Bikeability Isle of Mull style

Having started her cycling instructor career on the busy streets of Stockport and Manchester, over the last year Nicola Turner has been delivering and mentoring Bikeability sessions on the Isle of Mull, through Live Argyll.

Nicola attended a ‘conversion’ course to qualify for Bikeability Scotland - delivery in Scotland is based on a volunteer led model and the training course for instructors is a single day. Teaching of Bikeability has some other differences eg demonstrating and practicing all the junction turns as a single manoeuvre, and the primary position as the default.

Nicola says: “The road infrastructure on a Scottish island brings some challenges including trying to find junctions flat enough for children to practice without having to simultaneously change gear; instructors are also issued with chalk in order to create junction markings where none exist!

“Level 3 would be tricky as there’s only one roundabout and one set of traffic lights”.

Probably one of the biggest challenges is cycling safely on single track roads and good use of passing places to allow faster traffic to overtake, oncoming traffic to wait or if necessary reverse to the nearest passing place. Many drivers don’t see the necessity to do this for cyclists. Although there’s relatively little traffic on the roads, cars can be travelling fast and there’s little space for larger vehicles.

Schools are very small too – one primary school only has a total of 17 pupils – which means the pool of parents, teachers and potential volunteer instructors is very small, making the roll out of Bikeability slow.

“On the plus side the commute views are amazing!” adds Nicola.