This Page About Leisure Cycling: Get on Your Bike!

Leisure Cycling: Get on Your Bike!

Thousands of people have realised that using their bicycles to make journeys can help them to lose weight without dieting, save money, and enjoy a longer, healthier life. In addition, you could help to make Scotland a better place to live.

New to Cycling?

If you are new to cycling, make sure you practice riding your bike before venturing out into major traffic. Practice in a quiet place and ensure you have full control of your bike, know how the gears work and accustom yourself to your brakes.

You should be able to ride in a straight line, look behind and signal, all without wobbling!

Not cycled before, or for a long time?

Help is at hand from Cycling Scotland's 'One to One' training scheme. Training is available to adult (aged 16 and upwards) cyclists of all levels, from the absolute beginner to the more skilled cyclist and is on a one-to-one basis.

For absolute beginners, the purpose of the course is to get you up and cycling and to give you basic cycle control skills. Cycling Scotland often have new starts cycling within the first lesson! For more information on this please use the link on the right hand side of this page.

Cycling Facts

• After walking, cycling is the most environmentally sound means of transport. It converts energy to mobility fantastically efficiently the energy efficiency of cycling is estimated as the equivalent of a car doing 1600 miles on a gallon of petrol! In addition to saving energy and reducing pollution, bicycles also save space ?you can park ten bicycles in the space required for one car.
• Cycling is a quick, healthy, affordable and non-polluting form of travel. More cycling will lead to less congestion by reducing the number of short car journeys. It will also help reduce air pollution and bring improvements in North Lanarkshire's environment.
• Half of all journeys made in London are under 2 miles, a distance easily cycled. However, the level of cycling in North Lanarkshire and Scotland is relatively low compared to many other European areas.
• Cycling makes sense as part of every day life. The average 4 mile journey takes just 22 minutes by bicycle. Cyclists can park freely and don't have to queue at congested areas. Making a trip by bicycle means that you can often get closer to your destination than if you used public transport, cutting down your journey time.
• Cycling can also form part of a trip, travelling by bus, train or even the car for some of the journey, and by bike for the other.
• Cycling can be done once a week and it will still make a major dent in the impact of congestion on our roads, and still have a significant impact on your wallet!

Route Planning

Try planning your routes by using as many quiet, residential roads, cycle lanes and paths as possible. Try to use park, canal, river paths and Bridleway but keep away from footpaths ?bikes aren't allowed unless signs are in place.

The Council has produced a SMARTways Map, which details existing recommended walking and cycling links within North Lanarkshire and beyond. This map is available free of charge and is also available to download on your computer. It is intended that this map will be updated yearly to include new routes as they are installed as detailed in the Walking & Cycling Strategy document.

First ScotRail now have a dedicated Cycling Info page on their website, which details their commitment to increasing cycles on trains. For more information on this please use the link on the right hand side of this page.

Why you should give it a try?

There are lots of reasons why you should give cycling a try. Listed below are some of the main reasons and benefits.

Health - cycling can improve health by lowering the risk of heart disease, shedding excess weight, and increasing fitness. Tests have shown that after 4 to 5 months of regular cycling, aerobic fitness improves by an average of 13 % and body fat falls by an average of two to three kg. Regular exercise reduces stress and contributes to mental well being.

Scotland has the highest Heart and obesity rates in Europe!

Environment - increasing cycling benefits the environment by cutting CO2 emissions and reducing noise.

You may find the information on Air Quality of interest for the Council's area.

Congestion - promoting cycling can have benefits in reducing traffic congestion.

There are always peak period queues and it seems they are happening at more and more locations through out the Council area. Traffic Congestion is a problem on the increase and the council is keen to start reducing the impacts this will have in future years by encouraging change now!

Education - the establishment of safer routes to schools, cycle training and School Travel Plans should increase awareness of road safety issues and improve road safety.

Our children at our most important assets. Protecting them today and for the future is every parents wish. North Lanarkshire Council has a School Travel Plan Co-ordinator, who will visit every school in North Lanarkshire and discuss the school setting up it's own Travel Plan. This will assist in educating children of the importance of cycling as part of this work.

Social Inclusion - safer cycle routes and more people using them can help build stronger communities.

North Lanarkshire Council is committed to increasing and improving our cycle route network. The Council is developing the Walking & Cycling Strategy, which will detail routes to be targeted through out the Council area over the next several years. The Council's also has several other Policy & Strategy documents which relate to Social Inclusion that you might find of interest.

Access to Employment - by making it easier for people to get to work by bicycle employers can increase the potential labour force available to them.

This ties in with the Social Inclusion element. If access to work is restricted due to travel distances, vehicle expenses, fuel costs, lack of public transport facilities, one answer might be to cycle to and from work. Generally this would be acceptable to most people for a distance of up to 5 miles for their home.

Sustainable Tourism - The development of more widespread cycle routes will enhance access to the countryside and open up new opportunities for tourism. Rural economies will benefit from the increase in passing trade.

Continue to learn more about cycling, please visit North Lanarkshire.

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