On this page
A stab at a Cycle Malvern Glossary.
Useful Info page is for local bike users.
Campaign groups, projects
Local
Bike Worcester “a local multi-organisational group that’s been set up specifically to identify actions that can be taken to make it easier and safer for more people to cycle around the City”.
Worcestershire Active Travel Partnership. Groups across the county come together to get action on cycling and walking. See their Further Reading page for research and other material showing how active travel helps meet the county council’s objectives.
Ledbury Area Cycle Forum and their associated Come Cycling Ledbury site.
Worcester Bromyard Leominster Greenway – a vision for the old railway line. They have also commissioned a study into a Hereford to Hay-on-Wye greenway route. Slightly further afield is the Two Shires Greenway, with an Evesham angle.
The Shift scheme started in Worcester in 2017, with a number of businesses pledging to make a small donation for every kilometre cycled by their employees to a chosen charity. This aims to motivate individuals to make the shift from cars to bicycles as a regular mode of transport. More organisations across the county, commercial, charity or public sector, are welcome to join the scheme.
20’s Plenty for Worcester Campaign for 20mph speed limit for residential areas by default.
Across counties
Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Cycle Campaign, and their Twitter feed.
Birmingham Living Streets on Facebook.
Parkride from Midland Mencap “Parkride is the West Midlands region’s leading adapted cycling scheme offering free or low cost access to a fleet of inclusive bikes and trikes.” Hubs in Sutton Park, Weoley Castle, Woodgate Valley and Walsall, but travel across the region.
Nearby LCWIPs: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/lcwip/
Somerset Rail to Trail Project. An interesting example.
National/regional campaigns
Campaign for Better Transport. Originally a bus and train focus, it now pushes for high quality, sustainable transport.
Sustrans. Lobbies on active travel matters and promotes things like its Big Walk and Wheel inter-school walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge. Have a look at its Project blog. Alongside its routes network of course.
Bike Week. 2023: 5th to 11th June.
Safer streets, walking, well-being
Living Streets Charity that campaigns to create better streets and public spaces for people on foot. Website has a Safer Routes to School section.
Low Traffic Future, for clean air, safe streets and vibrant communities.
Schools, children
School streets: Living Street’s Safer Routes to School web pages, god material from Mums for Lungs, and there is also a School Streets website.
Playing Out ‘Make your street a place to play’, similar to school street idea.
Green School Runs is a Hampstead group that “encourages local schools, parents and authorities to implement practical solutions to reduce traffic and air pollution”. Some interesting ideas under ‘What You Can Do’, such as using the HomeRun app.
Cycle Bus UK (on the Change X website). “A community based initiative promoting active travel by bike for (primary) school children.”
Bike Bus Summit (in Barcelona March 2023). Email newsletter Bike Bus Legends is compiled in Worcester!
Family Cycling UK A Facebook group “for chat and campaigning, for anyone who has ever ridden a bike with kids, or wished they could.”
Kidical Mass “more than just a protest, it gives children a voice, creating a positive vision for the future, connecting the young and old across the cycling community.”
Myths and media
Sustrans article Nov. 2019: ‘Common myths about investment in walking and cycling busted by research report‘.
Cycling UK, May 2022: ‘Ten common questions about cycling, with answers‘.
I pay road tax Ironically named website debunking the idea that cyclists don’t pay their share. Vehicle Excise Duty (‘car tax’) is now a pollution tax, since it’s based on the size of engine and its emissions – BBC News article.
Cycling Fallacies Another website busting those myths!
Road Collision Reporting Guidelines for the media. A step towards not accepting ‘accidents’ as inevitable.
Cycling development
Active Travel Cafe online forum 5pm Tuesdays (was Ideas With Beers).
Twitter list of active travel campaign groups with a local focus.
Cycling UK’s Resources web page, created for its Cycle Advocacy Network members but available for all.
Urban Transport Group active travel resources web pages are worth a look.
Other resource lists on the web:
- Cyclescape’s Library Ordered only by date added.
Published November 2020, Commons Library research briefing for MPs on active travel: Cycling, walking and mobility: FAQs for 2020.
Active Travel Info: a “one-stop-shop for active and sustainable travel information which helps you build a business case for more investment in walking and cycle provision. This site aims to provide useful content for local authorities, and other organisations who want to increase levels of investment in walking and cycling provision.”
Propensity to Cycle Tool – Herefordshire and Worcestershire map (fascinating use of data).
NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guideline NG90 Physical activity and the environment (2018) “how to improve the physical environment to encourage and support physical activity”.
Infrastructure, plans, street design
Active Travel England is a fairly new government agency which is making sure funded schemes (which can provide facilities for walking as well as cycling) are of good quality. “Ensuring everyone in England has the choice to travel actively” as per its Twitter profile.
The government’s ‘Gear Change’ cycling and walking plan for England, launched July 2020, is a key document – “a vision for a travel revolution in England’s streets, towns and communities.”
The connected Local Transport Note (LTN) 1/20, Cycle Infrastructure Design, also July 2020, is important when discussing any new facility. For an overview of the approach in this guide, one of the authors gives a presentation for York Cycle Campaign available on YouTube, although it has glitches (e.g. for first half minute the screen is largely blank). This presentation for a TraffEx Digital event (June 2021, on Vimeo) by the same person is probably better and also discusses LCWIPs (cycling/walking infrastructure plans).
Department for Transport Active travel: local authority toolkit includes advice on developing LCWIPs. Also see Transport in rural areas: local authority toolkit (first published April 2022).
Streets for a Healthy Life, a “guide to best practice in street design for highway authorities and housing developers” from official body Homes England, published July 2022.
The Bicycle Association, a trade body, has an advocacy section on its website with some useful material such as ‘Standards for Public Cycle Parking’ (2021).
Cambridge Cycle Campaign has a useful section on cycle parking. Note that LTN 1/20 (above) also has a whole section on cycle parking.
Urban Design Group’s ‘Street Design Standards‘.
Sustran’s guide to getting barriers (on paths) removed or redesigned – the focus is on their Network but most applies elsewhere too.
Political
A few items from local politicians:
- Mike Rouse, now (at 2022) county council cabinet member for Highways and Transport, a piece from 2020 ‘The Conservative Case for Active Travel’. And a Nov. 2022 article on Conservative Home.
- Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, when announcing she is to stand again as Conservative candidate at the next election, Nov. 2022: “as we address climate change I will keep pressing for less reliance on the combustion engine and make it much easier for us to use greener forms of transport and better active travel corridors.” (From Malvern Observer news item.)
- See responses from a range of county councillors elected in May 2012, on Worcestershire Active Travel Partnership website.