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.”
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £2.49. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
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.
Agreed for the most part, especially on mileages.
I took a punt and added a Silca Endurance chip AND 1/3rd bottle Synergetic to my wax pot (after seeing a Silca YouTube video suggesting trying this). Still runs clean like a good hot wax, but seems to ladt longer in the wet, I've managed ~200km of mixed gravel and tarmac in a ride, including rain and river crossings, with the chain only just starting to grumble.
I would have topped up with pure Synergetic to get me the final few km but as you say, then I would have to deal with the black goo cleanup!
Media such as the BBC help fuel the resentment towards cyclists. Lizzie Deignan was on BBC breakfast this morning talking about a podcast that acted as a couch to cycle for about an hour programme to encourage people to cycle to get fit and lose weight. The BBC presenters were John Kay and Sally Nugent, who always seem to argue from Daily Mail readers' viewpoint.
At the end of the interview, John Kay asked "And what would you say to motorists who think there are already too many cyclists on the road?" A totally meaningless argument, which translates as "What would you say to motorists who believe based on no evidence that any cyclists on the road, slow down their journey and mean they have to allow realistic journey times to reach their destinations while avoiding speeding etc?"
I'm a cyclist and many of my friends are house clearance auction specialists. Surprisingly they aren't all arses. Maybe it's the Grimsby factor?
Wasn't it Grimsby where that tosser mayor banned all cyclists within 40 miles of the town centre?
Agree that cycle lanes are pretty poor "infra".
But although that "taking away and suffocating the freedom of other road users" is a weird phrase *...
... there is a "fairness" perception at work here.
But simply "riding like a car" won't fix it at all! That means cyclists fall foul of the psychological "cheater detection" mechanism: we're using the same space but not playing by the same rules (not paying "road tax", we can filter past etc. )
Cyclists are visibly an "other" and people have been shown to expect "respect" (submissive behaviour) in those circumstances. But cyclists can't help being "provocative" - we're "in the way"!
People may tolerate cyclists where they're a rare occurrence. But for mass cycling either the cyclists have to be in their own distinct space OR motorists have to be cued to be "guests". So not many of them, cyclists likely to be in the majority, speed reduced to that of cycling, in environments where there isn't an expectation of rapid progress such as residential areas with plants etc.
* I think that's not even in the heads of most who are irked by cyclists. Reminds me of Monty Python - "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"
For one it sounds like that concern is only for the road users who are a lot "more equal than others" (by design) - the motorised ones. And in reality NO "freedoms" are being lost! In fact the reverse is true: the growth of mass motoring has literally taken away freedoms. Like the freedom to get places - other than by driving (dual carriageway in the way now). And the freedom from serious "inconvenience" - but not "being delayed by a few seconds" / having to walk a few extra tens of meters than the minimum possible - inconvenience to vulnerable road users includes injury to health or even death...
If there is an issue with water ingress as the review suggests, forking out another £500 on ceramicspeed bearings will be £500 down the drain. The response of Scope doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either.
The Grimsby man's views are symptomatic of the inherent unfairness of cycle lanes taking away and suffocating the freedom of other road users.
If you're on wheels, you should generally share the same road space (except for designated off-road areas). It annoys other road users if cyclists don't use the rubbish, unfit for purpose nonsense that councils have installed at great expense. Because many drivers haven't experienced these awful facilities themselves, they mistakenly identify cyclists as self-entitled wind-up.merchants, rather than people just trying to avoid poor infrastructure.
And even swung in as they passed 🤦♂️
Police action - warning letter to the company, didn't even identify the driver. This is in Kent - they seem as bad as Lancs.
He "never thought of that" and "some of my best friends are" . Sounds like he doesn't think of much and is just blinded by his hatred into inventing things. Why is road.cc giving him air space!
