Events – Spokes Porty

Pedal on Parliament

Read on for details of our feeder ride – leaving Porty Prom at 11.30am on Saturday 22 April!

After last year’s triumphant return, Pedal on Parliament is back for another family-friendly ride through Edinburgh, on roads closed to motor vehicles, to take our message to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

Saturday 22 April 2023 – save the date.

Spokes Porty is fully supportive of POP’s manifesto to promote safe and healthy active travel, and its aim of making Scotland a cycle friendly country. We’ve been working hard to promote local schemes. While we’ve had success with small schemes, for example, ending parking on the Seafield entrance to the Prom, we are yet to see any progress on building safe strategic permament links in and out of Porty towards Musselburgh, to the east towards Leith, and to the south on Brighton Place. We are, of course, fully supportive of the temporary protected cycle lanes on Duddingston Road, Duddingston Road West and on the A1 corridor, and we look forward to them becoming permanent, albeit with design improvements. These cycle lanes are particularly important for children cycling to the local schools.

Lots has changed since this first PoP in 2012, but our core message hasn’t – it’s time to make Scotland a cycle-friendly country. The experience of seeing so many people take to bikes and enjoy our streets when the cars disappeared during COVID lockdowns showed us what we’ve always known. People will cycle if the conditions are right. It’s up to our politicians to make cycling a safe and realistic option for everyone.
pedalonparliament.org

There will be a family friendly feeder ride setting of from Portobello. We hope as many of you as possible will come along, both to support Pedal on Parliament, and to support Spokes Porty. We’ll meet at the Community Garden on Porty Prom for 11.15 in the hope of setting off at 11.30am, making our way up, via NCN1/The Innocent Path to The Meadows at a leisurely pace. That should get us to the Meadows for 12:30, with half an hour for a snack and leg stretch before we join the main ride on Chambers Street.

We have no fixed plans or times for the way home, a lot depends on peoples’ preferences on how long to stick around, but we can discuss this on the ride for those who may prefer to return in a group ride.

(This is not a led ride, we’ll all cycle together to offer moral and mechanical support but you’re responsible for your own safety.)

If you want to support PoP financially, as well as look fantastic on the day, you can buy some t-shirts and hoodies here.

Hope to see you there.

Pedal on Parliament 22

After a couple of years of local PoP-up events the classic Pedal on Parliament mass ride is back to celebrate its 10th birthday in 2022, with a new route and time.

Saturday 23 April 2022 – save the date.

Spokes Porty is fully supportive of POP’s manifesto to promote safe and healthy active travel, and it’s aim of making Scotland a cycle friendly country.

Lots has changed since this first PoP in 2012, but our core message hasn’t – it’s time to make Scotland a cycle-friendly country. The experience of seeing so many people take to bikes and enjoy our streets when the cars disappeared during COVID lockdowns showed us what we’ve always known. People will cycle if the conditions are right. It’s up to our politicians to make cycling a safe and realistic option for everyone.
pedalonparliament.org

There will be a family friendly feeder ride setting of from Portobello. Timing to be confirmed, but we’ll be making our way up, via The Meadows, from the Prom at a leisurely pace and with enough time for a snack and a rest before the mass ride sets of from Chambers Steet for Holyrood.

We’ll meet at the Community Garden on Porty Prom for 10:45 in the hope of setting off at 11:00. That should get us to the Meadows for 12:00, half an hour for a snack and leg stretch then off up to join the ride on Chambers Street.

There’s a Facebook event here.

(This is not a led ride, we’ll all cycle together to offer moral and mechanical support but you’re responsible for you own safety.)

If you want to support PoP financially, as well as look fantastic on the day, you can buy some t-shirts and hoodies here.

Hope to see you there.

Our Streets Our Nights

Spokes Porty is proud to support the InfraSisters Our Streets Our Nights mass cycle ride on 11th March, the same week as International Women’s Day. As one of the founding members of the campaign we are thrilled to see so much support across the city. We are also really pleased that a feeder ride has been organised for the ride, leaving from outside the Bank of Scotland on Porty High Street on the corner of Brighton Place at 6.40pm. We hope to see a huge contingent of folk from Edinburgh East cycle up to the Meadows to join the ride.

This is the second ride organised by the same women. In December last year, to mark the UN’s 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, women in Edinburgh led a Light Up The Night cycle ride to highlight the urgent need for cycling infrastructure that is safe and comfortable for women and girls at night. The event was prompted by several incidents on off-road paths in the city. Some of these have been close to home. Many women and girls in and around Porty are afraid to use the Innocent Path in the dark, and Fishwives Causeway, an important alternative to the most dangerous junction in the city – Porty High Street/Sir Harry Lauder Road.

170 people from across the city came on that first ride that was organised, led, and marshalled by women. In good humour, ringing our bells, with our bikes adorned in fairy lights, we created a carnival atmosphere as we cycled through the historic centre.

Despite the cold and covid, the city centre was busy with Friday night revellers, and we were greeted with friendly waves and toots from pedestrians and drivers. The wee girls at the front of the ride shouted instructions to the riders behind, and the volunteer marshals kept us all safe. It was an empowering, celebratory event, especially for the women who had never felt safe enough to cycle in Edinburgh at night on their own.

For an hour the streets were ours to share and enjoy.

Sadly, some women didn’t attend as there was no safe route for them to get to the start of the ride. We are determined to improve cycling infrastructure in the city so that women and girls can cycle without fear whenever and wherever they want. We will keep organising these rides, in the darker months of the year, until all councillors understand what is required, and commit to it.

The Our Streets Our Nights ride on the 11th March will depart from Middle Meadow Walk at 7.30pm, be around an hour long, and involve a circuit around the historic centre. Cyclists are encouraged to dress up, light up their bikes, and say it with flowers. While the ride will be led by women, everyone is welcome to attend.

As with the previous ride, the InfraSisters are calling on all councillors in Edinburgh to follow Transport Scotland’s updated Cycling by Design and:

prioritise safe and comfortable on-road cycle infrastructure, protected from traffic or off-carriageway, on well-lit direct routes
provide well-signed routes which are permeable and always have a way out, not fenced/ walled on both sides, and with good connections to other streets
provide routes which use natural surveillance where possible, for example streets with high footfall.

We hope to see many councillors and national politicians on the ride, especially from Edinburgh East!

You can sign up to the ride via Eventbrite or Facebook or turn up on the night. Use the hashtag #OurStreetsOurNights if you go along to or support the ride and follow @InfraSisters on Twitter for updates and more.