Event Details

  • Date:
  • Venue: Dock Park

cyclists waiting to cross
Waiting to cross Garroch Loaning …

When

Sunday 28th 11am

Event page 

Where

Meet at Dock Park dressed as a cow with your bike – or you can join us on foot for part of the route. We’ll end at the council offices on English Street at around 1pm

The route will cover some of the worst crossings Dumfries has to offer, from the endless wait to get out of Dock Park, via the Cuckoo Bridge Retail Park crossing that takes you past the exit to the KFC drive thru, the McDonalds crossing to the NorthWest Campus, the crossing of Garroch Loaning to the new hospital, and also at the bottom of Garroch Loaning to Dupont, the dash across the Dalbeattie Road to the cycle path that just ends on Park Road, and more.

Barriers to Cycling

Dumfries’s cycling (and walking) network suffers from one persistent flaw – while there are some good off-road paths and routes, as soon as it comes to crossing the road you’re either on your own or stuck waiting forever for the green man, usually fenced in on an island in the middle of speeding traffic. When the new hospital was built, staff wishing to commute by bike couldn’t get a toucan crossing of a busy road because it was too difficult – but cows get their own crossing of the A75!

cow crossing
Cow crossing of the A75 – Image Copyright Colin Pyle and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Action

So we’ve decided, if coos get crossings, let’s be coos! Come dressed as a cow for a tour of Dumfries’s worst crossings – for pedestrians and cyclists. Join us at Dock Park for an 11am start, and we’ll wind our way round some of the worst crossings in Dumfries via Cuckoo Bridge, McDonalds, the new hospital, Dalbeattie Road, New Abbey road and the complete lack of a crossing coming out of the station. We’ll end at the council offices to tell them the current situation is udderly ridiculous and we demand to be herd …

If you don’t have a cow costume (and who doesn’t) we’ll have a cow making workshop on Easter Saturday – come and join the fun.

Dumfries – Mad Cow Ride