Aberdeen Cycle Forum meeting minutes 26th May 2026

Present: Gavin Clark (Chair), Katy Hardacre (Secretary), Chris Ashton, Francesco Sani, Fiona McDonald, Alastair Cassels, Alistair Gilmore.

Apologies: Deema Aburizik, Martin Sharman, Michelle Short, John (Alie) Johnston.

Guest: Rosie Ince, Connecting Communities Development Officer from Cycling UK

  1. Welcome & introductions
  2. Minutes of previous meeting
  3. Meetings with Council / Nestrans and related issues
    1. ART etc meeting of 13 May
    2. People & Places funding
    3. ACC liaison meeting 19 June
    4. Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Water – B979 closure
  4. Voi bikes launch
  5. Events & activities
  6. Any other business
  7. Date of next meeting (provisionally Tues 30 June)

Summary

The Aberdeen Cycle Forum meeting focused on welcoming new members and discussing recent developments in cycling infrastructure and initiatives. The group met Rosie Ince, the new Connecting Communities Development Officer from Cycling UK who is based at the Seaton Hub and focuses on building cycling confidence through led rides and one-to-one support sessions. Katy provided an update on the recent Nestrans meeting, reporting that while there was ambitious vision for a 50/50 modal split between cars and other transport by 2030, concerns were raised about the risk of delays, affordability, safety, political will and public support for Aberdeen Rapid Transit. Gavin drew the forum’s attention to the 60% cut to the revenue component of Transport Scotland’s People and Place fund.  Forum members were invited to propose questions for the June liaison meeting with Aberdeen City Council.  Next followed a discussion of the Netherley Road B979 closure and lack of appropriate diversions and signage for cyclists on this well-used north-south cycling route between Aberdeen and Stonehaven.   The recent launch of Voi e-bikes in Aberdeen was celebrated. The meeting also covered plans for upcoming events, including a potential Saturday coffee meet with a short social ride and participation in the Celebrate Aberdeen Parade in August.

Rosie Ince

Rosie is responsible for the Connecting Communities | Cycling UK programme in Aberdeen City. Her role covers family cycling sessions, confidence-building rides and led rides, with an emphasis on the health and wellbeing benefits of accessing nature by bike. She discussed the services available at the Seaton Bike Hub, including bike loans and maintenance support. The forum will continue to promote via our Facebook page any Cycling UK happenings in the city and shire (e.g. GLOW ride Thursday 22nd October). If any forum member has suggestions for route planning maps they’ve found particularly helpful, please drop Rosie an email at rosie.ince@cyclinguk.org

NESTRANS/ACC meeting 13th May

NESTRANS (Caroline Hood, Adam Kench) and ACC (Kirsty Chalmers, Will Hekelaar, James Watts) met with ACF (Gavin Clark, John (Alie) Johnston, Katy Hardacre) in order to share their vision for Aberdeen Rapid Transit (ART), and to clarify the relationship between ART, the regional Active Travel Plan (AcTraP), Regional Active Travel Network (RATN), and Local Transport Strategy (LTS).

While NESTRANS/ACC set out a bold vision, with a lot of integrated cycling provision, we remain concerned about the plans presented. Firstly, because ACC might not commit to any other cycling infrastructure plans apart from ART, which could be 10 years away. Secondly, the cycling provision within ART may evaporate if budgets over-run, as happened with the active travel mitigations for the AWPR. Given current traffic flows on the mixed-mode streets in the RATN, it’s hard to see how vehicle counts/speeds could be dropped enough to make cycling here a credible option for a teen with bikeability2 skills.

Key points of the presentation:

  • ART – Target: The goal for modal split is 50:50 car:other by 2030.  The current split is ~75:25.
  • ART – Ambition: No other bus rapid transit schemes in the UK have an active travel component like ART’s.  However roads won’t be widened and junctions won’t be re-designed.
  • ART – Funding: The City Regional Deal (ending this year) is paying for the ART work upto creation of the outline business case end March 2027.  ACC have applied for ATIF2 funding to design some of the cycling provision (e.g. where roads are too narrow to support a general carriageway, an ART lane and a protected cycleway alongside).  The project needs to compete for detailed design and construction funding against other nationally strategic projects funded through Transport Scotland (see STPR2).
  • ART – Building public support: the officers say they are prepared for pushback to ART from motorists, and have plans in place to build more public support e.g. Bringing a demonstration vehicle to the city, so people can experience the vehicles. 
  • LTS/AcTraP – Demand management (including workplace parking levies) features strongly in the strategy/plan . 
  • LTS/AcTraP – Workplaces Via the GETABOUT brand, NESTRANS will be working with employers to promote sustainable travel to work.  (this might look like Cycle2Work schemes or VOI hire subsidies).
  • Map – Re-budgeting  (to manage the 60% revenue cut from Transport Scotland – see below) has taken up all the oxygen in Q1 so there’s been no progress.  Katrina Schofield (NESTRANS’ People and Place Officer) will be progressing this in 2026.

Our key contributions:

  • We suggested youngsters may have the most to gain from ART, so asked the team to a) canvas 8-16 year olds and not just 16+ b) pitch ART to the public as giving youngsters independent mobility rather than taking away road space from people with cars.
  • We asked if bikes would be allowed on ART vehicles (this could open-up multi-modal travel, especially for concession-pass holders).  Officers expect, like Edinburgh trams, bikes will be allowed inside ART buses if there is space. 
  • We supported more initiatives to nudge motorists’ attitudes to ART like “My other car is a bus” and “More than a cyclist” advertising campaigns.
  • We encouraged officers to emphasise what the “do nothing” outcome looks like when in consultation/decision meetings.  We noted Aberdeen’s growth in vehicle miles seems to be outstripping all other authorities in Scotland. 
  • We pointed out the cycling demand layer on RATN shows no demand on Holburn St and King St: this seems at-odds with current useage so NESTRANS committed to investigate.

Further engagement on ART, RATN and cycle mapping is expected.

People And Places Funding Cuts

(The cuts are nationwide, and NESTRANS’ board met on 12th May to approve a revised programme for the Northeast.) The group discussed cuts to active travel behaviour-change projects, funded through People and Places, with Gavin reporting that while the headline figure was 60%, it represented a 60% cut to resource/revenue funding and 20% overall. We noted that one-year project funding creates terrible insecurity for the people delivering behaviour change projects. We were relieved to see Aberdeen’s first pilot School Street has not been jeopardised by the cut: people and place funding for the traffic orders still appears on the list of funded projects. If any forum member is aware of projects that have been impacted, please let Gavin know.

ACC liaison meeting 19 June

The forum was encouraged to submit discussion points for the upcoming meeting with Aberdeen City Council on June 19th. (These will be shared with attendees ahead of the meeting). The following ideas were raised:

  • What are the priorities for spending funds raised from bus lane enforcement/LEZ fines? Could they be used to maintain existing cycling infrastructure e.g. re-paint advance stop boxes and advisory bike lanes? (Note – when the road marking were recently repainted in Tillydrone, the adjacent bike lanes were not).
  • At the Westhill garage, cyclists struggle to obey the “cyclists dismount” sign on the bike path as a Bluebird bus regularly parks across the area they are diverted onto. Could parking enforcement officers please address this?
  • What are ACC’s plans to better understand current cycle use in the city (VOI bikes’ “heat maps”, more/repaired Cycling Scotland counters?)

Forum members are invited to email sec@abadinscycleforum.org with other issues before 12th June, for potential inclusion in the next liaison meeting agenda. Photo/video of issues really helps.

B979 closure – various meetings with Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Water

Gavin discussed ongoing issues with cyclist safety during road closures for Scottish Water projects, noting that Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Water have not adequately addressed concerns about diverting cyclists onto busy A roads without proper warnings. A forum member reported seeing two touring cyclists with loaded bikes wheeling along the grass verge of the coast road between Stonehaven and Muchalls: they likely took this hard and dangerous option due to lack of signage and alternative bike routes to Aberdeen.

There was a good discussion about what could be done by whom to improve wayfinding for cyclists travelling through our region, particularly the need for safe diversions when regular routes are out of service.  Gavin will continue to chase up the Netherley Road B979 closure issue with Caledonia Water Alliance (contractors).

VOI Bikes

The group then shifted to discussing the recent launch of VOI Bikes in Aberdeen, and Rachel’s blog post with participants sharing their initial experiences and observations about the new bike-sharing scheme. Rosie mentioned some difficulties with the central stand mechanism and suggested that training sessions (e.g. with Tyred and Cranky) might be helpful. Gavin noted that the scheme appears successful in Glasgow having reached one million hires. The group discussed plans to expand the area covered by the scheme as more parking bays are painted and the fleet of bikes expands. They observed that the new operator appears more receptive to feedback, having moved the parking box from Guild Street to College Street based on ACF’s recommendations.

Events

Francesco has secured a spot for Aberdeen Cycle Forum in the Celebrate Aberdeen parade on Saturday August 29th. The team at the Seaton Bike Hub might also be present, and have agreed to loan Katy one of their more unusual bikes for the parade.

Gavin volunteered to plan a future Saturday coffee meet with an optional cycle ride. There was a question about insurance coverage through Cycling UK for team rides and events, with Gavin clarifying that affiliate group coverage only applies to club-organized activities, and not individuals.

There’s a potential collaboration opportunity with other active travel groups at Envirolution on 5th September.

AOB

Fiona shared an observation of about 50 teenage boys cycling through town on regular bikes, similar to the regular “critical mass” cycling event that meets on the last Friday of each month at 6:00pm at Marischal College. The group discussed how to better engage with the youth cycling community, with Rosie expressing interest in getting more women involved in cycling too.

Katy noted John Barron is hoping to re-schedule his Pittodrie event for after the by-election. This is an opportunity for council officers and elected officials to meet Nestrans’s delivery partners for Active Travel/People and Places. ACF hope to be invited to participate, and have suggested the event include a led ride on some of Aberdeen’s more/less cycle friendly routes. No date has been confirmed.

The officer responsible for the active travel scheme Arbroath: a Place for Everyone, has invited ACF to pop down for a visit, where they could experience local infrastructure and borrow bikes. NESTRANS, Aberdeen City, and Aberdeenshire Councillors have apparently already had a guided tour.