Cycling for transportation and leisure enjoys popularity in Manchester and the city also plays a major role in British cycle racing. [1] [2] The University of Manchester is home to the Manchester Cycling Lab. [3]
Since 2014, Manchester has been upgrading many key thoroughfares into the city centre to include dedicated cycle lanes which are segregated from buses including Oxford Road.
Cycling is a significant mode of transportation for people commuting to work. [4] In 2011, the UK Census revealed that 2.1% of residents travelled to work by bike in Greater Manchester, up from 1.9% in 2001.
Transport for Greater Manchester aspire to "achieve at least a 300% increase in the levels of cycling across the city region by 2025" [5] and have produced a corresponding cycling strategy. [6]
Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign is a volunteer-run group that works to make cycling quicker, safer and more enjoyable. [7] Another pressure group for Greater Manchester is Walk Ride GM, which advocates for better environments and facilities for pedestrians as well as cyclists. [8] [9]
The Manchester Cycle Forum enables people with an interest in cycling to meet councillors and council staff from Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester staff, and representatives from various cycling and transport organisations to discuss cycling-related issues in the city. Meetings take place quarterly. [10]
Manchester Friends of the Earth coordinate the 'Love Your Bike' campaign, [11] which promotes cycling as an environmentally friendly mode of transport. One of its activities is the 'Bike Friday' scheme, monthly rides from outer districts into the city centre. These are aimed at encouraging commuters to cycle in to work, benefiting from the added safety and sociability of riding in a group. [12]
In 2015, Manchester was described as a "terrible cycling city" by Helen Pidd, the North of England editor of the Guardian newspaper. [13]
Chris Boardman was appointed Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester in 2017 by mayor Andy Burnham. [14] His remit includes overseeing projects to enhance the region's cycling network and increase the number of people who travel by bike. [15]
In June 2017 Mobike started a bicycle-sharing scheme across the city allowing users to hire bikes via its app. Riders paid a deposit and were then charged 50p per 30 minutes. [16] The scheme was suspended in September 2018 due to the high level of vandalism caused to many of the bicycles. [17]
A 2013 study by TfGM into the possibility of a bike hire scheme had suggested that an initial scheme should focus on a concentrated portion at the centre of the conurbation, including Manchester city centre, Salford Quays, Oxford Road and Hulme. [18]
The city was the first to get a "Brompton Bike Hire" facility, at Piccadilly station. [19]
Major dedicated cycle routes in Greater Manchester or passing through areas of the city include the Trans Pennine Trail, National Cycle Route 6, National Cycle Route 55, National Cycle Route 66, the Fallowfield Loop and Regional Cycle Route 86. [20]
Significant work to improve cycle lanes on Oxford Road and its continuation Wilmslow Road started in early 2016. [21] The route is a major artery for buses between the residential areas of south Manchester and the city centre, and bisects the main Manchester University campus. Much of the cycleway is now physically separated from vehicle traffic. A pair of digital bicycle counters installed on either side of the road near Whitworth Park in September 2016 had reached a combined total of 1,000,000 bike journeys by late 2017. [22]
In 2019, TfGM is developing a "Bee Network" of cycle routes across Greater Manchester. [23]
The Manchester Sky Ride, a mass participation bike ride, was held in August every year, [24] and became the HSBC UK City Ride from July 2017. [25] [26] The Great Manchester Cycle is a similar large-scale event held during the summer in recent years. A Critical Mass event takes place on the last Friday of every month, starting by Manchester Central Library. [27] A naked bike ride is held annually early in the summer, [28] along with a non-corporate DIY cycling festival, North West Velofest. [29] [30]
There are over 200 cycle clubs in Greater Manchester, catering to many styles of cycling, [31] with Manchester Wheelers' Club being one of the most well-known.[ citation needed ]
Well known sportives include the "Manchester 100", a choice of 100 mile or 100 km rides to the south of the city, [32] and the "Tour de Manc", a 100 mile ride through all the ten boroughs. [33]
Manchester is prominent in elite cycling, being home to British Cycling, the governing body for cycle racing in Great Britain, and the National Cycling Centre. The centre was built in 1994 and contains Britain's first indoor cycling track, which has hosted three UCI Track Cycling World Championships, among many other events. The National Indoor BMX Arena is situated alongside the velodrome. The country's foremost professional cycling team, Team Ineos, is also headquartered at the National Cycling Centre.
A combined velodrome and athletics stadium, Fallowfield Stadium opened in 1892. The cycling track was 509 yards in circumference and was used for the 1934 British Empire Games. It was demolished in 1994.
Manchester Metrolink is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along 65 miles (105 km) of standard-gauge track, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Kingdom. Metrolink is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and operated and maintained under contract by a Keolis/Amey consortium. In 2018/19, 43.7 million passenger journeys were made on the system.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. The organisation traces its origins to the Transport Act 1968, when the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was established to co-ordinate public transport in and around Manchester. Between 1974 and 2011, it was known as the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), until a reform of local government in Greater Manchester granted it more powers and prompted a corporate rebranding. The strategies and policies of Transport for Greater Manchester are set by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its Greater Manchester Transport Committee.
free bus and Metroshuttle are free bus systems that operate in Greater Manchester. The system was first introduced in the Manchester city centre in 2002, with three routes linking the city's major thoroughfares and stations with its main commercial, financial and cultural districts.
Deansgate-Castlefield is a tram stop on Greater Manchester's Metrolink light rail system, on Deansgate in the Castlefield area of Manchester city centre. It opened on 27 April 1992 as G-Mex tram stop, taking its name from the adjacent G-Mex Centre, a concert, conference and exhibition venue; the G-Mex Centre was rebranded as Manchester Central in 2007, prompting the Metrolink stop to be renamed on 20 September 2010. The station underwent redevelopment in 2014–15 to add an extra platform in preparation for the completion of the Second City Crossing in 2016–17.
The transport infrastructure of Greater Manchester is built up of numerous transport modes and forms an integral part of the structure of Greater Manchester and North West England – the most populated region outside of South East England which had approximately 301 million annual passenger journeys using either buses, planes, trains or trams in 2014. Its position as a national city of commerce, education and cultural importance means the city has one of the largest and most thorough transport infrastructures which is heavily relied upon by its 2.7 million inhabitants in the Greater Manchester conurbation and further afield in the North West region. Public transport comes under the jurisdiction of Transport for Greater Manchester.
Cycling in London is a popular mode of transport and leisure activity within the capital city of the United Kingdom. Following a national decline in the 1960s of levels of utility cycling, cycling as a mode of everyday transport within London began a slow regrowth in the 1970s. This continued until the beginning of the 21st century, when levels began to increase significantly - during the period from 2000 to 2012, the number of daily journeys made by bicycle in Greater London doubled to 580,000. The growth in cycling can partly be attributed to the launch in 2010 by Transport for London (TfL) of the Santander Cycle Hire system throughout the city's centre. By 2013, the cycle hire scheme was attracting a monthly ridership of approximately 500,000, peaking at a million rides in July of that year. Health impact analyses have shown that London would benefit more from increased cycling and cycling infrastructure than other European cities.
Cycling in Cardiff, capital of Wales, is facilitated by its easy gradients and large parks. In the mid-2000s between 2.7% and 4.3% of people commuted to work by cycling in the city. In 2017 12.4% of workers cycled to work at least 5 days a week. However, cyclists in the city are deterred from cycling by poor facilities and aggressive traffic, according to research by Cardiff University.
The Wilmslow Road bus corridor is a 5.5-mile-long section of road in Manchester that is served by a large number of bus services. The corridor runs from Parrs Wood to Manchester city centre along Wilmslow and Oxford Roads, serving Didsbury, Withington, Fallowfield and Rusholme.
The history of Metrolink begins with its conception as Greater Manchester's light rail system in 1982 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, and spans its inauguration in 1992 and the successive phases of expansion.
Exchange Square tram stop is a stop in the City Zone of Greater Manchester's Metrolink light rail system, in Exchange Square opposite the Manchester Arndale shopping centre in Manchester city centre. It is part of the Second City Crossing (2CC).
The Manchester station group is a station group of four railway stations in Manchester city centre, England; this consists of Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria and Deansgate. The station group is printed on national railway tickets as MANCHESTER STNS. For commuters travelling from one of the 91 National Rail stations in Greater Manchester, the four stations are printed as MANCHESTER CTLZ which additionally permits the use of Metrolink tram services in Zone 1.
The Leigh-Salford-Manchester Bus Rapid Transit scheme in Greater Manchester, England provides transport connections between Leigh, Atherton, Tyldesley, Ellenbrook and Manchester city centre via Salford. The guided busway and bus rapid transit (BRT) scheme promoted by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) opened on 3 April 2016. Built by Balfour Beatty at a total cost of £122 million to improve links from former coalfield towns into Manchester city centre, the busway proposal encountered much opposition and a public enquiry in 2002 before construction finally started in 2013. A branch route from Atherton, and an extension to the Manchester Royal Infirmary have been added to the planned original scheme.
This timeline of Metrolink lists significant events in the history of Greater Manchester's light rail network, also referred to as Manchester Metrolink.
The Northern Powerhouse is a proposal to boost economic growth in the North of England by the 2010–15 coalition government and 2015–2017 Conservative government in the United Kingdom, particularly in the "Core Cities" of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle. The proposal is based on the benefits of agglomeration and aims to reposition the British economy away from London and the South East. The spatial footprint of the Northern Powerhouse is defined as the 11 Local enterprise partnership areas of the North of England.
The Airport Line is a tram line of the Manchester Metrolink in Greater Manchester running from Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport via the suburb of Wythenshawe. The line was opened in November 2014 as part of phase three of the system's expansion.
The Trafford Park Line is a light rail line on the Manchester Metrolink network in Greater Manchester, England, running from Pomona to the Intu Trafford Centre. Its name derives from Trafford Park, an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, and the first planned industrial estate in the world. The line opened in March 2020.
Mobike, also known as Meituanbike, founded by Beijing Mobike Technology Co., Ltd., is a fully station-less bicycle-sharing system headquartered in Beijing, China. It is, by the number of bicycles, the world's largest shared bicycle operator, and in December 2016, made Shanghai the world's largest bike-share city. In April 2018, it was acquired by a Chinese web company Meituan-Dianping for US$2.7 billion.
This is a list of confirmed or proposed future developments of the Manchester Metrolink light rail system.
Zone 1 of the Manchester Metrolink light rail network is the heart of the system where all of the other lines converge. Its boundaries are broadly equivalent to those of Manchester city centre, and approximately mirror the city's Inner Ring Road. Within Zone 1, first opened in 1992 as the City Zone, trams largely run along semi-pedestrianised streets rather than on their own separate alignment. The original route between the Altrincham and Bury lines ran to Victoria station via Market Street and High Street, and was soon joined by a branch to Piccadilly station by a three-way delta junction. A second route between the South-West and North-Eastern parts of the network was built to ease congestion on the original line. Opened in 2017, the Second City Crossing (2CC) added one additional stop to the network.
There’s a rich cycling heritage here, and Manchester is the home of British cycling.
Working to make cycling quicker, safer, easier and more enjoyable.
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