Bristol Named as UK's Most Bike Friendly City
| An article from Bikes and Bike Helmets UK
| | If you're looking for a bike friendly city then the latest study by Cycling Plus magazine will surely be of interest to you. Out of 20 of the largest towns and cities in
the UK the study found that Bristol was the most bike-friendly. This result was undoubtedly helped by the £22.8m in funding Bristol was awarded after being named as the
first 'Cycling City' in the country by the Department for Transport in June 2008.
This funding was intended to encourage more people to use bikes in the city by improving the infrastructure and has already paid for a bike path alongside the outer city
ringroad, among other infrastructure improvements. In all £100m was awarded to improve cycling in the UK, other cities to receive funding being Cambridge, Colchester,
Leighton Buzzard, York, Stoke, Blackpool, Chester, Southend, Shrewsbury, Southport and Woking.
The survey excluded some of the cities normally associated with cycles, like Cambridge and York, as these are not among the largest 20 UK cities by population. Bristol
beat Leicester into third place, Manchester into fourth place, London into 17th place and Bradford, which came last.
The survey listed nine categories of interest to
bikers and asked people to judge the cities in the survey on each of them. The categories included factors like the number of miles of cycle paths available, how many
independant cycle shops the city has, how many people use bikes to commute, levels of pollution, the quality of the roads where cycle paths are not available and the
incidence of bike theft.
Bristol was ahead on the number of bike riders and bike shops, low pollution levels and the extent of its traffic free cycle paths, although local Bristol bikers are not
completely happy with the rate of progress, considering it still too slow. Bristol currently has a project for 16 cycle routes in and around the city, all funded by the
Cycling City awards, and work has started on a new four mile route to provide a safe cycle link between the surrounding villages and the city.
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