Get ready for Bike to School week 2020
Schools across Camden are invited to take part in a national cycling to school campaign from Monday, 28 September to encourage children and their families to travel to school by bike.
Organised by the national walking and cycling charity Sustrans and supported by the Bikeability Trust, Bike to School week aims to highlight the many benefits of walking and cycling to school, which includes improvements to health and wellbeing as well as reducing air pollution and road congestion.
With social distancing guidelines in place, cycling is also a great way for families to get to school safely whilst creating extra space for others who need to travel to work by public transport.
Bike to School Week is a fantastic opportunity for children and their families to cycle to school and reap the many benefits. Not only does it keep children healthy and active, it also reduces congestions and air pollution and is great option for families to stay safe while maintaining social distance.
We’ve been working hard to make cycling around the borough as easy and safe as possible and to ensure cycling to school is a viable option for our families. This work includes introducing pop-up cycle lanes, improving cycle storage facilities, as well as providing free courses for children to gain the skills to cycle safely to school by bike.
I hope children, families and schools across Camden support this campaign and get inspired to cycle more often or to give it a go for the first time.
As part of the Transport Strategy Teams response to COVID-19, the Council are rolling out a programme of Healthy School Streets which aims to make the streets outside schools safer, improve air quality and cut down on traffic. Healthy School Streets make the streets outside schools safer at the start and end of the school day by restricting cars so it’s easier and safer to walk to school. The drop in traffic also contributes to improvements in local air quality for the children at the schools.
Since lockdown three new healthy school streets have been introduced taking our total across Camden to eight.
Also in response to the pandemic, the Council have made changes to the road network to make it safer for residents to walk and cycle around the Borough.
This includes:
- Improving existing cycle facilities such as at Goods Way adding bollards to separate cyclists from traffic
- Adding 4 brand new pop up cycle lanes on Chalk Farm Road, St Pancras Way, Princes of Wales Road and York Way
- Making the bus lane on Highgate Road 24 hours to improve bus journey times and provide a safer space for cyclists
- Adding 42 new on street cycle storage locations giving much needed extra safe storage space for bikes in residential areas.
- Delivering a network of dockless bike hire bays, starting with 70 bays in the area of the borough south of the Euston Road, providing a high quality alternative to public transport and freeing up pavement space for pedestrian movement and social distancing.
For more information head to www.camden.gov.uk/making-travel-safer-in-camden
The Council are also offering free courses for children and adults to gain the skills needed to safely cycle to school, whether they are new to cycling or just want to brush up on their skills. More information can be found at www.camden.gov.uk/cycling.