BIKE park edinburgh

as part of our research into edinburgh’s accessible open spaces we visited a bike park called SKELF closest to uni to take pictures and see what its like there. as it was a rainy day there was no one at the site but managed to walk/run around it and record it with photos and videos. Whilst in the space we discussed the following topics together thinking of how we can evaluate this space in terms of our ideas of community, sharing, tools, maintenance.

What already exists for this aspect of the commons (relevant data, facts, literature, practitioners, projects, organisations etc). This site was created about 4/5 years ago using cement to follow the contours of the already existing small hills to create a space where people can use their bikes to practice the course. this is free and easy to access, also a through route between high street-housing-arthurs seat. after researching SKELF we found multiple facebook pages and sites that contained events that happen in the space, gatherings to show skills, learning possibilities; there is a team behind it of mostly volunteers to make more spaces like this in the area and beyond.

The strengths, limitations and possibilities of what you find.

stengths:

making most of a small hilly area that people can enjoy
free to access and be a part of, just bring a bike
thought out rocks around that can be sat on if observing people on the track or waiting to join
enough space to walk around if heading into town or arthurs seat
signs people have used the space through graffiti and mural work

limitations:

potential for being unsafe or largely unused in winter months when weather is bad
to enjoy this space you need to be able to ride a bike well and own one
no light around the track or surrounding area so could be unsafe at night
although there is space to walk around its very muddy and slippery
as it was currently unused when we went, does it get used enough to be a good use of space?

possibilities:

space for people to keep fit
space for people to work together and share skills
on one side there is a large housing area with no gardens so this is an outside space they can enjoy

Discuss and make notes as a group and as an individual on how this relates to De Angelis’ three aspects of the commons 1) a pool of natural/human resources 2) a community of people with reciprocal sharing relations 3) acts of working together towards the reproduction of the community. this is a physical space created for a purpose. it wasn’t difficult to find online and in person. online sites seem very welcoming to people of all ages and stages of skill to learn from one another through events and competitions. after we visited the site, we went to the playcentre opposite to see if there was more information. the staff there were able to give us more insight into when it was created, who uses it, what it was before; seeming optimistic about the space and that it does get visited mostly on weekends and summer months.