York
Thanks to many successful cycling initiatives over the past decade, York’s cycling levels are amongst the highest across the programme. To ensure cycling continues to increase in the area, York is introducing new initiatives to help cycling appeal to a wider population.
A citywide consultation was undertaken in year one of the Cycling Town programme. This helped prioritise and shape the programme for years two and three, with a focus on encouraging cycling to school and workplaces, working with all schools and major employers in the city.
The team has engaged with some of the city’s biggest employers – supporting the implementation of cycle to work schemes in organisations such as Nestle, Portakabin and York Hospital. At Nestle, there has already been an increase in people cycling as a result of the company’s Get Cycling programme, which was launched to staff with an event fronted by Olympic cyclist, Victoria Pendleton.
York has made good progress on infrastructure improvements, including the creation of two new cycle routes and improving on-road cycling facilities. Substantial cycle route improvements have also been completed on the Moor Lane Bridge and the Beckfield Lane to Manor School track, and by April 2010 work along the Fulford Road radial route will be complete.
Other infrastructure improvements include the Clifton Bridge works, where there are new cycling facilities from Salisbury road to Clifton Green. This makes up a large section of the orbital route, which is one of York’s flagship projects. The orbital route will build upon existing infrastructure, creating a track that circumvents the city centre and allows people to ‘hop on and hop off’ as needed. The plans for this were designed in response to feedback from residents who wanted to avoid main radial routes.
Events were a major focus for the York team in 2009. A ‘Biking Vikings’ event took place in April 2009, involving 70 school children from four schools dressing as Vikings and riding into the town centre for a Viking show and various competitions. Other events included Bike Week, a two-day ‘Festival of Cycling’, which had almost 10,000 attendees, the Tour of Britain, York Car Free day and ‘Save My Bike Day’, which allowed children who had completed their Bikeability training to learn how to carry out bike maintenance.
In 2010, improving cycling access at the train station will be a priority. The current proposals include providing a ramped access into the station car park and creating additional cycle parking and better access from Scarborough Bridge.
Visit www.york.gov.uk/cycling for more information.
