InfraSisters Our Streets Our Nights

The Scotsman

InfraSisters, Our Streets Our Nights  Edinburgh, Mass Cycle Ride, to campaign for night time cycling infrastructure that’s safe for women and girls.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 [Background noise]

00:09 So the Infrasisters are a group of women that organise a couple of rides a year

00:15 through Edinburgh City Centre to campaign for cycling infrastructure

00:20 that's safe and comfortable at night for women and girls.

00:23 And as most of you will know who have arrived here tonight from not right in the city centre,

00:29 it's really tricky so a lot of people aren't here.

00:33 They couldn't make it either because they were worried that the roads were icy

00:36 or the off-road paths were icy or they didn't want to ride on their own up the off-road paths.

00:42 I've just come up the Innocent on my own and believe me it wasn't pleasant.

00:46 So that's what we're campaigning for.

00:49 The council has got big plans but we know that quite a few councillors in the council don't support these plans.

00:58 And so really the message is to get out to them that it's really important that women and girls have safe cycling 24/7.

01:06 So what's your response to Infrasisters' concern about cycle paths which they don't feel are safe for women?

01:16 So the council has a really ambitious plan to expand active travel and public transport in the city.

01:22 And as part of that what we hope to do is for every household in the city to be within 200 to 400 metres of a safe cycle path.

01:31 Right now a lot of the cycle paths we have in the city are on things like the Water of Leith and the Roseburn Path

01:37 which are fantastic during the day but at night time they're not well lit and women, girls and even men don't feel safe on them.

01:45 So it is something we have to address.

01:47 I think some of these paths, I think if we were creating a cycle path today we wouldn't have went down that route

01:53 because they're just not suitable for the kind of city we want to be now.

01:57 What brought you on the ride tonight?

01:59 I'm a mum and I want to be able to take my kids safely to school and other places in Edinburgh.

02:04 And what's your experience of cycling in the city?

02:08 I have to do it because it's my only way of getting around, it's my only way of getting the kids to school,

02:12 nursery, hospital appointments and to fun places as well.

02:16 It could be worse cycling in Edinburgh but it could also be a whole lot better.

02:20 Cycling in traffic, is that a problem?

02:23 It is, yeah. The traffic in Edinburgh can be pretty poor, driver behaviour is pretty bad,

02:29 especially in the rain and the cold it gets an awful lot worse.

02:32 I certainly feel like there's a reasonable amount of aggression.

02:35 I've had incidents with vehicles, I've had to report to the police.

02:39 I run a camera now simply because the police advise me to after a couple of incidents.

02:44 I'm just trying to cycle my kids to school and to other places.

02:47 What's the purpose of the ride tonight?

02:50 For us it's about calling for safe infrastructure for women and girls,

02:54 stuff that's safe to use 24 hours a day.

02:57 There's a lot of great infrastructure in Edinburgh that's on the old railway lines for example,

03:02 which is great for getting around in the day but it's isolated, some of it's dark.

03:07 Particularly as a woman, that's not a choice you want to have to make of going somewhere that's that isolated

03:13 or making a choice of, well do I then go on the busy roads where I'm competing with drivers who may be unreliable?

03:20 I just don't know, which risk do I want to take? And I shouldn't have to make that choice.

03:25 So our call is we're looking for that safe infrastructure.

03:28 If you can make it safe for me, then it's going to be safe for men, women, children, everybody.

03:34 So that's where we come out to this and this is about saying we want to be able to use the bikes 24 hours a day.

03:41 Our theme is 'Light up the night' because that's what we want to be able to do,

03:44 we want to have women able to go out and use their bikes all day, every day, whenever they want to.

03:49 And what's the response of the council?

03:52 I think the council have got great aspirations.

03:56 There's a lot that we see good from the council, from the likes of Scott Arthur and the Transport Committee,

04:04 but they get frustrated so often where you're seeing certain councillors being very,

04:10 'Oh you mustn't take anything away from motorists, people can't park' and everything becomes a battle.

04:18 So you see things like the safe route down to Silvernowes to the prom, that's just been voted out to be removed.

04:25 And that was a great route down to one of the best leisure facilities that Edinburgh's got, this beach out on the sea.

04:32 It's packed it on a nice summer's day, it's busy even on a winter's day,

04:36 and now there's no longer going to be that safe route down there.

04:40 Everything seems to be a battle just to make stuff happen.

04:43 I think there's a lot of good people in the council with great intent and they're struggling to make stuff actually happen.

04:49 [Music]

05:18 [Music]

05:30 [Music]

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