Annual report & accounts 2025-26

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

Access to bikes, cycle parking & storage

Cycling Friendly

Cycling Scotland provided advice and support to organisations across Scotland to improve facilities for cycling at work, place of study and within the community.

The Cycling Friendly award programme provides one-to-one guidance and support to workplaces, schools, campuses and communities to enable and encourage cycling. Through the programme, organisations that offer cycling facilities, promote active travel through policies and communications, and show a commitment to cycling can achieve recognition with an award.  

In 2025-26, Cycling Scotland supported 144 organisations to achieve the Cycling Friendly award. A total of 35 primary schools and nine secondary schools were able to achieve the certification across Scotland.  

77 workplaces and 23 community groups with more than 1.13 million employees have achieved the award, including educational institutions, NHS regional health boards, housing associations, and private, public and third sector employers.  

Currently there are 1,765 organisation sites engaged in the award programme, including 920 workplaces having achieved or working towards the award. These figures reflect settings and regional areas where support has been funded through People and Place programme. Working with SPT, SWestrans and Tactran, we supported 120 workplaces, community groups and schools to achieve the Cycling Friendly award in 2025-26.

Workplaces and community groups employing 1.13 million staff have achieved the Cycling Friendly Award

Targeted support across the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport region helped 72 organisations achieve the award. Cycling Friendly support has been provided to Scottish Government sites at Atlantic Quay, Faskally and Saughton House.

Case study

Advanced Clothing Solutions

Colleagues tell us they feel healthier, save money and arrive at work with more energy

Anthony Burns Chief Operating Officer at ACS

Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) is a large circular fashion hub based in Scotland that helps brands and retailers transition from traditional linear fashion models to circular ones. 

The business provides services that extend garment life and reduce waste at their hub based at Eurocentral, just off the M8 motorway in North Lanarkshire. This is well located in terms of regional connectivity, but like many industrial estates, it presents challenges for active travel.

ACS renewed its Cycling Friendly Employer award in 2025, following its continuing efforts to make cycling an easy and practical option for staff.

Thanks to its participation in the Cycle to Work scheme, staff have been able to purchase an expanded range of bikes to suit their needs, with ACS also hosting Dr Bike sessions on site throughout the year to help staff keep their bikes running smoothly.

Eager to help even more staff take up cycling, ACS recently introduced pool bikes, available for staff who might be curious about commuting by bike, with one employee sharing the impact: "Having access to a pool bike meant I could try cycling at work without having to invest upfront — now I’m cycling almost every day".

Anthony Burns, Chief Operating Officer at ACS shared: "By adding pool bikes, a mini on-site cycle hub, and making Cycle to Work easy, we've removed practical barriers and increased interest in everyday cycling. Colleagues tell us they feel healthier, save money and arrive at work with more energy".