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Wheels of Change

Aylesbury is not Amsterdam, with its hundreds of bikes at every street corner, but the Buckinghamshire town does share one feature with Holland that makes it a good place for promoting cycling: it is fairly flat. Cycle Magazine, December 2006/January 2007

There are aspirations to treble the town’s cycling and make it too a benchmark location for bicycle integration. It’s not just a matter of aspirations either: as one of the six Cycling Demonstration Towns (CDTs), Aylesbury is sharing in £17m fund to ‘get more people cycling, more safely, more often.’

Seeing the potential their landscape offers, Cycle Aylesbury is developing five cycle routes into the town centre, for commuters and others to consider. “It’s about the destinations,” says Darren Divall, their energetic Co-ordinator. “Making cycle links to the railway station, to big employers, to the hospital, retail parks and leisure centres.”

Darren has good reason to be excited. Although the numbers are still short of one hundred, a trial promotion of the North-East ‘Sapphire’ route, in which thousands of leaflets were distributed to nearby households, resulted in an 82% growth in cycle trips.

When all the routes are formally launched in March 2007, each will have a bright and easy-to-read map that marks the prominent locations along the way, and there will be road signs saying how many minutes it takes to cycle. The aim is to attract the interest of non-cyclists so they think, ‘What a great route.’ And there is already a dedicated web site, where those interested can download the maps for themselves.

“The biggest growth in bike sales is among commuters,” reveals Darren. As a result, cycle spaces at the railway station have been doubled to 100 (most are taken), with more places being requested, and a few storage facilities and racks have been located around the town centre – even at the multi-storey car park! And in the future Darren hopes that a pack of information on local routes will be given away with the sale of every new bike. It’s an approach that has the support of Sally Killips, the CDT Scheme Co-ordinator: “We are very keen to see integration within the towns,“ she says. “Providing cycle racks as well as routes, as well as advice and information on where to get bikes repaired.”

‘Be flexible’ are the instructions from Cycling England, which oversees development of the six Cycling Demonstration Towns. So Aylesbury has experimented with a range of other, smaller ideas as well: as part of a ‘Bike Bonanza,’ one hundred bikes were given away to those who promised to cycle at least once a week (over 1000 people registered); local radio was used to promote cycling’s health benefits; and next year the town will experiment with ‘pool cycling,’ with people paying for and gaining access to the bikes through their mobile phones. They may even be available free of charge, who knows.

And it is just possible that the wheels are now starting to turn. During the last 12 months there was a 68% growth in the average number of daily cycle trips, equivalent to an additional 1042. The overall aim is to increase the use of bicycles from 3% to 9% of all journeys within three years.

Tony Bungay is an example of a recent convert, who works for the town’s largest employer, HBOS, and says he has seen some of the council’s promotions. “Going by car has become too costly and the bus only gets me half way,” he explains. “The cycle path is flat, and gets me to there quicker.”

Rob Broadhurst is another. This summer the 41 year-old accountant was diagnosed with diabetes, and the radio advertisements about its health benefits encouraged him to try cycling his three-mile commute. (The price of parking and petrol also played a part.) Three months on and he is getting used to the journey – almost. “It’s down hill on the way in,” he smiles, “but uphill on the way home.”

But Rob and others, especially those who have cycled for years, are also critical of the resources the council devotes to cycling – or the lack of them. “They do not maintain the cycle paths and the roads are dangerous,” is the view of a typical bicyclist in the town’s Market Square. And he is not the only one who, as a result, admits to using the pavements instead. But as cycling has long been neglected the criticism hardly comes as a surprise, and as more people take to it there will surely be more complaints to come.

In the East Midlands, Derby is doing things differently. As a hub of the national cycle network the former home of Rolls Royce is already well provided with on and off road paths. So instead of developing new cycle routes, like in Aylesbury, they are trying to introduce a culture of cycling among the city’s 100,000 under 25-year olds. Half of Cycle Derby’s three-year, £1.5million award (doubled with match funding from the council) is being spent on storage facilities in schools and bike safety training for youngsters, with the rest allocated towards the population in general, with promotion of routes and funding for people to get their broken bikes repaired.

Boulton Primary School is one of city’s ten after school cycling clubs (a total of 27 are planned). The club is open to children of any age and nine 9-11 year olds, five boys and four girls, have turned up for Tuesday’s ride around the tarmac sports pitch. The hour-long session starts with roadworthiness checks – tyres, breaks and helmets – and is followed by exercises to improve the children’s steering, breaking and general confidence. “Keep your feet on the pedals, Susan” - “Watch those gears; your legs are going too fast, Graham” - “Don’t shuffle off, your pedals should be at two o’clock when you start,” comes the watchful advice from the touchline, led by Community Cycle Coach, Ian McNeil.

But however attentive the staff it is clear they are battling uphill against the pressures of today’s society, and which face Cycle Derby’s chosen target of young people in particular. “The bikes people own today are a prestige item; people are frightened of having them damaged and stolen,” says Bella Stewart, the project Co-ordinator. So Boulton Primary and other schools are eagerly awaiting their new storage facilities, which they believe will encourage more children to cycle in by bike. (They are also being given a rack-full of new bikes to cater for those who don’t already have one.)

Safety is another major issue. “We get lots of mums and dads saying they are frightened to let their children cycle on the roads,” continues Stewart. But the city’s ‘Bike Safe’ training for Year 6 schoolchildren, that might address the parents’ concerns, has temporarily run into difficulties. A shortage of volunteer trainers (there are only 12 at present) means that progress has been slow (600 have been trained out of a target of 3000), so now they are recruiting paid positions instead. After the training, explains Stewart, letters are sent to the parents, telling them what their child has achieved, and inviting the family to join them for a ride. The idea seems sound but who knows what the take-up will be. “You wouldn’t believe how poor the children’s physical fitness is,” whispers Cycle Coach, Ian McNeil.

And it is ‘limbo dancing’ (cycling underneath a pole) rather than road safety that is the most popular activity at the after school club. For boys in particular cycling is about doing stunts and mucking around, admit the instructors. “There is a fair bit of routine in the club that some boys find restrictive,” says McNeil. “Attendance is lower in the secondary schools, by when many kids have found other things to do.”

But whatever the bumps along the way, and even if progress is slow to date, you cannot criticise Cycle Derby for lack of effort or imagination. There is no limit to the ideas they are trying to get people onto two wheels instead of four - and it does not matter whether it is mountain bikes, BMX, Cyclo cross, or just making people more aware of the city’s traffic-free routes. This autumn alone they held Bike Camps and Cycle Tryouts, races and roadshows, and next year they are planning a bike film festival – it’s sure to be one to watch.

“Europe has taken 25 years to get where they are – we are not going to get there overnight,” says Bella Stewart, who hopes that biking to work in her high heels will convince others they don’t have to have a shower at the end, or wear special clothes or shoes. “It is not going to be easy,” she admits, “but I wouldn’t do the job if I didn’t think it was possible.”

“I definitely think the tide is now turning towards cycling,” adds a confident Sally Killips, who has been working in cycle promotion for the last 20 years. The health benefits and rising cost of petrol, she feels, are finally encouraging people to get on their bikes. “We are not going to get the Cycling Demonstration Towns up and running in three years, but we’ve got to start somewhere … and make an argument for carrying on.”

© Robert Bullard. Not for reproduction without prior permission
 

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