CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

The future of cycle campaigning in Edinburgh (inc PoP)

(19 posts)

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    This image is from the second, 2014, Pedal on Parliament (PoP) when THOUSANDS of people turned out to protest, demonstrate and lobby politicians, primarily at Holyrood.

    Without people brought together by CCE, PoP wouldn’t have happened.

    Before the first ride, organisers were nervously hoping a few hundred would come.

    So they were shocked/exhilarated to see about 2000 people with bicycles!

    PoP definitely changed things, with politicians changing opinions and raising ‘active travel’ budgets.

    But still sticking with ‘promises’ to widen the A9 and build a bridge on the bypass.

    At council level, Glasgow seems to have got unexpected enthusiasm for new cycle infrastructure.

    Meanwhile councillors in Edinburgh have voted to remove a small bit of AT infrastructure which, if it doesn’t change the plan (again), will mean taking money from projects ‘in the pipeline’ and building unnecessary (and largely unwanted) cycle infrastructure NOT on a main/arterial route.

    Of course improvements for people who cycle/want to cycle in Edinburgh would be even worse/non-existent without 47 1/2 years of Spokes.

    It’s truly amazing the work that has been done by this group (and it continues) all without any staff EVER. (It has attracted funding for various projects -some of which I have been involved in, including The Bike Station).

    PoP was always an addition/complement to Spokes, not a criticism. There’s only so much a small group of volunteers can do!

    After a few years of only slight progress (a lot due to the unexpected/tragic intervention of Covid) and much greater awareness of ‘climate’ and health (particularly mental) it’s perhaps not surprising that some people are thinking of ‘retiring’ from cycle campaigning in Edinburgh.

    Obviously personal choice.

    Anyone involved in any sort of campaigning is aware of the effort involved and the toll it can take - if only by taking up time. For many people, circumstances change and ‘free’ time is no longer available.

    It’s also dispiriting when ‘progress’ seems to stall/hit a brick wall. ESPECIALLY when (it would seem) it’s more about Party politics than improving things for people living in Edinburgh.

    There will be no PoP this year, mostly because there are (apparently) not enough people willing/able to do the work required to make it happen.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    Of course it’s not all gloom.

    The reinvention of Critical Mass and continuing success of InfraSisters are both example of ‘things happening’.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    By Arellcat

    “

    And then along comes the joy and camaraderie of the InfraSisters

    PoP and Infrasisters and Bike Buses and every single other group gathering-not-a-protest are necessary because people aren't able or aren't minded to ride alone. There is a fine line between needing to ride as part of a group and wanting to ride as part of a group (because people who cycle - and people who motorbike - frequently contrive reasons to ride for the fun of it). When groups are the only safe way for people to cycle, the failing is on the local authority but the burden is outsourced to those organising and on those attending.

    Kirsty of all people had, I thought, an inexhaustible supply of energy, but cycle campaigning is probably governed by the same mathematics as Brandolini's Law, but more fundamentally, the law of entropy is probably exactly why creating better conditions for preferable actions and activities is so much harder than creating the conditions for more widespread but less preferable actions.

    “

    Reposted from other thread.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. LaidBack
    Member

    We remember first POP well with loads of bamboo canes and banners arriving at our first shop at Marchmont. The energy of that year was amazing. People were connected both face to face and with smartphone networking. The 'authorities' didn't expect the numbers and neither did the organisers!
    Back then it felt we were pushing at an open door. Think EdFoc had just started in 2013 and we had Mikael Colville Anderson and Copenhagenize as visitors to that.
    @Dave website had blogs about commuting with low maintenance bikes and fast low bikes like the Raptobike. @darkerside too.
    Until Covid things were in settled pattern. Biggest pro cycling thing was 20mph zones and North Meadow resurface and widen plus link to Innocent.
    Then rapid SfP deployment showed that stuff could happen faster. We sold a bike or two to people that didn't normally cycle.
    Post Covid we have conversations with some friends where they question the idea of limiting car use and whether Cargo Bikes are something they would use (or their daughter or son).
    Best one recently in Kinleith Arms. Woman telling me how she dislikes bikes on Colinton Path. I said that's why we have Lanarkshire Road lanes. She didn't like them either!

    Posted 1 year ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    @laidback why you hanging with dem folks in Kinleith?

    Posted 1 year ago #

  6. SRD
    Moderator

    @laidback I didn't even have a smartphone back then! I blame Pop for that and twitter.

    on the more general theme - I think campaigners need / deserve sabbaticals. Also good to see generational / attitudinal change. campaigns need new blood and ideas (cf Spokes website...).

    Posted 1 year ago #

  7. LaidBack
    Member

    @gembo - staying with friends that frequent it.
    @SRD - hard to believe!

    Some days the very act of cycling feels like campaigning. In a way the CM rides have grown and allow new people to network more often. CCE is one place to connect after.

    This is also new source of info (was posted on here previously).
    https://edibike.substack.com

    Posted 1 year ago #

  8. neddie
    Member

    Never give up

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/13/lost-leg-after-being-crushed-by-lorry-victoria-lebrec

    Posted 1 year ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    A pic from the past

    Early days of campaigning against lead in petrol.

    “

    CLEAR is regarded as a textbook example of how to run and win an environmental campaign.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    I thought there was a thread on ‘next PoP’, but I can’t find one.

    There was ‘talk’ about reviving it this year to ‘make sure it still worked’ with the intention of doing one next year because of the SP election.

    Unless the Secret Cycling Cabal is up to something, there will be no PoP this year.

    So

    Is next year a good idea or has PoP really ended?

    WITHOUT DOUBT PoP was a great success, both as a social entity and for making a political impact with identifiable (positive) results.

    Many of the key people that made it work have ‘moved on’. Some will be willing to pass on knowledge/advice, but any future event would rely on others - some previously involved and also ‘new’ people.

    In the past, the event was held in the run up to an election, partly with the idea of trying to influence the next Government.

    I think IF there is to be a PoP next year it should be after the election so we know which parties and individuals are in charge of implementing manifestos (or opposing some elements).

    Also, it’s clear there will be a lot of new faces, who haven’t had the opportunity of riding from The Meadows to Holyrood.

    Nicola Sturgeon is the latest person to announce they are not standing.

    “

    A raft of other SNP MSPs have already announced they will be standing down in 2026, including Cabinet ministers Shona Robison, Fiona Hyslop and Richard Lochhead, as well as former government ministers Joe FitzPatrick and Elena Whitham, and veteran Christine Grahame, who has been an MSP since devolution in 1999.

    “

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-announces-her-resignation-from-scottish-politics-here-are-her-reasons-5029336

    Posted 2 weeks ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    “

    What should cycle campaigners do differently?

    Be more humorous! The cycling lobby can be a bit po-faced. But it’s a joy to ride a bicycle. It’s free at the point of use, there’s no admin, there’s something very child-like about it — it makes me feel about eight years old. Be more fun. Emphasise the fun!

    “

    https://lcc.org.uk/news/interview-with-james-may/

    Posted 4 days ago #

  12. neddie
    Member

    Sounds a bit like the 1950s abusive husband telling his wife, "a smile wouldn't hurt"

    When you've spent 7 years trying to get a single modal filter TO PROTECT CHILDREN outside the school, 4 years of which trying to keep temporary measures from being removed by a handful of dinosaur NIMBY gammons, then AND ONLY THEN, will you have earned the right to be a little bit po-faced, Mr May.

    He clearly has privileged background and no clue what campaigners for people-friendly infrastructure have, and are, going through

    Posted 3 days ago #

  13. neddie
    Member

    I do like this statement though, which pretty much sums up cars:

    self-driving cars would have to be imbued with a morality, and once you try and do that you realise that cars are actually immoral. They are ‘kill and not be killed’ devices.

    Posted 3 days ago #

  14. bakky
    Member

    @neddie I'd say both of these attitudes are true, to be honest.

    On the one hand, campaigning work is stressful and - particularly where we have such slow progress and such a disproportionately vocal dinosaur class - draining. There needs to be space for frustration, anger and despair. I also think the realities of riding somewhere with as much vehicular cycling as we do means daily encounters with terrible, selfish, distracted and dangerous driving only compounds the lack of progress and bad feeling.

    However, the thing I'm reminded of is Chris Boardman's bit about our over-reliance on 'look at this statistic' rather than storytelling. A more emotive and positive campaign about what's good, rather than how bad what we have is, looks to me to be a big part of connecting with the folks the Walking and Cycling index identified as wanting to cycle but not doing it yet.

    A little of column A, a little of column B. Am I a centrist dad yet?

    Posted 3 days ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    “A more emotive and positive campaign about what's good, rather than how bad what we have is“

    Yes

    And maybe

    And well

    I would never discourage anyone from campaigning. It’s heartening that anyone is still willing/able.

    Part of this thread is/was an attempt to revive PoP.

    Maybe it did its job.

    Maybe its achievements (yes, there were many) can’t be added to. ‘The world has moved on’ and all that.

    In some ways ‘we’ shouldn’t need to be campaigning much.

    ‘We’ have won the arguments -

    ‘Cycling is a good thing’ - personal health, public health, planet health.

    It doesn’t matter if most people don’t cycle.

    It does matter that many people who want to, feel they can’t.

    That’s (largely) down to two main things ‘infrastructure’ and too much traffic.

    There are Policies on all that and even (sometimes) money.

    But ‘we’ know the realities -

    It’s ‘easier’ to spend LARGE sums on grandiose schemes than build-in easy (perhaps even non-controversial) basic ones - like sorting contraflow cycling on one-way streets.

    Then there are the ‘nothing must change to disadvantage MY driving RIGHTS’ people. Not helped by ABSURD amounts of ‘consultation’.

    Etc.

    Posted 3 days ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    Meanwhile in the ‘Real World’ -

    “

    Ministers have announced that the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing, a road tunnel under the Thames connecting Kent and Essex, has been approved.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/mar/25/labour-spring-statement-rachel-reeves-keir-starmer-latest-politics-live-news?page=with%3Ablock-67e288058f08ca7566597271#block-67e288058f08ca7566597271

    Posted 3 days ago #

  17. bakky
    Member

    In terms of future of PoP I don't want to speak out of turn, but there are currently wranglings behind the scenes underway to ensure the incorporated vehicle continues to exist, so that the groundwork for running another PoP is available.

    I believe another issue is that at the most recent call for volunteer help, there are a decent number of folk expressing willing, but turning that into actual graft is a different matter... I suggested a sort of 'job descriptions' approach to the different supporting roles so that folk can have an idea of time commitments needed - volunteering in general having seen a dip since Covid and cost of living crises, and it being easier to commission someone with a brief that's a bit more of a known quantity.

    Usual caveats apply; I am not speaking from much in the way of experience here :)

    Posted 3 days ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    “there are currently wranglings behind the scenes underway“

    Good news.

    I know (as you will) there are people, previously involved, willing to pass on ‘wisdom’ and (some) practical help if another PoP goes ahead.

    Posted 3 days ago #

  19. bakky
    Member

    Absolutely.

    Posted 3 days ago #

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