Attendees: Gavin Clark, Rachel Martin, Laurie Rominger, Fiona McBain, Daniel Verhamme, Fiona McDonald, Jon Barron
Guest Speaker – Fiona McBain (I-bike, Sustrans)
Ibike is delivered through Sustrans and the local authority. There are around 10 officers around Scotland right now and funding is about 50:50 (Sustrans/local authority). In Aberdeen the city council gets external funding for their portion. Fiona is in contact with the Transport Strategy team.
The idea is to inspire and encourage active travel in the school community. Not just by pupils but also by parents and teachers. Fiona does a lot of Learn to Ride in Aberdeen. There’s a lot of demand for this. She also does Bikeability. Adventure Aberdeen do most of the bikeability in Aberdeen but they are stretched so Fiona does it at the school she works with to take pressure off them.
Fiona also does led walks and structures them around the curriculum to make it more attractive to teachers. Eg., map reading, planning an adventure, scavenger hunts, using GPS devices, air quality investigating. Fiona asks the school what their topics are and then tries to develop led walk ideas to fit around it.
She also does scooter skills in the playground. She has a capital budget which she can use to buy items like scooter fleets. She also does Dr Bikes to help kids fix their bikes.
She’s also got some specialist items like smoothie bikes, pedal cinema etc.
The Council decides which schools she works in. Some schools find it difficult to allow students out of the school at all.
One of the big projects that has worked really well is to encourage teenage girls to cycle more. Did focus groups with teenage girls all around Scotland to identify what the barriers to cycling are and from that tried to work out strategies to reduce those barriers. #AndSheCycles group was started. Running at Harlaw Academy.
Rachel asked what the barriers were?
Fiona asked them how they felt about cycling – healthy, fun, environmentally friendly, and relieving stress.
Then she asked about how they felt about cycling to school –
Scary, daunting, nervous, intimidating, unsure of bike parking, playing dodgems, afraid of being the only one.
What are the barriers: Judgement (esp from other girls), lack of confidence and lack of understanding of road rules, uniform, clothing, equipment, angry drivers, heavy bags, body image
To overcome this they worked on getting groups of girls together so they didn’t feel like they were the only one. They took them out for training. At Grammar they got a special place to put their equipment. They did led rides – Duthie Park, Hazlehead park, Torry Battery. Everywhere we went we’d get a treat (ice-cream, hot chocolate).
The Harlaw group is all first and second years. There are 11 girls in the group so far. None of them own their own bikes. They use bikes that Fiona supplies and that are left at school.
There’s a Community Officer now who is going to do similar exercises in confidence building.
Gavin asked about how much work this is and it sounds like a lot for one person.
Fiona says she’s busy all the time and it’s pretty manic.
Gavin: Do you have volunteers to help you?
Fiona: Yes I have a very small band of volunteers and am always looking for more hint, hint.
Gavin: Is Learn to Ride as it sounds, basic riding skills for people who don’t know how to ride a bike?
Fiona: Yes, it’s astounding how many older kids don’t know how to ride a bike. It’s mostly P6 and P7. Fiona can do Learn to Ride for a week at a school then a month later there are four new pupils who can’t ride. Part of it is it’s difficult to have space to keep a bike if you live in a flat. Kids who come from countries where it’s not in the culture to ride bikes. Lots of different factors.
Rachel: Is there a worry that once you leave a school the groups will fall apart and relapse back to where they were?
Fona: Yes, it’s a problem they’re aware of and trying to mitigate. One thing they do is train the teachers so they can continue carrying the flag.
Jon: Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire has a long-standing commitment to iBike. We just need more of it. Bikeability is something Aberdeen does punch above its weight.
Laurie: What resources are there for schools that are quite inaccessible by bike? Laurie works at Lochside Academy and pupils come from Torry. There’s a notion that there’s no way to safe get there by bike with Wellington Road being the main barrier. At Lochside the kids who come from Cove have an easier route and quite a few do cycle.
Fiona: It is an issue. St Joseph’s Primary is similar and most pupils come in by bus. I see it that we’re giving them skills for life even if they can’t use them today in their current situation.
Fiona McD: Had lots of conversations recently with school community about potential cancellation of school buses. There were also comments about bike theft from parents. Fewer children cycle now because there is a free school bus. Is there a trend?
Fiona: Not sure if the free bus pass has changed the number of pupils cycling to school. Fiona will look out for the stats when they come out and let us know. Fiona also says the current head at Harlaw is super enthusiastic about encouraging kids to cycle but their parking is woefully inadequate and loads of bikes have been stolen. They’re currently applying for Cycling Scotland cycling friendly status which will allow them to apply for funding for proper secure bike parking.
AGM business
- Report from outgoing Chair & other Officials including annual accounts
Gavin:
* Campaign for Union Street in the lead-up to the meeting in December. Rachel and Jon requested deputations at the meeting and spoke. The outcome was the officers will look at designs for east and west sections of Union Street which do include cycle lanes. We had a follow up meeting with consultants working on that last week.
* Critical Mass started up in Aberdeen last year. It was started by one of our members with support from other members. It has been a positive thing. Martin (the organiser) is very motivated and has lots of ideas.
* One of our own achievements was the mural on Deeside Way that took a lot of planning and organising. We got a lot of great feedback and even got a mention in Holyrood parliament about it.
* Finally got around to getting ourselves insured. We now have public liability insurance which makes it easier for us to organise events and activities.
* Quite a bit of time is spent in liaison with the Council and responding to consultations.
* Big Issue ebikes came to the city although not something we were involved with. The provider of the scheme is happy with the uptake so far and says it’s doing well in the city. Let’s hope it continues to grow.
* Lots of positive things here but no new meaningful cycle infrastructure and what we are seeing being built is still for cars eg., South College Street with sub-standard cycle provision tacked on. Although we might consider our campaign re Union St a success, its depressing that we had to do it at all and that plans were brought forward by the Council which had no cycle provision at all. All we can do is keep lobbying and make as much effort as we can to get good quality cycling infrastructure.
- Election of new Officials
Clare will remain as Treasurer.
Fiona has offered to be Secretary.
Rachel will remain as Press and Campaigns Secretary.
Gavin will remain as Chair.
There were no other nominations so the above will be the elected officials of the Forum until the AGM in April 2024.
Minutes of last meeting (March) and matters arising
Gavin had a chat with the general manager of Union Square and had a general chat about accessibility. He told him what they provide for employees – they have secure cycle parking. He’s a cyclist himself and could potentially introduce us to Aberdeen Inspired and possibly get us an invite to talk to them. They sometimes allow charities to have a temporary stand in the circulation space and we could do that, perhaps later in the year e.g Sustainable Transport week in September.
On cycle parking, Laurie had spoken to Morrisons (King St), Clemens and Gavin had both approached Dobbies (Lang Stracht), and Gavin had approached Beach Boulevard Retail Park. Positive responses from the former two, no response yet from the latter.
The cycle count – Gavin got in touch with Will Hekelar to see what cycle counters are in place and they do indeed have a lot and will share that data with us. It seems there is little point in bringing back the annual kerbside count which ACF previously carried out. ACF should have enough data points from on and off road to indicate levels of use and identify trends. Jon B shared a link to the data – see below.
Consultations and liaison with Council
Ellon to Garthdee – response is on the website
Union Street – Gavin, Jon, and Colin Allanach had a meeting with consultants recently which felt a big deja vu – discussions over competition for space and how to route a cycle lane around bus stops. It is at least positive discussion.
The beach masterplan – going to Council tomorrow. In particular we’re interested in the roundabout at the top of Beach Boulevard. They’re proposing to keep the roundabout and there’ll be segregation for pedestrians and cyclists.
George Street mini-masterplan – Gavin and Rachel had a meeting with Nigel McDowell about it. It’s a single route in a zigzag so not great and they should have more permeability for cycling. Daniel says they don’t plan to have a cycle path on George Street aside from a tiny section. We hopefully made some useful points about one-way streets. Daniel says the document also says the National Cycle Network is there but that doesn’t add much or anything in the way of infrastructure. Gavin had noted the same and pointed that out in the meeting with Nigel.
Nestrans signed on-road routes – Jon: the concept is building on the back of a network we saw two summers ago during lockdown. Saw the benefits of quiet back routes and rural roads. Hopefully within the next year there’ll be signs in place. The goal is to link every academy or main town in Aberdeenshire – all the settlements and communities with 500 people or more. If you link them via non-main roads you automatically link lots of other smaller settlements. Not to compete with NCN but to compliment it. NCN is changing anyway with visions to be traffic-free, using the Formartine and Buchan Way is the plan.
Gavin got an email from the Council about small traffic changes. Usually changes to parking bays etc. He hasn’t had a close look yet but did notice they’re planning to increase the number of 20 mile zones around schools to make them mandatory. It will cover residential streets but omits the main roads. Jon says schools in Aberdeenshire will have physical signs to say they’re school streets. Laurie agreed to look over the consultation with Gavin.
We’ve had meetings with Cllr Kate Blake and have also had quarterly meetings with Ian Yuill and Miranda Radley. The next one is Thursday 18th May at 5pm. If anyone else wants to go they are welcome. After the last meeting Gavin wrote up an action log of all the points we’ve raised with them to keep track.
We had made a formal Participation Request just in advance of the December meeting in 2022. The legislation then requires the council to engage with us as a community group. We want to be involved in designs for Union Street and we want segregated cycling infrastructure.
Lastly on engagement, Rachel and Gavin have been attending the ACTUP group which is the city’s transport partnership. Rachel has been disappointed by the action from disability groups against pedestrians and cyclists. Jon says ACTUP started through Spaces for People measures. Jon has also not found much benefit in the mix.
Events, Activities & Campaigns
Critical mass this Friday.
Litter pick – 20th August 1pm on the south side of the River Dee next to Victoria Bridge.
Clean Air Day – 15th June. Gavin is available and Daniel said he could probably come in the morning. We have stickers we can give out along with postcards and neckwarmers.
Gavin is planning an audit of Deeside Way, focussing on access points, steps, cycle parking etc. We’d then present this to the Council as a request for small improvements which can (or could be) delivered quickly and inexpensively.
Any other business
Gavin has had contact from Mark McIntyre from Cycling Scotland and they’re doing a publicity campaign about close passes and wants volunteers to be case studies. If anyone is interested then contact Gavin.
Jon shared a link to data for cycling stats – https://www.cycling.scot/what-we-do/making-cycling-better/cycling-open-data
The £150k for Nestrans funds is being ring-fenced to remove some of the barriers. Cycling parking and community shelters – plans afoot for some of these community style lockers.
Date of next meeting – provisionally Tues 30 May
Aberdeen Cycle Forum 