MSP Bike Ride 21/06/06
Over a dozen MSPs will show their support for the UK’s annual celebration of cycling, as they take part in a special Bike Week ride through Edinburgh on Wednesday 21 June.
Set up to encourage ‘more people to cycle more often’, Bike Week is the perfect opportunity to highlight the environmental and health benefits that cycling brings, and it’s a message MSPs are keen to endorse. With obesity set to overtake smoking as the biggest cost to the NHS and the threat of global warming steadily building, more and more politicians are waking up to the fact that cycling can go a long way to addressing these problems.
Both the MSP Bike Ride and Bike Week in general have received cross-party support from Scottish politicians.
Transport Minister Tavish Scott gave his backing to Bike Week, saying
“Cycling is a great way for people to get active, keep healthy and see our fabulous countryside. With schoolchildren about to start their summer holidays, and visitors arriving wanting to see the best of Scotland, what better way to have fun, get fit – without damaging the planet.”
Tory leader Annabel Goldie commented: "There is no other form of physical exercise like cycling. You can cover the ground, take in the scenery round about you, really enjoy the incomparable smells of newly mown fields, foliage and vegetation freshened by a shower of rain and crops being harvested in the warmth of a sunny day and keep fit at the same time. For me cycling is an all round winner."
Labour transport spokesman Bristow Muldoon was also supportive: “I’m delighted to support Bike Week. Not only is cycling a great way to stay healthy, but if we all cycled more we’d also be doing our bit for the environment.”
Liberal Democrat Nora Radcliffe was looking forward to the bike ride, saying: “Cycling gets you to work with no greenhouse emissions, minimal congestion and you arrive feeling fresh and alert. It’s a beneficial activity at every level; global, local and personal, and we should encourage more of it.”
Green Party leader Robin Harper said: “Recent research shows that more and more people are turning to cycling as a result of their concern for the environment, a wish to improve their health and because of the sheer pleasure of riding. MSPs should do all they can to promote cycling for both leisure and getting to work.”
