Pedal on Parliament, Edinburgh
Earlier this month I joined the Pedal on Parliament ride in Edinburgh. As a keen cyclist for most of my life (I can remember badgering my mom to allow me out onto the road on my bike when I was only 6!) I was delighted to see that there were plans to repeat the ride, after the amazing response from cyclists last year.
After all the positive things that were said by MSPs after last year’s ride, and the ongoing talk of support for sustainable travel and healthier lifestyles by the Scottish government, it surprises me that a year later so little appears to be actually happening in terms of real change. So I was determined to take part in this year’s protest. To be able to go along and take photos for the PoP team meant I was in my element – bikes and cameras all at once!
The phrase that stuck from the day was ‘We are everyone’…and we certainly were! There was an impressive array of different folk, and different bikes – young folk, old folk, police, parents and kids, super-fit people, and those who peched up the hill out of Holyrood Park on the way home. There were unicycles, mountain bikes, road bikes, tandems, reciumbents, trailer bikes, kiddy seats, tricycles, bikes with front baskets, side by side bikes, ultra-tall bikes, and unbelievably small bikes. Helmeted, lycra-clad, luminous, or not, tall ones and teeny weeny small ones, they all pedalled together in an impressive display from the Meadows down the Royal Mile and on to Holyrood.
What really made the day for me, though was the ride home. I was part of a huge group of people who cycled together out through Holyrood park and on through the Meadows towards Tollcross. At each junction we came to, there were large groups of cyclists crossing our path – mainly people from the ride who’d chosen a different route home. It felt like Edinburgh was suddenly alive with cyclists weaving their different paths across the city. I’m hoping that our politicians can find ways to make that the norm.
