Love Your Bike – fall in love with Manchester’s traffic-free roads.

The Love Your Bike campaign is encouraging people from across Greater Manchester to take advantage of the traffic-free roads during Skyride Manchester and give cycling a go on Sunday 1^st August. [1]

Skyride Manchester will create a 12 km traffic-free route and provides a chance to explore the city from a totally new traffic-free perspective. The route from Castlefield to Sportscity opens at 10am and passes some of the city’s most iconic landmarks including the Urbis, The Wheel of Manchester, the Town Hall and Beetham Tower.

Traffic volume and vehicle speed are two of the key barriers to increasing the number of people cycling in Greater Manchester.

Love Your Bike is calling on the Greater Manchester local authorities to increase support for projects and policies that encourage more people to cycle. Including:

• adult cycle training schemes

• 20mph default speed limits in residential areas

• continuous and coherent cycle lane routes

• more traffic-free routes

Graeme Sherriff from Love Your Bike said:

“Love Your Bike welcomes Skyride and would love to see traffic-free routes across Greater Manchester everyday.”

The Love Your Bike stall at Sportscity will also be helping to provide healthy refreshments for Skyride participants with a pedal powered smoothie maker.

ENDS

CONTACTS FOR COMMENTS

Pete Abel, Love Your Bike campaign. Mobile: 07951 642858

Graeme Sherriff, Manchester FoE, transport campaign co-ordinator. Mobile: 07948 405071

Notes to Editors:

[1] For more details on Skyride Manchester see www.goskyride.com/city/details.aspx

[2] Love Your Bike is an award winning Manchester based campaign aiming to promote cycling and help make it an even more attractive, accessible and fun way to get around. Co-ordinated by Manchester Friends of the Earth, the campaign works in partnership with other like-minded organisations. See www.loveyourbike.org