Local Bike Campaigning: #SpokesMtg report

A culture change on active travel and local accessibility is underway in Edinburgh, inspired by a wide and growing variety of local organisations and initiatives – this understanding was perhaps the main outcome of our hugely positive 21 November public meeting on local campaigning.

Spokes had already found difficulty deciding on speakers – because there were so many possible organisations to invite! We could have invited CityCycling Edinburgh, the Cycling Gardeners, South West 20, Car-Free Holyrood, Traffic Low Corstorphine, Spokes South Edinburgh, the Bike Station, Bridgend Farmhouse, the Wee Spoke Hub, Zedify cargobikes, Living Streets, Cargo Bike Movement, Spokes Porty, Blackford Safe Routes, and many more. What a contrast with the early days of Spokes, in 1977, when there was only one other local body interested in cycling for everyday travel (FoE Edinburgh).

In the end, we invited speakers from four organisations, Infrasisters, Critical Mass, Edi.Bike, and Edinburgh Bike Buses, all of whom had inspirational stories of what they are doing, and why. And, to provide an overview, Derek Halden an expert in collaborative working in the area of local transport and accessibility.

A full video recording of the meeting, including the presentation slides, is here, and so only a few highlights from speakers will be described below, followed by some themes from the QA and panel discussion. Finally, there is a ‘Resources’ section at the end of this article, with links to speaker notes, presentation slides, and other materials.

Speakers

Derek Halden outlined a change over recent years and decades, away from remote decision-making by markets or governments, often by those who would not feel the effects on everyday life of their decisions. Instead, the influence of community led campaigns has led to a shift in transport delivery, from mobility to accessibility, so that social as well as economic and environmental factors are included.

The “commons” – what belongs to us all, and must be remembered and shared – is about clean air, a safe environment, and connecting all the parts of the transport system with the needs of communities and places.

Examples such as the Roadshare campaign (see below) showed how campaigning involving various groups working together, succeeded in getting across the message about use of the roads, such that the government was able to enshrine the Hierarchy of Responsibility in the January 2022 new Highway Code, giving a presumption of liability to the more powerful road user in any collision, and greater protection to the more vulnerable.

He showed how the principles of sustainable development set out in the 1992 Rio Earth summit, enshrined in UK law, and their growing public understanding and support, had led over the years through a variety of legal and policy decisions, to current legal frameworks, such as in Scotland’s 2023 National Planning Framework (NPF4), which provides a powerful tool empowering communities to ensure that development which is not sustainable is not able to proceed. These changes are further explained in this paper.

Ben Seven spoke about the (in our view, superb!) Edi.Bike weekly newsletter of local bike campaigning news. Living deep in the south of the city, Ben had never come across any of the local groups, nor even Spokes maps! Then one day, by complete chance, he encountered CCWEL under construction – an absolute revelation. This eventually led to the idea of the newsletter, now with over 1600 readers, to spread and share awareness of cycling infrastructure developments and of the many local community initiatives supporting and encouraging more use of bikes for everyday travel.

What you can do: Become a reader and ideally, to help Ben’s fantastic initiative as a supporter (just £1 a month!)

Julie Clarke from Infrasisters reminded the meeting of the choice which women face when cycling, particularly at night – a secluded offroad route with the fear of strangers, or onroad with greater public visibility but road danger. The level of concern was clearly illustrated when 150 women turned up for a dark-evening ‘reclaim the streets’ bike ride, calling for safer onroad cycing conditions. So powerful was the event and its message that Infrasisters was formed to organise future rides in the darker months. And, as Julie concluded, “Infrastructure that is better for women is better for everyone.“

What you can do: Subscribe to the Infrasisters email list, and go on their rides!

Jarlath Flynn is an inspirational promoter of school bike buses in Edinburgh, of which there are now between 5 and 7 operating regularly, with potential for many more. He explained how a bike bus works, and how the children cycling are protected by adults. They are great for kids – for health and wellbeing, helping the environment, providing free brain training such as hand-eye coordination and social skills, and sending a message to the adults – parents, teachers and the public on the streets. Jarlath is delighted to meet up with parents, teachers and kids to discuss potential new bike buses.

What you can do: Contact Jarlath if interested in setting up a bike bus at your local school – or to volunteer to help as a marshal for an existing bus (more marshals are urgently needed). Visit bikebus.org/edinburgh and click on the volunteer button.

Victoria Hawkins explained that Edinburgh Critical Mass is one of 300 rides in towns and cities around the world every month aiming to make cycling more visible (as a ‘mass’), to have fun (e.g. music and themed rides) and to be social (including with everyone else on the street). People have many different motiviations for coming along – including environmental, social, learning to navigate the city, or for mental health reasons. The Edinburgh Mass regularly has around 100 participants, including families. There are also spin-off activities such a ride to COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and an exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh, along with Spokes, Infrasisters and Bike Buses. Victoria ended with this super-inspiring video!

What you can do: Come along on the last Saturday of each month, starting 2pm at Middle Meadow Walk

QA & Panel Discussion

For the full hour of discussion, see the meeting video. Below we pick out some themes that emerged during the discussion. The session was chaired by Helen Todd, Spokes member, chair of Planning Democracy and former Ramblers Scotland policy manager.

Encouraging more people to get involved in local campaigning

• Act for the future of our children
• Make it enjoyable
• Don’t expect people to do more than they have the time and energy for
• When there is a real problem, that motivates people
• New members, their ideas and motivations, need to be listened to, perhaps prompting new or changed activities
• Celebrate and praise progress, rather than being jaded and only pointing to flaws. For example, whilst the Leith Walk bike lanes leave much to be desired, they keep you away from traffic, they have prevented any tramline bike crashes (unlike Princes Street) and bike use has risen substantially. That, in total, is fantastic news, and celebrating it certainly does not stop us arguing for better in future.

Encouraging more people to get about by bike

• Seeing bike infrastructure on the roads encourages people to use a bike, so keep pressing Councils for this
• Make sure the whole journey is catered for – bike storage at home (e.g. tenement problems), safe routes, bike parking at destinations
• Talk about cycling with friends, colleagues, family, and give them support if they are interested
• Give children & parents confidence through supporting school bike buses (volunteer above!) One school started with a 3-child bike bus and now has often has 50 participants!
• Encourage people to go on Critical Mass and Infrasisters rides, to gain confidence.

Encouraging councils and government to do more

• Give praise when progress is made – despite some cynics on social media, Edinburgh is one of best cities in the UK (and especially in Scotland) for cycling provision, and for levels of walking and cycling
• Encourage politicians to scrutinise policy delivery closely, not just to produce and pronounce on grand policy statements
• Don’t just give councillors statistics on what people want or need – show them real people, especially those encouraged by new infrastructure

What is success for a campaign?

• When you arrive at an event and people think cycling was a normal way to get there, and don’t tell you how brave you are
• When the school run becomes more bike than car
• When you can choose to cycle purely because it is the best method for that journey – without having to worry about road safety, road rage or stranger danger

Some random points

• Illegally modified delivery bikes are causing increasing nuisance – but much of the problem comes from the delivery companies which are fully aware that their requirements can only be met if the delivery riders behave illegally and potentially dangerously
• Increasing road danger? [total road casualties in Scotland have risen every year post-covid, i.e. since 2020, though they are still at a historically low level] Speakers felt that road rage had intensified due to the ‘war on the motorist’ culture wars fomented under the previous UK government; and, secondly, that there is now very widespread mobile phone use, taking drivers’ minds off the road.
• Daily school bike buses, rather than weekly or less often? Daily is not feasible because of the demands on the time of volunteer marshals – but as a result of bike buses some kids are now cycling regularly to school independently, or with their parents, on other days

Long-term culture changes

As highlighted in Derek Halden’s presentation, several positive changes in culture and expectations have occured in society, in much part thanks to evidence-based community campaigning. Examples quoted during the meeting (and one other) were…

• Presumed liability There has been evidence from other countries for many years of the value of rules whereby there is a presumption of liability to the more powerful road user in any collision, giving greater protection to the more vulnerable road user. Yet In the past, too often the pedestrian or cyclist in a collision was almost automatically seen as being the responsible party. The Roadshare campaign was set up years ago by CycleLaw, supported by many others including Spokes, to change this, and we are now at the position where the ‘Hierarchy of Responsibility’ has been enshrined in the 2022 new Highway Code – and is increasingly accepted in everyday conversation, even if many drivers have not yet sufficiently adapted their driving practice. [The RoadShare petition is still open asking for the hierarchy to become law, albeit the Highway Code is very helpful in any court case].
• Cycling as transport Nowadays cycling as a valid means of getting around is widely accepted, even if many people still feel it too dangerous. It is hard to believe that, when Spokes was formed in 1977, you were a genuine eccentric if you cycled for anything other than sport or, possibly, weekend recreation. Indeed it was only in 2015 that the Scottish Parliament had its first ever government-sponsored debate on active travel. Campaigners can accept a significant part of the credit for this change in public acceptance and understanding.
• 20mph Some years ago, 30mph was the norm in towns and cities, and there was outrage in the press and by motoring bodies at the suggestion of a lower limit. Yet, thanks to persistent evidence-based campaigning, 20 is now the norm in urban areas in many parts of the UK – not least Edinburgh [as from 2018] and in Wales. The pressure in England now looks like it is also becoming irresistable. Very few drivers would now say in public that we should return to 30, whereas staying at 30 was a very common cry in the past.

Thanks!

• Many thanks to all who made our public meeting possible, notably our speakers, our audience, organisers Emma and Helen, technical expert Sam, and all other helpers
• You can help further by passing on the link to this article and/or re-posting our Bluesky ‘tweet.’

Resources

• Pre-meeting article
• Complete video of the meeting, with presentation slides embedded
• Derek Halden / slides / didn’t use notes, but supplied this precis /
• Ben Seven, Edi.Bike / slides / speaker notes /
• Julie Clarke, Infrasisters / slides not used / speaker notes /
• Jarlath Flynn, Edinburgh bike buses / slides / speaker notes /
• Victoria Hawkins, Critical Mass / slides / speaker notes / CM video /
• Post-meeting Bluesky ‘tweet’
• Previous Spokes public meetings