Scottish elections 2021
About the campaign
In the run-up to the Scottish Parliamentary election on 6 May 2021, Cycling UK helped voters reach out to their MSP candidates and ask them to commit to:
- Investing in cycling
- Creating safe space for walking, cycling and wheeling
- Enabling rural communities to cycle
- Making cycling available to those who need it most
- Making neighbourhoods more attractive for cycling and people
- Making roads safer for everyone
- Introducing a Sustainable Transport Bill
We explained these seven asks and our vision for cycling in Scotland in more detail in our Moving up the gears manifesto for cycling and invited our supporters to sign and share a petition telling politicians how much cycling meant to them. By 1 April, with the election still weeks away, almost 3,000 people had signed up.
We also gave everyone the chance to contact their constituency and regional list candidates directly (around 10,000 letters were dispatched), and analysed and compared the five main parties’ own manifestos.
One of the main points we wanted to impress on politicians was the need to enable more people to enjoy cycling in rural areas, not just for leisure but also for shopping and commuting. Hence our ‘The tale of the tortoise and the hare’ video, which focused on combining cycle with bus travel, a message to apply not just in Scotland, but in Wales and England too.
So that voters could question representatives from all major parties about active travel and public transport, we co-hosted an online hustings in April with Pedal on Parliament.
All the activity above helped us identify allies in the new parliament: at the final count, 30 MSPs taking their seats had taken our cycling pledge.
We invited our supporters to sign and share a petition telling politicians how much cycling meant to them – by 1 April, with the election still weeks away, almost 3,000 people had signed up
