Derby
As a housing ‘Growth Point’ area, 6,100 new homes are planned for Derby before 2011. Such growth makes sustainable transport improvements essential to prevent traffic congestion problems.
Cycle Derby’s initial focus was on the town’s 100,000 under-25s, embedding cycling into the school day through Bikeability training, curricular and extra curricular clubs and the provision of secure cycle storage.
In July 2008, Derby opened the doors to its new National Standard BMX track designed to host national events, and a smaller track to help develop the skills of younger riders, encouraging participation through regular club events.
Children of all ages have also been reached through promotional campaigns including the annual ‘Big Cycle Weekend’ parent and child school days, family bike rides, holiday cycle clubs and Learn to Ride sessions, cycle try-outs, and Dr Bike cycle repair and maintenance sessions - cheered on by the ‘Shift and Sprocket’ cartoon characters invented by the Cycle Derby team.
Cycle Derby has gained accreditation to be a National Standard Instructor Training Provider and the team has developed ‘Scootability’, a scheme which targets nursery age children through to Year 3 and promotes the basic skills required to begin their lifelong learning on two wheels. The pilot scheme has been so successful that now every child in the city has been offered the course.
In 2008/9 Derby reached the goal of having every school in the area benefiting from an after-school club, and the town’s Bike to School Challenge was a huge success with 37 schools taking part. This resulted in over 10,000 cycle journeys over a week-long period, with one school seeing 76 per cent of its pupils cycling in every day.
During the course of the project, Derby has consolidated and expanded its programme, continuing to focus on the existing target group of young people under 25, through a mixture of education, training, promotions, marketing, events, rides and clubs.
The local university and college have benefited from popular campaigns such as the ‘Quicker by Bike’ promotion. Students were given leaflets detailing the number of minutes by bike from their campus to places of interest in the city centre. At the new college campus, the college travel planner consulted with the Cycle Derby team and the result was the provision of 200 cycle parking spaces, shower and locker facilities plus the free use of hair dryers and straighteners. This immediately increased the number of staff cycling to work from less than one per cent to nine per cent, and over 80 students now cycling in daily. To ensure continued support, Cycle Derby has provided information for the college travel hub and offered guided rides and adult cycle training.
In 2008 Derby was selected as one of the 24 stations in a national pilot programme of Rail Station Travel Plans. The national launch was hosted in Derby and was attended by the Secretary of State for Transport. The station travel plan will help to market and promote sustainable travel modes to and from the station.
Visit www.cyclederby.co.uk for more information.
