The popular Love to Ride cycling event is back in May 2024!
As Warwickshire moves into the warmer Spring and Summer months with more hours of daylight, the County Council is encouraging residents to dust off their bikes and explore the many benefits of an active travel lifestyle.
There is now also an extra incentive to get those bikes out, as throughout May, Warwickshire County Council is supporting Love to Ride’s Bike Month Challenge, which aims to get businesses, communities and individuals to take up cycling for work, health and leisure.
Getting involved is easy. Anyone who wants to take part, simply needs to:
- Download the Love to Ride app;
- Enjoy a bike ride anywhere, any time;
- Use the Rate My Routes feature to provide feedback on streets and paths;
- Earn points with every bike ride that will turn into prize draw entries;
- Encourage others to get involved to earn more points and prize entries; and
- Create a profile for your workplace to take part in a bit of fun competition, too!
By doing this, residents are in with a chance to win great prizes, including cash!
New to cycling?
To join the challenge, it doesn't matter if residents ride every day or if they haven't been on a bike in years. The folks at Love to Ride are behaviour change experts who have refined their approach by helping people worldwide get into biking. Love to Ride has lots of resources to help people ride out with confidence, including a range of Tips articles and Quick Courses.
New for 2024: Rate your route
Love to Ride’s latest rate your route feature is launching for Bike Month. By ‘painting’ with your finger to provide feedback about the comfort levels on each section of a ride! Every ride logged with the app can contribute to anonymous data that planners can use to make better cycling infrastructure decisions.
Support for businesses
For businesses who are looking to support active travel schemes within the workplace, Warwickshire County Council offers a range of support through the safe and active workplaces programme. This initiative offers dedicated support and consultation which will help organisations to draft their own Active Travel Plan. It can also arrange for a variety of free active travel events such as:
- Dr. Bike maintenance sessions;
- Security bike markings;
- Bike training sessions – both 1-2-1 and group sessions;
- Route planning;
- Bicycle Buddies, Bicycle User Group support (BUGs), Walking User Group support (WUGs) and Liftshare schemes; and
- Workplace Champion support.
Jan Matecki, Warwickshire County Council Portfolio Holder for Transport and Planning, said: “The benefits of active travel, particularly travelling by bike, are huge, both for the individual and for our wider environment.
“For residents looking to reduce vehicle costs for fuel and maintenance, improve physical and mental wellbeing whilst also benefiting the environment, then there is no better time than now to get on those bikes.
“It's often the short journeys – less than five miles – which have the greatest negative impact, both on the environment and on finances. However, these are also the easiest ones to replace with a cycling alternative, whether it be for the school pick-up, the commute to work or to pop into town for shopping and socialising.”
To start your cycling adventure today, visit: https://www.lovetoride.net/warwickshire
Warwickshire County Council runs the #JustOneJourney campaign to encourage residents to ditch their cars and make the switch to active travel. Find out more about that here: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article/3068/helping-residents-to-switch-justonejourney-and-ditch-the-car-for-an-active-travel-alternative
Find out more about the safe and active workplaces support for business: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/road-safety/safe-active-workplaces
For more information about how Warwickshire County Council is facing the challenges of the climate change emergency, visit: https://www.warwickshireclimateemergency.org.uk/
Get the latest news about how Warwickshire County Council and partners are facing the challenge of the climate emergency and how you can get involved: http://eepurl.com/hrk-zf