CYCLING leaders from around the world pedalled into Worcester for a global bike bus summit.
The city was the host of the pivotal event on Thursday (April 10) and Friday (April 11) and saw leaders from cycling communities in North America, Europe and across the UK convening to drive forward children cycling to school.
The summit is a grassroots initiative organised by Bike Bus volunteers from around the world to enable and encourage collaboration, knowledge exchange and connections. Its purpose is to create networks between advocates, ensuring Bike Buses continue to grow by placing pressure on politicians and decision makers to invest in safe routes for children. Previous summits have been held in Barcelona and Frankfurt.
Bike Worcester had programme of events to run alongside the summit, with the aim to showcase the strides Worcester has made in active travel in the past few years.
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said: “Worcester is a fantastic demonstration of the impact of Bike Buses. Hundreds more children now cycle to and from school thanks to committed volunteers at Bike Worcester who engaged schools, parents and their communities to build support for this superb initiative.
“We’ve highlighted time and time again how investment in cycling infrastructure is essential if we want to support more women, children, and less confident riders to start cycling for local journeys. Bike Buses prove how invested communities are in finding more healthy and greener ways to travel and are a great way to showcase the benefits of more people cycling.”
Dan Brothwell, chair of Bike Worcester, added ‘We still need safe cycling routes across the city centre and a network of segregated routes throughout Worcester, and in an ideal world Bike Buses wouldn’t be needed, but for the time being this offers school children the opportunity to travel to school under their own steam. Bike Buses offer multiple benefits to physical and mental health, the environment, and traffic congestion. You’ve got to be a real sourpuss to find anything negative to say about a Bike Bus.”
The concept of Bike Buses is growing in popularity across the UK, and now booming across Worcester city. Bike Worcester has helped set up 14 Bike Bus routes at ten schools in Worcester over the last two years. Bike Buses support and encourage children and their parents to cycle to school each week on an organised route.
