Cycling strategy

Our vision is:

To inspire more people to cycle more often.

Our aims:

  1. Make cycling a natural everyday choice
  2. Improve safety, convenience for cycling and health and wellbeing across the city
  3. Improve environmental sustainability, better air quality and reduce pollution of all types

This will be contributing towards: 

Our Vision to be the Best City in the UK 2030.

Cycling strategy themes

Develop a thriving and active cycling city

Objectives 

  1. Enable everyone to participate in cycling activities targeting women, children, BME groups and people with disabilities. 
  2. Ensure every school pupil has the opportunity to receive cycle training, and that adults too can access training support. 
  3. Support the development and participation in sports cycling at all skill levels. 
  4. Support the development of cycle clubs and social cycling groups. 
  5. Increase access to cycling with support for bike loan and recycle schemes. 
  6. Support cycling focused community initiatives and events. 
  7. Support people to become physically active. 
  8. Practice integrated transport planning for livable places that is inclusive of both cycling and walking.
Promote a cycle friendly city
  1. Promote cycling for transport, sport and recreation. 
  2. Promote good road safety behaviours, considerate cycling , and driver awareness. 
  3. Increase awareness of the wider benefits of cycling to peoples’ mobility and wellbeing. 
  4. Build on the city’s reputation for staging major sporting, cycling and mass participation events. 
  5. Develop, promote and support events for young people. 
  6. Make effective use of social media and marketing to promote and grow cycling. 
  7. Embed a positive cycling and walking culture in all educational establishments.
Build a great city for cycling
  1. Make the city centre and local centres cycle friendly.
  2. Connect educational establishments to cycle networks.
  3. Embed provision for cycling in the planning system and urban design processes to ensure all future school, workplace and residential developments are cycle friendly.
  4. Provide for cycling in the highways network as part of planned development and maintenance opportunities.
  5. Encourage employers to provide cycling facilities at work.
  6. Complete the Leeds Cycle Network incorporating the six planned Superhighways and including Leeds Orbital Route.
  7. Increase the number of leisure routes for cyclists and open our parks to cyclists.
  8. Support the delivery of Cycle Hubs and Training Centres Citywide. including creating a cycle leisure park.
  9. Support the development of traffic-free and off road cycling circuits.

Our collective values

Our collective values are to:

  • work together collaboratively to support and develop our volunteers, building strong and effective partnerships to bring new resources and investment into cycling
  • build our knowledge and understanding of cyclists needs using an evidence based approach to inform our progress, including drawing upon the latest technical guidance and information
  • celebrate city wide successes, locally, regionally and nationally 
  • be inclusive of all groups, individuals and communities, and promote participation across all groups

How we measure success 

  • increased number of children cycling to school
  • increased number of utility and leisure journeys made by bicycle 
  • increased take-up Bikeability places in schools 
  • increased number of schools with good quality cycle storage 
  • increased cycle network routes 
  • increased number of cycle club members 
  • reduced rate of fatalities and serious injuries
Our partners

The Leeds Cycling Starts Here Strategy has been developed by a partnership board involving of a number of key organisations, as well as a large scale consultation with members of the public and stakeholders. The partners listed below, are fully in support of the putting into practice the Leeds Cycling Starts Here Strategy.