Aberdeen Cycle Forum

Wanted Trainee Webmaster!

The ACF Website is one of out biggest assets – but after 5 years our current webmaster who built the site is now struggling to find the time to keep it maintained. As such we are looking for a DEPUTY WEBMASTER to help out. There’s no salary but you get the satisfaction and experience of working on one of the biggest cycling related web sites in NE Scotland.

The technical bit – the site runs on Linux server and is hand coded in PHP and MySQL, not windows or some fancy content management system! So if you have these skills -at any level- or have a PC and are keen to learn, please get in contact,

Take your Bike for a Ride on the Bus

Fancy getting out and about on Royal Deeside with your bike but dont want to slog all the way from Aberdeen. Stagecoach Bluebird are now providing free bike bags on their Aberdeen-Braemar services.

Learn More at Get-about

A committee of the Scottish Parliament has been examining the issue of Active Travel [this includes cycling]. Many organisations including ACF submitted evidence to the committee (Read ACF’s evidence) The committee has now concluded it’s work and the final report can be read online. A key recommendation is:

The decline in the funding of sustainable transport and active travel line needs not only to be reversed, but significantly increased …. that ambitious increases in resources must be committed to enable the delivery of active travel projects if the Scottish Government’s own target [10% of journeys by cycling by 2020] has any chance of being realised.

Naturally the wheels of government move slowly, so don’t expect anything to change on the ground immediately, but with the parliament recognising what ACF has known for years we are (very) slowly movinng in the right direction

Whilst the Scottish Government is asking for more funding on cycling, your local councillors are reported as asking for the current ring-fencing of cycling budgets provided by the government to be stopped and a common “road fund” created. ACF opposes this move and is trying to meet with councillors concerned shortly. Should you wish to make your views known to your councillors why not try this useful tool

ACF’s annual cycle count takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday 4th and 5th May 2010. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We count at locations across the city so there is bound to be somewhere convenient for you, if you can spare 1.5 hours (07:30 – 09:00 on either morning) please get contact.

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 elsewhere.

If you have always wanted to get “involved” with ACF and did not know where to start this could be your chance

Aberdeen Cycling on the Up

Latest stats from the Scottish Government are out and add more proof that cycling to work is on the increase in Aberdeen. Figures for 2007/08 show that 3.5% of journeys to work were by bike, up from 2% in 2005/06. Aberdeen has the third highest figure in Scotland – behind Edinburgh (6%) and Moray (5.4%). The average for the whole of Scotland was 2%. all data here (PDF,100kb)

This is really encouraging and shows the same trend we have been finding from our own cycle counts. The next count is on 4th and 5th May, if you can spare 1.5 hours (07:30 – 09:00 on a weekday morning) please get contact.

And remember with the spring just round the corner, the more cyclists people see, the more they will be encouraged to think about it for themselves. The best advert for cycling is….YOU!

Questions, Comments, Feedback? Please drop us a line at the email address above.

Holes Holes Holes…
…And how to get them filled

The recent bad weather has taken it’s toll on the local roads and cycle paths. Cyclists are particulary vulnerable to potholes, so why not help everyone and Report It! Fortunately ACF make it easy for you, most can be reported online so if you are reading this it should not take more than 2 minutes

Why should I bother? Well if everyone said that they would never get repaired, Roads are inspected, at best, every 6 months. A couple of good reasons include:

• You are making the roads safer for all users?
• If someone were to have an accident and claim against the council for damage, the coucil can be “not aware” unless it has been reported (or has been there 6 months)

So don’t delay – do it NOW – Just visit the ACF Pothole Tool to learn how. Some tips to get your hole filled

• Be specific – particulary with the location e.g. “Garthdee Road near the University” is not that helpful, the council is receiving many such requests per day – if it’s not clear it’s likely to be ignored… Garthdee Road, Eastbound aprox 50meters from Junction Cragievar road” is much more likely to work
• Specify the hole it’s in a cycle lane and causing a danger to vulnerable road user
• If the roads is not lit at night – say it
• Include your contact details – It’s not unheard of to be asked for more details

ACF’s on TWITTER

ACF is keen to communicate with our membership in as many ways as possible. In addition to the exisiting web pages and e-News service we are please to announce Aberdeen Cycle Forum is now on TWITTER. Follow us us at:

twitter.com/aberdeenCFIf you are already one of the “Twitterati” then subscribe to our feed and get the news updates before they appear on the web. If you are not don’t worry the existing email e-News system is still continuing.

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.