Here are just three of the things we’re excited about at the moment:
Love to Ride is expanding to more cities and countries
We’re just about to launch Love to Ride in our 10th country, the Netherlands!
After working for the last 8 years on developing the best online platform and programs for encouraging riding, we’re excited that the best of the best in the cycling world are choosing to work with Love to Ride.
Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland, Oregon has helped make Portland one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the USA. They recently switched to using the Love to Ride platform to run their online Bike More Challenge, too.
We’re now kicking off projects year round, and around the world from Australia and New Zealand to the EU and USA. We also had some very good initial meetings with potential national partners in Germany and France last week.
Funding for cycling in the UK
It’s great that the UK government are putting £20m towards sustainable travel this financial year with the “Transition Fund”. We’re excited to already be working with 26 UK local authorities on local Love to Ride projects to provide a proven approach to encourage more people to ride, build a database of existing and new riders to promote local initiatives to, and gather valuable cycling data.We’re looking forward to working with many more UK cities, towns and regions over the next year, setting the wheels in motion with June Bike Week – and building up to the UK’s National Cycle Challenge, which this year rolls out in September.
GPS Data
Love to Ride now collects GPS data automatically from apps like the Moves App which uses people’s smartphone accelerometer and GPS to calculate when someone is riding their bike, then automatically send this ride data to us at Love to Ride.
This way, we know how often people are actually riding, where they are riding to and from, and what routes they are taking. We can then cross reference this data with their profile data so we can show where recreational riders are riding vs where commuter riders are riding, and where female new riders are riding vs male regular riders, etc.
This data can provide real insight into where people are actually riding in your area, and can help you and your transportation planners to make decisions on the best places/streets to invest in bicycle infrastructure.
Happy riding!
Excitedly,
Thomas Stokell
CEO – Love to Ride
thomas@lovetoride.org
England has recently received great news for cycling! The DfT’s recent announcement of the Transition Fund provides £20m of much needed revenue funding to continue the good work that’s being done by local authorities across England to promote cycling and sustainable transport. Due to the timing of the Fund, the DfT are looking for schemes that can get up and running quickly, having already been proven to work.