Getting bikes from the central belt to Inverness and Aberdeen has always been a problem, both for individual commuters and holidaymakers, and for the tourist industry. Transport Scotland and ScotRail/Abellio had promised big improvements in 2018/19, with the introduction of refurbished 4-coach and 5-coach InterCity 125 High Speed Trains (HSTs). But the bike space promise has gradually been whittled down – and now we discover that for many journeys there will be fewer spaces even than at present. Meanwhile some redundant toilets will be locked away, just transporting air! Continue reading Save the Highland Bike-Rail dream!
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Council elections are approaching and are critical to cycling and transport policies and budgets for the next 5 years. We’ll tell you here how to make the most of the election opportunity locally … Continue reading Thu 4 May: Council Elections Our Spring 2017 issue, out now… highlighting Edinburgh City Council’s unique-in-UK allocation of 10% of the transport budget to cycling, contrasting with the Scottish Government’s fall to 1.6% thanks to ever-rising trunk road cash … And, of course, there’s much more … read on!! … Continue reading Spokes Bulletin 127 … a tale of two budgets On May 4th this year, every Council in Scotland will be re-elected. Our Spring Public Meeting on 6th April will be an election hustings for Edinburgh Council… Continue reading Spokes Council Hustings, 6 April The Scottish Government’s third Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (2017-2020) follows the pattern of CAPS1 and CAPS2 – a collection of increasingly useful & positive initiatives, but not an evidence-based, costed and funded programme to achieve its “unshakeable” commitment to 10% of all trips being by bike in 2020. Continue reading CAPS3 disappoints Below are the most popular Spokes tweets from the last 12 months, measured by the number of retweets (RTs). A truly fascinating picture!! Continue reading Top 2016 Tweets – what and why Update 27.1.17: Scottish Parliament REC Committee report on the draft budget quotes our submission and asks ScotGov to set out plans to “increase funding for active travel in order to make tangible progress towards meeting its stated targets.” The draft 17/18 budget just fulfils the SNP manifesto promise to maintain active travel investment at least at current levels – but it fails miserably on the manifesto’s “determination to meet our vision of 10 per cent of everyday journeys being made by bike by 2020.” Continue reading Scottish Govt draft 17/18 budget fails 2020 test All parties on Edinburgh City Council have agreed the direct, main-road, cycleroute at Roseburn, rather than the Option B back-street alternative. Continue reading East-West Route : it’s Option A at Roseburn!! All Scottish Councils go to the polls on Thursday 4 May. You can help make sure the political parties have bike-friendly manifestos!! Continue reading Council Election Manifestos Update Jan 2017: The Evening News printed a further article on Jan 2, concentrating on the fall in motor traffic. This was widely picked up on social media and received worldwide publicity, with many popular tweets e.g. this 88-RT, 114-likes tweet. We took advantage by replying to several tweets to give a link to our own article. Our November traffic count, averaged over our 4 regular count points, found bikes forming 16.4% of all vehicles – our highest ever November percentage. Bikes comprised 22.2% of all citybound vehicles, and 8.9% southbound. Continue reading Traffic count – highest ever November bike % |
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