Category: Cycling
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South College Street Consultation
The Aberdeen City Council has a consultation open until the 19th January 2021 on proposed changes to South College Street. This work is part of a bigger project known as the Berryden Corridor which will see a dual carriageway built from north to south through the central city. I spent much of last weekend writing […]
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What’s Rachel been up to lately?
I’ve had less time to write lately. I’ve been trying to do four jobs – my paid full-time job as a product manager for Creative Force, my role as campaigns secretary for the Aberdeen Cycle Forum, my work for Aberdeen Climate Action on their websites, and a new project I’ve taken on to help address […]
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Cycling to Aberdeen beach … with children
A friend of mine started cycling around Aberdeen with her young children during lockdown when the roads were quiet and they’ve continued even now the roads are busy again. She inspired me to try the same with Daniel and Elizabeth because although I have cycled with them many times around Aberdeen, they always sit in […]
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Not a kitten any more, cycling lessons, and in the paper
Victoria sleeps in our bed most nights now and I mean literally in our bed. She buries herself under the covers head and all. I don’t know how she can stand it. It must get terribly hot. I think she probably alternates and spends some of the time on the bed and some of the […]
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I can’t even begin to desribe my frustration and disappointment with Aberdeen city council … again
Last month for the first time ever I was impressed with the Aberdeen city council for installing European-style bike lanes at the beach. This was a first for Aberdeen which is an oil city with a transport strategy straight out of the 1970s. The bike lanes were built with funding from the Sustrans Spaces for […]
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Pavement cycling
David Hembrow is an Englishman who lives in the Netherlands and writes a blog called A view from the cyclepath. He also has a You Tube channel about cycling infrastructure. He’s very good at making observations about people, transport, and infrastructure and drawing conclusions from what he sees. This video is a very good one […]
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Cycling infrastructure benefits everyone
The Aberdeen City Council has really been getting a hammering from residents in Aberdeen about the installation of a segregated bike path at the beach. I can see what an uphill battle it is for cycling here. Some of the comments I’ve seen are extraordinary. One woman wrote: okay well I’ll carry on as normal […]
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Aberdeen beach cycle path
About a month ago the Aberdeen city council announced plans for a bike path at the beach. This is being developed from part of their spaces for people funding which is money they received to help pedestrians navigate in a world with a novel virus flying around. I was interviewed for the story when it […]
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An open letter to the Aberdeen City Council about South College Street
This past week I have felt very frustrated with the Aberdeen City Council after I read about their plans to spend £5.5 million adding another lane for private motor vehicles to a road in central Aberdeen. A bike path has not been included in these plans and the road in question is uninviting for pedestrians […]
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Cyclist has to pay pedestrian who walked out in front while looking at phone
I’m pleased to see this fellow’s GoFundMe page doing so well. It’s nearly up to £40,000 after just a couple of days. For those who don’t know the story, Robert Hazeldean was cycling in London when a pedestrian stepped out in front of him and the two collided. The pedestrian was looking at her phone […]
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I despair when I see these people cheer
Last week the West London Borough of Chelsea and Kensington, one of the wealthiest in the country, voted against a Transport for London proposal for segregated cycling infrastructure. Although I don’t live there and it doesn’t affect me directly, I felt despair when I saw the applause after the council announced the decision. Rapturous applause […]
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Can bike paths save the high street?
High streets in Britain are in decline. People say this is due to online shopping and this is undoubtedly part of the cause. It’s so easy to buy goods on the internet and have them delivered to your home that there’s no need to go out to the shops. You can even get your groceries […]
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A vision for King Street, Aberdeen
Earlier this year I applied for and received funding for the Aberdeen Cycle Forum to commission two visualisations of streets in Aberdeen with a bike path. One of them has just been released. It’s for King Street and extends the King Street Design Competition we held by taking the winning designs and turning them into […]
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Tern GSD – electric cargo bike review
I’ve had the very great pleasure of testing a Tern GSD – an electric cargo bike – for a couple of days. I picked it up from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative on Thursday evening and then flew home like I’ve never done before. Indeed on the way home I cycled up to some traffic lights where […]
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Police Scotland say roads unsuitable for slow-moving individuals
Tomorrow Aberdeen will be having a mass bike ride in protest of the lack of cycling infrastructure in the city. This is part of a nation-wide group of protests under the umbrella of Pedal on Parliament 2019. Several weeks ago I notified the police of the event, out of courtesy. In the past they’ve usually […]
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In our convertible on the hottest Easter ever
It was a hot weekend and since my bike, Hoss, is a convertible we went out on Saturday with the top down. Apparently it was the hottest Easter for our region since records began which is, sadly, a sign of things to come. It will continue getting hotter and hotter unless we get our emissions […]
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Mass bike ride in Aberdeen on Sunday 28th April
The Aberdeen Cycle Forum is organising a mass bike ride on Sunday 28th April at 11am, starting from Marischal College. This is part of Scotland’s Pedal on Parliament 2019 but this year is a little bit different because the usual Edinburgh ride which attracts thousands of people is not happening. Instead the focus is on […]
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King Street cycle path competition
Last week, on behalf of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum, I launched a design competition for a cycle path on King Street in Aberdeen. Out of all the cities in Scotland, Aberdeen was the only one not to apply for Sustrans Community Links Plus funding this year which is specifically for infrastructure projects like this. The […]
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It’s 4C and I’m hot
I love our Saturday bike rides to Highland Dance for Elizabeth followed by lunch at Newton Dee. My bike told me it was 4C: But I got hot from the exercise. I feel so happy after a bike ride. We’re so lucky to live somewhere we can cycle all year round. I love feeling the […]
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In praise of my electric cargo trike
Elizabeth has been off school sick this week and not wanting to make her walk to school each day when we go with Daniel, I’ve been taking them in Hoss instead. It has been over a year since I stopped cycling the kids to and from school in Busby – now we walk. It’s good […]
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