Second Week; Lunch cycles along the canal, EAUC Conference, practising cycle training and Edinburgh Cycle fair.
Monday 15th of October; freezing cold, dark morning which called for me putting 10 squillion layers on to cycle, however, it turned out to be a bright and sunny day in Edinburgh.
In the morning I travelled to Waverley to go
to Lothian Bus Travel Centre. One of the students had highlighted to a member of staff that the bus timetables were out of date. I collected the most up to date times and information about cheaper student travel.
I cycled to Sighthill campus, making it back around 9am. All the students are off this week, making the college feel empty and still. I headed to the office to do some work.
I am planning to do an online staff survey to gain information about staff travel and perceptions about active travel/car sharing. I want to find out more about staff travelling habits and their ideas about cycling. I also want to see any members of staff who would be interested in entering Pedal for Scotland next year. I met with Alex at 11.30am, to plan the Cycle training events next week.
For lunch, Carola, the amazing Napier Campus Cycle Officer, took me on a beautiful canal cycle. I feel so lucky to have a job that allows you to cycle at lunch! The canal is beautiful and used regularly by families, dog walkers, runners and cyclists. I was surprised how busy it was.
On our lunch adventure, we got to put our cycling skills to good use by helping a woman fix her bike. She had hired one of the Just Eat bikes. Unfortunately, there is a structural fault with the bikes. The chain is encased, making it really difficult to put it back on when it falls off. We had to pry the case away from the bike with scissors and squeeze the chain back on. This would have been impossible to do on your own- something the Just Eat bike manufactures will need to consider.
This is the first problem I have heard about the bikes. Most of the people I have spoken to have said that they are great. I hope they start to make a real difference in how we all travel around Edinburgh.
The canal is perfect place to go on led rides. I am excited about organising rides with staff and students.
Tuesday 16th of October; Great day at the EAUC Conference at the City of Glasgow College with some of the amazing Campus Cycling Officers.
5.00am run, quick shower and then headed for the 7.05am rail replacement bus to Glasgow. Freeezing again this morning, #winteriscoming. I arrived super early, which meant I had a chance to explore the amazing City of Glasgow College.
This was my first time seeing the campus, the architecture is stunning. Also, students and staff must be fit as flees because there are around 10 squillion stairs.
The EAUC
The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) is a not-for-profit, member-based charity that supports educational institutions with social, environmental and economic sustainability.
Their annual conference brings a range of academics, researchers and other professionals together to share practice, network and learn about the incredible work going on the sustainability sector.
Before the conference started I had a chance to speak to someone from the Cycle to Work scheme. Which has given me a lot of ideas around encouraging staff to cycle at Edinburgh college.
The first half of the conference focused on the progress of the EAUC over the last 10 years. A diverse range of speakers presented from the Scottish government to the NHS. It was really interesting to hear about the changes and environmental progress in each sector.
Mid-morning the talks shifted towards sharing practice and achievement. Innovative, award winning programmes had the opportunity to present their work. I found out about a range of interesting projects. The two that I remembered most about were Transition St Andrews and The Rocking Horse Nursery. Both examples show creative and innovative ways to incorporate sustainability, community and long-term change.
In the second half of the conference we had the choice to attend different workshops including behaviour change, whole system approaches and teaching and learning.
I decided on teaching and learning of ‘sustainability’ in colleges and universities. The workshop was really interesting. We talked about the strengths and weakness of the current teaching, what we would change and how this change could be implemented. It was interesting to hear different perspectives. I also learned more about the SDG Accord; a set of 17 sustainability goals aiming to innovate and inspire educational institutions and create change.
The conference was very inspiring. It made me feel hopeful and appreciate how much incredible work is going on in Scotland to tackle social and environmental issues.
Wednesday 17th of October; 5 and a half hours commute from Stirling to Edinburgh, practising run of our cycle training session next week, organising staff commute surveys.
An exhausting day of commuting and train/bus delays. However, other than that it was great day. I left the house at 6.45am and arrived at Milton campus at 10.30am, it was the same journey time on the way home. They are currently updating the trainlines, which means I need to take the rail replacement bus and then connect with the train to Edinburgh from Falkirk. This morning there was further delays, meaning our train stopped for 30mins. I ended up meeting a woman travelling to Edinburgh for an important meeting at 9.30am. In the meeting she was going to deliver a presentation, that may have got her promoted. We left Stirling at 7am and arrived in Waverly at 9.45am. As soon as the doors opened she sprinted through the train station. I really hope she got promoted and her being late doesn’t affect anything.
Next week we are running Cycle Training sessions and DR Bike sessions across all campus’s. The Cycle Training sessions are focused on building student’s confidence and skills of road cycling. Today’s plan was to meet up with one of the Low-Carbon Energy officers at Milton Campus to run a practice Cycle training session.
I met Alex at around 10.30am after the crazy long commute. We cycled to a quiet residential area to run through the session. We practiced basic road safety, road positioning and changing to minor and major roads.
I feel a lot more confident in delivering the sessions next week, I still think I will convince Vilius to practice with me at the weekend.
The run through also allowed me to see the habits I had picked up over the years of cycling on roads. I tend to rely a lot on hearing cars, which is a terrible habit, especially with the new, almost silent electric cars.
After, I travelled to the Sighthill campus, where I finished off my staff travel survey and worked on updating all of the bus times.
Thursday 18th of October; day of organising and making future plans
Lovely morning run paired with a long busy commute. Only two more days left of the rail replacement bus. I think my bike will be happy as it has been flying about all over the place in the bottom compartment of the bus.
Today was spent in mostly in the office. I wrote out my staff travel proposal to show my supervisor tomorrow. It includes all my ideas to encourage staff to cycle to the college at least one day a week. I also made an active travel poster to display in all of the campuses. It was really beautiful autumn day!
Friday 19th of October; beautiful sunrise, redesigning the active travel board, new responsibilities
Beautiful sunrise making up for the rail replacement bus
I spent the day at Sighthill campus today. In the morning I redesigned the travel board; adding in the new bus times I collected from Lothian buses, the poster I made and the physical activity guidelines.
I thought adding the physical activity guidelines was a good idea. During my dissertation project last year, I found out that many people had never heard of the guidelines. Adding physical activity in to our day can be challenging, especially if we don’t know where to start. The guidelines, although generic, give people achievable weekly goals.
After, I met up with another sustainability team worker who has helped me so much over the last few weeks. Today she gave taught me how to work the secure bike system and gave me a range of new responsibilities.
End to another good week!
also going to Edinburgh Cycle fair on Sunday.
Next week’s plan is to run Dr Bike and Cycling training sessions across all campus’s.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post, it really means the world to me to know people actually enjoy my long blethers!
Comments