Holy Rood Wants to Increase Cycling to School

That’s Holy Rood High School at Duddingston. No doubt the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood would like to see more children cycling to school for health and environmental reasons. Perhaps the school will be able to show them how.

Last week it attracted Cardinal Keith Patrick and the Lord Provost Lesley Hinds to celebrate their Feast Day and see the work pupils had produced for the school’s Africa Week reflecting on their links with Tanzania. Perhaps it could have a Cycling Week in future!

Visitors to the school might imagine that no-one cycled as there is nowhere to park (bikes). There used to be a bike shed but it was removed a few years ago following alterations to the accommodation and car park! Business Manager, Derek Ferguson, says that when he arrived at the school five years ago only a handful of pupils and staff cycled to school now it’s around forty pupils and a handful of staff.

The school hasn’t actively encouraged this. HOWEVER it has done more than many schools by maximising use of storage cupboards thus allowing bikes to be stored securely during the day. This only works because of the active support of the staff at the school.

Holy Rood now wants to improve the situation by providing a proper bike cage and has called in TryCycling in Edinburgh for help and advice. It is encouraging a variety of cycle projects in the Craigmillar area, some of which can be found on the Craigmillar Cycles web site.

A few years ago pupils at nearby Portobello High School ran an award winning campaign to get their open bike shed converted into a cage. A group at The Royal High School had their own scheme for encouraging cycling. They produced a report documenting what they had done and hoped to do.

Jon Snow New CTC President

Photo from Jon Snow Cycles Italy (2003) – Channel 4 directed by Judith Burrows of flarefilms. Copyright Judith Burrows.

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow takes over from sports journalist and commentator (best known for Tour de France TV coverage) Phil Liggett as President of the CTC in January 2007.

The CTC, self-styled as “the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation”, used to be known as The Cyclists’ Touring Club. It has been “protecting and promoting the rights of cyclists since 1878″.

Jon Snow said “I am hugely enthusiastic about cycling, there is hardly a day when I don’t ride. In particular I want to play a part in making cycling safer, more accessible and getting more young people riding so I am honoured to accept the position of President of CTC where I can help make that a reality.”

Jon Snow has been a Patron of Sustrans and also a judge of Transport for London’s Cyclesafer Challenge for the past three years.

The Sustrans connection is particularly interesting as the CTC and Sustrans have had ‘differences of opinion’ on occasions. Disagreements have been about things such as whether promoting ‘cycle paths’ encourages cycling or takes away from the need to make cycling on the road safer.

Jon Snow is well known for cycling around London during his working day. He is clearly a good communicator and will make sure that more is done to make things better for cyclists – whether they choose to join the CTC or not.