Go Cycle Glasgow Fund: Evaluation
Active Travel and transport
Aug 2023 - Jun 2024
Go Cycle Glasgow was a fund established by Glasgow City Council to support community organisations across the city during the 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships and administered by Glasgow Life. Twenty-nine organisations received up to £10,000 to deliver accessible and sustainable cycling activities with marginalised populations or under-represented groups in cycling. Each organisation was asked to demonstrate a commitment to the fund’s five priorities, which were to:
- Encourage more local people to use cycling for recreation, sport, or active travel.
- Provide cycling activities for under-represented groups in the community.
- Be inclusive and accessible, addressing barriers to participating in cycling.
- Engage participants in cycling now and provide sustainable activities that will be deliverable in the future.
- Share the learning from the project with the cycling community.
GCPH evaluated the impact of the fund on behalf of Glasgow Life.
Overview of page
Project objectives
The evaluation objectives were to:
- Provide a coherent narrative of how the fund was delivered and who benefited from it.
- Support funded organisations to collect demographic information on participants.
- Assess the extent to which the fund’s strategic priorities were met.
- Gather feedback on the organisation and delivery of the fund.
- Gather practical feedback on how to diversify and grow the cycling population across Glasgow.
- Provide learning and recommendations for the strategic management group and other groups aligned to the event.
What is involved
The scope of the evaluation was agreed after meetings with Glasgow Life in 2022. Following the award of funding to twenty-nine Glasgow-based organisations, each one was contacted by email with a summary document on how the fund had been distributed and the planned approach of each organisation. Additionally, each organisation received a demographic monitoring form and further information about when GCPH would be contacting them with a request to complete an online survey. This information was analysed and written up in the format of a report published in early 2024.
Findings & outcomes
The Go Cycle fund has supported approaches that have helped to normalise cycling across under-represented population groups throughout Glasgow. Supporting organisations with existing local knowledge and an awareness of how to deliver equalities-sensitive cycling activities can bring multiple social returns. When effectively and sensitively delivered, community cycling activities can increase confidence, be fun, engaging, sociable, empowering and inclusive, providing broad physical and mental health benefits. Beyond this, cycling activities can reduce transport costs, promote increased movement across city neighbourhoods, support environmental improvements, and offer a service that supports integration for New Scots. Learning from Go Cycle furthers our understanding of how limited resources should be prioritised in order to bring multiple benefits across marginalised and disadvantaged groups.
Key findings
- 90% (26/29) of organisations responded to the survey; 29% were new to cycling activities.
- Community groups across Glasgow ran various cycling activities, reaching at least 1,454 people.
- Funds supported bike purchases, led rides, training, events, maintenance, and bike hubs.
- Demographic data showed positive engagement from under-represented groups (e.g. refugees, LGBTQ+, ethnic minorities), however response rates across demographic questions were low (31–55%).
- As requested by the fund provider Glasgow Life, organisations supported people to cycle for a combination of active travel, recreation, and sport.
- Organisations demonstrated strong awareness of and took steps to reduce barriers for under-represented groups.
- Sustainability efforts included volunteer training, local capacity-building, and collaboration.
- Clear need remains for ongoing funding and support.
- Reported benefits included increased confidence, empowerment, mental wellbeing, social connection, skill development, and cost savings.
- Participant impacts were best viewed as part of an overall collective journey of change and growth, rather than being considered individually.
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