Category Archives: Transport

PEDAL ‘Street Level’ — make it happen on your street!

Posted on May 22, 2014 | 1 Comment

PEDAL ‘STREET LEVEL’ NEEDS YOU TO
“DO GOOD STUFF ON YOUR STREET”

Would you love to have a street party on your street — but nev­er got round to mak­ing it hap­pen? Or do you think car-shar­ing with a few people who live close by would make sense, but you’re not sure how to go about it? Maybe you think it’s crazy that 10 people in your street have a lawn mower, when you could all just use the same one?

If so, Street Level may be for you.

It’s not com­plic­ated – just the chance to bring togeth­er a bunch of people who’d like to start some­thing good on their street — so they can share a bit of mor­al and prac­tical sup­port. Let’s get togeth­er, share ideas and resources and sup­port one anoth­er to make good things hap­pen on our streets.

The kinds of things we might do are:

Organise street parties

Join Streetbank

Get on-street bike storage

Start com­munity gardens

Build on-street planters/trees

Make or com­mis­sion pub­lic art

Share chick­ens

Start food/solar/insulation co-ops…

… stuff like that.

If you’re inter­ested, email info@pedalporty.org or call Eva

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Posted in Community, Energy, gardening, PEDAL, Recycling, Transport, Uncategorized, Volunteering, Waste

Announcing a new PEDAL working group: Bike Group

Posted on March 18, 2014 | 1 Comment

We are set­ting up a new cyc­ling steer­ing group for PEDAL — we’ve star­ted run­ning a loc­al sur­vey on what people would like to help them cycle more, and aim to use this to apply for fund­ing support.

We’re think­ing: Dr Bike ses­sions for the mar­ket, adult cycle train­ing, com­muter bud­dy­ing, and on-street bike tools. If you’d like to get involved, get in touch with us or come along to the next mar­ket to have a chat.

Contact Charlotte on portycharlotte@yahoo.co.uk if you’re interested.

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Posted in Transport, Uncategorized

Fancy(Bike)Dress?! for Bike Full Day/ Car Free Day 2013

Posted on August 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

If you fancy not only com­ing to the ‘Strictly Cycling’ per­form­ance out­side the Town Hall at 11am on Sunday but also join­ing in for (some of?) the cycle ride along the Prom and then the cycle track to the Mela at Leith Links, then why not dress up your bike for the occasion?!

After the 30 minutes ‘cycle-about’ show (11am to 11.30am on Sunday September 1st 2013) out­side the Town Hall, they’ll take an hour’s break (11.30 to 12.30) before set­ting off from the Cake stand on the Prom at the bot­tom of Marlborough Street at 12.30 to cycle along the prom­en­ade to Leith links, with as many cycle of us as feel like join­ing them!

 

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Posted in Transport, Uncategorized

‘Strictly Cycling’ Cycle Ballet: Car Free Day/ Bike Full Day, 11am, 1st September

Posted on August 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Not so much Car Free Day as Bike Full Day — Sunday September 1st 2013!

Strictly Cycling (Raysto Images)

Strictly Cycling (Raysto Images!

Strictly Cycling is an excit­ing new ‘cycle-about’ show com­bin­ing impro­visa­tion, cho­reo­graphy and visu­al per­form­ance. The per­form­ance plays with the every­day events and exper­i­ences of rid­ing a bike, adding a hint of the sur­real and com­ic­al, to change the way you think about cyc­ling and your city spaces.

Strictly Cycling is a strolling / cyc­ling, prom­en­ade-style per­form­ance inspired by the flash mob phenomenon. 

The per­form­ance will last about 30minutes.  Then the com­pany will take a break from 11.30 to 12.30 before set­ting off from the Cake stand on the Prom at the bot­tom of Marlborough Street to cycle along the prom­en­ade to Leith links, with as many cycle mob fol­low­ers as feel like join­ing them! So come to the per­form­ance out­side the Town Hall at 11am and

Today's to do list

then join in for as much of the cycle ride along the Prom and then the cycle track to the Mela at Leith Links as you feel like.

 

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Posted in events, Transport, Uncategorized

Lothian Buses Open Day, 22nd September

Posted on August 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Lothian Buses will be hold­ing a depot open day at Central Depot, 55 Annandale Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4AZ on Saturday 22 September between 11.45 and 16.00.  This is part of the Cockburn Association’s Doors Open Day event across Edinburgh.

The event is a great FREE fun day out for all of the fam­ily – high­lights including:

  • Edinburgh Buses from the 1950’s to date on display
  • Guided open-top bus tours of the depot
  • Tours of the depot in a vin­tage double-decker
  • Trips through our bus wash­er in our state-of-the-art hybrid double-deck­er buses
  • Manufacturer stand includ­ing an artist’s impres­sion of our forth­com­ing single-deck­er hybrid buses
  • Driving sim­u­lat­ors
  • The Heart of Midlothian parade bus AND the Scottish Cup
  • Bus hois­ted on jacks for you to walk under
  • The chance to sit in the driv­ing seat of a double-deck­er and play with the controls
  • Playbus with ball pit and slides
  • Bus toppled onto its side and recov­ery demon­stra­tion (2.30pm)

There will also be refresh­ments and toilets.

There is also a com­pet­i­tion on our web­site to win the chance to see behind the scenes of their brand new Control Room suite.  See http://lothianbuses.com/news/2‑general-news/1215-doors-open-day-2012.html for more details and how to enter.

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Posted in events, Transport

Car Free Day Bike & Boat Parade!

Posted on September 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Here is the report we sent to www.350.org who want to use pho­tos of this and oth­er events hap­pen­ing across the plan­et today to pro­ject onto the UN build­ing in New York and let the powers that be know that the people will carry on lead­ing until the lead­ers follow:

“Here in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, the sun shone and 50 folk turned out on their bicycles to cel­eb­rate a world mov­ing bey­ond fossil fuels.

“Another dozen folk on row­ing skiffs from our loc­al row­ing club joined in row­ing along the shore next to the cyc­lists as we pro­cessed to the site of what we hope will become the first com­munity owned urb­an tur­bine in the UK. The bicycles and boats were full of people of all ages, and the cyclists were led by a bike dec­or­ated as a great green dragon! With earth flags fly­ing and ban­ners read­ing “100% renew­able energy now” we enjoyed the sun­shine and renewed our hope that com­munity action — such as the com­munity orch­ard and oth­er food grow­ing pro­jects we have begun, and insu­la­tion pro­jects and the pro­posed com­munity tur­bine — can help ensure our chil­dren look back with hap­pi­ness at what we have done to ensure their lives are blessed with renew­able energy and renewed communities.”

We were blessed with won­der­ful sun­shine for Car Free Day 2011 (poster here), and we had a good turnout of all ages, earth flags, bikes, scoot­ers and row­ing skiffs.

We met at 2pm at the Cake Stand at the bot­tom of Marlborough Street, waited for the two row­ing skiffs to get ready with their earth flags fly­ing, then set off cyc­ling along the Prom to the beach below the pro­posed com­munity tur­bine site at Seafield. This year Our Car Free Day was held on inter­na­tion­al ‘Moving Planet’ Day of action (September 24th.)

Some folk spent the morn­ing at the Orch­ard for the Equinox monthly work day and then cycled down to join every­one for the 2pm start. Others joined the ‘Moving Planet: mov­ing bey­ond fossil fuels’ March and Rally at Holyrood before cyc­ling down to join our bike and boat parade. Others man­aged to fin­ish the shop­ping, or even get out of bed, in time to join us!

We had thought of hold­ing a time tri­al (see­ing how well a car, a bike, a skate­board, a skiff do racing against each oth­er if none of them are fossil fuelled!) but were informed by the police that all vehicles (except work vehicles) are banned from the Prom — which is a very good thing!

Ok, why not try to guess which of these four pho­tos www.350.org chose to run with, and then think what title they might have giv­en it?

You can find out the photo and the unex­pec­ted title by click­ing HERE!

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Posted in carbon reduction, Energy, Transport

Exciting dates for your diary!

Posted on August 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

Saturday Aug 27th 2−30−4.30 — Local Currency Event

Join us at Old Parish Church Hall, Belfield Street, to dis­cuss how to get an Edinburgh-wide loc­al cur­rency in place by this time next year (for more inform­a­tion, scroll down to the earli­er post on the subject).

Saturday Sept 3rd — Next Organic Market in Brighton Park

This will be the 1st anniversary of the mar­ket and — as well as the won­der­ful stalls — will include:

- a series of brief inspir­ing films from 10.30 and an organ­ic pic­nic (bring your own food or buy at the mar­ket) from 12.30 as PEDAL becomes one of 12 com­munit­ies across Scotland host­ing a ‘Blasta’ event cel­eb­rat­ing Local Food. (Blasta is Gaelic for ‘tasty’).

- a Big Things On The Beach pub­lic art event from 10 called TOXME which you are invited to par­ti­cip­ate in, an event which high­lights the tox­ic chem­ic­als we are exposed to in our daily foods and lives.

Sunday Sept 4th — POD’s Portobello Village Fair (2−5)

As well as con­trib­ut­ing to the light-hearted home grown veget­ables com­pet­i­tion, PEDAL will have  two stalls: one for the Orchard and bee keep­ing group, and one to enable people to ask ques­tions about our pro­posed com­munity-owned Turbine.

Saturday Sept 24th — Car Free Day (set off at 2)

- Meet at 2pm at the Cake Stand at the bot­tom of Marlborough Street to cycle along the Prom to the beach below the pro­posed Turbine site at Seafield, or join  us at the orch­ard any­time after 10 for the monthly work day and Equinox cel­eb­ra­tions and then cycle down to join every­one for the 2pm start.

- This year kids are going to need to per­suade their par­ents to help them dress up their bike before­hand, and we will be encour­aging row­ers, canoests and sail­ors to join us in demon­strat­ing fossil fuel free travel! We may even stretch to a time tri­al: see­ing how well a car, a bike, a skate­board, a skiff do racing against each oth­er if none of them are fossil fueled!

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Posted in Community, Food, Local Economy, Market, Orchards, PEDAL, Transport, Wind Turbine

Bike Week launched at Bike Station

Posted on June 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 05:42 AM PDT

To launch Bike Week in Scotland, makeover TV celebrit­ies Colin and Justin vis­ited the Bike Station to help send the mes­sage of this year’s theme — Britain’s Biggest Bike Fix.

Britain’s Biggest Bike Fix is an ambi­tious attempt to fix as many bikes as pos­sible dur­ing one week.

The Bike Station will be doing its bit:

At Dr Bike’s they’ll be fix­ing bikes cycled to us on the day, with a mobile work­shop on loc­a­tion in Edinburgh*and Glasgow.

At Fix Your Own Bike ses­sions in the Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth Bike Stations.

And at each Bike Station, mech­an­ics will be repair­ing as many old, dis­carded bikes as possible.

There is a full list of all Bike Week events on the Bike Week events web­site.

* in Edinburgh, get your bike fixed at any Bike Station event, and enter a free prize draw to win a new bike.

 

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Posted in Transport

Traffic & Parking Consultation 25th May

Posted on May 15, 2011 | 3 Comments

In Porty Town Hall, Edinburgh Council is hold­ing a Traffic & Parking Consultation on Wednesday 25th May 7 – 9pm.

If you live on Marlborough St, Bellfield S, Regent St, Straiton Place or Bath St — you are invited to have your say about how the Council should deal with the park­ing con­ges­tion on these streets.

On a per­son­al note: We have a car and live on Marlborough Street. Here are some sug­ges­tions to help solve the traffic and park­ing problems:

PARKING ON ONE SIDE OF THE STREET ONLY:

This street (like Bath Street) have park­ing on only one side (instead of be­ing impass­able for ped­es­tri­ans by cars park­ing on the pave­ments). This would dis­cour­age us (and maybe oth­ers?) from own­ing cars since cars in a city like Edinburgh are (for most of us) all about con­veni­ence, and not being able to park here would be migh­tily inconvenient!

ON-STREET COVERED CYCLE RACKS:

Instead, some of the remain­ing park­ing spaces should be con­ver­ted into covered cycle racks so that using bicycles can be made more con­veni­ent (or simply made pos­sible!) for those of us in tene­ments (and those in houses). These need not be indi­vidu­al cubicles as used on many sta­tions (which take up too much room per bike) but a covered rack where bikes can be locked up and have the worst of the rain kept off them.

MAKING STREET USE FAIRER:

Those who con­tinue to park on the street could con­trib­ute to com­munity trans­port ini­ti­at­ives through com­munity per­mits that can help pay for such cycle park­ing shel­ters and help make the city car club cheap­er for those who decide to relin­quish their cars, or for those who don’t have a car but need to use one. This could be a pop­u­lar and innov­at­ive approach and would be far more pop­u­lar, help­ful and tar­geted on help­ing solve our trans­port issues, than people pay­ing for Council park­ing permits.

Alongside the excel­lent bus ser­vice, per­haps this will help us to kick the car habit and make our streets safer and bet­ter places to be.

Any oth­er thoughts out there? It could be use­ful to have a range of sug­ges­tions, rather than just com­plaints, to bring to the meeting!

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Posted in Transport

Free Family Cycle Commuting training and advice

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Bike Station is now offer­ing *free* train­ing and sup­port for Edinburgh par­ents inter­ested in giv­ing fam­ily cycle-com­mut­ing a go.

This is part of the new Spokes & Bike Station ‘Weans on Wheels’ (WOW!) pro­ject this year, which aims to encour­age more every-day fam­ily cycle-com­mut­ing by provid­ing inform­a­tion and sup­port to par­ents, par­tic­u­larly those with chil­dren too young to go on their own bike.   The aim is to build aware­ness, skills and con­fid­ence through hands-on advice and train­ing.  There are real­ist­ic (and fun, healthy and edu­ca­tion­al) altern­at­ives to the dreary old car-based daily travel routine for play-group, nurs­ery, school etc. Continue read­ing →

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Posted in Transport