate change now becoming an urgent issue, we need to change the way we travel, and that means changes to enable cycling everywhere, with safe cycle routes away from cars.”
Pop-up coordinator Iona Shepherd commented: “When we put out a call for creative protests we were hopeful we might get a few good ideas – but we’ve been blown away by the response, with 20 events planned across the country.
“It’s not just established campaign groups that are taking part but individuals – parents and commuters who just want to be able to cycle safely with their families and get home from work alive.”
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
@imajez
Brake adjusters mainly deal with pad wear whilst gear adjusters fine tune shifting during set-up and after fitting a new inner cable.
Brake outer housing is spiral-wound and compressible giving compliance at the lever and the false impression that the inner cable somehow stretches whereas the metal strands in gear outer housing are laid axially and as such the outer housing doesn't easily compress over time keeping shifting precise.
I find that a previously well-adjusted rear derailleur system that needs adjustment likely needs a new inner cable.
I ride expensive bikes wearing expensive helmets, my bike equipped with an expensive bike computer, fitness watch and cell phone. I carry my debit card. I worry. You would expect anyone living in Chicago to worry about bike jacking. Yet, for some strange reason. The Chicago land criminal community has not caught on to bike jacking. They like retail break ins and ATM smash ups.
@mattw "footpaths"
Hmm... true this is an underappreciated resource and indeed in danger.
But I think this is very location dependent. If we're taking in urban locations, are you talking alleys - narrow almost always no room for expansion? Or "footways" - also often not ample and we're back to "fighting over scraps" with pedestrians or even forced-conflict with "shared use"?
In the countryside - perhaps? If what goes in NL applies more generally (and why wouldn't it - they're humans too) more people may be prepared to travel on bikes there than UK opinion holds. ("people depend on their cars... nobody cycles or walks ... the non-existent footway beside the A-road!").
Although that may depend on "cyclists and walkers get the direct route" which isn't always how we do it...
@mattw I believe this is exactly the kind of thing that The Ranty Highwayman and Robert Weetman worked on for Manchester City Council.
Fixing it for pedestrians *ought* to be uncontroversial. It *ought* to be a path that actually "works" to move forward for the UK. I believe Chris Boardman had success in Manchester with an approach which largely emphasised this (plus buses).
BUT... I do wonder if this leaves us stuck at pretty much the status quo - because it reinforces the current "either walking, or driving" split.
First we'd get "can't have cycling infra because cycling gets in the way of cars and threatens pedestrians". Then most people simply won't walk far (especially if eg. carrying shopping). Which leads to "we still really need cars!" even for very local trips. Which then kills off active travel again, because cars take up too much space and suppress active travel.
@Geoff H, electronic shifting, like disc brakes and tubeless tyres is more reliable and less faff.
A spare battery in with my tools, means I never have to worry about a flat battery. Only time I've ever used it was to lend to a mate just in case. The only two times I've had a torn tubeless tyres I was able to slowly and safely stop. It would have been a disaster with an instantly flat tube and loss of control when surrounded by cars or speeding downhill off road. In dozen years of using tubeless, I have had as many tubeless flats as I have had with tubes in that time. Except I've only used tubes for a few weeks in all that time. Plus and this is the really, really important thing, my ride is way more comfortable. I also have way more grip and more speed due to being able to use the correct tyre pressure - doing so with tubes would be constant pinch flatting. So a win, win, win win situation. Never been covered in sealant either. Which only happens if riding with too high a tyre pressure.
@jaymack I've seen a LOT of issues with old fashioned mechanical gear shifting/cables in my time. Modern electronic stuff is a lot les faff/more reliable.
Personally I went electronic shifting with my new CX/gravel bike after the shifter cable self destructed inside my brifters on my older bike several times, the last two with zero warning. A nightmare to sort out. Astonishingly and thankfully, all three times it happened outside home, rather than the usual middle of nowhere I tend to cycle.
Another nightmare with internal cables on my full sus ended up with me buying a wireless rear shifter out of frustration. Much better ergonomics of the shifter too.
I hate cables in general, they stretch, get sticky, snap, fray, outers kink..etc. One of the best things about [hydraulic] disc brakes is the absence of flakey cables.
My most recent nightmare with cables was swapping to a new dropper. An ostensibly simple 5 min job turned into a nightmare which involved buying a new lever for bars and a lot of challenging cable wrangling inside frame even after BB removal. Speaking as someone who is comfortable and quite competent at fixing bikes, cables can get in the bin. Badly designed internal cable routing can get in the bin, set on fire and dropped in acid.
@mdavidford Nah, only a human could have written this, whatever it means: "Cycling is inherently about people, so I think stuff created by AI shouldn’t mix it, or sports in general."
