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European elections take place in June and the European Cyclists Federation(ECF) asks cycling groups to lobby all candidates for the European Parliamentto raise the profile of cycling in Europe. The parliament has acquired wideranging powers in recent years and its supportfor cycling is crucial for it to be accommodated as an important mode oftransport in all countries. ECF is currently seeking official creditationas a lobbying organisation within the European Parliament.

ECF has produced a draft letter to send to candidates. If you send a similar letter,please copy replies to CCN which will forward them to ECF.

The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust (BHIT) has started a concerted campaign through MPs for cycle helmet legislation in Britain. In the past two weeks parliamentary questions and an Early Day Motion have sought Government commitment to make helmets compulsory for ALL cyclists. Claims made in support of helmet legislation are grossly misleading.

EDM 1983, entitled Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust, proposed by Alan Meale MP (Labour, Mansfield) reads:

That this House notes that every year in the UK approximately 28,000 children under the age of 16 years receive a serious head injury as a result of a cycling accident and that sadly a number die as a result, whilst for many others their accident will have a devastating impact on their life, in many cases restricting their abilities to develop, learn new skills, make new friends and face the lifelong challenges of the world; recognizes that by simply wearing a bicycle helmet 85 per cent. of such head injuries could be prevented; commends the excellent campaign of the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust to get Parliament to introduce legislation to enforce the wearing of helmets by all bicyclists in the UK; and calls upon her Majesty\'s Government to give its full support to such a proposal which would both save lives and stop injuries on our roads.

Fact 1: The number of children under 16 who receive a serious head injury through cycling is only 1,200 a year. The 23 times larger figure cited in the EDM is for serious head injuries from all causes - which puts the risk of head injury from cycling in perspective.

Fact 2: There is no evidence whatever to support the claim that 85% of head injuries could be prevented \"by simply wearing a helmet\". This claim comes from only one source which has been rigorously discredited. Most of the real-world evidence finds that head injuries increase with helmet use.

Parliamentary Questions urging mandatory helmet use have come from MPs Mike Hancock (Lib Dem, Portsmouth South) and Anne McIntosh (Con, Vale of York). The Government answers from minister David Jamieson say that wearing rates are not yet high enough for legislation, but that helmets should be worn by children. Jamieson\'s response hinges on the discredited DfT helmets review of 2002.

Encouraging families and teenagers to cycle regularly is one of the main Bike Week objectives for 2004. Appealing destinations, traffic-free locations and routes for leisure cycling will be promoted, with advice on where to buy or hire a bike. Opportunities to enjoy easy club rides and to \'have a go\' at cycle sport will also be featured from 12 to 20 June. Bike Week 2004 supports a National Cycling Strategy Board initiative to \'market\' cycling to non-cyclists. Many events will be free to enter and suitable for novices and lapsed cyclists. Cycle skills training will be promoted and free \'Dr Bike\' cycle safety checks offered to help existing owners get roadworthy bikes back in use. 1,500 events nationwide are expected to attract more than 150,000 participants. The popular Bike2Work campaign will run for the whole week, with major employers - including local authorities - and cycle campaign groups encouraging employees and students to try cycling to work or education. The annual Parliamentary Bike Ride to the House of Commons will be a flagship event to promote Bike Week on television and throughout other media. National co-ordinator Nick Harvey is anticipating a repeat of the widespread media coverage that Bike Week has successfully generated in recent years: \"Local Bike Week events do a great job getting more people onto bikes in June. But the biggest impact we make is with the media. Positive cycling messages reach millions of people of all ages, some of whom will be encouraged to try or re-start cycling, to gain door-to-door convenience for short journeys, to save money and to improve their health and fitness.\" \"In 2004 our nationwide PR campaign will include advertorial features in local newspapers. All Bike Week local events information will again be promoted on a searchable database at www.bikeweek.org.uk. We are intending to provide a telephone information service for potential event participants who do not have Internet access. And the good news is that increased funding means that these services are free for all Bike Week event organisers.\" All cycling events and rides taking place during Bike Week can be registered free of charge. Event organisers are offered free £5M public liability insurance (with conditions), promotional materials, certificates and a prize draw open to all participants. In 2004 only registered event organisers and media will be permitted to use the Bike Week and Bike2Work logo branding. Bike Week is professionally co-ordinated for a steering group of 18 organisations that want cycling to grow in the UK. Funding in 2004 is being provided by government departments in England, London, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales plus £25,000 from the new \'Bike Hub\' cycle industry fund. Further information is available on the Bike Week website at www.bikeweek.org.uk or from Nick Harvey, email nick@bikeweek.org.uk, phone 01243 543888. Bike Week press release

A school in Surrey has banned its children from cycling to school as a result of a BHIT campaign to persuade all schools to make cycle helmet use compulsory. A booklet, sent to all headteachers, urges the wearing of helmets as an essential pre-requisite for pupils cycling to school. It is a substantial document which includes a suggested letter to be used by schools to send to all parents whose children would like to cycle. At the very least, the tone of the text is sombre, emphasising the negative side of cycling to school. Many people would construe it as alarmist. Certainly it is frequently factually incorrect or greatly exaggerated.

The BHIT campaign is funded, at least in part, by the Department for Transport, and its Road Safety Section was consulted on the content.

The National Cycling Strategy Board has taken great exception to BHIT\'s campaign, fundamentally undermining its own attempts to encourage more children to cycle to school. As one division of the DfT embarks on major marketing initiatives, such as a schools and skills project, another is funding efforts to stop cycling to school entirely.

If cyclists, as parents, discover that their children\'s school has received this booklet, please take what action you can to redress the balance.

CTC is inviting CCN groups to assist with a nationwide survey of railway station cycle parking, to achieve a comprehensive picture of the state of station cycle parking in Britain today.

The need for cycle parking to make the bike-station journey more attractive has been shown on many occasions to increase cycle trips for this specific purpose by a significant percentage. There is now a superb opportunity to make things happen by working on a project funded by the Department for Transport and supported by the devolved administrations to survey all official and informal cycle parking at each of the 2,500 UK stations.

By combining strengths, CTC and CCN hope to survey most key stations to assess both day and overnight use, and if possible to visit some stations more than once.

To keep costs at a minimum the survey will be primarily web-based with surveyors able to fill in forms on-line, although paper forms will also be sent out upon request and entered on-line at CTC HQ. Further details on how to register and survey will be available on CTC\'s website www.ctc.org.uk. from 1st October. Alternatively e-mail Dave Holladay, CTC\'s Public Transport Campaigner, or phone 0141 332 4733.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To carry out the survey on Network Rail property surveyors should have authorisation and a briefing on conduct, which will be available with the survey forms (post or online)

Look at the list here to see if an MP in your area has signed EDM1783, calling for mandatory helmets for all cyclists.

Although the EDM will fall at the end of Parliament next week, the high number of signatures is a very bad precedent for the next Parliament, which may include a road safety bill - an obvious opportunity to make helmets compulsory.

If one of your MPs is in the list, please write to or contact personally him/her as soon as possible. Ideally by Wednesday 19th November which may be the last date by which they can withdraw their name from the EDM. But it you can\'t make that date, please make contact as soon as you can, urging them not to support similar proposals in the next parliament.

A summary of points you may care to make is here. Please use your own wording as much as possible. CTC has already sent a letter to each of the signatories making similar points, but the impact is greatest if it comes from local constituents.

On 6th October Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, asked the Government about their action to tackle the threat of obesity on the health of the nation. The World Health Organisation has described obesity as \'a global public health epidemic\', and only the USA and Canada are worse than the UK. The debate highlighted the need to make children more active and the role that cycling can play.

A new website, managed by an international coalition of people with a special interest in cycling and helmets, has been launched. There is access to a wide range of material, including much that is not commonly publicised. The coalition hopes to expand on this to make the new site a useful reference for anyone seeking information on this controversial subject.

www.cyclehelmets.org

1,220 local cycling events and rides throughout the UK were promoted for this year\'s national Bike Week. Between 14th and 22nd June, 22% more than targeted events appealed to an estimated 116,385 participants. The biggest registered Bike Week event was the York Cycle Show on 21st-22nd June that attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

Bike Week has been developed over the past three years to appeal to all cycle owners rather than just cycling enthusiasts, said national co-ordinator Nick Harvey: \'Two-thirds of Bike Week participants are not members of any cycling organisation, club, campaigning group or Sustrans. Once again Bike Week has successfully encouraged more people to cycle more often.\'

For the first time in the history of Bike Week - which was started by the Cyclists\' Touring Club in 1923 - local authorities were the biggest single category of event organiser. Cycle clubs and campaigners also organised hundreds of events for novices (see attached bar chart). More than 90 employers and workplace bicycle user groups promoted Bike2Work, the most popular Bike Week theme this year. Other promotional themes included learning to ride, family fun and fitness and getting a bike \'back on the road\'.

94% of events were promoted to \'new or occasional\' cyclists, in response to a request from the week\'s main funder, the Department for Transport. Additional funding was provided by the devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, plus some members of the Bike Week Steering Group (see list below).

Group members are seeking £75,000 government funding for a bigger Bike Week in 2004, to run from 12th to 20th June and promoting Bike2Work for the whole week. The cycle industry has recently announced £25,000 funding for next year\'s Bike Week and a cycle trade promotion is anticipated, during which \'Dr Bike\' free cycle safety checks will be on offer to an estimated 10 million \'lapsed\' cyclists.

Bike Week 2004 will be promoted at http://www.bikeweek.org.uk where further information will be published in September to coincide with European Mobility Week, In Town Without My Car Day, the International Cycle Show in London and the Cycle & Leisure shows.

Bike Week press release

Ben Chapman MP (Wirral) secured a debate on 14th May to air his grievances about the lawlessness of many cyclists, whilst expressing his support for cycling more generally. It is understood that only 4 MPs were present for the debate.

The Government\'s Road Safety Section has launched a campaign to persuade more teenagers to wear cycle helmets. The campaign is centred around macabre images of the skull, implying that head injury when cycling is both common and always with life-threatening consequences.

Much of the information being put out is untrue or wildly exaggerated. For example, the DfT website says that nearly 3,000 cyclists between 12 and 16 were killed or seriously injured on the roads in 2001. In fact just 699 children between 0 and 16 were seriously injured. The scare tactics and images do great harm to the promotion of cycling as a safe, enjoyable and healthy activity, where the health benefits hugely outweigh the risks of injury by at least 20:1. The mean time between serious head injury for a cyclist is over 3,000 years, and for a fatality over 20,000 years. The DfT gives the impression that serious head injury is likely on every trip.

Update: The above error was removed from the DfT website following complaints.

Furthermore there is no evidence that helmets reduce injuries - national statistics suggest that they are more likely to increase the number or severity of injuries, and one research paper suggests that helmeted cyclists are more than 7 times as likely to hit their heads in a crash than non-helmeted riders. The DfT has never conducted research to show the effect of its helmet promotion on cyclist injuries or cycle use.

The most likely effect of the DfT campaign will be to scare many people from cycling. Teenagers are already the group that is most difficult to retain as cyclists. The NCS Board and Bike Week are greatly concerned about the effect of the Road Safety Section\'s actions on their abilities to get more people cycling.

CTC is spearheading opposition to the Road Safety Section\'s single-minded campaign which has no regard for the future of cycling. CCN is fully supporting CTC and urges its groups and their members to write in protest to Tony Blair, Alistair Darling and Alan Milburn. Whatever your view on cycle helmets, please say \"no\" to the lies and scare tactics being used by the DfT to undermine all that is being done by so many people to promote cycling.

THE Department for Transport has provided £40 000 to fund a 12-week consultation process to create an overarching marketing strategy for cycling. The eventual marketing plan will include input from all cycle groups and organisations and is being coordinated by Circus, the London communications agency which created Floodline for the Environment Agency, a marketing platform with 85 percent public awareness in the UK. If all goes well, the DfT may then stump up a serious amount of cash to implement the plan.

The cycling project was commissioned by the national cycle strategy board (NCSB). Phillip Darnton, executive chairman of Raleigh, is the member of the board steering the initiative. He stresses that the overarching marketing plan will be inclusive and will not \"step on anybody\'s toes. The marketing plan will create an identity that all cycle groups and organisations will be able to get behind. There\'s a great chance for unity here. The logo and strapline could be on company letterheads, CTC press releases, Sustrans maps, the list goes on. We won\'t be ignoring the enormous amount of good work that\'s gone before us, we just want to stitch it all together.\"

CCN is to meet Phillip Darnton during March to discuss its involvment.

\"There\'s no shortage of positive vibes emanating from the disparate world of cycling\", says Andrew Croasdale of Circus, \"but what has been disseminated to date lacks general consumer visibility and overall consistency.\" Circus plans to create a strapline, a logo, a major website portal and more to forge a joined-up identity for cycling.

According to Darnton, \"This will not be a fancy, research-led strategic exercise, taking years to come up with a proposal. It is a concerted three month effort to show the NCSB members, the Department for Transport and influential commercial sponsors, just what can be achieved by marketing cycling\". Darnton is not paid for his work on the project, he\'s doing it because it\'s a \"challenge\" and has \"no axe to grind, no baggage,\" he said. \"We have a chance to create a real sense of common purpose throughout the whole cycling community. Everyone we\'ve spoken to so far says they want it - and the sooner the better. Now, thanks to the Department for Transport\'s help, we\'ve got the chance to do it.\"

Bicycle Business

BRITAIN\'S largest driver training company, owned by the RAC, is to trial a child cycle training scheme in March. If successful, the scheme could be rolled out across the UK and would include adult and family cycle training. Such a scheme would create more cyclists and, if taken up by schools nationwide, would also mean drivers of the future would have experienced two-wheeled travel first, making them more considerate towards cyclists.

The British School of Motoring\'s trial is to be school-based and will involve 11 - 14 year olds. Three schools have been chosen for the trial and 150 students are expected to take part. The scheme is being supported by Derbyshire County Council and their safer routes to school initiatives. The Transport Research Laboratory will evaluate the results of the trial.

Andy Brown, manager of BSM\'s education programme, told Bicyde Business he had great hopes the trial would prove a success and that similar school-based schemes could be rolled out nationwide.

\"We are not big, bad BSM trying to impose our will on cyclists. We\'ve been working on our scheme for many months and have liaised with organisations such as the CTC, who clearly know a lot more about cycling than we do. When cycle training national standards are agreed upon, something the CTC is working on, we will meet those standards. There are a scattering of regionally based cycle training businesses but what BSM can offer is scale. A national and commercial cycle training offering can only do good for cycling!\"

BSM has recently started to offer motorcycle lessons and the cycle skills training is seen as an extension of BSM\'s \"two wheeled offering\", said Brown. If the Derbyshire trial is a success, BSM would look to also offer adult cycle training schemes - similar to those pioneered by the York road safety team - as well as cycle training schemes for families.

\"We want to encourage cycling,\" said Brown. \"it\'s important that people\'s fears are alleviated and training can help boost confidence.\"

BSM has 107 sales outlets, most of them on high street locations throughout the UK. They would offer child and adult cycle training packages, alongside learner driver courses.

Bicycle Business

In an article in the British Medical joumal\'s career supplement in mid February a GP argued that cycling makes you happier and healthier, and is a shining example to patients.

\"As congestion charges hit central London, there seems no better time for those affected to start cycling to work. But how practical is it for doctors (and GPs in particular) to opt for their bikes over their cars?\"

The question was answered by Maidstone GP John Green. \"A working lifetime exhorting patients from your comfortable swivel chair to take control of their health and fitness, while you fail to do so, is unlikely to be satisfying.\" said Dr. Green. He listed GP\'s usual objections to cycling, and attempted to overcome them.

New forecasts by the Department for Transport show that the Government thinks it will get nowhere near its target of trebling cycling trips between 1996 and 2010 and quadrupling them by 2012.

The figures, calculated by the National Transport Model, suggest that cycle trips will increase by only 30% to37% by 2010. The ten-year plan target would require growth of 200% from 1996 to 2010.

The model predidts the ten-year plan will boost bus use by 11% - 12% and walking trips by 1% - 2%.

The Conservatives are to propose an amendment to the Railways and Transport Safety Bill currently going through Parliament that would establish a hierarchy of speeds for country roads.

A limit of 20 mph would be set for quiet lanes and in the vicinity of schools; 30 mph through villages; other lanes 40 mph; other single carriageways 50 mph or 60 mph according to quality; and 70 mph for dual carriageways.

The hierarchy was inspired by the Council for the Protection of Rural England and also has Lib Dem support. The Government claims the hierarchy would be too costly and complex.

LTT

The Department for Transport will fund the 2003 Bike Week with a grant of £56,000 but from 2004 onwards, Bike Week has to be self-financing.

Civil servant Jim Spooner of the Department for Transport wrote to members of the Bike Week Liaison Group telling them of the transport minister\'s decision.

The letter said that John Spellar had reached the grant withdrawal decision after taking advice from the National Cycling Strategy Board, chaired by ex- transport minister Steven Norris.

Spooner wrote: \"Whilst Bike Week provides invaluable cycling promotion, it ought to be self-financing ... The cycling industry derives considerable benefit from Bike Week and there is no reason why it should not make a contribution in return for those benefits.\"

A glimmer of hope was offered when Spooner said funding could be restored if \"it should form part of a wider strategy for the marketing of cycling, currently being developed by the NCS board.\"

But all hopes were then dashed, when he finished his letter by hoping that the minister\'s decision \"will provide sufficient time for the Group to identify alternative sources of funding should it decide to continue with Bike Week.\"

Bike Week 2002 saw 2,070 events taking place around the country, including family rides, free cycle safety checks, commuter challenges, bike-to-work days, and charity fundraising rides.

National Bike Week used to be free of government support but was rescued by the Department for Transport in 2001 following the collapse of a commercial sponsorship package.

Bicycle Business