Cycling Scotland Conference 2024 highlights

Professionals from the active travel sector, local authorities, regional transport partnerships, campaigners, civil servants, politicians and volunteers joined us in Glasgow in early October for a day of networking and knowledge-sharing at the 2024 Cycling Scotland Conference.

Chaired by writer and broadcaster Catriona Stewart, the day provided delegates with an opportunity to connect with one another, share learning and celebrate important progress in supporting everyday cycling.

Keynote speakers

Deborah Paton, Head of Transport Planning and Delivery at Glasgow City Council, opened the day by sharing the city’s ambitious plans to support more everyday journeys by bike, including the ongoing development of a citywide network for cycling by 2031 and major neighbourhood improvement projects to support active travel, reduce air pollution and make streets safer.

Touching on the successes of major infrastructure projects like the Stockingfield Bridge and Govan-Partick Bridge in reconnecting communities, Deborah explored how increased on-street cycle storage, cycle training programmes and, above all, new high-quality cycle routes into the city centre, such as the South City Way, are already supporting significant modal shift towards cycling in the city.

Kate Cairns, road safety speaker, trainer and CLOCS Ambassador, delivered a powerful speech urging both a shift in perceptions around road safety and actions to reduce risks posed by large vehicles in towns and cities: “We have to change our culture about ‘accidents’ – they are preventable collisions. We must eliminate complacency and reduce risk through education, training, procedures and policy changes.”

Kate shared how bold actions are helping to create safer streets in London, highlighting the example of Camden Council, which has seen a 47% reduction in road casualty rates following changes including enforced HGV cab redesigns and increased driver training on driving around vulnerable road users.

In the afternoon, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop MSP, delivered the ministerial address to delegates. She commented on the diversity of the audience and announced £10m of Active Travel Infrastructure Fund commitments. She also highlighted the importance of increasing access to cycle training for all children, and emphasised the vital role that supporting walking, wheeling and cycling has in improving lives and lifting people out of transport poverty, declaring: “A generational step change is now needed in how we change how we travel, to tackle the climate emergency and improve public health.”

Following the ministerial address, Adrien Sartre, Advisor to the Deputy Mayor of Paris, joined us by video call to deliver an inspiring presentation on the French capital’s transformation to becoming a truly cycling-friendly city, through profound changes that are “giving streets back to people”.

Adrien shared that following a citywide rollout of 300 traffic-free school streets, introduction of 30 km/h speed limits, and rapid investment in a 400 km network of separated cycle lanes, bike journeys in Paris have increased by 110% since 2019, with many Parisian avenues now seeing more bikes than cars each day. The changes have also led to a substantial reduction in road fatalities and a decrease in air pollution on local streets.

Cross-party panel on cycling

In the afternoon, delegates were joined by representatives from the five major parties for a cross-party panel discussion, exploring actions needed at a local, regional and national level to support cycling. The panel included: Sarah Boyack MSP (Labour), Councillor Sanne Dijkstra-Downie (Liberal Democrats), Councillor Angus Millar (SNP), Mark Ruskell MSP (Greens) and Graham Simpson MSP (Conservatives).

Catriona Stewart chaired a discussion, taking questions from the audience for the panel. The panel spoke from personal experience of the benefits that cycling had brought each of them, with consensus around the need for actions to make roads safer to help more people of all ages and abilities to get around by bike. The value of cross-party support for cycling was noted, as evidenced by positive ambitious manifesto commitments in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Breakout sessions

Breakout sessions included speaker panels on Data in Cycling and Project Delivery in a New funding Model, as well as a facilitated networking session with discussions on road safety, transport poverty and climate change.

Delegates also had the opportunity to join two led walks of Glasgow Avenues and Connecting Woodside project areas, facilitated by Glasgow City Council, showing ongoing work to deliver street improvements and protected cycle lanes to enhance active travel connections between neighbourhoods and the city centre.

Cycling Champion of the Year award

The day closed with the announcement of Scotland’s Cycling Champion of the Year, presented jointly by Cycling Scotland, Cycling UK, Scottish Cycling, and Sustrans Scotland. Neil Russell, founder and Managing Director of Stirlingshire based community organisation Adaptive Riders Collective, was named as winner, celebrating his significant impact in ensuring that cycling becomes more inclusive and accessible, and his success in bringing communities together from across Scotland.