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<\/figure><\/div>\n\nBeth Baker-Stock, a senior cycling and walking officer, in a council sustainable travel team, cycled through university, before moving to London for her first job. \u201cThis was just after the tube bombings [2005], when I didn\u2019t like being in crowded places,\u201d she said. \u201cI got a bike on the cycle to work scheme and started cycling to work every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cLater, when we moved back to my home town of Poole, we chose somewhere that was near a railway station and near bus routes, because we didn\u2019t have a car and wanted to see if we could do without it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Beth didn\u2019t cycle much after that, because without the safety in numbers she experienced in London, \u201cI just felt drivers weren\u2019t looking out for cyclists. Then we had kids, bought a car, bought a second car\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n
At the time, Beth happened to be designing cycling infrastructure as a chartered civil engineer, and though she wanted to cycle more regularly, she could only cycle to work on the days she wasn\u2019t doing the school run.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThen the pandemic hit and I was working from home, so like everyone, we got the bikes out of the shed. I was having a conversation with my partner, saying \u2018our lifestyle has got to change, why have we got two cars? It\u2019s a complete waste of money\u2019.\u201d As both parents were key workers, the children soon went back to school and \u201csince then, every day we\u2019ve done the school run, three miles each way, come rain or shine, all through winter, through hail storms, it\u2019s been on the cargo bike,\u201d says Beth.<\/span><\/p>\n\n While their kids, now aged seven and nine, are outgrowing the family\u2019s long-tail cargo bike, some of the school run is on \u2018quite horrible roads\u2019, and the eldest is scared of the traffic, while Beth says cycling on the pavement doesn\u2019t work. This means that they are considering a different cargo bike for their growing children, although it will cost more than \u00a34,000.<\/p>\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to spend that much money. I\u2019d much rather my kids could cycle by themselves, but it\u2019s just not possible,\u201d she says. The local council recently won a \u00a379m \u2018Transforming Cities\u2019<\/span> Government grant for six \u2018highquality\u2019 cycle corridors, after which further routes will hopefully follow.<\/p>\n\n \u201cI wish I\u2019d known about cargo bikes when my kids were babies. My biggest piece of advice when people ask me about them, is to join the Facebook group, Family Cycling UK; it\u2019s just such a mine of great knowledge and support. The other thing is to think of it as a car replacement, and not a bike, because that will make you feel better about the cost. It will change your life: our school run used to be stressful and it\u2019s genuinely fun now, we get fresh air, we get people waving at us -it\u2019s joyful.<\/p>\n\n \u201cAnother parent at my kids\u2019 school has one now, and everywhere we go, people stop and ask us about it. People always say you can\u2019t cycle if you\u2019ve got kids or shopping, which<\/span> isn\u2019t true. I like to think we\u2019re helping people realise there are other options than the car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Anne Shackleton had always enjoyed riding a bike, but longer distances had become more difficult with age. A semi-retired university careers consultant, aged 60, based in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle, she didn\u2019t feel safe using public transport during the pandemic, and tried not to use the car, but wanted a time-efficient form of transport.<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re lucky to have an ebike shop in Tynemouth, so my best friend Karen, who hadn\u2019t cycled for ages, came along for fun and it was the most wonderful experience,\u201d she says. They test-rode ebikes on the Sunrise Cycleway, a \u2018pop-up\u2019 cycle lane that ran along the seafront for a few weeks last summer.<\/p>\n\n \u201cI watched my best friend bloom. She said: \u2018This is it, this is what I wanted, I feel confident, I want one.<\/span> I want to cycle up to Sainsbury\u2019s. So she got one, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe hoped the Cycleway would at least be in place until Christmas [2021], but it was taken out early, which we were really upset about.<\/span> Seafronts aren\u2019t often commuter routes but actually we could go along from North Shields to Tynemouth on this one.\u201d The friends have kept cycling but Karen isn\u2019t confident on the roads.<\/span><\/p>\n\n \u201cFrom our houses you can\u2019t go anywhere without riding on the pavement or the road, so we go a few hundred yards to the local park, which leads to a local Wagonway [a rail trail, for cycling and walking]\u201d.<\/p>\n\n \u201cI live with anxiety and cycling takes care of my mental health. I have an elderly mum who lives in sheltered care, about three miles away. I go and visit her on the bike, which she calls \u2018the machine\u2019. She watches me out of the window; she loves to see me come and go on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cSwitching from car journeys to bike, and the Sunrise Cycleway, have done wonderful things for me: I\u2019m taking care of my mental health, I\u2019m going along the seafront supporting local businesses, going for a coffee or meeting friends for lunch, and seeing my mum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Anne believes whatever your circumstances, age or ability, you can cycle. \u201cI don\u2019t need an adaptive cycle but if the time comes when I do, I know the option is there. When I was originally trained as a careers consultant, just after the Equality Act came in, we were told if something is suitable for people with some form of disability, it\u2019s suitable for everyone, and I strongly believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Anne couldn\u2019t find a women\u2019s cycling group nearby so she\u2019s hoping to set one up with campaigners at Space for Gosforth. \u201cI\u2019m interested in building people\u2019s confidence and enabling people to cycle for short journeys,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been running community social rides on the last Friday of the month along the seafront between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay.\u201d The council is consulting on a permanent Sunrise Cycleway design -and Anne hopes once that\u2019s built, things will be even better.<\/p>\n\n Alison Stenning is a Geograph Professor at Newcastle University, North Shields, and a Play Streets [a scheme enabling<\/span> communities to close their street to allow kids to play there] organiser.<\/p>\n\n \u201cAside from holiday trips, I hadn\u2019t cycled regularly since I had my daughter, who\u2019s now 10. I felt that juggling daily childcare and work trips, plus dropping something off on the way to or from work for Play Streets was too complicated by bike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n During the first lockdown, Alison and her daughter cycled for fun, to break up the school day, and to visit her dad, three miles away. They soon started doing longer rides in and around the coast by bike. In the summer, a new cycleway opened, and soon almost all of their weekly travel was by bike.<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe\u2019d meet friends, cycle up and down, and I was really enjoying cycling, plus getting involved in campaigning around the cycleway and increasingly thinking: this is what I want to do more of. I started researching ebikes \u2013 we have a local ebike specialist \u2013 and I found out about the Tern GSD [long-tailed cargo bike].\u201d Alison says: \u201cI do a lot of deliveries of posters, and cones for Play Streets, and I thought: \u2018this is wrong delivering stuff to car-free streets by car\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\n \u201cI hired an ebike for most of November and December and I did way more cycling than normal, including popping to work to pick stuff up, go shopping and also going out and exploring the local area in lockdown during the winter. It felt good to do it on the ebike; you\u2019re not fighting against the elements in the way you are on a regular bike.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n The local ebike shop took delivery of Alison\u2019s dream cargo bike, the Tern GSD, at a time cycles were in short supply. \u201cIt forced me to make a decision. I thought I could sell it easily if I had buyer\u2019s remorse, but I\u2019ve ended up using it for probably 90 per cent of my transport since I took the plunge.\u201d<\/span> It became Alison and her daughter\u2019s main form of transport, and Alison recently started cycle commuting two to three times a week, riding 50-60 miles per week.<\/p>\n\n She\u2019s clocked up 650 ebike miles in seven months, compared with 200 in the car. \u201cWith the ebike, I realised I could do those complicated trips, like dropping off stuff before or after work, and sometimes I\u2019d end up doing six miles more than I planned because it was easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI went cycle camping with a friend who also just got an ebike, and I could pile everything on the bike.\u201d The pair hope to ride the Coast to Coast, or C2C, next year. She says: \u201cI think ebikes are great. It\u2019s liberating, and you don\u2019t get knackered going up a hill. I also know my local area so much better than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Alison\u2019s advice to new riders is to go out with other people, and learn the local routes. Some local trails may be fine in the day, but if they\u2019re unlit or isolated, women might not feel safe using them at night. She says some routes are patchy or poor, and she would like to see more high-quality cycle lanes so she could cycle safely with her daughter. <\/span><\/p>\n\n “Initially when the pandemic kicked off, I wanted things I could do that would keep me positive and happy,\u201d says Lacky Ahmed, a 43-year-old executive assistant at a London university.<\/span><\/p>\n\n Bored with doing the same walks, runs and Joe Wicks\u2019 routines, Lacky thought: \u201cThe roads are quieter; now could be a perfect time to start cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Although she had wanted to cycle for some time, the London traffic, and a traumatic road collision on holiday in 2013, had put her off.<\/p>\n\n \u201cMy mum\u2019s neighbour George, who I\u2019ve known since I was a child, is a cyclist and I told him I was really keen to buy a bike, so he helped with advice, including helping me get the right frame size.\u201d<\/p>\n\n With many shops closed, and no option to try a bike in person, internet bike research became Lacky\u2019s daily after-work project.<\/p>\n\n \u201cEventually George found a bike in Chelmsford, Essex, at the end of May: a mountain bike. It was just before a Bank Holiday and the weather was gorgeous. I was totally lacking in confidence and couldn\u2019t even sit on the saddle, so George and I practised in my local car park.<\/span>I practised and practised and I suddenly got really confident and it just made me so happy.<\/p>\n\n \u201cSuddenly I could cycle to the park, and then I started going longer distances. George helped me build my confidence on the roads, and it took off from there, really. It\u2019s been one of the most exciting things I did in 2021, and I even went on to do a 36-mile charity bike ride in August of that year.\u201d Despite the bike shortages, Lacky also managed to upgrade her heavy mountain bike for a hybrid.<\/p>\n\n \u201cIn terms of my mental health while being stuck working from home, it was great to explore the neighbourhood, speak with fellow cyclists, go to Greenwich Park and take a picnic. These were all things I never thought I could do. I still stick to places I know, and I need to get better at going to new places, but I\u2019ve been cycling for well over a year now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n While having some good local cycle lanes helps, some roads have really bad surfaces, with potholes, which makes Lacky nervous -along with the occasional aggressive driver. It hasn\u2019t put her off, though.<\/p>\n\n \u201cMy advice to new cyclists would be: go for it. It\u2019s amazing being able to conquer something you feared for so long, and having George, who\u2019s an experienced cyclist, teaching me some basic techniques really helped.<\/p>\n\n You see things differently when you\u2019re on the bike. You can go further afield, you can cycle for an hour or two, have a pitstop somewhere, have lunch with friends, and then continue cycling.<\/p>\n\n \u201cLast summer one of the things I really liked doing was a cycling weekend in the Lake District. That was a bit ambitious, because I didn\u2019t expect the terrain to be that challenging. There are so many places to explore in the UK including Wales, plus Hadrian\u2019s Cycleway or the Coast to Coast in northern England. So that\u2019s a few things to try in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cycling trips by women rose by 56% in the first national lockdown. Four riders share their experiences and tell how they\u2019ve caught the bug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"154","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"154","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_154-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_154-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_external_id":"July-2022-154-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"July-2022-154-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000111757||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000111757||","purple_android_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.393","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.393","purple_ios_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.393","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.393","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"d6ad2395-23ab-4326-a10d-940b8b948490","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-17T08:40:20Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"c09e056c-daad-44ed-94fc-60545bf5a86d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-17T08:40:20Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AwJ4FbNqtRO2U_GBUW_WobQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[62],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"11","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627.jpg",2048,1448,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627-300x212.jpg",300,212,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627-768x543.jpg",768,543,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627-1024x724.jpg",800,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627-1536x1086.jpg",1536,1086,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/8b0e1483-29af-41c4-91e0-3cd21347e627.jpg",2048,1448,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Cycling trips by women rose by 56% in the first national lockdown. Four riders share their experiences and tell how they\u2019ve caught the bug","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36580"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37135,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36580\/revisions\/37135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/05\/68757de2-7546-45f1-b258-325e763d80e2.jpg\")
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