UPower

12 Jan 2018

Promoting active travel in Midlothian

The UPower Project is a youth led, Midlothian based project which has been set-up by RUTS (Rural & Urban Training Scheme, in Newtongrange). It is aimed at promoting active travel activities to community groups, organisations and individuals in an effort to reduce our local journeys made by car and, as a net result, reduce our Carbon emissions.

Funded by the Junior Climate Challenge Fund (JCCF), the project has delivered a range of cycling based activities including:

  • Bike Ability training to P6 & P7 school pupils
  • Energy awareness and sustainability education using a small fleet of Smoothie Bikes
  • A Pedal Powered Cinema.

The Team can regularly be seen at various pop-up events across the Midlothian area, where we host Dr.Bike cycle safety checks. Open to anyone, bikes can be brought to these sessions. An experienced cycle mechanic will check over the bike, ensuring everything is working properly, including brakes and gears. We even replacing minor parts if needed. Major repair work being passed onto one of the local friendly bike shops.

All of the UPower team, are qualified and experienced cycle trainers. We offer a range of training courses for both children and adults, providing individuals with skills, knowledge and confidence to ride their bike around Midlothian and beyond. Many of our courses are currently available for FREE, so we encourage people to take advantage of these fantastic opportunities.

To encourage people to get back in the saddle, the UPower Project has a fleet of bikes and folding shopping and kids trailers. They are available for short-term hire to community for FREE. Bikes include a fleet of electric assisted bikes, which give people who need a little help with the hills, or who just want a slightly more relaxing ride, to get out and about to explore the Midlothian communities.

Our folding shopping trailers can be hired independently of our bikes and we encourage users to make use of local retailers and buy local, cutting down on the short journeys to and from the shops most of us make by car.

All of our bikes and trailers are being tagged using Veloeye security stickers, helping us to ensure our rental fleet can be identified and found in the event of theft.

For more information on the project or details of how you can book the services of the UPower Team, visit www.ruts.org.uk/upower