Cycling (Demonstration) Town

"Celebrating Cycling in our City, Coast and Countryside"

Lancaster was one of six ‘cycling demonstration’ towns announced in 2005.  The CDTs received funding from the Department of Transport – viaCycling England- to show how increased investment can encourage cyclists to get on their bikes. The other ‘winners’ were: Aylesbury, Brighton, Darlington, Derby and Exeter.

In 2008 a further 11 Cycling Towns and one Cycling City were announced – see www.cyclingengland.co.uk for the full list

What’s the project all about?

The purpose of the project is to make a concerted effort to make the ‘towns’ more attractive to cyclists by raising levels of funding. On average less than £1 per head is spent on cycling in England. In the original demonstration towns this was raised to £5 per head – similar to the level of investment in European towns with high proportions of journeys by bike.

The Cycling Towns Project focuses on areas with a population of around 100,000 which can demonstrate a commitment to encouraging more cycling within the town. Cycling England hope to show that a significant difference can be made to cycling levels in the chosen towns, leading to further investment aross the country.

What will it mean for the District?

Along with the high profile this will bring for cycling in the district, is £0.5 million per annum to spend on new and improved routes, better signage, training and lots of promotional activities – all designed to get more people onto bikes.

We’ve spent many years actively developing and promoting our cycle network and are proud that the number of cyclists in our district is already well above the national average. That said, we know that there is still so much more that can be done and that’s why we’ve created such an ambitious vision.

More than that we want to create a real culture change that will not only see cycling become a mainstream and popular way for people to travel locally but that will also see the community understand, positively embrace and celebrate cycling’s vital role in the sustainable future of our district.

In short, we want our district to become the cycling captial of the north west.

In order to double cycling levels in the area we hope to:

• complete missing links in the existing cycle network

• implement a signage strategy

• improve parking facilities

• offer training in bike confidence and cycle maintenance skills for children & adults

• implement an extensive range of promotion and publicity measures to encourage more people to cycle

At the start of the project – then Councillor Gina Dowding – Cabinet Member and CDT Project Board Member – recorded 2 short video clips about what the CDT project will mean to the area -view here

More Information

Find out what’s happening in the other Cycling Demonstration Towns:

Cycling England

Cycle Aylesbury

Brighton

Darlington – do the local motion

Cycle Derby 

Exeter