On Monday evening a variety of folk descended on The Carriageworks in Leeds to discuss the rising excitement about cycling and Leeds. Le Grand Depart in 2014 is going to be *massive* for Leeds in just about every way. Tens of thousands of tourists will decend on Yorkshire, as well as several hundred lycra-clad cyclists with obscene thighs. Roads will be closed, barriers erected, food and beer will be sold and a great deal of fun had. But what else can we do to widen invovlement? And what afterwards? 

Increasing the number of people cycling, as part of a sustainable transport strategy, is good for the health, economy, and environment of any city.  Cycle-friendly planning is good for property values, retail vitality, local businesses, and has wider economic benefits due to reduced health-care costs and absenteeism.  It reduces CO₂ emissions and improves air quality, has a low impact on the built environment, and alleviates noise pollution.  Cycling reduces levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cyclists live, on average, two years longer with fitness levels of people t

"Our roads are not here for automobiles. Our roads are here for people to get around."

Big Apple's Mayor Bloomberg again shows the sort of leadership we so desperately need in Leeds.

A really interesting, and rather worrying, blog post from 'Leeds Cycle People' about traffic growth and the risk of cycling in Leeds. Our city appears to be second only to Bradford (what is it about West Yorkshire?!) and twice as dangerous as Manchester and Liverpool in terms of risk to cyclists. These findings are a sad confirmation of what it feels like to cycle in Leeds, "the car-sick self-proclaimed ''motorway city of the 70s'".

It was heartening to see such a good turnout at Roger Geffen's talk at Leeds University last week (13th March). Roger is the Cycle Touring Club's 'Campaigns and Policy Director' and obviously knows his stuff. Only a couple of years ago, the idea of Dutch-style cycleways would have been unthinkable.

We met with Mark Robinson, Leeds City Council Cycling Officer yesterday, to discuss the Cycle City Ambition funding. Mark indicated that Leeds will make a bid to the funding, as Leeds alone, not as part of a joint West Yorkshire bid. They're thinking of bidding for about £10m (the pot will have to be shared between all the successful bidders). Cycle links to Bradford may be considered as part of the bid. They are considering asking York for technical expertise. (We have some concerns about exactly how good the cycle infrastructure is in York and whether they really are 'expert'!)