For the third year in a row, Birmingham has seen an 11% increase in the number of cyclists in the city.

Helping to achieve this fantastic result, Birmingham City Council has had another successful year delivering cycling improvements across the city, while the Council’s Smarter Choices Team has worked with schools, businesses and community groups to promote the many benefits of cycling, such as better health and fitness, and reduced levels of congestion and CO₂ emissions.

As well as targeting and engaging different groups in the community, the team has employed a range of new and innovative ideas in supporting these groups.

Women on Wheels 

Throughout 2012, the Smarter Choices Team piloted a brand new project offering cycle training to women from black minority ethnic groups. The team has been overwhelmed by the number of women who have said that although they would love to cycle they have never had the opportunity to learn how. With previous feedback indicating that mixed gender lessons are a barrier to cycle training for many women, the provision of women-only lessons has proved extremely successful, helping more than 200 women learn to cycle in the first year of the project.

Thrilled by this result, the Smarter Choices Team is planning to increase the number of available lessons. Men-only courses are also provided and these too are becoming popular amongst black minority ethnic groups. 

“I wish to cycle for health and fitness and more importantly so that I can ride alongside my son”

“Cycling has increased my confidence and will enable me to be more active”

“It will change my life”

“I wish to cycle for leisure, work, health and fitness”

“I didn’t think I would ever learn to ride like this in such a short period of time”

Top Cycle Location

The Top Cycle Location scheme is an exciting new initiative to promote, support and develop cycling at large employers and major trip generators. Birmingham City Council’s Smarter Choices Team will provide a unique cycling consultancy service with participating locations to develop an Action Plan for the major locations across the city, culminating in achieving the Top Cycle Location status on implementation.

Since 1998 Birmingham City Council has offered organisations support on their development and promotion of sustainable transport use through its Company TravelWise scheme.  This initiative provides employers with various benefits, up to date information, service improvements, journey planning and a level of support that includes increasing cycling. Monitoring has shown that cycling is increasing in Birmingham, but it is also clear that there is work to be done to ensure that key locations can accommodate and support this rise in cycling to their premises.

The city council is keen to build on this growth and has set out plans for cycling in Bike Birmingham: A Sustainable City’s Cycling Strategy for 2011 – 2015 launched in June 2011.

Bike Birmingham includes policies to improve facilities and routes, training, infrastructure, promotion, partnerships and events. The Top Cycle Location programme is a key objective in Bike Birmingham.

Encouraging and supporting cycling to a location needs to focus on a range of measures from providing journey planning, advisory routes, training, secure cycle parking, lockers, showers and changing facilities when they arrive. Visitors may need to know an advisory route to a venue and that there is secure parking when they arrive. Employers and major locations have a role in providing premises that are welcoming to cyclists, but will need help, support, ideas and advice. The Top Cycle Location programme will support the development of cycle-friendly destinations by partnership working to remove the barriers and provide the right incentives.

Bikeability and Schools

Teaching children to cycle is an important step in encouraging cycling. The City Council’s target to provide 2000 children with cycle lessons during 2012/13 has been met. The Smarter Choices Team has secured further funding which will increase the number of children accessing cycle training next year to 3000.

A study by Birmingham University indicated that in some local wards over 40% of children are overweight or obese, despite many of these children living within walking distance of their school. Cycling is a great way to combat childhood obesity in the city. 

The Smarter Choices Team monitors the prevalence of walking and cycling to school for every one of Birmingham’s 500 schools. In a newly developed rewards scheme, this year will see each of the city’s top three cycling schools receive a trophy, presented by Minister for Transport, Norman Baker.

School travel planning is another example of the support provided to schools. This service focuses on the provision of safe crossing points, small infrastructure improvements such as barriers or drop kerbs, and road markings such as zigzags, to help ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists within and around the school gates. 

Brompton Dock

The City Council is exploring the possibility of creating a bike hire scheme in Birmingham. Current plans involve providing capital investment for the purchase of a docking station housing Brompton folding bikes. This scheme would be jointly marketed with Centro. It is envisaged that visitors and commuters will be able to hire the bikes at a small cost. Brompton bikes are already used in other cities and are proving to be a popular alternative to walking, driving or public transport.

Cycle City Ambition Bid 

Birmingham City Council is submitting a bid to the Department for Transport’s Cycle City Ambition Grant. If successful, the Council will receive up to £20m to transform cycling in Birmingham over the next 20 years. A wide range of stakeholders in the city have expressed their support for the bid, including major tourist venues, large employers, schools, universities, emergency services such as the police, and the city centre business districts.

The Smarter Choices Team is currently working on the bid and gathering evidence from key stakeholders who will explain the benefits that better cycling facilities will bring to their employees, visitors, service-users and the city as a whole. The Council has an ambition to make Birmingham a leading European cycling city. Winning the bid will help speed up this process.

In addition, the City Council is currently working on a Local Strategic Transport Fund project, involving a sum of £34m, which is enabling the development of the main cycling corridors into the city, adding road infrastructure and walking and cycling route improvements as well as upgrades to public transport facilities. Businesses are able to access grant funding of up to £10,000, plus a package of support worth in excess of £5000.

The city has a great track record of winning funding bids for cycling and sustainable travel in general. The Bike North Birmingham bid, for instance, secured £4m for the north of the city, resulting in cycling infrastructure improvements and schools and businesses receiving additional support. Early findings show a resulting increase in cycle usage.

Bike Security and Safety

As the number of cyclists increases, the risk of cycle theft increases. The Smarter Choices Team works with partners including the police, schools, universities, employers and other key cycling groups in the city, to raise public awareness of the Cycle Passport scheme.

This scheme aims to deter thieves by making it easy for owners to identify and record details about their bicycle, such as its frame number.

To improve bike safety, the team organises a variety of events where free bike maintenance is available. This includes a general check over of tyres and brakes, and repairs to punctures and chains.

Travel Plans

The team are still on track to complete about ten Travel Plans this quarter, and will have completed almost 40 by the end of the year.

Travel Plans allow managers to investigate how they can promote sustainable travel to and from a site, through a range of options including improved cycle facilities, shower facilities, or small infrastructure measures such as drop kerbs.

If you are interested in getting involved in any of the projects described above, or would like further information, please contact smarterchoices@birmingham.gov.uk or 0121 303 7683.