The UK’s fastest woman on two wheels, Christina MacKenzie, performed the reopening honours for Stirling’s active travel hub as it celebrated its 10th birthday last Tuesday.
Scotland’s first ever active travel hub has now supported and encouraged thousands of local citizens to get on the move.
The Stirling based facility, set up a decade ago by local charity Forth Environment Link (FEL), offers free route planning advice, cycle training and bike maintenance, with e-bikes, kids trailers, cargo bikes and child seats available to hire free of charge.
From opening in 2013 to closing at the beginning of 2020 due to pandemic, the Hub received 25,357 visitors and from 2021 until the present day it has engaged with 3861 people at outreach events. This includes: 441 people on 106 led rides; 1067 people on 742 cycle training sessions; and 272 e-bikes loaned for free since 2020.
FEL Active Travel Development Manager Shirley Paterson said: “We’re as passionate about encouraging and supporting people to walk, wheel and cycle more for everyday journeys today as we were in 2013.
“We’ve made fantastic progress over the past ten years, including establishing in-school active travel hubs across Forth Valley to help instil active travel habits from an early age.”
During the pandemic the charity’s active travel team played a vital role in keeping the city moving, loaning hundreds of bikes and e-bikes to key workers for free.
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Shirley said: “Community has always been at the heart of what we do, and the refurbished hub reflects that.
“Our new layout includes a shared community space, which will allow us to build on our community work, as well as collaborate with local partners to deliver Stirling’s net zero, shared mobility and cycling friendly ambitions.”
The new look hub – which forms part of Stirling’s new pedestrianised Station Square development – reopened on Tuesday with a fun-packed day of activities with everything from skateboarding skills sessions to led walks and cycles on offer.
The UK’s fastest woman on two wheels, Christina MacKenzie, performed the reopening honours.
The champion cyclist feared she would never ride again after suffering serious injuries in a horror road crash.
But she has since sealed her spot at the World Championships later this summer.
Christina, 45, was left in agony with a shattered pelvis after being struck by a car during a training ride. She was finally able to get back in to competitive action over the weekend in the Tour of Cambridgeshire and finished in fourth place in the time trial and fifth in the road race - securing her a spot in the UCI World Championships road race.
Shirley said: “Christina is an inspiration to us all. She’s the fastest woman to cycle Lands End to John O’ Groats and the fastest woman to cycle North Coast 500.
“She has also battled back to fitness after being badly injured in a hit and run accident last year.”
The charity was also joined by a host of regional partners on the day, including Transition Stirling, Paths for All and CoMoUK.
CoMoUK, the charity for the promotion of shared transport like car clubs and bike share, will also be in attendance as a key partner of FEL.
Their Director for Scotland Rachael Murphy said: “We are so excited to be part of the hub in Stirling, building on a decade of hard work from the community and of course FEL. CoMoUK recognises the work FEL does on the ground as key to local behaviour change, and we can’t wait to see how shared transport can play a key role in the hub and the wider community.”
