Discovering wildlife and new routes to work with Connecting Communities

Sophie moved to Edinburgh two years ago. She wanted to cycle from Bonneyrig to the Royal Infirmary where she worked. However, on her non-powered bike she found the hills daunting and the route intimidating due to busy roads and potholes.

“Part of the route that had been recommended through Google Maps was on a 50 mile per hour stretch of road with a cycleway,” she says, “which as a novice cycler was a big hurdle.”

After that disastrous trial run, Sophie decided to take the bus to work, until Lothian Buses stopped running that bus. “I was back to looking at cycling as an alternative.”

This time, though, she was considering getting an electric bike to tackle those hills, as well as “to shorten the time it takes me to get to and from work, to hopefully less than an hour. And to not turn up really, really sweaty to work.”

Connecting with Connecting Communities

This is what brought Sophie to Cycling UK’s Connecting Communities project. Working with the project’s development officers, she was given support via a buddy ride to help make her more familiar with the route to work, route planning for a safer route and an e-bike loan so she could test it out before buying one.

She highlights the buddy ride as particularly helpful for her as she now has a much better route between home and work. The buddy ride identified a traffic-free cycle path between Danderhall and Gilmerton that Sophie wasn’t aware of previously.

This “has made my commute much nicer and I feel a bit more confident to cycle this way”.

However, it’s not all plain cycling, even with the new route. She describes a section between the Dobbies area to Eskbank as “a little bit sketchy”. This section requires riding on the roads, amid the traffic. There are some steep up and downhills and the cars travel quite fast.

Nighttime can be especially challenging: “Cars come round corners, it’s dark and some of them are speeding. But, because I’m on an e-bike, I can get through it quickly.”

Problems with potholes

There are also a lot of potholes to contend with, and Sophie says that “can have some avoidance issues with not wanting to swerve into traffic and try to avoid potholes”.

She suggests: “Having a cycle route along the A7 to connect the Dobbies area to Eskbank area would be very helpful; it would mean you wouldn’t have to cycle directly on the road, but on a joint cycle path.”

Overall, however, she says: “I’m quite happy with the route that I’m taking, to be honest. I would say I’m a lot more positive towards cycling now.”

But she does acknowledge that her feelings can be determined by the weather. “If it’s raining and I have to cycle to work, it’s not the best mood. It’s definitely easier on an e-bike, but you still get a bit damp and miserable. On sunny days and when I see wildlife, that makes me happy.”

Cutting commute times with an electric bike

The loan of the e-bike made a big difference, though. It allowed her to test whether the electric assistance would cut her commute times and make cycling twice a day, between work and home, a viable option for her on a long-term basis.

The other week I was going through Little France Park and there were frogs everywhere. I must have seen about 20 on my cycle through the park Sophie Hawkins, Connecting Communities participant

She was understandably hesitant to invest in a new e-bike without being able to try it out on the route. It gave her the confidence to buy quite an expensive bike.

One unexpected benefit of the bike is the community that Sophie has found at work. “There’s a bunch of people that cycle here and they’ve noticed that I’ve started cycling. So that’s been a nice little community as we talk a bit more.

She’s also met a keen cyclist who has approached her with the idea of doing some day trips.

Prior to having the electric bike, Sophie wasn’t cycling very much. “Every now and again I might have loaded the bike into the car and go somewhere off road to cycle. because I didn’t really have much experience of commute cycling.

“Now that I’ve done it a few times, I feel a lot more confident and having a community of people to talk to has made me quite a lot more open.”

Considerate drivers

One of the main things stopping her riding on the roads was a concern over drivers’ attitudes. But she’s found that most are considerate. “The majority of drivers have actually been really good. I’ve only had two or three bad encounters so far. Generally, everyone else has been very nice, giving you a wide berth.”

However, Sophie hasn’t seen any financial benefits – yet. “Because I bought quite an expensive bike, I haven’t managed to save money just yet. I calculated as long as I keep this up for one year and seven months, I will have broken even. So if it’s longer than one year and seven months, I will have saved money.”

She thinks again: “I haven’t factored in maintenance, that’s just the cost of the bike. Let’s say two years. But hopefully this will be a long-term change.

But the main benefit, she says, is just getting outside more: “Generally, it’s just nice to be outside. I get a little bit more vitamin D from the sunshine.”

Watching wildlife

She’s seeing a lot more wildlife, which improves her day. She might see a fox or a rabbit on way home from work, which she says is “quite sweet”. She’s also seen deer and a lot of birds of prey.

“The other week I was going through Little France Park and there were frogs everywhere. I must have seen about 20 on my cycle through the park and I saw lots of people stopping to take pictures of them. That was very awesome.

“There was a lady with her baby, and they were making frog-jumping motions. It was very cute.”

She’s even started a bucket list of what she’d like to see on her way home. “I haven’t seen any hedgehogs or badgers yet. They’re on my list.”

Connecting Communities receives funding from a Scottish government People and Place grant, administered and supported in the south-east of Scotland by SEStran.