In September, cyclists across the county got on their bikes and chose active travel for work and leisure clocking up an impressive 69,517 miles.
That’s 2.8 times the distance around the circumference of our planet (24,901 miles)!
This cycling feat was prompted by Warwickshire County Council’s ongoing partnership with the Love to Ride cycling app, which gives residents, businesses and community groups access to the best rewards and resources that encourage cycling for travel, not just leisure.
Cycle September is Love to Ride’s global bike-riding event, bringing together riders of every level to promote the benefits of bicycles. The campaign is a great opportunity for communities, businesses and individuals to engage in a fun challenge that will help them meet their health, wellness, and sustainability goals.
Throughout the month of September, the following was recorded on the Love to Ride Platform:
- 523 cyclists, including 123 new users, took part across 42 Warwickshire-based workplaces; and
- Cyclists taking part recorded 69,517 miles across 5,904 individual trips, with 47% of those being transport not leisure trips.
Even though Cycle September is over, the public can still sign-up with Love to Ride: https://www.lovetoride.net/warwickshire
The Love to Ride platform creates leader boards of workplaces taking part in Cycle September that are based on the size of the individual organisations. The final results for the month were:
- 2000+ Staff – Jaguar Land Rover – Gaydon
- 500 – 1999 Staff – TATA Technologies – Leamington Spa
- 200 – 499 Staff – Dassault Systemes UK Ltd – Warwick
- 50 – 199 Staff – CIA Insurance Services Ltd – Rugby
- 20 – 49 Staff – ABB UK, Hams Hall – Coleshill
- 7 – 19 Staff – BAADER UK Ltd – Rugby
- 1 – 6 Staff – Warwickshire Cycles Ltd – Hatton
Cycling staff from Warwickshire County Council, which came 3rd in the 2000+ Staff category:
- logged 460 rides; and
- cycled 2019 miles.
Cllr Jan Matecki, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport and Planning, said: “The benefits of active travel, particularly travelling by bike, are huge, both for the individual and for our wider environment.
“For many of us, it might seem difficult, and perhaps daunting, to know where to start as travelling by car, even for short journeys, has become so engrained in our daily lives.
“We are committed to supporting residents to realise that they can start their active travel adventure by switching just one car journey every week to an active alternative such as cycling and we hope that this new partnership with Love to Ride will offer residents a fun and engaging way to get into cycling and encourage their friends, family and colleagues to get on their bikes too.
“I would like to say thanks to all the cyclists and workplaces who took part in Cycle September and a big well done to those workplaces who came top of their respective leaderboards for the month.”
