Cycle? Live in Greater Manchester? Want to win £100?

Faced with questions like these there's only really one answer isn't there? Yes.

So when the offer to take part in a survey about cycling and by doing so I could trouser 100 of your earth pounds, I was hooked immediately.

Something called the Salford Housing and Urban Studies Unit in association with BikeRight, is entering all the people who take the survey into a draw to win the hundred notes. I'd imagine the usual data protection rules apply.

Who's in? *not really

The study 'aims to improve understanding of the barriers to utility cycling and to find ways to improve the uptake of cycle training by adults' and 'should take you between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. At the end of the questionnaire, you are given the opportunity to volunteer to take part in a focus group to discuss adult cycle training further, but this is entirely optional.'

Here's the link to the questionnaire  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cyclesurvey2013 

you have until October 27th to enter. Good luck*

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Oldham pot hole festival

Among all the excitement of the Tour of Britain and the pending world champs I missed this story which broke last Friday. 
One of the 'bosses' at Team Sky - Fran Millar - trousered undisclosed damages from Oldham Council after injuring herself by falling off her bike. Nasty injuries too.
The circumstances will be familiar to many. As described by the BBC, Fran '...swerved to avoid one pothole in Oldham's High Street but then injured herself on another.'
Now, I do have some sympathy for the council's view that there is a 'national pothole funding crisis'  but it seems to me that the further east you travel in Greater Manchester, the more threadbare the cycling infrastructure gets.
My regular commute takes me through, Manchester, Stockport, Tameside and Oldham. 

Potholes can be creative too

Using the Fallowfield Loop, I barely notice Manchester and Stockport despite the loop's inadequacies. 
On my route, both Tameside and Oldham have zero bike infrastructure which is pretty poor. Actually, tell a lie, there is 400m a shared bus lane and one advanced stop box.
As cyclists we get to know the road surface intimately and often have to pick our way along rutted and damaged roads - roads that we all pay for.
We have a long long way to go.

£20m funding boost for Manchester cycling

The national media are again awash today with news about funding for cycling in a number of cities including £20m for Manchester.
This is the culmination of the TfGM led campaign to secure, well, £20m from central Government to improve cycling infrastructure in the city - I blogged about it here earlier in the year.
So, now that TfGM has a few extra notes under its mattress, what are they going to do with them?

Well, the objective is to create:

"...an integrated and strategically planned network of dedicated, high-quality, newly built or enhanced cycling routes that will be largely segregated from other traffic wherever possible. These will connect employment centres, schools and leisure opportunities with each other and with the regional centre."

This means building about 56km of new lanes linking various paths of Greater Manchester to the city centre. You can read the summary document here.

All looks and sounds good on paper, we await the physical changes it will bring.

Flaming June, plate spinning and bad spelling

There's been so much happening in the world of two wheels of late that I've not managed to keep all the plates spinning and keep my blog updated. Truth is, I've been enjoying the outside and riding rather than writing! Manged to squeeze in 200 miles last week!
So, by way of an update, here's a few of the things, had I been on the ball, I'd have written about recently.

Other bloggers have no trouble

The bastion of peace and tranquility that is Oxford Road, could be about to become kinder, much kinder, to us cycling folk. For the civic overlords at Manchester City Council are encouraging you, yes you, to tell them what you think of their plans in a consultation exercise. Apparently 'Dutch style' cycle lanes could be installed  as part of a revamped streetscape. Reports that this includes strategically situated bongs have not been confirmed. You can find out more about it here.

TfGM was also reportedly successful in its bid to trouser £15m for the, still annoying, Velocity cycle scheme. This is the money we all pledged our support for in a web-based clicking exercise a few weeks back. Cash in: get building.

Not to be outdone, Tory led anomaly Trafford Council has bagged £320,000 for 'paralell routes' (sic) at the A56 in Gorse Hill and Old Traffod.

And finally, that Brady Wiggin chap is no longer any good, so the Daily Mail is switching its allegiance to  Chris Froome who is just about British enough for them to support.

@officialTfGM wants £20m to deliver cycling revolution in Manchester

TfGM is bidding to trouser £20m of central government money to spend on cycling infrastructure over a two year period. The funding would also help attract other funding from the private and public sector apparently. 

And they need our help to make it happen.

Despite the fact that they have annoyingly attached a meaningless branding – Velocity 2025 which will inevitably increase in irritation when somebody decides V25 is ‘a bit snappier’ – it obviously deserves support.

You can support the bid by clicking here and then clicking the box which says ‘I back the bid’ and then clicking the other box which says ‘Back the bid’.

The bid backing boxes

Happy clicking.

Liverpool trousers £2.8m of cycling cash

News that Liverpool City Council has trousered £2.8m for a new city centre bike hire scheme should finally increase the level of riders in the city.
Envious glances may be cast down the east lancs from Manchester which, despite its stated desire to become the home of cycling, still has a long way to go.
Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that Manchester is claiming cycling as its own, after all the City claims everything from liberal democracy to the computer to be born in the city - it's never that straight forward as you know.
So, how come Manchester has missed out on this pot of cash? Manchester is usually very good at being first in the queue. Well, here's my guess. Mayors.
While Manchester's electorate voted against having a mayor last May, Liverpool just went ahead and got one. That, I reckon, has pushed Liverpool above Manchester in the Whitehall pecking order. Perhaps.