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This edition.........
- Front Page
- AGM Report 2001
- BUGs in the Universities...
- Cycle Map Developments
- What’s on and Events
- Bike Week 2002
- Touring in West Lancashire
- CCN Conference Dorchester
- Local News
- Station Audit
- Biketime Rides set to roll on..
- It's Biketime on the Wirral
- Where to go for advice, bits and repairs..
- Tyres for beginners
- Local Route Information
- What is the Merseyside Cycling Campaign?
How is it that we’ve all heard of the RSPB, Greenpeace, the Eden Project and Chester Zoo, but few out there have heard of the Merseyside Cycling Campaign?
The raison d’etre of Merseyside Cycling Campaign is the attainment of safe cycling in a traffic calmed environment. The processes of campaigning require input by active members distilled from an expanded membership, in turn requiring publicity.
Yet it has been pointed out that we’re very difficult to find. Promotion can be expensive but perhaps we don’t need National TV, billboards or adverts in the Sunday Trendygraph. We’ve promoted ourselves on buses with the help of Travelwise and the Summer (and now Winter) schedule of family rides. We have basked in the occasional publicity of the local press and local TV. As of this year we shall appear in Yellow Pages. We are promoted in Neil Kay’s excellent Map, available across the City. It is clear that we can’t have too much of the right kind of publicity.Consider that our local news sheet, Pedal Press, could be circulated outside of MCC: give this copy of Pedal Press away, leave it in your doctor’s surgery, pin it on your firm’s noticeboard. It has been suggested that A5 posters could be placed at strategic locations (with the City Council’s permission). We could even entertain an advertisement in Merseymart.
If you have ideas that might promote and enhance the MCC, bring them to the meetings at the Vernon Pub held on the third Monday of the month at 6.00. In the meantime,there are a few hundred members of MCC and we can all spread the word.
Derek Gould
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An enthusiastic audience filled the Third Room in Everyman Bistro for the Annual General Meeting
on the 1st December. The Chair welcomed all and, with reports from the officers, gave a synopsis of the work undertaken during the past year.
Our speaker this year was Steve Cook, whose day job is with Merseytravel but was speaking as a member of the MCC. Giving an illustrated and amusing talk he was cautiously optimistic of the progress made for the cyclist in Liverpool. The way forward, Steve suggested, is to stay involved in the planning and consultation process. The morning concluded with a buffet lunch and an opportunity for members, both old and new, to catch up with past and future events in the MCC.
Don Thompson
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Once again, the old chestnut of cycling facilities (or lack of) at the University of Liverpool is under discussion. Given that Liverpool John Moores University has had an effective green transport strategy for over ten years now, it is embarrassing that there has been so little effort on behalf of the Liverpool University Senior Management Team to implement something similar.
The University of Liverpool Policy on the Environment and Sustainability produced in 2000, includes establishing a transport policy that encourages the use of public transport and provides improved facilities for disabled people, pedestrians and cyclists, but to date it appears no action has been taken to establish and implement the Policy.
A large proportion of staff supports the aims of developing sustainable transport policies, and many cyclists (who have links with MCC) are keen to see facilities within the university
improved. One way of taking such a policy forward would be to set up a Bicycle User Group to advise on how the University could respond to these issues. However, at the moment there is no infrastructure within the University for supporting such a project.
Other pressing current issues that have been raised include:
- the need for secure undercover facilities for leaving bicycles - students do not have the option of taking their bicycles into their departments/offices, as is the practice of many academic staff.
- conveniently located and functioning showers, particularly for those who cycle longer distances.
One of most obvious benefits of addressing these issues would be an improvement in the parking problems at the University.
Many people travel to the University by car simply because there is nowhere to leave their bicycle safely during the working day. There would also be less peak time congestion, less staff time lost, an improved environmental image for the University and improved health and fitness of the workforce.
So far, in response to a letter I sent to Dr. Ray Buss (Director of Administrative Services) a meeting was held in January. The outcome of the meeting was a decision that Merseyside Travelwise would prepare a presentation for the University of Liverpool Senior Management Team to try to elicit support for the implementation of a green transport policy within the University.
We have yet to see whether such a venture will receive the support of the Senior Management Team. If not, it will be back to the drawing board again, but let’s keep up the pressure.
Debbi Stanistreet
Contact the Editor to tell us what your employer does or doesn’t do to encourage cycle use to work.
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Believe it or not it is now two and a half years since the campaign launched the Liverpool Cycle Map. Being an avid collector of such maps I can immodestly say that, in my opinion, it is probably the best in the country.
However, it is now a bit out of date and some new facilities can be added thanks to the efforts of the campaign. Lessons have also been learnt. Some errors were made (all of Liverpool will be covered), many bike shops have closed and yes, I now know how to spell 'buses' - but mostly the problem was getting it out to the public. The 2nd Edition will have paid time budgeted in to allow the marketing and distribution to shops. Thanks to all who volunteered to market the maps to bike shops but I'm sure you will agree it was a thankless task. The new arrangement should lead to a more comprehensive coverage of outlets. Graphic artists have been commissioned but I'm still looking for more funding.
Another criticism made could be taken as a compliment. That was why can’t the non-Liverpool residents have one? Well, we now have a plan to produce not one but five cycle maps. These will cover each of the boroughs of Merseyside. Each map will have a large Merseyside map on one side with the urban areas of the borough in detail on the other side.
I think I will abandon the city centre map and plastic covers. These outer areas maps may take longer to come to fruition as all the money still needs to be found. However, NOW is the last time to give any last-minute comments on the Liverpool map if you have any.I'm not easily offended. Please contact me on 0151 727 4584 or email Neil Kay
Neil Kay
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John Whitelegg is guest speaker at Liverpool John Moores University, room 3.20 at 79 Tithebarn Street Starts at 13.00 on the 20th March goes on till 15.00 and his topic: ‘Killercar Global health and local solutions’, John is always an entertaining speaker and this seminar should be of interest to us all. All welcome to this free event.
The winter Biketime Rides are set to continue to April when the next programme of summer rides will begin. Support from Campaign members is always welcome.
The Sefton Cycle Challenge is on Wed. 19th June. Still in Sefton on the 23rd we have the Sefton Cycle Tour and if you enjoyed those events you can pop along to the Cycle Forum (6.30 on 27th June Soutbport Town Hall) and tell them you did.
Don’t forget the MCC meetings 3rd Monday, 6.00pm in the Vernon Pub, Dale St., Liverpool All welcome.
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They say that every dark cloud has a silver lining and this applies to me and my cycling. Because of Foot and Mouth Disease and the closure of most of the off-road cycle paths I took to the roads more often and found they were not as busy as I anticipated.
First I have the choice of when I go out so that makes it easier to avoid peak hour, and second I am blessed with living near to the back roads of West Lancs. and I came to realise what a wealth of routes are available using these quiet roads. When I expanded my horizons it soon became obvious that Merseyside in general is well provided with 'back roads' that together with the off road trails could form a cyclists touring area, that is, or could become, one of the best in the country.
To build upon this impression I started to record my use of routes and the existing off road trails, then added other routes, such as The Lancashire the Cheshire Cycleway and Sustran’s routes. This required that I produce a map which I decided to restrict to the flatter parts of the region so took a line from Warrington in the south to Preston in the north and Chester and Flint in the south west; including the Wirral. Once this was done large areas were seen to be without cycle routes so I started adding existing facilities such as cycle paths on dual carriageways, highlighting their often isolated nature and what was needed to link them up to other existing routes. The map was now looking better so, encouraged, I added other desirable routes, such as the Sefton Coastal route and linked this to the Lancashire Coastal Path -and in the south linked the Mersey Way to the Otterspool Promenade and the Trans Pennine Trail at Pickering’s Pastures. This route would then link Preston to Southport, Formby, Liverpool, Widnes and Warrington - giving direct access from town to town and the choice of a semi-circular coastal route of about 60 miles length, for the serious cyclists.
What you then need is a route home, and what better than use the proposed Sustrans route from Preston to Widnes or Warrington via the Sankey Valley
Trail.. This should top the 100 miles, a challenge for the best of us! Another valuable link would be the Leeds Liverpool Canal to Wigan and beyond!
Cycle tourists have made significant contributions to the economy of regions they pass through, for example the C to C route has revitalised the towns it passes through (they claim more than 10,000 visitors with a total spend of l.85 million); similarly the Camel Trail had 400,000 plus, total spend of nearly £4 million. Cycle tourists are said to be quiet tourists, not only because the bicycle is noiseless but also because they cause little trouble (having worked off their energy?). They are also among the highest spenders of tourists, no doubt because they carry so little with them and consequently have to buy their food, accommodation and all other supplies. If you add to this to the lack of fuel pollution and freedom from traffic congestion, cyclists make very attractive visitors.
So how do we attract these big spenders! Simple, produce a map of routes lighlighting the attractions within the area and improve on those routes by more off-road trails, and re-classify some of the very narrow roads into cyclists and access only.
Improve the links to existing cycle paths on dual carriageways to create on road routes for the experienced cyclist. Hold cycling events, such as The Liverpool to Chester bike ride, throughout Merseyside, so you had Liverpool to Southport, Southport to Wigan, etc.
Of course this all needs money to create the network I envisage but it’s not just money out. I have shown that there is income from these tourists that would offset the expense and may even produce a surplus, then there is the hidden benefit to the residents of safer cycling, healthy exercise, reduction of traffic and pollution from fuel fumes.
Merseyside has the advantage of good national communications by ferry to Ireland and the Isle of Man by air from Liverpool and Manchester (there is a link to the TransPennineTrail) and train via the national rail network. There are many attractions within cycling distance and a local rail system to get you back if you overdo it. Some of the trains carry bikes free!
I know I am preaching to the converted and you know all this. However, by producing this map I hope to stimulate interest in many quarters and someone may just have the foresight to get things moving.
Ron O’Nions
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The CTC/CCN Spring Conference is to be held in Dorchester on the 27th April, 2002. The event will be opened by Stephen Norris, recently appointed as Chair of the National Cycling Strategy Board. The agenda will include updates from the CTC, developments in the CCN, Bike Week events and Good Practice in Dorset.
The MCC have been invited to host the Autumn Conference in November 2002. We will be grateful for all support in making this as successful as the last one we hosted. We will also be looking for members who can offer accommodation to visitors.
If you would like to be involved or feel you can offer accommodation to delegates for 1-2 nights, please contact the Secretary.
To visit the CCN website go to www.cyclenetwork.org.uk
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Humpspotters Corner
Arundel Avenue has now been traffic calmed, and is a much safer and a more pleasant route to cycle in my humble opinion. No more dodging in and out of parked cars to avoid speeding drivers. Duke St forms part of the Millennium route into the city centre and has now been traffic-calmed.
Greenbank Lane has also got the hump. Each of the humps has cycle bypasses, in order to assist special cycles based at the Greenbank Centre. Humps are being built on Crown St. keen spotters will note that the humps stop short of the cycle lane. This is not what I had anticipated, having advised the City to take the humps across the cycle lanes. Word on the grapevine that proposed traffic calming on Fir Tree Drive (Croxteth Park) - scene of a number of speed related crashes and near-misses has run into opposition from the local Redwood Tendency movement.
Traffic calming does seem to be the main means of securing improvements for cyclists in the city, the development of specific cycle routes being so slow.
Kerbspotters’ Corner
The Council’s cycling engineer Cathy McNulty has been successful where others have failed in getting kerbs at Sefton Park café and at Dalmeny St near the Lark Lane subway lowered. Many other minor defects, from signing to lining, have all been sorted! Thanks to Cathy stands have been installed in the Allerton Road shopping area, Old Swan shopping area and Townsend Lane. This is a considerable achievement and reflects a lot of hard work as it is not easy to find suitable sites. The catch is that those stands should have been have installed in the previous financial year - further indication of the way in which the City is dragging its heels.
Situation Vacant
Because of the increasing size of the Liverpool Group we need a helper to handle the membership list and mailings. You will need a computer & the ability to use lists & the Internet. Volunteers please phone me on (0151) 727-0088.
Major Road Ahead
The City Council hopes to embark on a massive new road building programme. This is part of a long-term ambition to hasten journeys times between the M62 and the City Centre by increasing road capacity at Edge Lane, Tunnel Road and Hall Lane. The scheme includes token Cycle lanes. You may wish to take an interest if you live, work or pass through areas such as University/hospital/City Centre or the Edge Lane/Kensington /Fairfleld / Crown St. /Granby areas.
Fairy Stories
The Annual Progress Report on the Local Transport Plan states that Liverpool constructed 18km (11 miles) of cycleways during the year 2000/2001. I challenge members to identify just where this mileage is located. Take a magnifying glass with you.
A little number crunching suggests that despite allocating £300,000 to spending on cycling in 2001/2002, this sum only represents 0.6% of the total transport spending for Liverpool.
This despite the fact that the Council’s Cycling Strategy calls for a massive increase in cycling by 2002. The Cycling Strategy calls for the whole of the Primary Route Network to be complete by 2002 - i.e. 10 radial routes, 3 orbital routes and the Millennium route. In fact only half each of two radial routes, about ¾ of the Millennium route, and some bits here and there have been constructed since 1996, missing the target by a gigantic margin. At the current rate of progress Liverpool cannot possibly complete its Primary route network before 2030. A worrying aspect of this is that the City Council has convinced itself that there is no problem and that it is making good progress.
Shopping
I have not tried the Asda brand of Muesli yet, but shopaholics should take their bikes down to the new store on Smithdown Road. You can park on the spanking new stainless steel Sheffield Stands at the main doorway, or if you don’t mind a longer walk back, in the under-cover bike park at the back of the store.
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The long-threatened train-spotting project to survey railway stations for cycle parking (and other facilities) on behalf of Merseytravel has started. We have been asked to visit the stations to assess what cycle parking is currently available and make suggestions and recommendations for improvements. A training (sorry) morning was held prior to the Biketime ride in February and those who attended have volunteered to visit and survey some other stations. We still need more help to cover all the stations in Merseyside.
The training is easy and painless and involves a short tuition session on how to approach the problem, it outlines some of the issues to consider such as: who uses the station; what journeys do they make; are there other journey opportunities; how far is the next station; are people able to walk to the station in a relatively short time; what’s at the other end of the line; which side would people want to park on;is the station staffed; can the staff see the suggested parking area, etc.etc.
We wish to present Merseytravel with a consistent set of recommendations so I feel it’s necessary to explain how all these factors should be looked at individually and collectively. Any one interested in participating please contact Colin Langdon.
Colin Langdon
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This very successful series of rides started last year when Merseyside TravelWise joined forces with the MCC and Healthstart to embark on a plan to get more people into the saddle.
TravelWise aims to encourage more use of walking, cycling and public transport and to reduce unnecessary car journeys. We felt there weren’t enough opportunities for new cyclists, families and youngsters to try cycling and get a bit of support and inspiration. MCC is full of inspiring, talented cyclists who care about people’s health and enviromnent.
So putting together a programme of introductory cycle rides, led by these experts seemed a great way to reach new riders, and so far we’ve made a great start. Summer 2001 saw the first rides, the biggest of which attracted 80 riders who largely took advantage of the Merseyrail free bike carriage to spend a Sunday afternoon in good company, getting healthy and having fun. Requests to carry on once winter approached led to monthly rides over the colder season and we were delighted to welcome New Year resolutionists and the proud owners of some new bikes onto January’s ride.
From last year’s season we’ve learnt that the rides attracted some to their first taste of cycling in many years, more women were encouraged to take part and families enjoyed the chance to spend some time together. Most felt the rides were the right length and the routes were good and well led and some had increased the amount of cycling they do since their ride.
I think the great, friendly atmosphere on the rides has been one of their best assets. Such success deserves to continue and we are now busy planning for the next season.
I'd like to say a big Thank You to MCC for making this happen, you’ve been brilliant. Come along to one of the rides, bring someone new to cycling along, tell other people about them or get in touch if you’d like to help organising the programme.
Cycling is too good to keep quiet, help us shout about it!
Visit www gotravelwise.com
Sarah Dewar
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The committee room at Crosby Town Hall was packed to the rafters on 7th February for the first Cycle Forum of 2002. A lively meeting ensued with contributions from many local cyclists, council officers, police and politicians (actually none of the last category but I live in hope!).
There was some discussion about the cycle routes recently proposed. These include Southport Road in Bootle which, due to local opposition, will remain on the drawing board, Knowsley Road in Bootle (which may include the first ‘magic’ roundabout this side of the Pennines - two lanes for cyclists, one for carrying on round and one for turning off) and Town Lane in Kew. Interestingly, one local resident objected to cycle routes on the grounds that it would facilitate the escape of cycle-equipped youths following crimes against property and person - who will be safe from Brompton-riding burglars and unruly unicyclists once cycle lanes are in place?!
A future route to be consulted on is Liverpool Road from the Coastal Road junction to Lord Street West. This consultation is going to be much wider than previous ones due to the critical strategic nature of the route and the need to canvas a wide number of interested parties.
Local cyclists have been involved in suggestions for cycle routes in the Borough starting in the north and eventually engaging local cyclists from all areas of Sefton.
Road and cycle route maintenance is of particular concern to many and there is now a phone number to report such defects:0151 984 4250
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At a recent meting of the Ellesmere Port and Neston Cycling Forum, Anna Geroni (the County Cycling Officer for Cheshire) announced that the Cheshire Cycleway is going to be extended to take in Ellesmere Port and Neston whilst some rerouting will be taking place at the Pennine end in order to avoid roads which have become very busy since the route was originally set up. It is hoped to have the alterations signpouted in time for Bike Week. Work may soon begin on upgrading the Canal bank cycleway out of E.P. through to the A5ll7 in April. The Mersey Forest is also looking to develop a route to the east of the A5117.
The Highways Agency have two alternative plans out for consultation fur extending the M56 to meet the A55 at the Welsh border. For cyclists it could improve connectivity with some of the excellent cycleways in Flintshire. Chester Cycling Campaign have produced four free maps of family rides from Chester. Routes from Sealand to Chester are now open after roadworks: just mind the steps over the bridge at Chester racecourse!
Barry Davis
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The Wirral Cycle Forum was set up by the Borough Engineer early in 1997, to help him decide on a programme of work to promote cycling in the borough.
For the first five years the emphasis was on the Millennium Route of the National Cycle Network. At last something that was proposed locally is set to go ahead.
The Wallasey Cycle Network was proposed jointly by the Cycling Project for the North West (CPNW) and Merseyside Cycling Campaign in 1993, and it lay in the engineers’ offices for several years. For over a year now it has been mentioned in the Forum and encouragement given to developing the proposal.
Some details of the proposal have been worked out with the community partnerships in Wallasey. Five of these partnerships were set up to help develop Wallasey using Objective 1 money from the European Union. Roland Graham attended meetings of all the partnerships in order to discuss the proposal. They not only supported it but decided to join with the CPNW in putting it to the Council. Some people heard about the proposal through the partnerships, and all were supportive.
Wirral has a Safer Routes To School strategy group on which Roland represents the CPNW. This will be helpful in getting things going. Schools will be a major target for the network. Weatherhead School is a secondary school which at present is on three sites. It is to move to a new unified site in September 2003, so it is important to get a large part of the network in place by then. The proposed network was altered to take account of the new site.
It is also important that the network should serve any major shopping site in Wallasey. The principal site is in the centre of Wallasey at Liscard Centre. One morning last winter several members of MCC met there to survey in more detail routes that had been included in the original proposal. This helped them to decide more specifically what to propose. Because the major routes through the shopping precinct have been pedestrianised for years, the proposal is not recommending any change to this.
There are some routes proposed through Cental Park. The department of Education and Cultural Services was sent a copy of the proposed routes, and it was found that it had similar ideas for safer routes to schools. Permitting cycling in the park will therefore present little problem.
Further, road safety officers in the Council have similar ideas to ours about setting up a cycle training site in the park, and agreed with some details that we had worked out with the partnerships. So again we were pushing an open door.
The proposal was sent to the Council in December. There have been delays in the production of copies due to illnesses among the engineers, who are producing copies of the network map and the plans of Liscard Centre and Central Park.
The first copies to be produced came out very badly. Copies are now available from Roland Graham at 20 Hilbre Road, West Kirby, Wirral CH48 3HH or roland.graham@merseymail.com, though you may get a poor copy unless it is important for promotion that you have a good one.
There was a special meeting of the Cycle Forum in January for cyclists to give their opinions on priorities for cycling developments. A new cycling officer presented a list of projects he had been working on, with the Wallasey network being at the bottom of the list. Several representations will be made to correct what we hope is only a temporary misunderstanding.
Some students of Professor Lewis Lesley, our president, are doing projects on the network, which will help to advance it. One of their classes was addressed by Roland Graham and the new cycling officer. We hope that work can start about the middle of this year.
As a final note, if anyone is intersted in cycle training for adults, it may be possible to get some free. The Council is interested in supporting it. Contact Roland as above.
Roland Graham
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Abbey Cycles situated at Taggart Ave. in Childwall are offering 10% to all MCC members. Steve, can offer friendly advice and full support for all cycles.
If you are local to South Liverpool then you will know the name Norman Roberts, with a wealth of experience no job is beyond this man. Specialized steel frame repairs, new build, all repairs and general maintenance Norm’s your man. Call him on 724 2009.
With no more Cycle Centre in the City I have found Pembroke CycleSport in London Road always well priced and helpful.
The Adapt.com Outdoor shop in Richmond St. City centre is also offering 10% to all MCC members. No bikes but lots of other useful bitz..clothing, footwear etc.
Word on the Wirral is that Steve Glover at Ian May Cycles on 645 0550 is a worthy port of call.
A few of us have gone mail order with Mike Dyason and St. John Street Cycles but I must agree with those who like to feel the goods before parting with their readies.
Buy Local, Cycle Global. -
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One of the reasons usually cited for not cycling is ‘I've got a puncture’ or even ‘I am always getting punctures’. Here are a few words of wisdom for those of you wishing to cycle more but have the above problems. There is always a trade-off between cost, how easy it is to get the bike to move, will it grip in wet weather and how puncture proof is it?
- Rule 1. You get what you pay for. There is little use in buying cheap tyres for cycling around Merseyside. The best ones to get are those fitted with a Kevlar band under the tread, these are puncture resistant and you should get about one third of the punctures you would otherwise have had.
- Rule 2.The only 'puncture proof' tyres are solid ones, they are available but they give you a terrible ride. Accept a certain number of punctures, learn how to fix them quickly and easily and remember you can always push your bike, chain it to something solid and come back later or call a black cab and stick your dead bike in the back with you. It will still be cheaper than using the car continuously.
- Rule 3. Soft tyres give you a ‘smoother ride': they do, but they also attract more punctures, usually two at a time, when you fall down a pot hole or something and the edge of the wheel (the rim) cuts through your inner tube. Blow your tyres up fairly hard, you’ll soon get used to the slightly bumpier ride, and fewer punctures.
- Rule 4.Don’t fix punctures. Carry a spare inner tube, tyre levers and a pump, just make sure you have removed whatever caused the puncture and replace the inner tube - with practice you should be able to do this without getting too dirty. Fix the puncture when you get home.
- Rule 5.'Big chunky tyres give more grip': they don’t, they look the part on a mountain bike, but they take more effort to turn, for riding on the roads you want a tyre with a smallish cross section (26 x 1.25 or so for a mountain bike, 700 x 28 for a ‘road’ bike), you should look for tyre with a bit of tread to shed the water when it’s wet, but tractor tyres will just tire you.
Send us your tips on Cycle Maintenance-Ed
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We would like members to contribute local route information that may be useful for other members to have.We intend to publish this information in as many ways as possible in conjunction with the CTC and some of our local contacts, such as TravelWise and the Airport.
- How do you get to the ferry terminals?
- Cross the Irish Sea to I.O.M?
- Whats the best way to cross the Mersey with a bike? By day or night? At the weekend?
- When can you cycle through the tunnel?
- How do you get to the tunnel entrances - Wirral and Liverpool ends?
- How do you cycle to the airport?
- From Liverpool city centre?
- From the nearest stations, Garston and Hunts Cross?
- From the Trans-Pennine Trail?
- From Widnes using roads?
Some of these questions I can answer myself but I would prefer to have more than one opinion. Contributions welcomed in any format, hand written, drawings, annotated maps or beautifully word processed detailed route sheets with animated computer graphics.
Contact Colin Langdon on 0151 234 9484 email:colin@candflangdon.co.uk
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We had just got through a severe spell of snow and icy roads so it was a relief to find the weather reasonably mild, with no wind or rain for our Winter bike ride on 6th January 2002.
About 40 cyclists including some young children were gathered at Eastham Rake station at 1pm eager to start off wherever I wanted to lead them. I had a cunning plan (not like Baldrick!) to take them along quiet lanes via Willaston to the Old Quay pub at Parkgate and return mainly on route 56 cycleway.
The trouble with such a mixed bunch of riders you will realise, is the leader is under pressure from a few fairly experienced ones to get a move on. So we were stretched out over several miles as usual. Don, Sarah and a few other MCC nobly brought up the rear, escorting the families with young children.
All went well at Parkgate, some of us quaffing halves (or so) and the others departing for the ice cream parlours of Parkgate. Soon we started back along the cycleway passing over the custom-built road bridge in Neston and then through the long deep cutting through Windle Hill. Plenty of variety on this ride. We all returned, eventually, to the start well before dark.
Sarah Dewar tells me the ride was a great success with plenty of riders requesting details of future rides.
Larry Dixon
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Merseyside Cycling Campaign was set up in 1985 to work for the provision of better and safer facilities for cyclists and for the safe behaviour by all road users. We encourage all our members to get involved in campaigning. This may be small scale improvements at work, in school or at your local rail station or on a larger scale by writing to your local council or MP to influence policies at national level. Attitudes are at last beginning to change for the better and you can play a part by ensuring that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
Campaigners meet on a regular basis to discuss tactics and we publish this newsletter to all members. Membership also entitles you to an updated copy of the Cycle map. More members give a greater pressure for change so why not join today?
Contact the Membership Secretary, Carol Fitzpatrick on 0151 653 3887
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The Bike Week Liaison Group has confirmed plans for the UK’s nationwide ‘celebration of cycling’ in 2002.
The popular Bike2Work promotion will run for the whole week (rather than on a single day as in previous years).
The target is for 1,500 local events to attract 200,000 participants. New event organisers will be warmly welcomed!
Free cycling events and rides that encourage cyclists to venture into rural areas will be one of the main attractions of this year's national Bike Week (15th-23rd June). All Bike Week and Bike2Work registered events will be promoted at http://www.bikeweek.org.uk
On- and off-road rides in the countryside that are free to enter will also be promoted as part of the National Outdoor Welcome campaign (see http://www.outdoorwelcome.org.uk). This includes 200 Sustrans ‘Pedaling Picnics’ and many of the club rides that take place during Bike Week; the UK’s only nationwide celebration of all kinds of cycling.
One of the Bike Week objectives is to get more cyclists visiting rural areas that were hit by the Foot and Mouth epidemic last year. Spending by cyclists will aid the recovery of many businesses, including tearooms, village shops, cafes, pubs and tourist attractions.
Bike Week promotes the National Cycling Strategy to get ‘more people cycling more often’. Please visit http://www.nationalcyclingstrategy.org.uk for free information.
Liverpool City Council are once again holding the Cycle Show during Bike Week. This year it will be a two day event on the 21/22nd June in the Royal Court Theatre and around Williamson Square. Bike to Work and other events will be promoted nearer the time.
If you can help, get in touch! - Ed.
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All articles welcome for inclusion in next issue of Pedal Press to be sent in MS Word by email or disc to the Editor by 10 May 2002.
© Merseyside Cycling Campaign 2002