Not sure why the edinburgh and Lothian equality council is fixing bikes?
Getting the voucher easier to acquire than getting a slot booked at a bike shop?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Do we need a coronavirus thread?
(5710 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted 3 years ago #
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Getting the voucher easier to acquire than getting a slot booked at a bike shop?
Not wrong there. First time I've had small bike shop actively turn business away.
Posted 3 years ago # -
There were.....issues....with the data for the participating shops.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I don't see the point of the cycle voucher scheme at all (other than to pay the overheads of Cycling (UK) Scotland).
All mechanics are fully busy. Creating more customers for them changes nothing. It's a market solution when actual intervention is needed.
If Scot Gov trained bicycle mechanics and opened a cable and brake block factory to supply them that might help.
It's like there was a war and they issued ammunition vouchers instead of weapons.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Just to be clear - the bike repair scheme in Scotland is open to everyone, indeed if you go to a participating retailer it should just apply automatically (no need to get hold of a voucher). Cycling UK are trying to spread the word beyond the people who would normally get their bikes serviced anyway, but there's no means testing. They did check with retailers before they proposed the scheme that there would be enough capacity to make it actually useful, and bike shops don't have to take part if they're already so slammed they can't take it on. It's also running until March, so even if it's impossible to get your bike in to be serviced now, things may look different come October.
When the repair vouchers were announced in England, everyone was jumping up and down shouting about it not being available in Scotland so it's good news that it's happening here too, but in (I would argue) a more accessible form.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@sallyhinch thanks for the clarification. Will investigate.
Posted 3 years ago # -
These things can only be judged by the effect they have. As far as I'm aware the current supply of skilled labour and parts to the market is saturated. Increasing demand for a saturated services ought to (I think?) increase the price to the point where demand and supply of the constrained service match? Interest in the scheme is high - people think it has created more mechanics and parts but it hasn't.
I shall ask a bicycle-owning neighbour in a month if they aware of this scheme. My guess is they won't be.
What we need is an increase in the scarce service. Or we would if there were safe places to use a bicycle. My suspicion is that bicycles are being repaired and then put back into storage.
As Dictator Benign Of All Caledonia I would enact a raft of legislation:
x) Car infrastructure only allowed where walking, cycling and public transport are already fully serviced.
g) All citizens to have enough money to own, maintain and store good bicycles
4.8) Bad bicycles forbidden
iii) All citizens trained in the upkeep and repair of the basic objects of life
3c) That is all for now.Posted 3 years ago # -
*Obviously* The Bike Station (or similar or new) should rampup (©️ UKGov) mechanic, training and pre-used parts capacity.
Presumably a fair chunk of the £50 will go on labour rather than new bits.
Whether this gets more bikes back in use remains to be seen, but the scheme is (probably) better than ‘Nice’ share-the-road messages.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Yes share the road messages belong in the bin, functioning bicycles are a good thing.
Posted 3 years ago # -
"4.8) Bad bicycles forbidden"
Contentious!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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I thought that was a standing order?
Posted 3 years ago # -
I once went to pittodrie ended in arrest, sacking and divorce (not for me but for a stupid man in the party)
Posted 3 years ago # -
Predictable response. Critics are saying 'open up the economy' and 'close it down' simultaneously.
Also trying to suggest Aberdeen is being singled out. Don't think that's true.
Pub chain actually closed itself down yesterday realising that the weekends total failure to distance clients has resulted in this spike.@LiamKerrMSP《《 #Aberdeen has been badly let down by the mess of SNPs test & protect strategy. Our hospitality trade has been unacceptably singled out. Businesses have received next to no help. There are systematic failures with the SNPs contact tracing regime & this has been exposed here.》》
Posted 3 years ago # -
We got our official guidance for the school starting back.
Having bought new uniforms they've advised us kids would be better wearing joggers and polo shirt, having bought PE kit we've been told they'll not need it for the forceable.
Most annoying, for my boy any way, is no bikes in school presumably because of the one way system and the lack of imagination that some people have (two loops of the one way system for example) and as usual I assume the people writing this have no concept that cycling might be integrated into some peoples day as the car is to theirs.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@steveo, what school, that advice is a bit old. School uniform fine, blazers less likely to get washed so blazers not essential. You can listen to the schools boss saying this on the latest council committee today.....
Posted 3 years ago # -
My daughter's primary school have simply advised that clothing that can be washed frequently should be worn, so no blazers etc. Also no school bag, just a lunch bag. Nothing about bikes but relatively few kids cycle to her school anyway. It will be "social bubbles" and staggered break times, and probably no school dinners, need to bring a packed lunch.
My son's high school has a different system in place, which may be revised following risk assessments...
Posted 3 years ago # -
@Gembo, Carrick Knowe. that's the one we received this morning I think.
We've been told school bag is okay but will be left on the back of chairs!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Our school are thankfully allowing bikes, the only advice being: collect your child’s bike first before collecting child, to avoid going round the one-way more than once
Posted 3 years ago # -
'I don't think people are really taking Covid seriously'
Posted 3 years ago # -
The school I work in has closed the rear car park. No word on bikes. The bike shed was set on fire a few years ago so now it’s just a steel frame with no plastic.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@weefolldingbike
Is the door still locked?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Large crowd of youngsters with no masks queueing on the doorway to get into somewhere on Shandwick Place. More clusters of inebriates on George St, George IV Bridge, Picardy Place (inc. one being apprehended by constables) and North Bridge. You'd think they'd never heard of Aberdeen.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I’ll check. Probably. Only one kid ever used it. When it was torched it was full of condemned electrical kit.
There is one in Coatbridge with no plastic left too.
Posted 3 years ago # -
ScotGov desperately trying to crawl back from the 'Well if we'd given the poor kids good results it wouldn't have been credible' position of last week:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-53719477
It is good to see an apologiy to be fair, though I can't see how it wil save Swinney as he's pretty much failed on every measure since he took over the Education brief.
Posted 3 years ago #
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