Cycle September returns to help make cycling the New Normal
Posted on in Cycles News
Awareness has grown in recent years that cycling is a ‘silver bullet' to solve several twenty-first century problems, such as air pollution, congestion, obesity and heart disease. Cycling is also a crucial part of plans for recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
Cycle September supports the Government's effort to double cycling trips by 2025 and to make the bicycle the default mode of transport for short journeys. The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said "What makes people cycle: it's easy to grab the bike, and there's space to cycle. The trick is to keep this going. That requires more than just the money that we're putting into cycling. It also requires a change in culture". Cycle September is an easy, fun way for everyone to contribute to the change in culture that we need for the UK to benefit from increased levels of cycling.
Regular exercise is vital for good respiratory health and traveling actively is a good way for people to keep fit and healthy and protect our NHS by reducing the impact if there is a second wave. A British Cycling report shows that increased urban cycling could save the NHS £17 billion over 20 years. The report also found that moderate levels of cycling were associated with a 28% lower mortality risk in older adults and 20% lower stress levels amongst cycle commuters. As well as boosting public health, cycling frees up space on public transport and the roads for people who can't ride a bike and for key workers who need to get to essential jobs.
Cycle September organisers, Love to Ride, have been running Urban Cycling Skills webinars to boost new riders' confidence and help them to ride on the road. An attendee from Devon said, "Me (and my 12 year old daughter!) found the webinar really useful... it was really helpful learning about the importance of communication with other road users and position on the road. Thanks for providing this webinar to NHS key workers". Qualified instructors talk attendees through the basics of preparing to ride on the road and teach them two ‘Cycling Superpowers' to help them communicate clearly with other road users and control the traffic around them. There will be regular webinars to support new riders up to, and through, Cycle September.
The Cycle September website also has lots of useful information and advice to help you get started riding and to help you ride more often for fun, fitness and transport. There will also be fantastic prizes up for grabs for riding and encouraging in September, plus signing up before 1 September will put you in the draw for a Cannondale bike. It only takes a minute to register at lovetoride.net
Cycle September - The Facts!
- Cycle September is based on a tried and tested format that has engaged more than 517,000 people worldwide and helped 121,000 people take up riding or get back in the saddle.
- You can take part as an individual, with your workplace and with your cycling club or social cycling group.
- Individuals and their workplaces will compete on local, national and global leaderboards to see who can earn the most points.
- Points are earned for every mile and day you ride plus every person you encourage.
- You could win bikes, gear, restaurant vouchers and lots of other great prizes - plus if you encourage your company to sign up and your team tops the national leaderboard at the end of September, you could win Cyclehoop equipment for your workplace!
Why take part?
There are a bunch of benefits for taking part in Cycle September. Individually, for your organisation, and for our planet, riding helps to...
- make us happier and healthier
- make us more energetic and productive
- save us money, and our organisations money too - through fewer sick days, lower car parking costs and increased productivity.
Organisations that take part in Cycle September will also gain access to:
- a fun team-building and staff engagement programme that's easy to run
- support to achieve your organisation's sustainability goals
- a way to monitor cycling to your sites and help your staff to be more active and environmentally friendly
- track and measure stats across the organisation and see how much CO2 you save to measure the impact of your staff cycling
You can take part in Cycle September by following 3 easy steps:
- Register at lovetoride.net/[SITE NAME]
- Join your company or invite your workplace to register (you can join or register a group or ride solo too!)
- Log rides manually in September or connect your favourite cycling app (Strava, MapMyRide or Endomondo). Your rides will be recorded automatically and will sync your last 30 days of riding!
Love to Ride enables members to set goals, track distance, earn badges, share photos and stories and encourage others to ride, as well as allowing workplaces to incentivise their staff to ride and monitor cycling participation at their sites.
The aim of Cycle September is to help more people to enjoy the fun and freedom of cycling and to access the support they need to ride for transport.
Bonus earlybird promotion!
Sign up for Cycle September by 23:59 on 31 August to go into the draw for a 2021 Cannondale Lefty worth £3,400!
Find out more and register in one minute at lovetoride.net.
Local Bike Shop Day
local Bike Shop Day will also be taking place this September, with two key themes being:
- Back to School; what better time than now to start encouraging the younger generation to start using an efficient, environmentally friendly and healthy mode of transport? With people being discouraged from using public transport at the moment, cycling will be a perfectly viable option for many parents to get both younger and older children to school safely. Local Bike Shop Day may just be that extra bit of encouragement needed to make the decision to change from four wheels to two.
- Keeping the nation cycling through to autumn; so far 2020 has seen the use of bicycles reach an all-time high, with data showing that cycling levels during lockdown rose by up to 300% on some days. It is now pivotal for the cycling industry to do what we can to show these new cyclists that cycling is more than a lockdown fad, and that there are endless reasons to continue cycling throughout autumn.
Sign up for this year's Local Bike Shop Day taking place on Saturday 5th September. Join in on the celebrations at localbikeshopday.co.uk.
Once you have signed up ensure you spread the word to your community and encourage as many people as possible to get involved with the hashtag #SupportYourLocalBikeShop!
Register for Local Bike Shop Day