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Timothy Keen has initiated a petition on the Prime Minister's website seeking better provision for the carriage of cycles by train. It reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to require the train operators to provide an integrated system for the carriage of bicycles and ensure there is adequate capacity available.

Please encourage people to sign up. The petition runs until June 2009

Read and sign the petition here

The Danish Cyclists Federation has produced, under contract, a comprehensive manual about cycle parking. Denmark may be famous as a cycling country but, according to the manual's author, little thought is often given to how and where cycle parking is provided and the resultant parking facilities are often very poor. The manual is in three parts. The first comprises guidelines and recommendations on what constitutes good cycle parking. Second, there is an in-depth description of all aspects of the planning, construction and running of cycle parking facilities, with illustrations and photos of the various issues, processses and solutions. Thirdly, there is 'inspriration': a collection of examples from Denmark and other countries of effective cycle parking solutions that support some of the issues described in the manual. There is also a comprehensive index and a list of references. An English version of the manual has been published. It can be viewed and downloaded here or a printed copy ordered free of charge (while copies remain). Send an e-mail to pablo@celis.dk with the following information: your name, position, organisation, full postal address and e-mail address.

Seven Irish cycling lobby groups have combined to form a new umbrella body, 'Cyclist.ie' Its main concerns are ensuring a dramatic improvement in road safety and traffic conditions for cyclists. It views the realisation of these aims as vital to facilitate a marked increase in the numbers of people choosing the bicycle as a means of daily transport.

Cyclist.ie intends to raise the profile of cyclist issues and campaign for action. Given rising transport costs, severe urban traffic congestion and a marked increase in the incidence of overweight and obese children, this is seen as an ideal opportunity for Ireland to promote commuting and leisure cycling.

The regional groups that have come together in Cyclist.ie are Dublin Cycling Campaign, Cork Cycling Campaign, Galway Cycling Campaign, Limerick Cycling Campaign, Maynooth Cycling Campaign, Skerries Cycling Initiative and Waterford Walk Cycle Campaign.

There has been informal liaison between some of the Irish groups and cyclenation for some time and the relationship will now be formalised through Cyclist.ie.

Cyclist.ie website

The world manufactured approximately 130 million bicycles in 2007, according to the Earth Policy Institute. This is more than double the number of cars manufactured. The research shows that the cycle industry is currently growing at twice the pace of the automotive industry.

Bike Biz

Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick, MP, has backed calls for more traffic police on the streets to protect cyclists and pedestrians.

Bike Biz

Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced ambitious plans to boost cycle use in London. He says that he wants to \"change the profile and priority of walking and cycling on London\'s streets\", so that one in ten journeys will be made by bike by 2025.

\"The aim of this programme is nothing short of a cycling and walking transformation in London,\" Liv-ingstone says. \"We will spend something like £500 million over the next decade on cycling - the big-gest investment in cycling in London\'s history, which will mean that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence, on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go.\"

The five-point plan for measures to assist cycling and walking is based on a review by Transport for London (TfL) that was the result of a budget deal between the mayor and London Assembly Green Party members. The plan envisages:

* A central London bike hire scheme similar to that in Paris, with up to 6,000 bikes located at docking stations every 300 metres. The mayor wants the scheme up and running by summer 2010, with an investment of £75m over ten years, plus funding through sponsor-ship and rental fees.

* A dozen radial \'cycling corridors\' into central London, aligned with key cycle flows and probably implemented through wide bus and cycle lanes.

* Bike zones for shoppers and the school run in inner and outer London, with cycle priority streets, 20 mph speed limits and clear and simple cycle routes.

* Legible London signing for pedestrians.

* 200 \'Streets of Gold\' - urban makeovers to provide agreeable walking routes that link key local destinations such as schools, shops and stations.

There will also be an on-line cycle information service and better integration between cycling and rail services in the capital.

To begin implementation of the plan, in 2008-9 the TfL cycling and walking budget will be £62m, an increase of £10m on the current year.

Full details in mayor\'s press release

Primary care trusts and health professionals in England have been sent a new report detailing the health benefits of cycling. The report has been produced for Cycling England and is intended to address the undervaluing of cycling in some parts of the health sector.

In the introduction, Cycling England chairman Philip Darnton explains:

\"This publication sets out to review the evidence that supports cycling for health and provide a solid platform for action. We hope that it will deliver useful facts and figures on cycling and health, and present a concrete justification for promoting cycling on the basis of the strong health benefits.

Our intention is that this report will be used by anyone involved in cycling, to help make the case for cycling and persuade key stakeholders that an investment in cycling is an investment in the nation’s future health.\"

All cyclists will find this report an authoritative goldmine of information to use in their dealings with not only health professionals, but anyone else who needs convincing that cycling is good for you.

Download report

Applications have been invited by Cycling England for ten new cycling demonstration towns and one city. They will join the existing six towns that have pioneered this initiative, sharing £47m of Depart-ment for Transport funding.

Cycling England has set out ten criteria that it will consider during the selection process. These are leadership; quality of the team; the ability to bring together the whole of the town; match funding; in-nate potential; strategy and work programme; wider complementary programmes; health; sustainable strategy; and sharing best practice.

The deadline for applications is 31st March, but by late February Cycling England said that already over 60 local authorities had expressed an interest. The winning city will be announced in early June, along with at least some of the selected towns and these projects will begin in September. The re-maining towns will be announced in the autumn.

According to research for Sainsbury's insurance, 12 percent of UK workers - 3 million people - now cycle to work instead of going by car or public transport. More men ride than women, 15 percent and 8 percent of workers respectively.

The credit crunch may be one reason more people are cycling, but many are doing it for fitness.

Sainsbury's estimates that people save an average of £33.70 a week by cycling, or £111.2 million across the population as a whole.

Cycling Weekly on-line

THE number of cyclists injured in England has increased by almost a quarter in the past five years, according to figures from the Department of Health. Health minister Ben Bradshaw said 13,368 cyclists were admitted to English hospitals in 2006-7, up from 10,795 in 2002-3, a 23.8 per cent increase.

In 2006-7, 1,873 cyclists were injured after colliding with cars or vans and 129 were in accidents involving lorries and buses. 9,191 were injured in incidents involving no other vehicles and 518 hit stationary objects. A further 208 cyclists collided with other riders and 89 crashed into people or animals.

But the accident figures for 2006-7 were lower than the previous year, when 13,533 cyclists needed hospital treatment, Mr Bradshaw told shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley in a Commons written reply.

However, as Cycling Weekly points out, it is necessary to put the figures into perspective. The injury figure of 13,368 equates to only 0.4 per cent of cycle commuters alone, without taking into account other utility cyclists, leisure riders, sports cyclists, etc.

Evening Standard

A new hourly train service between Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham starts in mid December. This means that there will be a half hourly service between Nottingham, Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield and Leeds. The good news for cyclists continues because the new Leeds - Nottingham trains are run by Northern, like the current fast Leeds service - bikes go free and no reservations are needed. The new trains call at Dronfield almost every hour, as well as the other stations to Nott'm.

Northern operate a two bikes per train policy but have given their staff the flexibility to allow additional bikes on their trains if it is safe to do so.

East Midlands Trains' Liverpool - Norwich trains still run as now.

With most trains to London becoming Meridians, with very limited bike space, the new service to Nottingham offers an alternative to East Midland towns and St Pancras by going on Northern to Nottingham and then by EM Trains to St P. Most of the Nottingham - London trains will be High Speed Trains with better cycle accommodation.

Services from Langley Mill and Dronfield are improved although Dronfield to Sheffield isn't *that* well served in the peak - departures are 0705 0720 0825 0850. This is a major commuting corridor as Dronfield is virtually a dormitory town for the big Sheffield employment centres (despite being in Derbyshire).

Dronfield is also a handy jumping off point for cycling in the Peak District - take Lea Rd to Church St, left onto High St, left on Gosforth Lane, continue over the by-pass to Cowley Lane and you're away. Should you require refreshment we can recommend the Coach & Horses, next to the Sheffield FC ground, the world's oldest football club, on Sheffield Rd.

For Sheffielders wishing to travel to Nottingham for an evening out the last train home is still very early - 2143 during the week and earlier at weekends, too early for concert and play-goers, so they will presumably continue to drive, although using the park'n'ride off the A610 and the NET is an option. Nottingham folk wishing to come to Sheffield for a night out are better served with a last departure at 2338.

However additional capacity between Nottingham and Sheffield is badly needed and with the service in place there is always scope for improvement in the future.

Trams are to be introduced in Edinburgh from 2011 and for the first time in the UK the new trams are being built so that they could carry bikes at off-peak times. Whether or not they will depends upon the outcome of trials that TIE (the tram consortium) has pledged to undertake as soon as usage of the tram system has reached a steady state. cyclenation group Spokes reports Alastair Richards for the tram operators saying: "A quick system for safe retention of bicycles has been devised and approved for trials in public operation. (We) are keen to explore all means to improve public transport integration with sustainable transport modes".