On the 22nd April mums, dads, sons, daughters, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and friends will be cycling in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness (Glasgow on the 23rd April) to urge our politicians to improve cycling infrastructure all over Scotland. That’s this coming Saturday! Tomorrow! We need as many people as possible to have the greatest impact so please join us.
The benefits of ditching the car in favour of the bike are so far-reaching we cannot let our politicians ignore them. A study published in the British Medical Journal yesterday found,
Cycle commuters had a 52% lower risk of dying from heart disease and a 40% lower risk of dying from cancer. They also had 46% lower risk of developing heart disease and a 45% lower risk of developing cancer at all.
Cycling also makes you feel good, it reduces pollution and traffic congestion, it reduces our greenhouse gas emissions, it helps people to lose weight, and it’s fun. However very few people cycle to work, school, or the shops in Scotland because there’s nowhere to cycle unless they are prepared to brave the roads alongside cars, trucks and buses. We have to start allocating road space for cyclists and make our cities more pedestrian- and cycle-friendly. The only way this will happen is with pressure on politicians from us, the general public.
Spending money on cycling infrastructure returns more in benefits to the community than it costs to build. A study commissioned by the city of Sydney found that for each $1 that was spent on cycling infrastructure, $3.88 was returned to the community through improvements to health, pollution, and congestion.
A University of Auckland study found the benefits of spending on cycling infrastructure were 10-25 times greater than the costs.
A recent Finnish study also found benefits outweighed costs even in the worst case scenario.
If you want to participate you can find out when everyone is meeting and where at the following links:
Pedal on Parliament
POP Edinburgh
POP Glasgow
POP Aberdeen
POP Inverness
Good luck on your cycling demonstration. I hope it brings awareness. 🙂
Thank you! Me too.
Good luck with this. Proper infrastructure mades a huge difference to safety and enjoyment. Wish I could be there to support the initiative.
How is this fitting (or not) with the science marches? Looks like for Scotland there’s just the one scheduled for Edinburgh.
I actually didn’t know about the science marches until I read Ken’s post about it. I don’t think there’s one happening here. Pedal on Parliament is an annual event. I think this is the fourth or fifth year running.
Also, thanks for gathering those links in one place. Saved me some work!
Hope this has an impact. I went on my second bike ride of the year this morning. I was so excited last night when I realised it would likely be warm enough in the morning for me to fit in a ride before the traffic got busy. Oh, also I ate some of my friend’s vegan, gluten-free cheesecake last night and it was the best dessert ever. If you ate that much conventional cheesecake, you’d feel full and stodgy, but this was great.
Yum! Do you know what was in the cheesecake? I never feel sick and full after meals. I think it’s animal fats that tend to give that full and stodgy feeling.
There were husks from the leftovers from making almond milk in the base. Then there were various other things in the top – I think coconut oil, cashews soaked in water overnight featured, lemon juice, honey. The top was half vanilla flavoured, then half of it had pureed raspberries swirled through it. The bottom also had dates and crushed almonds.