Making behavioural change fun !

There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years about the need to encourage people to change their behaviour - specially in relation to transport because of issues such as congestion, air pollution, obesity (lack of exercise) and the need to reduce C02 emissions.

One lesson that has not always been learned (or remembered) is the need to make the paths to changing behaviour less threatening and even fun!

Here are some interesting examples from the Fun Theory.com website (an initiative from Volkswagen). The Piano Stairs project wanted to see if they could get more people to choose the stairs by making it fun to do.  Watch the video and see for yourself.

According to the Fun Theory.com website it is "dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better."

Giuseppe Lo Bocchiaro has submitted a more recent entry entitled Just Cycle It  with a suggestion to local authorities about how to encourage more people to cycle in cities.

"Cycle in the city is a good thing! We intend to promote the use of bikes in the city. More bikes mean fewer cars in the streets and a more beautiful city. The way to promote the use of bikes is simple! The local administration gives the bikers an odometer. The bikers who are moving in the city, augment the kilometres in the odometer. When the bikers want, comes back to the local administration and shows the kilometres they made. The local administration gives some gifts to the bikers such as services, tax deductions, theater tickets etc. In relation to the kilometres they made. So the more you ride your bike the more presents the administration gives you. ENJOY!"


So if we want to see more people cycling in Greater Manchester, our challenge for 2010 (and beyond) is to come up with fun and attractive ways to encourage more people to cycle.  I wonder if any local authorities or businesses would consider the rewards schemes as suggested in the Just Cycle It example?

There should be plenty of opportunities for such initiatives in Spring 2010, when Manchester should see the launch of the Points4Life scheme. According to the website the scheme is a "new loyalty programme which will encourage people to be healthier. It will take knowledge, learnings and technology from the private sector, where many loyalty programmes run very successfully and apply them to the public sector. Through the use of government, local authority and private sector funding Points4Life will encourage Mancunians to be healthier in a range of ways including what they eat and doing more exercise."

The Points4Life scheme has set an objective to recruit 20-25% of the Manchester population to be involved, although it is hoped to be able to achieve 40% participation in the scheme over a three year period, plus 20% of those commuting to the city.

The key behaviour change outcomes that the programme is seeking to influence are:

• people are more physically active
• people eat a healthier diet,
• people maintain a healthy weight;
• people stop smoking;
• people limit their alcohol consumption to nationally recommended levels;
• people take up screening opportunities offered through the health service.
  

Part of the national Change4Life programme, Manchester has been chosen as the test bed for this scheme and has received £4.6 million funding from the NHS. We look forward to some fun and rewarding ideas to provide incentives to encourage more people to cycle in Manchester.


Happy New Year.

PS.  Oh, and any suggestions where we could install a Piano Stairs in Greater Manchester and who might fund it would be most welcome!

So you think you have too much stuff to carry by bike ?

Reasons for not cycling #5: I have too much stuff to carry...




When asked why they don't cycle many people reply that they have too much 'stuff' to carry.  Well their stuff may not fit in a small handlebar basket or back panniers but to see how much luggage a bicycle could carry, in August 2008, Austin on Two Wheels (USA) announced the “What’s the biggest thing you’ve carried on your bike?” contest.


They asked people to submit pictures of themselves, their bike, and the largest load that they had carried on the bike. Each week, for 6 weeks, they published a semi-finalist photo  and then asked people to vote on the best overall photo.



"Utility bicycles can be used to carry almost anything – groceries (beer!), items for work, furniture, cars, you name it!"






This photo of a "retro" couch on a Bakfiets cargo bike was one of the semi-finalists.







Need a bicycle for going shopping, taking the kids to school, going to work, carrying groceries, or for hauling tools, pets or even sport equipment. Then you may want to check out the Mundo Utility Bike. Watch the video on YouTube of the Mundo comfortably delivering a 140lb load.

Next time you hear someone saying they have too much stuff to carry by bike maybe you can suggest they think a little bigger !

Cycle shops in Greater Manchester

We haven't seen any comprehensive listings for cycle shops in Greater Manchester. So have created this Google Map.

If we have missed out your favourite store then let us know.

The green markers are for shops that offer a 5-10% discount to members of the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign.

No Place to Park (My Bike)

"Traffic signs. Trees. Wrought iron railings. Chain link fences. Telephone poles. Even a storm drain. I think I've secured my bicycle to just about everything in and around the center city of Manchester; everything, that is, except a bike rack.

....The number of bicyclists on Manchester roads seems to have increased considerably as of late. Whether folks are riding high-end mountain and commuter bikes or Wal-Mart specials, we all face a similar problem: no legitimate place to park. But I would settle for several designated bike racks in visible, highly-trafficked areas, at least in the downtown area. While it would be nice to covered bike parking like they do outside of this train station in Northern Ireland."

Sound familiar ?  Whilst this description of one persons search for decent cycle parking is from Manchester, New Hampshire (see Fortress Manchester) it can be a common problem in many parts of Greater Manchester.

But why are there so few decent cycle parking facilities in Manchester?

Part of the problem is the ludicrously small number of cycle parking spaces that Greater Manchester planning guidance requires building developers to incorporate in new buildings or re-development projects.

According to the Greater Manchester Parking Standards listed in the 2006 Local Transport Plan (LTP2) Technical Guidance (who said we were sad!)

For office building type developments (Type A2: Financial & professional services) the "Minimum standard for cycle parking provision" is 1 cycle parking space per 400 square metres (minimum of2).

Compare this to the requirement adopted by York City Council that demands all plans for new office buildings provide 1 space per 55 square metres. This means that any new buildings in York are required to provide 7 times more cycle parking space than an equivalent office building in Greater Manchester.

To make it worse, it is not even clear whether the Greater Manchester guidelines actually have any actual teeth.  According to a Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan Cycling Group report in April 2002 Greater Manchester Cycle Parking Guidelines the "notes give advice regarding design and numbers of places, and whilst they cannot be enforced yet, form a suitable basis on which to implement facilities."  I am hoping a helpful Council officer can tell me that this lack of enforcement has changed.

Interestingly, the Greater Manchester Police Cycle Parking Design Guidance (Design for Security) released in October 2009 are based on the York Council 'level of parking' requirements and in the "What are Cycle Parking Standards?" section state that:

"These are generally acknowledged by Local Authorities as providing 'best practice'. These standards should be applied to all planning applications by Local Authorities." (emphasis added).

So Greater Manchester Police have adopted and are promoting higher standards for cycle parking than those currently followed by the Greater Manchester local authorities.

With the lack of decent cycle parking being amongst the many barriers to increased cycling levels in Greater Manchester is it any surprise that York achieves commuter cycling levels of between 20-25% compared to the 1-2% in Greater Manchester?

If you want Greater Manchester to build better cycle parking facilities it would be great if you could raise this with your local cycling officer or via your local cycle forum.  See CycleGM for contact details for your local cycling officer.

If you are really keen you could raise the need for better cycle parking standards within planning guidance in a submission to your Councils consultation process on their local development framework.  Check your Council's website for details.


PS It is interesting to see how other cities are responding to the need for better cycle parking facilities.

In July 2008, theNew York Times reported that while "people are generally free to wheel their bikes in and out of residential buildings, commercial buildings often ban them."

But on 7th December 2009, New York Department of Transportation announced that "the City is prepared to implement the Bicycle Access to Office Buildings Law (Local Law 52), which aims to increase bicycle commuting by helping cyclists gain access to secure parking at their office buildings during the workday."

In August 2008, New York Department of Transport also installed nine new bikes racks designed by musician, artist and biking enthusiast Byrne. "These clever and innovative racks were created to generate more interest in cycling in New York and also to add attractive, temporary art the City's streets."  See also David Byrne's Bike Rack site

Desperately seeking Member Champions for Cycling

In February 2008, Cycling England wrote to all local highway authorities in England encouraging them to agree to appoint a "Member Champion for Cycling".

Cycling England suggested this idea because they wanted to support local authorities to increase the promote of cycling and recognised that elected Councillors play a key role in setting the priorities of their Councils. The invitation outlined the range of support that Cycling England were offering to councillors who signed up to become a Member Champion for Cycling. This included a number of benefits for the local authority, including:

• Assisting the local authority in meeting a wide range of policy targets and objectives
• Facilitating the proper consideration of cycling in the various council meetings and other activities
• Improving relations with external stakeholder groups, particularly those involving local cyclists
• Enabling the Council to tap into best practice in other authorities and to link into the free support available from Cycling England.
• Offering personal and professional development opportunities for those taking on the role.
• Encouraging networking between individual councillors with an interest in promoting cycling.

Cycling England were also offering a funded toolkit to support designated Member Champions for cycling in local highway authorities, including districts with agency agreements covering highways / traffic. This comprised:

• Welcome pack, including advice on best practice, key references and a flexible presentation on how cycling can contribute to a council’s policies and strategies.
• A support hotline to Cycling England’s consultancy team.
• Each Champion can make use of Cycling England consultants’ time in support of their role, involving phone / email support, meetings / site visits as appropriate.
• Cycling Champions email discussion group linking them to Champions in other authorities.
• Regular e-newsletter and publishing advice / guidance for champions
• Free attendance at Cycling England led professional training events for Champions on existing and emerging cycling issues (subject to demand).
• National Standard Level 3 cycle training ‘refresher’ course to bring the Champion up to date on developments in cycle training, including the new Bikeability programme.
  

 Which all sounds really goovy and very helpful. So thinking that it would be useful to know how many Greater Manchester councils had taken up Cycling England's kind offer of support, but having failed to find any details on the various council websites, we submitted Freedom of Information requests to all ten GM councils asking for details.

Now all you devotees of the Freedom of Information Act will know that local government bodies covered by the Act are supposed to respond to requests within 20 working days or at least tell you that they are going to take longer to give you an answer.

So how did the Greater Manchester councils perform?  Well all but one Council answered within the 20 working days with Oldham Council topping the chart responding within a blisteringly fast response of one day. The response times for the other councils were:  Bolton (4 days), Salford (5),  Trafford (6),  Stockport (8), Rochdale (9), Wigan (11), Bury (18), Tameside (18). Manchester didn't manage to respond within the 20 working days timeline and as this blog goes to press the clock is still counting.....

But have any of the local authorities seen fit to take up Cycling England's kind offer of really useful support and appointed a Member Champion for Cycling we hear you ask?  Well the results were:

Bolton:  None (See note 1)

Bury:  None (See note 2)

Manchester: None (See note 3)

Oldham:  Stephen Barrow. Appointed 12/2/2009.  (Email: stephen.barrow@oldham.gov.uk)

Rochdale: Wera Hobhouse.  (Email: wera.hobhouse@rochdale.gov.uk)

Salford: Jim Dawson. Appointed 3/2009.  (Email: councillor.dawson@salford.gov.uk)

Stockport: Stuart Bodsworth. Appointed 5/2008. (Email: cllr.stuart.bodsworth@stockport.gov.uk)

Tameside: None (See note 4).

Trafford: None (See note 5)

Wigan. None


So far only 40% councils within Greater Manchester are making use of the support offered by Cycling England with Bury suggesting that they are "anticipating making an appointment in the very near future" which will take the tally up to 50%.

Five councils have not appointed a Member Champion for Cycling although four of these (Bolton, Manchester, Tameside and Trafford) do have councillors with cycling somewhere within their remits.

Assuming that there were no onerous strings attached to the support being offered by Cycling England it seems very odd that so many Councils have declined to make the most of the support being offered from the national body responsible for promoting cycling in England. Specially at a time when most Council's are claiming that they want to promote and increase cyling levels.

We do hope it's not because the various Councils couldn't meet the "person specification" required to nominate a Councillor as a Member Champion for Cycling which required:

"A councillor who is a regular cyclist. You could be an executive or a nonexecutive member, depending on your Council’s policy on Champions. You will have technical support from competent, senior, officers."

Perhaps readers would like to email the Councillors below and ask them if they intend to join Cycling England's scheme.



Notes:

(1) Bolton Council has not specifically appointed a Member Champion for Cycling, but does have Members assigned to the Bolton Cycle Forum to promote cycling within their political parties and the Authority as a whole.

Members: 
Councillor John Byrne             (Email: john.byrne@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor Richard Silvester  (Email: richard.silvester@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor Michael Hollick      (Email: micheal.hollick@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor David Chadwick   (Email: david.chadwick@bolton.gov.uk)
Councillor John Higson          (Email:  john.higson@bolton.gov.uk)


(2) The Executive Member for Environment & Transport has discussed the matter with senior officers of Bury Council and is anticipating making an appointment in the very near future.


(3)  Lead councillor for cycling is Emily Lomax. Email: cllr.e.lomax@manchester.gov.uk


(4)  The following Members have specific interests within their portfolios:  Alan Whitehead, Andrew Doubleday (Chair of Council Cycle Forum), Barrie Holland (Chair Carbon Reduction Panel).

For Andrew Doubleday and Barrie Holland  email: angela.monks@tameside.gov.uk
Alan Whitehead email jan.jackson@tameside.gov.uk

(5)  the Executive Member for Highways and Transportation, Alan Mitchell, has as part of his remit the promotion of cycling within the borough. He will receive updates from the Cycle Forum, and reports about cycling measures being implemented across the borough.  (Email: alan.mitchell@trafford.gov.uk)

Cycle Centre Proposals for Manchester and Salford

The Cycling England - Feasibility Report on proposed Manchester and Salford Cycle Centres has recently been made available.

The report summary states that there "is evident potential for growth in cycling in Manchester and Salford. This growth is being constrained by the lack of secure parking.To meet this need there are funds available to create a number of Cycle Centres providing a range of services across the regional centre."

It is great that there are funds available for cycle centres, although the report does not  provide any details of the amount of funding and how many cycle centres this will support.

What is a Cycle Centre?
The report  describes a ‘cycle centre’ as a facility that may provide a range of services including one or more of following:

• Secure, covered cycle parking either self parked or by staff (full or part time) 
• Cycle information including security (locking one’s cycle), travel planning and links to public transport 
• Cycle hire 
• Sale of parts and new cycles 
• Repairs 
• Lockers for storage of clothing and cycle equipment 
• Showers and changing facilities 
• Clothes drying facilities 
• Food and drink (café or vending machines) 
• Cycle cleaning 
• Free use of tyre pump 
• Cycle training 
• Cycle maintenance classes

but at a minimum any Cycle Centre should provide secure cycle parking and one other service.

The report identified a number of potential sites including:

• Piccadilly Station: Site 2 - Station Approach
• Piccadilly Station: Site 4 - Fairfield Street/London Road
• Aquatic Centre
• Piccadilly Station: Site 3 – Fairfield Street
• Piccadilly Gardens
• Salford Quays and Kennedy St 

and currently the reports' consultants are carrying out a more detailed evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each these suggested sites. They are due to deliver a prioritised list of site(s) for the Cycle Centre very soon.


Watch this space for further news......

The Bicycle now arriving at Platform 10

On 28th September 2009, the Department for Transport announced a £14 million package to improve cycle facilities by creating 'Cycle Hubs' at  10 major rail station  and creating 10,000 extra cycle park spaces at these rail stations.

Included in the DfT statement were details of funding given to Virgin Trains to improve cycle parking along the Stoke to Manchester rail corridor and cycle accessibility at the stations. There was also a mention of a "cycle hire schemes" to be introduced at Manchester Piccadilly, with opportunities to expand to other stations.  The Stoke Sentinel (29th September) has reported that Virgin have been allocated £1 million for these cycle schemes.

More recently, reports have reached us that Oy Bikes (London) have had discussions with Virgin Trains and Manchester City Council about developing a Cycle Hire scheme on Platform 10 at Manchester Piccadilly station.  With up to 110 hire bicycles being shared between Stoke, Piccadilly and Victoria stations and a couple of other locations in Manchester.  Large companies and organisations will also be encouraged to support the scheme by installing additonal cycle hire units.

Oy Bikes were last seen operating in Manchester in September 2005 as part of European Mobility Week.  Between 16th to 22th September, the distinctive yellow bikes were available via an Amsterdam-style system outside Victoria station, Piccadilly station, St Peter's Square Metrolink stop and St Ann's Square.

We look forward to seeing the distinctive bikes once again on the streets of Manchester.

Oy Bike photo sourced from: Tree Hugger

Oy Bikes already in Cardiff. On the 26th November the Guardian Bike Blog reported that the "Bike hire revolution hits Cardiff"



"It's a bit front-heavy. Not much good for wheelies." That was the verdict of one passerby as he inspected one of Cardiff's fetching new yellow and green rentable bicycles that are now dotted around the city at 11 hire locations. With just 70 bicycles and hire stations restricted to the city centre and Cardiff Bay, it is small by comparison with similar schemes in other European cities such as Paris, Copenhagen and Nice. But the company running it, called OYBike, say this is just the start. "The system will hopefully continue to grow (locations and thus stations) as private companies want to sponsor more rental points outside their offices," said Deborah Pester, a spokesperson for OYBike.

How many folding bikes can you fit in one car parking space?

 
Forty two (Bromptons) is the answer...

Photo from Bike Man Dan blog (25th August 2009). Source: Boing Boing

www.bikemandan.com/blog/pictures/how-many-folding-bikes-fit-in-one-car-space