Cycling facilities in Cambridge set for improvements

Ambitious cycle projects were given a boost from a £14,000 council fund to get more people on their bikes.

ParkthatBike will undertake a city-wide survey of civic and community buildings to find out what kind of parking facilities are available around the city and those that are needed.

Cambridge Cycling Campaign (Camcycle) will also produce a cycle parking guide, helping businesses to provide effective cycle parking. This is an update to a guide that was produced in 2008, which the group said is in need of an upgrade.

Cllr Kevin Blencowe, the city council’s executive councillor for planning policy and transport, said: “We identified the need to do this a few years ago. Looking at civic and community facilities that are well used within the city, it follows on the back of a study by the community services team.

“There are an awful lot of places where we want to tackle the issue of cycling provision. The aim is to boost the number of people who are cycling to these places.”

The parking guide aims to put parking facilities information in the hands of business owners and developers who want cycle parking on their properties.

Ms DeBeaux said: “We think the cycle parking guide now needs to emphasise some of the new things we’re looking for in cycle parking – e-bikes, the larger cargo and child-carrying bikes probably need more emphasis and we’ve already seen need for this.

“We’ve already got developers agreeing to using the guide in their sites, but we want to make sure the guide puts up-to-date information in front of them to encourage them to take action.”