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CTC teams up with DfT in £1m drive to get bikes out of sheds and onto the road

Big Bike Revival takes place in May and June; DfT also announces £15m to improve station cycling facilities

National cyclists’ charity CTC has teamed up with the Department for Transport (DfT) for the Big Bike Revival which aims to get bikes out of people’s garden sheds and back onto the roads. The £1m initiative was announced yesterday by transport minister Robert Goodwill, who also revealed details of £15 million funding to improve cycling facilities at 300 railway stations across the country.

While 42 per cent of adults had access to a bicycle in 2013, and 37 per cent said that bikes could replace short journeys of up to two miles that they currently make by car, some 63 per cent said they had not ridden one in the past year. The initiative is aimed at converting those levels of ownership of bicycles into actually using them.

Working in partnership with bicycle re-cycling centres throughout the country, the Big Bike Revival from 23 May to 7 June will see events take place in towns and cities across the country, many of them coinciding with half-term, and enabling people to:

• fix a cycle so it can start to be used and learn how to maintain it
• trade a cycle for one better suited to individual needs and donate surplus cycles
• learn where best to cycle in their local area and discover local cycling activity and
• receive cycle training to increase confidence in cycling on the road.

Mr Goodwill said: “We are serious about getting people on their bike – cycling is great for our health and means less congested cities and less pollution.

“Now spring has arrived, there is no better time to bring out that bike gathering dust in the shed. The Big Bike Revival will help you sort out the punctures and minor mechanical problems that we have all used as an excuse not to get out on two wheels.”

According to CTC chief executive Paul Tuohy, “As the national cycling charity, CTC wants to encourage as many people as possible to fall back in love with cycling and experience all the benefits, health and economic, it brings.

“Knowing so many bikes are lying dormant gathering dust in people’s homes, the Big Bike Revival aims to bring them back to life and give people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities the incentive they need to reengage with cycling.

“The minister’s backing is a sign of the level of importance that the Department for Transport is placing on getting people back into the saddle, for which we are enormously grateful.”

CTC says that a list of the bike recycling centres participating in the initiative will be published in May.

Meanwhile, £15 million will be invested in upgrading cycling facilities at 279 stations including at Derby. Dorking, Preston and Rugby, all of which get new facilities, plus expansion of existing ones at Cheltenham Spa and Woking.

“It is important we do all we can to integrate cycling into longer journeys, and that’s why increasing facilities at rail stations is vital,” said Mr Goodwill.

“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

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BigglesMeister | 9 years ago
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.

Avatar
Daveyraveygravey | 9 years ago
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People I work with laugh at me, as I cycle to work. They think I must be mad, isn't it dangerous, don't you get sweaty, what time do you have to leave to get here? I just smile back, sometimes I ask them if they enjoyed ANY part of their journey? Why wait till May to get your bike out of the shed?

Avatar
congokid | 9 years ago
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£1million? Little more than a marketing exercise, then.

£15 million funding to improve cycling facilities at 300 railway stations across the country.

About £50,000 each.

Warwick Parkway station in the Midlands, which I regularly travel through, is about 1.5 miles from the centre of Warwick. It has nearly 600 car parking spaces including a new multi-storey, which are usually nearly all occupied and, according to National Rail, spaces for 10 bikes (these are Sheffield stands which could possibly accommodate 20 bikes).

There is no traffic-free direct route from the town centre to the station. It's going to take a lot more than £50,000 to fix that.

Avatar
crikey | 9 years ago
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“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Good job really; thanks to the comical shambles of a National Railway system, you can't put them on many trains can you?

Avatar
BigglesMeister replied to crikey | 9 years ago
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crikey wrote:

“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Good job really; thanks to the comical shambles of a National Railway system, you can't put them on many trains can you?

When I was a child each train had a guards waggon with loads of room for carrying bikes instead of today's daft limit of a few per train!

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to BigglesMeister | 9 years ago
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BigglesMeister wrote:
crikey wrote:

“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Good job really; thanks to the comical shambles of a National Railway system, you can't put them on many trains can you?

When I was a child each train had a guards waggon with loads of room for carrying bikes instead of today's daft limit of a few per train!

On my local train it service it is normally standing room only. Don't see how they could remove a carriage for a guards van.

Avatar
BigglesMeister replied to wycombewheeler | 9 years ago
0 likes
wycombewheeler wrote:
BigglesMeister wrote:
crikey wrote:

“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Good job really; thanks to the comical shambles of a National Railway system, you can't put them on many trains can you?

When I was a child each train had a guards waggon with loads of room for carrying bikes instead of today's daft limit of a few per train!

On my local train it service it is normally standing room only. Don't see how they could remove a carriage for a guards van.

Make the train one carriage (guards van) longer ?

Avatar
jollygoodvelo replied to BigglesMeister | 9 years ago
0 likes
BigglesMeister wrote:
wycombewheeler wrote:
BigglesMeister wrote:
crikey wrote:

“These new facilities will make it easier and more convenient for people to cycle to and from their station and I am delighted we will have tripled cycle parking at stations since 2010 once these new schemes have been built.”

Good job really; thanks to the comical shambles of a National Railway system, you can't put them on many trains can you?

When I was a child each train had a guards waggon with loads of room for carrying bikes instead of today's daft limit of a few per train!

On my local train it service it is normally standing room only. Don't see how they could remove a carriage for a guards van.

Make the train one carriage (guards van) longer ?

...which makes it slower to accelerate and brake to a stop, meaning fewer trains can safely be run on busy lines due to safety distances. And that's ignoring the length of platforms, which are sometimes no longer than the existing trains.

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