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.
I think MM's point is more fatally flawed than that - people *do* complain about inequality in running. There might be less inequality than in cycling, but there's still an over-representation of white people and barriers to participation.
@MaxiMinimalist Would you care to give an example of any of those traits to which you claim Jack inclines, because I can't see any of them on display here.
@lemonenema You start at grassroots, reach out to every community and give them a chance to try the sport and go from there. You maybe encourage pro teams to think about trying out more young black athletes, they're well known for taking youngsters from sports like rowing and cross-country ski-ing and turning them into cyclists, I'm sure with the natural advantages of Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes there are some young men and women in those nations who could be great climbers if encouraged to try. Nobody is saying just take the best twenty black women cyclists and dump them in the peleton. You seem to be concerned about the unfairness of something that nobody, as far as I can see, is actually proposing.
@MaxiMinimalist Nobody complains about a lack of diversity in marathon running (if such exists, I don't really follow athletics any more but there seem to be plenty of white runners whenever I see it) because equality of opportunity in the sport already exists and nobody objects if the best then get to the top. Road cycling in many regions is almost 100% white dominated and there are problems with a lack of encouragement for black youth to get involved in road racing at least (near me the excellent Peckham BMX club does sterling work getting black kids to try BMX racing on our Olympic-standard track, with the result that it's hugely popular with that demographic and we are seeing black kids start to come through at national and international level). If equal opportunities existed and no black rider made it into the pro peleton then so be it, but until they do the complaints are justified. Your analogy rests on a false premise and is frankly rather stupid.
And that's very commendable, but it needs to be done right, not done for the sake of appearances. How do you ensure that potential barriers are removed and diversity is promoted without unfairly selecting specific ethnicities for the sake of inclusion?
@lemonenema Good job that Ms.McGowan is not asking, as far as the evidence above goes, for any sort of quota system then, isn't it? She's talking about increasing the opportunities for black women to participate in the sport and removing any barriers that may exist to them reaching their greatest potential, not simply enforcing an X% black women representation regardless of ability.
Leaving aside the joke sentence, how on earth did someone with a history of mental problems, substance abuse and serious crime involving motor vehicles manage to obtain a licence and then employment driving the most dangerous vehicle on the road? Who did the vetting and when are they resigning?
