On Your Bike!

The Vice-Chancellor and Anne Campbell MP got on their bikes today (Thursday 26 April 2001), to mark the official opening of Britain's first Park and Cycle scheme.

The University scheme is based on the West Cambridge Site and works like the Park and Ride Schemes but instead of buses you use bikes. University staff, working at sites in central Cambridge, can park their car in one of the 292 spaces then collect their bike from their individual secure locker and cycle the last mile to work.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Alec Broers, is delighted with the latest 'green commuting' initiative.

"We are very proud of this innovative facility, not only because it is the first of its kind in the country, but because it provides an opportunity for the University to demonstrate a workable solution to the ever increasing problem of traffic congestion and pollution in our city," he said.

University employee, Philippa Smith, was one of the first to sign up for a locker.

"I was keen to get a place so that I could combine my journey to work with a chance to get fit. It is a much more pleasant route into the centre along the cycle paths and it beats sitting in traffic," she said.

Security at the site has been carefully considered and the scheme has been given a 'Secured Car Parks Award' by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The completion of the Park and Cycle scheme marks the fulfilment of an agreement with Cambridge City Council to supplement lower car parking provision at the University's city centre sites. It is hoped that the new scheme will partially satisfy University demand for parking that has intensified as its city centre car parks are built over to provide much needed new faculty buildings.