Plotting cycle routes in Worcester

The national travel planning site Transport Direct now has a limited Find a Cycle Route facility alongside its more robust (and really quite useful) public transport planner.

Worcester is one area it claims to cover. No go trying to get it to produce a route to Malvern, but seems to work well for the city itself. You can choose from Quickest or Quietest, and in my test (St Johns to St Peters) this did produce very different results, as it should. Download the GPX files for your on-bike GPS device – that requires a right-click which isn’t mentioned but can’t complain really.

Worth checking if it covers where you want to go, and hopefully it will expand soon.

Action on Science Park cycle route

Click on image to see much larger version

The Science Park cycle route, funded from science park expansion money, is gradually getting there. The image to the left shows the revised plans.

Some more details are on the Worcs County Council website. Note that the on-road sections of Science Park cycle route will be marked with on-road cycle symbols, strategically placed to miss parked cars (!), while the walk/cycle route marked in red to Great Malvern station includes widening of the footpath alongside Qinetiq to allow for shared use.

Comments welcome, but it seems this will be done by financial year end (31st March) anyway. One of teh short off-road sections, at Edith Berry Court, has already been done, linking two bits of estate road for cycle use so avoiding the busy Pickersleigh Road.

Transition Cycling Group

The Transition Towns initiative for the area, Transition Malvern Hills, has taken the first steps towards a ‘working group’ on cycling. This covers much of the same ground as Cycle Malvern, but as part of a wider organisation tackling the issues around climate change and oil dependency. See the Transition Cycle Group web page.

Getting cycling

To make it easier for the (relative) newcomer to cycling in Malvern to find useful information on this site, here are a few pointers.

• There isn’t much in the way of cycle paths or lanes in the area, but for what there is (and some possibilities), see Routes. We do slightly better on cycle parking/racks, but this can be tucked away – see the Resources page.
• For cycle shops – buying kit, repairs etc – MalvernTrail has a full list.
• Members of the Malvern Hills Freecycle Cafe (online discussion list) can often provide useful advice, even practical help, on such things as finding a cheap bike or getting an old one back on the road.
• Check the Helpful Links on the More page for useful sites on starting out, the legalities, getting a bike, maintenance tips. and much more.
• Local cycling groups, for those who want to get into this as a sport or for leisure, are on MalvernTrail along with info on organised cycle rides. Plus a page on sorting out a ride for yourself.
• More support may be available from the Transition Cycling Group (new Oct 09).

First version of this Sep 09 – no doubt it will develop over time.

Image via Wikipedia

Its cycle time

I shouldn’t really knock the Bike Week post off top spot before the Sunday ride has happened (wind, rain and Acorns half marathon permitting), but I want to post this before I lose it.

From The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog:

“As with all good, timely ideas, the [Slow Food] concept has really taken off. Inevitably, the concept of Slow has spawned other offshoots.. …
“So why not start a bicycle-friendly version of the movement?
The Slow Bike Movement – no, make that the Slow BICYCLE movement – the very word ‘bike’ is a speeded up version of the original.”

It’s about taking time to appreciate the world.

The logo reminds me of ‘Is the Bicycle a revolution or part of the natural cycle’ for some reason – see Resources page (I hope).

Slow Bike Movement logo

Don’t forget your waterways cycle permit

Cycling along canal towpaths can be an attractive option, but the casual cyclist probably won’t realise that generally (apart from in London) you are meant to have a cycle permit. This used to be a pain to get, but can now simply be downloaded from the official Waterscape website.

The Cycle-iseWM e-list has just reported that there has “apparently been a spate of cyclists using the canal towpath through Bournville being given spot fines of £50 for not having a Waterways Permit”. So if you use the canals around Worcester, not a bad idea to get sorted.

UPDATE: On second thoughts, as Worcester’s canal paths are mainly part of the National Cycle Network (Route 45) I guess this doesn’t apply. I can’t find any info about the Worc and Brum Canal on the Waterscape website – anyone know for sure?

Bike Week in Malvern

Cycle Malvern is planning to put on a couple of outings for Bike Week in June (14th to 22nd). More details will appear here and on MalvernTrail soon, but here’s the basics:

Tuesday 17th. Evening gentle pub ride, from Malvern Link station, going north. About 15 to 18 miles round trip.

Sunday 22nd. Family ride to Clive’s Fruit Farm near Upton. About 15 miles.

MalvernTrail also has info on other Bike Week events not too far away.

Flower-power Elgar rides into town

If you are into gardening as well as cycling, you probably are interested in the Spring Gardening Show this weekend, watching it on TV even if not going along. This year, make sure you check out Gardeners World (Fri 9th May, 8pm and available online afterwards) as they check out Great Malvern’s first attempt at a floral window display competition, Blooming Hills.

Riding High Gallery put together a floral cyclist delivering “Elgar’s Picnic” on the old grocers bike which lives outside the shop. (I guess this isn’t actually meant to be Elgar – no moustache!) Proprietor Mike Austin was interviewed by Joe Swift for the programme.

NEWS UPDATE: Mike and Mel won this inaugural Blooming Hills competition, with the Van Gogh display at the gallery and Flora, the lifesize floral female put together by the hairdressers being runners-up.

Cycling round the web

The Sunday Times had a good round up of web links for cyclists yesterday, covering a lot of stuff particularly relevant to those newer to cycling around town and lane. There’s even a few I hadn’t come across before – no doubt I’ll be adding them to the links list here soon.

Green cycling, or really green

The venerable Sierra Club in the US, which has been concerned about environmental issues just a  little longer than most (from 1892) quotes an appropriate British author:

“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race,” wrote H.G. Wells. The perfection of the humble bicycle may, in fact, turn out to be the 19th century’s greatest gift to the modern era. Anytime you ride a bicycle, you’re building up some serious green karma, and we salute you. But there’s green and then there’s really green.

Go to their How Green is My Bike Ride quiz to find out just how green your bicycle riding really is.

Thanks to Bike For All for that.