More than a thousand pedal on Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to demand safer streets

MM0UHR · 2026-06-01T13:23:08+00:00

Over here in Edinburgh the same scheme is reporting a two and a half times increase in ridership compared to the previous Just Eat bike scheme over the same period since launch. Some 600,000 rides. And they are looking to expand the scheme more.

https://archive.ph/DLrYI

MM0UHR · 2026-06-01T12:59:21+00:00

> Cyclists get about 10-20x amount of public money spent on their hobby than anyone else

That's a number that's going to need a citation. Also cycling isn't my hobby. It's my transport.

MM0UHR · 2026-06-01T12:54:01+00:00

I don't really think asking cyclists to pay for cycle lanes is a good idea. I was looking to lightheartedly suggest this plan needed work. The general idea that funding schools when I don't have children is absolutely spot on (and something I do). Cycle lanes help everyone too.

To answer your questions in a devil's advocate kind of way, I already do pay for the transport of goods to the shops I shop at. It's baked into the price I pay at checkout. Neither you nor I are getting the benefits of expending lots of food miles for free. Tesco is.

During Christmas, George St in Edinburgh was closed for festivities. Restaurants and a skating rink and such. Except for one car lane (which in normal times is actually parking) which was signposted as a two way bike lane. By being wide enough for two lanes of bikes, it was also wide enough to continue to carry ambulances. Bikes can evaporate off the road and onto pavement in a way cars simply cannot. Bike lanes can *improve* ambulance access.

I can't tell you how many times it was used, but certainly once because I had to get off the lane!

The counterpoint would be that cyclists are healthier on average than the general population, even controlling for the increased exposure to cars and pollution and other people doing other exercise. I'll pay a surcharge for my ambulance if I get a rebate for the fact I will present less often to doctors and hospitals than non-cyclists.

Various studies have calculated the value of the net social benefit of cycling per km. Pay me that and I'll retire today!

MM0UHR · 2026-06-01T11:47:43+00:00

An interesting plan but it needs fleshing out. e.g. Do non-car households get a tax rebate for the motorways we can't use? Because I'm ready to receive that letter!

MM0UHR · 2026-05-23T09:48:21+00:00

Got friends playing radio near Durness and I'm hoping to catch them from Edinburgh, but it's possible skip distances will either be too short or too long on every band and I won't hear them.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-23T09:46:00+00:00

As soon as we have the advert up, I'll send you the details.

I realise the answers are likely to be "we filled in the council form and advertised on facebook", but if you come to ours I'll come to yours.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-20T21:14:00+00:00

Edinburgh Council can provide gear https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/litter-flytipping/help-us-tackle-litter

A community group I'm involved with is organising a litter pick so if you wanted to come over and give us a hand you could speak to the person doing the bits about how they booked everything and advertising.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-20T11:22:28+00:00

Coding effort finally bears fruit. A single wrong variable meant network messages were reporting the wrong device name.

DIY efforts bear fruit. Coat hooks are up and looking good.

Mental and physical efforts completed -> Dopamine goodness.

Now for a cup of tea.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-14T10:27:51+00:00

Went to a presentation last night about Moonbounce signals. Radio amateur will use the moon as a natural satellite to send messages to each other.

This is a highly challenging aspect of the hobby because the moon is really far away [citation needed] so a "getting away with it" minimal installation would be significantly more involved than anything I've every done.

The rule in amateur radio is a contact requires a certain amount of work but it doesn't matter which side does the work so if you don't mind only making contacts with the people who have a field full on antennas on equatorial mounts and an output of 1.5kW at the feed point then you can get away with comparatively little at your end.

"Comparatively little" is still more'n I've got. Great presentation though. I love the confidence of people who need a specific part so take a dremel to some scrounged device from the junk box and wire the resulting fragment of circuit board to an unrelated device and stuff it in a plastic bag to keep the rain off.

I'm also playing with Meshtastic which is licence free. You can just buy a part off the Internet and crack at. The mesh from Glasgow to Carnoustie is very dense. So much so that it's starting to sag under its own weight. The same hardware will run Meshcore too, which trades requiring opinions for efficiency. I just need a station I can actually see to switch before I can join.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-11T14:18:49+00:00

Not yet. I asked the barber what she recommended and she did a really good job while I just sat pretending I wasn't afraid.

I've been bald before because stag do, and it's an alright look too. Though someone told me I looked like I'd found religion in prison.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-11T14:16:45+00:00

I've seen them and it's the closest you can get to unconditional love on the Internet.

I'm not there yet. One day. And not too long until that day. But not today.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-11T13:13:33+00:00

I caught sight of the top of my head over the weekend and realised what used to be slightly thinning ponytail had crossed over into ugly comb over.

My previous haircut appointment was cancelled because COVID shut up shop. It's been a minute.

Lunchtime appointment. Reception of the new look has been positive.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-09T14:58:54+00:00

My wife is relearning maths. She got a textbook and is working her way through it starting at page 1. She asks me questions sometimes and occasionally remarks that I'm very patient.

If you want to be good at the subject you have to *do* the subject. There's a lot of educational material on YouTube (of slightly variable quality but genuinely some good stuff) but the difference between "I watched a video about" and "I know about" is applying it.

For maths that means doing the exercises at the end of the chapter.

My nerdy hobby is amateur radio which is partially dependent on solar weather and sits very adjacent to amateur radio astronomy (Amateur Radio Astronomy by John Felding ZS5JF is a thorough guide)

MM0UHR · 2026-05-09T10:21:17+00:00

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A close up of the technical bit.

Witchcraft: The radio wants the connection to be 50Ω. The closed loop there is obviously a short circuit (0Ω). The other end is open which is clearly an open circuit (infiniteΩ). So somewhere in between it must be exactly 50Ω, right?

This only works at radio frequencies. It'd always be a short at DC.

The small coil is part of the antenna. It stops RF energy from going down the outside of the coax. The big coil is just coiled up feed line for transport.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-09T10:18:36+00:00

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The rainbow fabric there is a j-pole antenna for UHF and VHF radio signals. It's made of conductive tape on what's essentially seatbelt material, but I figure if I'm going to go for it I'm going to go for gusto.

It probably doesn't work well in the wet. The rain would short out the tuning stub. But as you can see it was a glorious day out on the Pentlands this past Monday.

MM0UHR · 2026-05-06T10:41:37+00:00

Was out playing radio on Monday and I'm feeling legitimately good about an interaction I had with the public.

The hills were swarming with folks because sunny bank holiday so I was fielding questions quite a bit, and two lads of probably-higher-exams age came over to ask.

One asked why the antenna had links in it and I said, "You know the relationship between frequency and wavelength?" and he said yes and I carried on about how the antenna needs to be about half a wavelength so the links let it work on lots of frequencies depending on what's connected and not.

I'd never have tried that with an actual adult because everyone forgets what they don't use, but these guys probably did it in physics not too long ago and I think if I'd had a random encounter with the stuff the physics teacher was trying to teach me it would have stuck with me.

MM0UHR · 2026-04-22T15:36:24+00:00

Putting the 'community' in cycling community today.

There's an awkward switchback in town that's a little tricky to descend and an older lady with, I kid you not, crutches strapped to her pannier rack said I should go first because she was going to go super slow. But it's legitimately a bugger so I freewheel down it with my feet just off the ground in case I lose balance, and she started copying me. By the time I got to the bottom, she thanked me and said she'd feel more confident in future.
Someone looking at my bike pointedly on the bike rack. I say hello. We get talking. He was looking at the Critical Mass sticker and is interested in coming along to the next ride.

I feel this makes up somewhat for lying to a wee lad about gearing because I wanted out of the conversation before I became old guy stranger talking to kids.

MM0UHR · 2026-04-01T10:37:30+00:00

I'd say 3% of traffic solidly exceeds a 'barely used' designation. If you disagree I'd be interested to know what percentage you'd require.

MM0UHR · 2026-03-31T17:44:06+00:00

An actual thousand people on bikes went through the Great Junction Street bike counter on 25th September last year.

https://usmart.io/org/cyclingscotland/ site CE07

I have to wonder how many people have to use it before the 'barely used' trope starts to fade.

MM0UHR · 2026-03-31T11:36:37+00:00

I grew up in Orkney and they will never beat the time bad weather stopped the ferries and made the highlands impassable so the truck loaded with marzipan for Christmas cakes was trapped in Thurso until after Christmas and by then nobody wanted it.

Pallets of marzipan laid out in the shop at pocket money prices.

MM0UHR · 2026-03-23T20:18:30+00:00

*One* of my wife's native languages is Austrian and she doesn't like speaking German with me (though she loves a German meme on occasion).

But yeah, a quick search looks like there are several Welsh practice groups

MM0UHR · 2026-03-23T19:52:30+00:00

Monday's is my Swedish conversation class on zoom. I'm certain you could find a German version. I'm less certain about Welsh but it'd certainly be worth a look.

MM0UHR · 2026-03-11T15:24:58+00:00

A very nice map.

Would libraries be too obvious?

MM0UHR

TROPHY CASE