There are nearly 10 million cycle rides through London's eight Royal Parks every year, and next week teams will be on hand for Bike Week 2015 (13 to 21 June) to ensure your bike is in good shape.
As well as providing almost 70 miles of paths, cycle routes and horse rides, The Royal Parks team is joining forces with local councils across London to offer cyclists the chance to give their bike an 'MOT' for free, get it security marked, hear more about how the parks are encouraging safe cycling and even get the chance to change places with a lorry driver to understand the risks of cycling around the capital.
In Kensington Gardens, Greenwich, The Regent's and Richmond Parks, a stationary lorry cab will allow cyclists to sit in the driving seat and look through the mirror to get a better understanding of how cyclists are seen from a lorry driver's point of view.
The teams will be available at the following locations:
- Monday 15 June: 4.30pm to 7.30pm, Rotten Row, Hyde Park (Hyde Park Corner end)
- Tuesday 16 June: 4.30pm to 7.30pm, The Broad Walk, Kensington Gardens
- Wednesday 17 June: 4.30pm to 7.30pm, Great Cross Avenue, Greenwich Park
- Thursday 18 June: 4.30pm to 7.30pm, Broadwalk, The Regent's Park (by the Ready Money Drinking Fountain)
- Friday 19 June: 4.30pm to 7.30pm, Canada Gate, The Green Park
- Saturday 20 June: 11am to 3.30pm, Priory Lane, Richmond Park (next to Roehampton Gate Cafe)
Colin Buttery, Deputy Chief Executive for The Royal Parks, said: "We want to make the Royal Parks some of the best places in London for the millions of cycle rides that take place every year.
"But it's not just about cycling; we have a broad range of users coming into our parks every day, from walkers and horse riders to runners and skaters. That's why our bike week activities will not just be targeted at cyclists.
"We want to encourage everyone to think of the parks as shared spaces and to consider each other when using them. Our messages are quite simple; be considerate, be safe, be seen and heard and be polite."
The Royal Parks' Bike Week activities are part of a wider project to improve cycling across the eight parks.
Among the other projects are:
- allowing children under 10 to cycle on any footpath;
- having 14 London Cycle docking stations in the Royal Parks;
- continued development of our pathway code of conduct to improve their use for various users;
- supporting safer cycling through a range of initiatives including cycling campaign events and bike cycle safety checks;
- improvements to a range of junctions, entrances and exits to the parks to make them safer for all users including cyclists;
- continued work with Transport for London and the Mayor's Office on the development of the Cycle Superhighway to make it as safe as possible for cyclists; and
- developing behavioural change initiatives to encourage all park users to be considerate to each other including improved signage and information.
Colin Buttery said: "We're involved in a wide range of projects to make cycling safe and also to ensure everyone using our parks work together.
"We want our parks to be well connected and easy to access for everyone so we can encourage healthy and sustainable forms of transport whether that's on foot, on horse or cycle wheels."
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