In 2012, we organised the first Pedal on Parliament (PoP), a mass bike ride where 4,000 people called on the Scottish parliament for a cycle-friendly Scotland. What we thought would be a one-off event is now scheduled again for 26 April 2014. Much has changed and much has stayed the same – but this year the stakes are higher than ever.

In this referendum year, Scotland is in the middle of a national conversation about what sort of a place it wants to be. When it comes to cycling, though, there's little to distinguish us from the rest of Britain, the cycling laggard of Europe. Transport is a devolved matter, but despite a widely trumpeted target (since clarified as a "shared vision") for 10% of all journeys to be by bike by 2020, there has been little done to encourage cycling.

Tellingly, last year's white paper on Scotland's future mentioned the bicycle just once: in a list of things invented in Scotland. It seems bikes are seen as part of Scotland's past, not its future.

The Scottish government might look to Denmark as a model of the kind of egalitarian society we aspire to, but there are no plans to turn Scotland's cities into replicas of Copenhagen. Instead, Scotland is still pushing urban motorways into the heart of Glasgow, where less than half of households have access to a car. Expensive plans to create dual carriageways and build a new Forth crossing eclipse the sums given to cycling. When it comes to transport, Scotland's vision of the future is a decidedly retro one.

So what has changed since we first Pedalled on Parliament? The headline figure is that spending on cycling has stopped falling – and has in fact risen. In September, the minister announced an extra £20m for cycling over two years, bringing the total spending on cycling to £5 per head.

This is way less than we're calling for, but it is higher than spending for the UK as a whole, and is an increase from the less than £2 per head when we started.

Cycling is now increasingly on the political agenda. Two years ago, the transport minister did not attend the annual Cycling Scotland conference, preferring to attend the launch of an announcement about trains instead. Last year he was the opening speaker.

As PoP, we attend the cross-party parliamentary cycling group and have met the minister twice now to discuss our demands.

There are more voices too. When we started PoP there was no national cycling campaign for Scotland. Outwith Edinburgh, where Spokes have been quietly and doggedly pressing for a traffic-free network for years, campaigning was localised and deeply unambitious. Even in Edinburgh cycling was seen as a difficult thing to sell and pragmatic campaigners were loath to ask for the only thing that is proven to bring about mass cycling: protected space for bikes, preferably taken away from cars, not pedestrians.

When thousands took to the streets at PoP – not just middle-aged men in lycra but families, older people, cyclists with disabilities, even people on foot – it seemed as if the political will to make real changes was there after all. Many participants took the campaign home to their local areas and are increasingly engaged – and willing to ask for what they really want, not what's deemed politically expedient.

Cyclists stopped accepting half- or even quarter measures: when Edinburgh council proposed doing almost nothing for cycling on Leith Walk, they were sent back to the drawing board until they came up with something that offered bikes a measure of protection. And when Cycling Scotland launched the "Niceway Code" – a campaign supposedly promoting mutual respect that instead perpetuated the myth that cyclists all run red lights – they were met with an unprecedented social media storm.

And yet, in many ways nothing has changed. Despite the proven benefits of cycling investment for health (an increasingly urgent issue in Scotland), the economy, congestion, pollution and climate change, it is still seen as an issue for a small – if increasingly vocal – minority.

Outside Edinburgh, cycling levels are barely increasing and that "vision" set in 2006 seems completely unattainable now; the latest figures show cycling is still less than 1% of all journeys. The increased spending is temporary and short term – making it harder for local authorities to make strategic plans to build coherent networks. And it is Scots who are paying the price.

Last year 13 cyclists died on Scotland's roads, the highest number in years, with two more deaths already this year, but these figures pale into insignificance compared with the thousands dying prematurely of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

We don't blame anyone, looking at the roads today, who decides that getting on their bike is not an option for them, whatever the impact on their health. But we want to see a future Scotland (inside or outside the United Kingdom) where that choice is available to everyone, not just the quick and the brave.

So that's why we're doing it again. We call on everyone who cycles, wants to cycle, or loves someone who cycles to join us – on foot, or on a bike. Two years ago, we thought we were a flash mob – now we know we are a movement, and one that's slowly gathering momentum.

Together we can make Scotland a cycle-friendly country, whatever the outcome of September's vote.

• Sally Hinchcliffe is a cycle campaigner and founding member of Pedal on Parliament