Cycling plans for the year in Worcester 2024

Following on from our last article, Bike Worcester’s review of 2023, we managed to grab another slot to talk about what we’ve got planned for 2024! So grab a mulled wine and mince pie, and let’s see if we can interest you in some bike based activities in the New Year. One of our biggest successes in 2023 has been the increase in the number of Bike Buses supported by Bike Worcester, and we plan to continue this in 2024. Bike Buses provide an alternative to the normal school run, with children, parents and volunteers cycling in a large group to provide a safe method of travelling to school by bike. This gives confidence to parents that cycling with their children to school is possible, and provides a weekly highlight for the children, who arrive at school excited and energised, ready for the day ahead. We already have new Bike Buses planned for 2024, but if you’re a member of staff at a school or a parent interested in getting one off the ground, please get in touch.2024 is expected to bring the launch of the city Beryl Bikes hire scheme, and hopefully a relaxation of some of the Traffic Regulation Orders (which prohibit cycling) in the city centre, to support the launch. Because who wants a bike hire scheme in a city with a ban on cycling in the city centre; am I right? Also planned for completion is the Kepax walking and cycling bridge, so off the chart levels of excitement when we have the grand opening, with councillors of all affiliations doing the figure of eight ride using the Beryl Bikes and taking in all three walking and cycling bridges over the river Severn. Maybe it will be the biggest Worcester Critical Mass ride to date?Our bike repair and recycling scheme in association with Crowngate Shopping Centre will only get slicker, with us aiming to find new homes for 200 bikes. If you’ve got a bike you want to donate, or need a bike to get you rolling, please get in touch.In local government news, we’ll continue to track progress and encourage improvements to the Worcester City Active Travel Plan, which aims to increase active travel journeys to 50% by 2030. This will be dovetailing into the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan currently being developed for the city, which should provide a robust and detailed set of improvements specifically designed to boost rates of active travel, enabling and encouraging more of us to choose a bike as a regular mode of transport. In addition we will continue to work with Worcestershire County Council as part of their Active Travel Stakeholder Forum to ensure it is successful as a tool to improve our urban environment. This is all with the aim of lifting Worcestershire from our current zero (out of four) rating, determined by Active Travel England, which then enables the county to apply for more funding to further improve our streets for cycling.That’s the boring bit over. What else? Well more Critical Mass, Kidical Mass, cycling confidence sessions, Bikeability courses, a MASSIVE group of bikes in the carnival, the international Bike Bus conference in 2024 is in Stuttgart, more fetes, more shows, more socials. More bikes. And anything else we think of between now and this time next year.If any of this sounds appealing, if you’ve got your own ideas you’d like to bring to the party, or you’d like to find out more about Bike Worcester, please drop us a line through the website or our social media accounts.So for the good of our health, our streets, the air we breathe, and the climate crisis, here’s to the humble bicycle, and all the good it can bring in 2024!