Bike Week 2013 runs from 15th – 23rd June. Here’s a little travel calculator from the Bike Week website which demonstrates how much you could be saving if you ditched your car for the week.
Instructions on how to use this calculator:
- Open the calculator link
- Enable macros
- Add your milage into cell C4 (yellow cell) and press enter
- The results will be displayed in each cell
You can hover your mouse over the boxes to read how we’ve come by the figures (or read the additional ‘calculations’ sheet).
This calculator and usage instructions have been produced and supplied by Paul Adams (North Tyneside Council Travel Plan Team) and Amy Carroll (Cobalt Business Park Travel Plan Team). For more info, please go to the Bike Week website.
What’s five miles? About eight kilometres our metric friends would say. 8800 yards our parents would say. A perfect distance to cycle to work Sustrans would say.
So to introduce Sustrans and their “Call to Action for 2020.” For our international readers, Sustrans is a British charity for which the last 30 years have been a constant campaign to improve the walking and cycling networks throughout the UK in addition to promoting sustainable transport. Today, the Sustrans cycle-ways allow a third of a million people to enjoy a daily traffic free commute to work. Their “Call to Action for 2020” has the specific goal of doubling the number of journeys under five miles made by foot or bike. Currently, us Brits jump in the car for nearly two thirds of trips under five miles and for one in five trips under a mile – not the healthiest of statistics.
Sustrans aim to alter this ‘travel behaviour’ and are lobbying government to reward sustainability when awarding investment for new housing and travel infrastructure. Simple ideas like ensuring new housing estates are not built without schools so that families do not have to drive to educate their children; that there are doctors, shops and other vital amenities within walking or cycling distance and that walking and cycling routes are integrated into road building and improvement plans.
It is a proactive rather than reactive stance. The charity’s Bike It scheme involves the education of children in the benefits of cycling to ensure there is a generation for whom cycling becomes the obvious choice for short journeys. Grass roots stuff hoping to inspire rather than coerce tomorrow’s commuters onto two wheels.
For us at Furious Green Ideas, the work Sustrans are doing is both furious and green. Furious in the feverishly busy way, not the angry cyclist who has just seen a car stop in a cycle lane way (stay calm out there guys!). Please head to the Sustans Call to Action for 2020 page for more details (all facts and figures for this post were pinched from their More Haste Less Speed piece).
As always guys, happy and safe cycling.
Ben and Ed
Why “furious” green ideas??
A not-so-subtle reference to the work of Noam Chomsky – an inspiration not only for his work in linguistics but also for his activism and his environmentalism.
Although we’re generally pretty calm people, there are plenty of things in this world to be furious about. This blog is about using our fury to good effect and becoming active inthe things we care about – the environment, cycling, language and travel, food and drink.
Idea number 1 – cycle the length of Europe, from London to Istanbul. In doing so, we want to show as many people as possible along the way how great cycling is – whether for a long distance budget holiday or just for getting to work in the morning. By using, promoting and reporting about the EuroVelo routes (more here) we’ll provide proof that you can have a better, healthier, more sustainable holiday, soon to be made even easier with the completion of 14 uninterrupted cycle routes across the continent.
We set off in August, and preparations have already begun: planning the route, getting into cycling shape for our 150km a day regime, and arranging promotional events with local cycling associations in the 13 countries we will pass through.
Watch this space for updates on this and future projects!
Ben & Ed
Furious Green Ideas 