Earlier this month several cycle forum members got together for a ride followed by coffee to say a fond farewell to Katy Hardacre, who has left Aberdeen. Katy has been a member of Aberdeen Cycle Forum since the early 2000s, becoming particularly active in the last two years when she stepped up as Cycle Forum Secretary. Never afraid to speak up and champion the cycling cause, Katy was a strong, articulate advocate in council meetings, challenging the status quo and pushing for meaningful change. She was a force to be reckoned with!
Beyond administrative leadership and battling with politicians, Katy attended Pedal on Parliament 2026 in Edinburgh, the Cycling Scotland Conference, Celebrate Aberdeen and Aberdeen City’s Glow Ride, a night-time campaign calling for better cycling conditions for women and girls.
Katy’s departure is a big loss for us and we will miss her dreadfully but of course wish her well on this new chapter in her life.
Over a thousand cyclists from all over Scotland gathered in Edinburgh on Saturday to call for safer streets for cycling and walking. This 14thPedal on Parliament (PoP) was seeking decisive moves in favour of active travel from all levels of government. With ongoing roadworks for Union St Central scuppering Aberdeen Cycle Forum’s normal “pop-up PoP” event, I travelled to the capital to show our support.
Assembling on the meadows
It felt incredible to join the throng pedalling the closed-road route from the Meadows to Holyrood. The sound of bicycle bells filled the air on the Royal Mile. One piper even played “Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do” as we passed. The children who joined the ride seemed to particularly enjoy the singing, chanting, smiling and waving – not to mention the VIP treatment of a bike-mounted police escort.
The foot of the Royal Mile (Photo credit Andy Catlin)
Politicians joining the event included Dr Scott Arthur MP (Labour), MSPs Kate Campbell (SNP), Sanne Dijkstra-Downie (Liberal Democrat) and Patrick Harvie (Green) plus several Edinburgh City councillors. The Scottish Government’s new Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, Stephen Flynn, was invited but regrettably did not attend.
Politicians at the head of the ride. (Photo credit Iona Shepherd)
On the grass outside the parliament building Alex Robertson (PoP organiser) kicked off the speeches by thanking the police, marshalls and feeder-ride leaders, with Aberdeen Cycle Forum getting a shout-out as (possibly) the furthest-travelled participants. Alex’s speech began by pointing out “The Scottish government says cycling is their top priority – protected cycleways, sustainable type transport, active travel, top of the hierarchy. In 2021 they told us that we were going to get 10% of the transport budget by 2024 – real money. What do we get? 3.9%. Is that good enough? We’re asking for 6% this year, 10% by the end of this term. Full stop. No hiding it in bus budgets. Be transparent, be accountable.” He went on to say, “Only 48% of Scots think it’s safe to cycle where they live, 1 in 5 drivers are distracted by their mobile phones, bigger vehicles that hurt people more … we want enforced speed limits, presumed liability (for motorists in the event of collisions), police resources and safer streets.” Before saying, “There is no such thing as a cyclist. There are nurses getting to shifts, care workers, new Scots – just people choosing a green mode of getting around. We’ve let politicians and algorithms distract us and divide us: cyclists versus drivers is a straw-man argument.” Alex closed his address with a call for greater accountability from politicians, asking them to adopt PoP’s manifesto, set bold targets and deliver the requisite funding to achieve them.
Next followed a powerful and moving speech from Rose Marie Burke, the mother of Glasgow architect and cycle activist Emma Burke Newman. Emma was tragically killed in January 2023 by the driver of an HGV that had encroached on an Advanced Stop Zone or ‘bike box’. Mrs Burke now advocates for Vision Zero “The principle behind Vision Zero is that our societies should not accept death on the roads as inevitable. We no longer accept deaths in the skies or in the workplace as inevitable. Why the roads?” The junction in Glasgow where Emma was killed has now been made safer; but speakers observed that the issue of failing to keep bike boxes clear continues to be a safety issue on Scotland’s roads. This very issue was raised at our monthly meeting in May.
Next followed speeches from the politicians present. Kate Campbell, MSP said , “As someone who is not a cyclist, but wants to be, I know just how important it is that we make our streets safe for cycling. And I will work hard over this parliament so everyone like me, who really wants the joy of cycling but just doesn’t have the confidence, can cycle safely on our streets.” MSP Patrick Harvie’s address described the benefits of cycling for normal, everyday transport: “(travelling by bike) I’m the one that arrives to meetings on time, while the ones desperately trying to find a car parking space are late.” “I arrive at the meeting with a sense of connection to the town, or the city or the community I am moving through. …I was given this sticker which says this machine fights climate change, which it does, but it also fights the disconnection that a lot of people feel when they are stuck in a little metal box being made to feel angry because they are surrounded by all the other little metal boxes.” He expressed support for Pedal on Parliament’s manifesto, the need to make active travel safer and allocate adequate funding to make cycling an easier everyday choice in Scotland. Sanne Dijsktra-Downie, MSP concluded the speeches: “Growing up in the Netherlands, I loved having the freedom of being able to cycle to meet friends, play sports or go out. I would love kids here to experience that same freedom, and for that we need safer cycling infrastructure that is connected, well designed and fit for purpose.” I look forward to hearing these and other representatives speak up for active travel in the chamber and committee rooms of the Scottish parliament.
Assembling outside the Scottish Parliament for the speeches (Photo credit Catherine Wykes)
PoP 2026 proved to be a great opportunity to catch up with folk from other active-travel advocacy organisations before taking the train home. These included: Cycling UK; Dundee Cycle Forum; Spokes, Sunny Cycles and Bike for Good (Glasgow); Infrasisters, VIE VELO and Critical Mass (Edinburgh).
My get-about-town-bike, sporting a new “this machine fights climate change” sticker, on the Cross-country train home to Aberdeen.
Aberdeen has a new e-bike hire scheme which launched in the city on Wednesday with 100 bikes positioned in various locations around town. They will be adding more bikes over the coming weeks with the plan to eventually have 350 out for hire. Today they had an official launch event at Duthie Park to raise awareness of the bikes and let people try them out which I was only too happy to do. They were even giving out free collapsible helmets. How cool are these?
I took one for a test spin. It’s very easy to do. You install the app on your phone then scan a QR code on the bike to start the hire. That’s pretty much it. The bikes have no gears and no settings for the electric assist. All you have to do is sit on the bike and pedal. The electric assist works up until 25km/h when it cuts out. I found it incredibly fast and powerful.
I cycled up Polmuir Road and Crown Street to see how it would handle the hills and I barely pedalled at all. Indeed I don’t think I even raised my heart rate other than from the exhilaration of speeding up and down hills.
Voi electric bikes are powered by a 250W Ninebot motor. They are heavy bikes, weighing about 40kg. The batteries last about 80 km before needing to be recharged and Voi swap them out with fully charged batteries rather than taking the bikes off the street to be charged elsewhere. A spokesman for Voi said they launched on Wednesday and since then each bike has been used around 4 or 5 times a day which is amazing. After the first day they had to replace 30 batteries and today they’ll be replacing about 80.
The bikes have a very useful basket on the front for belongings or shopping and a phone holder which charges your phone.
In terms of pricing you can pay as you go which costs £0.18/minute or you can prepay minutes in bulk. For instance you can buy 60 minutes for £5.99. The app provides all the pricing options. Go to https://www.voi.com/pricing-and-passes to learn more.
I thoroughly enjoyed my ride. I really hope it’s a great success and stays in Aberdeen. The last e-bike hire scheme we had withdrew after two years but they were only in two locations in the UK and completely withdrew from the UK market. Voi bikes are all over the UK and already in Scotland where they’ve clocked up a million rides in Edinburgh and Glasgow so I’m confident they’re here to stay.
Aberdeen Cycle Forum is having our annual litter pick on Sunday 12th April at 1pm on Riverside Drive near the BP service station and The Queen Elizabeth Bridge. We’re doing the south bank of the river this time starting opposite the boat sheds.
See the map below and street view for the meeting point.
We’ll provide all the bags and litter pickers. Please come along. Everyone is welcome!
We enjoyed participating in the Celebrate Aberdeen parade yesterday alongside hundreds of other local groups and organisations. It was a fine day: not too hot, not too cold and everyone marched with much merriment from Albyn Place to Marischal College behind a terrific pipe band.
This is the first year Aberdeen Cycle Forum has participated in the event. I’m sure we’ll do it again next year so if you missed out this time please join us next year.
We had a very successful litter pick along the River Dee yesterday. Thank you to all the volunteers and to Aberdeen City Council for providing the pickers, bags and for taking the rubbish away.
Next year we’ll do it in early spring before all the vegetation has grown as some of us had unpleasant encounters with stinging nettle and bramble.
Next Saturday we’re joining the Celebrate Aberdeen parade so please come along to that if you can. The meeting point is Albyn Place from 10:20am onwards with the parade starting at 11am. It’s in alphabetical order so we’ll be near the front.
We’re organising a litter pick tomorrow along the River Dee just beside Victoria Bridge in Torry at 1pm. See litter pick 2025 for a map with the meeting location. The more the merrier!
We’ve also got tshirts that we’re selling for £20. These are made with 100% organic cotton and will help to raise money for Aberdeen Cycle Forum. Here’s Ben modelling a size medium.
The dimensions of the size medium are in the photos below.
I need to order a minimum of 4 in one go to get free postage but we have two spare size mediums currently so if you want one of those let me know. I’ll take them with me to the litter pick tomorrow.
It’s summer and time for our annual litter pick. Please join us on Saturday 16th August at 1pm on the south side of the River Dee just beside Victoria Bridge, Torry. See the annotated map below for the location. It’s the same spot we cleaned up two years ago and we’ve had a request to go back. I found £10 here last time so you never know, you may get lucky!
We will have rubbish bags and litter pickers. Just bring yourselves and gloves if you want them. Hope to see you there!
Action: you must re-subscribe, using the link below, if you want to remain a member of ACF
In the 21 years since ACF was set up, tech has moved on a bit! Our method of holding membership data, and using it to contact you, is outdated and needs to change. Like most other associations, we will now move to using a third-party provider as a means of holding data and communicating with you.
After researching alternatives, we have opted to use Award Force as the ‘provider’. We’ve already had an account with Award Force for a number of years and have used them as the basis of several competitions and campaigns. If you have ever made a nomination in our Awards, or entered one of our other campaigns or competitions, then you will already be registered*.
Within the next couple of months, we will stop using our current membership list, and if you want to remain a member of ACF you will need to ‘re-join’ by going to our new membership page via the link below.
We will issue another couple of reminders before the switch, but after that if you don’t ‘re-join’ via the new membership page, you will no longer be considered a member of ACF and will stop receiving our communications, although of course you will still be able to re-join at any point in the future.
We hope that everyone will take a few minutes to re-join. The work we do depends on having a solid membership base and Councillors (amongst others) are more likely to listen if they know we have a strong membership.
There is also a small change to our Data Privacy policy, just to reflect that your personal data (we only ask for your name and email address) will now be held by a ‘provider’ (Award Force). When you re-join you will can also:
Give us your postcode (or the first part of it) so we can tell if you live in the city or Aberdeenshire or somewhere else (optional)
Make a donation to ACF to help with our running costs (joining ACF will still be free but remember we are entirely run by volunteers on a very small budget)
You can set preferences for communications
Keep in mind that some work-place servers block messages so using a personal email address rather than a work one might be better – but it’s your choice
*Remember if you have previously registered with Award Force, then you don’t need to do anything else to re-join, except note the change to our personal data policy
If you get stuck, try our ‘easy steps’ guide at aberdeencycleforum.org.uk
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We look forward to having you with us as we face the challenges of 2025 and beyond!
How to sign up with ACF on the Award Force platform – in easy steps
Enter your email address. The system will recognise your address if you have registered before (during one of our campaigns or competitions) and will ask for your password. If you don’t know your password there is a password re-set function. If you have registered before, you don’t need to do anything further to join.
If you haven’t registered before, you will need to create a password. The system will also generate a code for you to enter – this is just to ensure that you are the owner of the email address being registered.
Once you have registered you will reach the ‘landing’ page. On this page is a link to our Paypal for donations (joining ACF is free but we do rely to donations to cover our modest running costs). You can ignore the ‘Entries’ as this relates to our competitions only.
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Aberdeen Cycle Forum is hosting the Best in Cycling Awards for 2024 next Tuesday 24th September at 7:30pm where we’ll announce the winners in the following categories: Best Business, Best Employer, Best New Cycle Infrastructure, Best Public Cycle Parking, Best School, Cycle Hero, and The Cycle Raspberry.
We’ve also got two guest speakers lined up: Linda Moreno Sanchez who worked for the Transportation Department in Mexico before coming to Aberdeen and Fiona McBain who delivers Bikeability in schools for Sustrans.
The venue is Aberdeen Methodist Church on Crown Terrace. Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm start.
Aberdeen Cycle Forum 