Pedal on Parliament

The great city is not the one that has highways, but one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can go safely everywhere.

Enrique Peñalosa

Who are we?

Pedal on Parliament is a grassroots organisation, made up of ordinary people just like you. We are united by our desire to make it safer and easier for everyone to ride a bike – whatever bike they ride (and especially if they don't ride a bike yet).

We've held five successful protests in Edinburgh- with simultaneous events in Aberdeen in the last two years - where thousands of us have cycled and walked from the Meadows to the Scottish Parliament. Party leaders have ridden with us. We've made the news. We've had a joyous cavalcade of children, parents, polis, grannies and dogs on one, two, three or four human-powered wheels.

This year, we are making Pedal on Parliament bigger than ever ahead of the local elections in May. We are planning protests in Aberdeen, Inverness, and Edinburgh (April 22nd) and Glasgow (April 23rd). It turns out that this is quite a lot more expensive than you'd think, so we need to raise some money.  And that's where you can help! Please support our Crowdfunder.

What do we want?

Cycling should be the obvious solution to many of Scotland’s ills. It is cheap, healthy, democratic and convivial, benefits local economies and makes the streets a safer place for all.

We want our local politicians to support active travel in our communities, so that we can live in a healther and happier Scotland. We want our children to be able to cycle to school in safety. We want to get to the shops by bike without choking on fumes or having to go round the houses. We want to get to work and back in one piece. We'd like our roads and streets to work for everybody, instead of only occasionally just about working for those who are driving a car.

We are calling on all Scotland’s politicians, of all parties, to sign up to the following eight point manifesto in order to make cycling a realistic choice for everyone, from eight to eighty – and show the rest of the UK that cycling doesn’t just belong on continental Europe, but in the country where it all began:

1)    Proper funding for cycling (5% of transport budgets within 10% overall for active travel)
2)    Design cycling into Scotland’s roads.
3)    Safer speeds where people live, work and play
4)    Integrate cycling into local transport strategies
5)    Sensible road traffic law and enforcement
6)    Reduce the risk of HGVs to cyclists and pedestrians
7)    A strategic and joined-up programme of road user training
8)    Solid research on cycling to support policy-making

From Kirkpatrick MacMillan onwards, Scotland has a long history of popular cycling which has been all but forgotten. We believe these times can come again and Scotland can once more be a beacon for the world.

You can find out more about our manifesto - and all about this year's protests - at our website: pedalonparliament.org

What do we need the money for?

The money raised will help to fund the core activities of Pedal on Parliament: organising family-friendly cycling protests where we take our message to politicians, and keeping the pressure on those politicians to keep their promises when it's not election time.

We have banners to make, permits to pay for, posters to print, stages and PA systems to hire and marshall's vests to procure, as well as all the other sundry costs of organising protests in four of Scotland's cities. Any money left over after this year's protests will go to PoP's reserves, where it will be used to keep PoP an ongoing concern and to pay our volunteers' travel expenses when they go to meet with officials and politicians.

What rewards can we offer?

We're very humbled to have some wonderfully generous and talented people and organisations supporting us, and so we have a long list of rewards for you to choose from, including:

• A year's worth of bike hire across participating cities in the UK, courtesy of nextbike 
• Stickers, cycle pennants, T-shirts and hoodies featuring distinctive designs by Magnificent Octopus and Dashed Lines
• Membership of Go Bike, the Strathclyde Cycle Campaign
• A guided tour of East Dunbartonshire's finest cycle infrastructure with the legendary Magnatom
• A poster from the very first PoP, signed by Mark Beaumont, and many other classic PoP posters, postcards and leaflets
• Spokes cycle maps of Edinburgh and the Lothians
• A chance to feature in a video with the mysterious Bike Gob
• Signed CDs from Gypsy Jazz quartet Rose Room
• Tickets for concerts by the Scottish Sinfonia
• The original models of Katie and her dog from our Katie Rides to School video, created by artist and illustrator Hugh Bryden
• We'll send a politician a copy of Peter Walker's forthcoming book Bike Nation: How Cycling Can Save The World

With every reward we will list your name on our website as a supporter (unless you wish to stay anonymous). You can pledge more than once if you'd like different rewards, and look for our bundles for better value!

With every amount pledged - even if you don't choose a reward - you will have the knowledge that you have paved another section of the metaphorical cyclepath to Scotland becoming a truly cycle-friendly country.

Photography (c) Chris Hill 2016