Annual report & accounts 2024-25

  1. Introduction
  2. Highlights
  3. Education & training
  4. Monitoring cycling, road safety and connecting people
  5. Access to bikes, cycle parking & storage
    1. Access to bikes
    2. Cycle parking and storage
    3. Campus Cycling Officer
    4. Cycling Friendly
  6. Transport Planning & Engineering
  7. Organisation

Access to bikes, cycle parking & storage

Cycle parking and storage

Schools

12,500 pupils across Scotland now have access to somewhere safe and secure to store their bike while at school.

Cycling Scotland worked with Nestrans, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and SWestrans to provide schools in each region with suitable cycle and scooter parking and storage, removing a common barrier to cycling and enabling more pupils to travel to school by bike. Each school was supported using the Cycling Friendly School award as a framework to provide tailored advice and guidance on how to support and encourage more pupils to travel to school by bike.

New parking and storage facilities were installed at 28 schools throughout Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, and Dumfries and Galloway, benefiting approximately 7,000 pupils. 

Existing facilities have been repaired at 14 schools across the Strathclyde region, bringing them back into use and providing approximately 5,500 pupils with suitable cycle storage or parking.

Workplace

In 2024-25 Cycling Scotland provided improved cycle parking and storage facilities in each region to encourage more people to make everyday journeys by bike by removing one of the most common barriers to cycling. We worked with Nestrans, SEStran, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and SWestrans.

Nestran – In the northeast we worked with Live Life Aberdeenshire to provide new secure cycle storage facilities at its sites in MacDuff, Stonehaven, Inverurie and Alford, offering somewhere safe and secure for up to 70 members of staff to store their bike.

SEStran – Cycling Scotland worked with Greener Kirkaldy and NHS Fife to improve cycle storage and parking facilities for staff at sites across Fife. Three secure cycle shelters with e-bike charging were installed at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. Secure access control was installed in an existing cycle shelter at Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, with a secure shelter at St Andrews Community Hospital refurbished and brought back in to use. Bike repair stands were also installed at each site in response to staff feedback.

SPT – In Strathclyde region we supported 14 workplaces directly, including three local authorities – South Ayrshire, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire, installing 13 cycle storage facilities. Cycling Scotland also partnered with Bike for Good to deliver Dr Bike sessions at 19 workplaces in the region, maintaining 200 bikes.

Funded by Transport Scotland, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport's People and Place programme, Cycling Scotland commissioned Anson’s consulting to research the potential to install cycle parking at bus stops across the Strathclyde region and enhance bike-bus interchange opportunities. The findings identify a range of cases for cycle parking at bus stops that support both first and last mile connectivity and will help inform future planning and delivery.

SWestrans – In Dumfries and Galloway a secure cycle store for 10 bikes was provided, alongside a maintenance stand and pump for staff and service users at the Oasis Youth Centre. These facilities will enable the 40 people who use the centre regularly to travel by bike and lock their bikes securely. Tools and equipment are available to maintain the bikes.

It has genuinely been a very smooth process. Colleagues who were previously unwilling to cycle to work due to insecure options for parking their bike, are delighted to now have a secure place to lock their bike during the day and overnight.

Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund Received support for cycle parking

Residential

In 2024-25 67 projects were supported, improving access to secure residential cycle storage for up to 20,000 people

Not having somewhere safe to store a bike is a major barrier to more people cycling, particularly affecting those living on lower incomes. With a third of households in Scotland estimated to be without secure bike storage, impacting 1.5 million people, we are focused on tackling this issue.

In 2024-25, Cycling Scotland was supported by Nestrans, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and Tactran to provide secure residential cycle storage through the People & Place Programme. Support was particularly focused towards improving access to secure cycle storage and parking facilities for people living in social housing, with Cycling Scotland providing guidance, technical advice and project management support for projects in these regions.

Nestrans: In the northeast we installed secure residential cycle storage for social tenants of Osprey Housing Association in Peterhead providing nine households with somewhere safe and secure to store their bikes. We also worked in partnership with Aberdeenshire council to improve cycle parking and storage facilities in Fraserburgh and Peterhead, making it easier for more people to make everyday journeys by bike.

SPT: Cycling Scotland worked with eight registered social landlords to provide 25 new secure cycle storage facilities across the region, benefiting approximately 700 households.

Tactran: In partnership with Perth and Kinross Council we provided secure cycle storage to residents at four sites across Perth. These were predominantly social housing developments but did include a pilot for private residents at North and South Inch where residents pay a nominal charge of £12 per year to securely store their bike.