CYCLING IN SAFETY
Do you wish that your children had the freedom that you enjoyed as a child, to cycle safely in Birmingham, or wherever you lived? Wouldn't it be great for you and your kids to cycle safely together? Well, thanks to a Big Lottery grant, this will soon be possible in Birmingham.
Birmingham has lots of parks, towpaths, traffic free roads that are safe -if only they were joined together. Push Bikes, the Birmingham Cycling Campaign, has won a lottery award to produce 10 short routes for different parts of the city and make them freely available. They should be ready in Spring 2010.
John Bennett, Chairman of Push Bikes explains "Cycling is fun, good for health and the environment. It's a great way for kids to get active and fit. Most people - adults and kids - have bikes but many are not used. We talk to lots of Brummies who tell us that traffic is what stops them cycling. These new routes will be chosen to avoid busy roads, start at car parks or stations and include café or pub stops".
John adds "We want them to be great ways to have fun and enjoy cycling together. Rides will be five to ten miles long. For a young family we think that's worth a rewarding drink or ice cream. If you want a longer ride it is possible to join two together".
Check the Pushbikes website now, and get ready for the first rides on these routes next year. Leaflets will be available in the Spring, on the Pushbikes website and at libraries.
Please consider joining the "20s plenty" campaign referred to on the Pushbikes website, and join the Birmingham campaign, co-ordinated by Birmingham Friends of the Earth, which is working to persuade politicians to save lives in Birmingham by reducing speed limits in residential areas. This would make it safer for your children, and for you, to use your bike instead of your car for short journeys.
Join the campaign to make a real difference to your health, to your budget, to improve life in your neighbourhood and the future of our planet.
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The link to the Pushbikes site does not work (in Firefox). I think the reason is that you have put "www.pushbikes.org.uk" instead of "http://www.pushbikes.org.uk". Browsers will generally interpret the first as a relative url, and will try to tack it on to the end of the url for (in this case) the Lighter Footprints blog. If you begin the link to an external site with "http://" however, the browser will always interpret it correctly as an absolute reference.
Peter, thanks for pointing this out. I have corrected it and think the link works now.
Hello again Esther!
I took another look at your 'blog' yesterday and am pleased to see another mention of Push Bikes, the Birmingham Cycling Campaign up there, together with its planned family rides and web site.
Readers of your 'blog' may be interested to know that, following the Cycling Advisory Group meeting on Monday, Birmingham City Council is planning to hold TWO PUBLIC MEETINGS about cycling, later this year. The first could be as early as April!
Perhaps I could also draw your readers' attention to my own web site giving hints and tips about cycling in Birmingham, âÂÂBrum by CycleâÂÂwhere they will find advice about safer road cycling, the National Standard training for adults that I offe and how to book my FREE presantation about cycling!
Graham Hankins
Secretary, Push Bikes
Sorry about errors in previous comment; it should have read: "the National Standard training for adults that I offer and how to book my FREE presentation about cycling!"
GH
Another useful link for cyclists in Birmingham is: http://www.dandavies23.com/2010/01/birmingham-safe-cyclist-map that highlights hazardous routes, proving that these campaigns are necessary!