Supporting cycle commuting project

Activation of active travel project specification

Project Brief - Context

Lancashire County Council has been awarded funding to improve walking and cycling facilities and to boost active travel uptake.

The Activation programme is taking place across multiple local authorities in Lancashire. It aims to put in place soft measures to support and encourage residents to change their behaviour and use existing active travel infrastructure.

The Activation programme will support Preston in achieving its priorities by helping residents, particularly underrepresented groups, to access active travel.

The programme also advances the Council's Community Wealth Building agenda by enabling collaborative work with local partners to empower residents to use local assets for social and environmental benefit.

Preston has a range of existing active travel resources and infrastructure such as Avenham Park, Moor Park and The Guild Wheel.

Further active travel developments and public realm improvements are also ongoing, funded by national schemes such as the Levelling Up Fund and the Towns Fund.

The Activation programme will encourage behaviour change and modal shift of residents so that the usage of these facilities is increased, and more short journeys are completed on foot or by bike rather than by car.

The programme comprises of three projects:

• Supporting cycle commuting project
• Accessible cycling events project
• Widening participation in walking project

Together, these projects will build the confidence and skills of residents in the city to support them in taking part in active travel. They will particularly target underrepresented and vulnerable groups such as ethnic minority communities, those living in socio-economically deprived communities, and those with a disability or long-term health condition.

Programme Outline

The 'Supporting cycle commuting' project aims to enable residents to use cycling as a mode of transport for shorter journeys such as travelling to work or the shops.

The project will target underrepresented or vulnerable groups in the city and will support them to develop the confidence and skills needed to commute by bike and assist with route planning and testing.

The main project activities are listed below:

• Developing a network of ride leaders - A minimum of 5 new ride leaders will be trained. This will include ride leader certifications, first aid training, and travel costs for training.
• Route planning and confidence workshops - A minimum of 4 route planning and confidence workshops will be hosted in community venues around the city. During these workshops attendees will identify short journeys that they could cycle. Potential cycle routes for these journeys will then be planned, using existing infrastructure where possible.
• Led rides to test routes - Led rides (using a qualified ride leader) will then be held with workshop attendees to test out the different routes that were identified in the workshop.
• Development of printed route guides and maps - Printed maps and route guides will be created from the knowledge gained through the workshops and led rides. A minimum of 300 of these should be printed and available for local residents. Additionally, online versions could be made available.

These activities should be delivered free of charge, in different areas of the city so that all residents are able to take part. Marketing should be used to ensure that residents are aware of the opportunity, and this should take a variety of forms including online and engagement with community groups.

This project will provide sustainable impacts by ensuring that a network of ride leaders is available in the city to continue to organise group rides in the future.

The maps and route guides will also ensure that the knowledge developed by those taking part is captured and can be used by other local residents.

The appointed organisation must have the relevant policies and procedures in place to run these events such as DBS checks, safeguarding procedures, data protection policies, and relevant insurance.

Financial Profile

A total of £10,000 of grant funding is available for this project.

Outputs

Project Timeline

Project Milestones

How to apply

To apply for the Activation of Active Travel Commissioning Fund - Supporting cycle commuting project, please complete our online form.

If you wish to apply for more than one of the grants, a separate application form will need to be completed for each project.

Please note that there is no 'save' function on the online application form, so this needs to be completed and submitted in one go.

We recommend that applicants download the PDF version of the application form. (PDF, 187 KB) and formulate their responses before completing the online form.