ACF At Veer’s UK Premier Screening
On Saturday 21st November Becycle has arranged a screening of Veer at the Transition Extreme Sports Centre [map-link]. Veer is not yet on general release in the UK so why not come down and view it on Saturday, it’s got to be better than staying in and watching yet another reality TV show…
ACF will have a stall before the film, so there’s the added incentive of meeting some of the people who make ACF work for you.To learn more see the BeCycle Website.
Cycle Parking – Just for U
ACF has secured some improvements to the cycle parking at Union Square though it has taken us nearly two years of harrassing the developers Hammerson to achieve it! If you have been down you may have seen only a handfull of stands at the main entrance – we wanted many more, if stopping at the Market Street end of the complex there’s nothing except a few convenient signposts
The better news is that just round the corner at the bus station there are now 17 new stands in place, under a canopy, and there is an entrance to the shopping mall from there. The Railway satation has (just) five outside the entrance, but dont forget the 35 in College Street Multi-Storey Car park. We are continuing our long running struggle to get some stands actually in the railway station itself….there is a faint glimmer of progress on this one. Watch this space.
Interesting Union Square themselves quote “Union Square has 200 cycle parking places – most undercover and monitored by CCTV”. If you are generous and count the ones in the rail and bus stations and assume 2 bikes per stand ACF can’t find more than 160, if you can do better get in contact there’s a prize for the first person to get to 200…
UPDATE (12 Nov) – the total is now 187, some very well hidden ones between Palmerston Road and TK Max, can anyone beat 187…
UPDATE (4 Dec) – Just had a Union Square Sponsored Citizen “wrap round” delivered – U-S now state 160 stands, so who owns the other 27?
Bus StationMain Car Park, pity there are not more!Market St end of the complex
 |
 |
 |
Temporary Closure of the Deeside Line at Cults
Some readers may have already have noticed that the Deeside Way is closed for quite a long stretch around Cults . The good news is this is to allow the works to bridge the (steep!) up and down section through the barriers at West Cults Road [map].
The work should be completed by the end of the year, in the meantime there’s a few weeks of having to use the North Deeside Rd for a stretch. The council should be putting in place diversion signs. Leave the line (coming into town) at the Newton Dee turn off and rejoin it via School Rd in Cults.
Getting Out and About use your LOAF -Come and Meet ACF!
Aberdeen Local Outdoor Access Forum – LOAF is the statutory body that advises the city council on the implementation of the outdoor access , rather boringly known as The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.
ACF is a member of the LOAF and has been instrumental in getting a number of the new core paths adopted in the city
On Tuesday 10th November (18:30-20:30) the LOAF is holding an open public event in the Townhouse, ACF will be there and anyone is welcome to come along either to see us on our “stall” or to the presentations themselves. Download the agenda (PDF)
The LOAF can do a lot for cyclists in Aberdeen, a good representation form cyclists will help this happen, so come on down on Tuesday evening, there is even free coffee!
Active Travel – Inactive Government?
It’s not every day you get the opportunity to tell the Scottish Parliament what you think, however now you can. The Parliament is conducting a “call for views” on walking and cycling in Scotland, titled “an enquiry into active travel” ACF has responded to the consultation, you can see our response online (PDF).
In addition to organisations such as ourselves any individual in Scotland may submit their views, ACF encourges you send a few words to the comittee. No need to be formal – a simple email is enough – just email any or all of your answers to the questions below to: activetravel@scottish.parliament.uk. To get some tips you might want to see the responses of other individuals
Deadline for responing is Friday 11th December 2009 – so don’t delay have your say today.
ASDA’s Big Boss drops in to see ACF
ASDA Chief Executive Andy Bond is cycling from Land Ends to John O’Groats raising money for the charity Pedalpower. For those who dont know Pedal Power working with the CTC, is about to set up 300 bike clubs for young people across the UK.
Andy passed through Aberdeen where ACF were on hand to meet him at the Asda Bridge of Dee Store. Our ever popular stand provided shoppers with everything they wanted to know about cycling in Aberdeen.
Learn more and see some videos of the event at the Pedal Power Blog.
<!-note there are no “HTML” start and end or “BODY” tags as these are generated automatically by index.php ->
New Signs Highlight Cyclist Safety
Aberdeen City Council has recently invested in a number of Variable Message Signs (VMS) at 8 locations in Aberdeen, these are designed to highlight traffic congestion and roadworks round the city. At times when there are no such problems (yes they do occasionally exist) the signs show a road safety messages randomly selected from a list.
ACF now has regular meetings with Grampian Police and the City Council to discuss cycle safety matters. At our suggestion the council has agreed to add two new messages to the signs’ list.
BE ALERT FOR CYCLISTS
GIVE CYCLISTS ROOM WHEN OVERTAKINGThese should now appear randomly in times of no traffic issues, so most motorists at some time or another should see them.
If you have any comments, suggestions or thoughts on how to further develop this idea them please do get in contact:
Change to June Meeting Location
Due to operational issues the normal meeting room in the townhouse is not available ? the meeting will take place at the meeting room above the Carlton Bar on the Castle Gate (this is in the South West Corner of the Castle Gate, enter the bar door and take the stairs immediately in front of you
What do you call a lady on a bike?
The latest cycle count results have again shown a significant bias towards males, a couple of months back Aberdeen Cycle Forum brought together a small group of women cyclists to have a look at this.
The group has had a few meetings now and have some great ideas that they are looking forward to putting into action. However before we kick off, we need a name for the group that describes what we are and what we do.. So suggestions please…
Sustrans have their Bike Belles, CTC Grampian have Five Mile to Fabulous, can you help us come up with a memorable name that would appeal to the women cyclists in Aberdeen? As an incentive the writer of the winning entry gets a
Cycle Count 2009
On 21st and 22ns April 2009 ACF conducted Aberdeen’s third cycle count and our first year-on-year one, so why count bikes? Cycle use statistics are important to ACF for three reasons: Quantified cycle use makes it a lot easier to lobby for new facilities in the city. Increasing or decreasing use shows if the (somewhat limited) facilities that exist do work. Statistics can be benchmarked with other cities in Scotland and further afield.
Cyclists are counted at 11 key locations around the city between 07:30 and 09:00, the objective of this is to gain a metric of cycle activity and not to count all cyclists. Details results are below, the striking change from 2008 are an overall increase of 10%, with the weather the same as the 2008 count this is encouraging. The largest increases were on the key commuter corridors of the Deeside line, King Street and Union Street, which recorded it’s first count of 100. From its original low level the number of female cyclists fell, if you think you know why let Liz know
Read the Detailed Statistics (PDF File, 22kb)
If you have any comments on the results, or want to be a “bike spotter” for our next survey (full training is given) please get in contact If you are interested in stories like this then why not join the ACF e-NEWS service to get alerts when new items are added to the web site
Aberdeen Cycle Forum 