Keep on riding with Sustrans Sponsor a mile

I don't hide the fact I'm a Sustrans volunteer from anyone, I'm quite proud of this fact, especially when I can see the benefits we've helped bring to the local community, especially the school projects I've participated on, projects that help families get out and have fun, be it in the sun, rain, wind or even the rain, it's all about families doing things together, without little screens or computers getting in the way.

When Sustrans realised I blogged they asked me if I would sponsor a mile of NCN route and what my favourite National Cycle Network route would be. I was happy to oblige them, especially as the local NCN routes around here are kept to high standards and easy to ride, walk or take the horses for a ride and accessible to all in the local community.
For me It has to be the smaller, somewhat hidden (but in plain view) gem taking you from Sewell to Dunstable Downs via an Iron Age hillfort and burial ground. That route is 574

Locals will understand!

The reason I like my mile of route 574 is down to it's beauty and immense history. While the route gives easy access to Dunstable Downs, Whipsnade Zoo (via shallowsprings,) the Five Knolls Barrow Cemetery, Maidenbower Iron Age HillFort and onto Route 6 in Sewell, While I'm still learning the history of the area it doesn't take a lot to see the beauty and through the years I've seen it from living in a neighbouring village, Kensworth. A strange village with next to no travel options bar cars or a bike, and with the limited options the downs becomes an essential gateway well before Sustrans upgraded the route.
The upgrade made commuting to work, school, the pub, or shopping even easier to villagers and similarly for townsfolk, who can visit the local areas easier and more accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
On top of this there's the ride I used to ride a lot when younger and called it the "Ring of fire" Where you start from Gateway Centre, and go down the hill to the lower portion of the downs, to the base of the downs and back up to the gateway centre, I'll eventually embed an endomondo route for this ride as soon as I can, but I can say, at 12 years old in the rain it was hard, but seems more like fun these days, I know when we used to ride it with the kids they liked it too.

If you've got a favourite mile you ride, please visit the Sponsor a mile page and get sponsoring, as sponsoring a mile means we can help keep the mile to good standards, tidy and increase the routes in the future. On top of this Sustrans schemes such as Travel Choices and Travel Luton bring support to your children in helping them ride, checking the safety of their bikes, and building their confidence up to enable them to be safe, on top of this we host support for adults in walking, cycling and all things transport. They help support you, so let's support them!

Disclosure, I was given a mile by Sustrans to help spread the word.

Schools in (err, what?) #SchoolPedal

UPDATE - Vee's finally riding confidently, doing her first #SchoolPedal on the 8th Feb - Vid will be embedded below!

I know, we're meant to say school's out these days but for a group of bloggers school is definitely in.

Especially when it comes to sustainable transport. A group of bloggers and parents were talking via twitter and it caught my eye due to the subject of cycling and the school run and the fact next to nobody run's it unless you're late in the afternoon and the school will be miffed again! (we've all had those weeks? *bugger* Just me then?)

The school run is comprised of getting the kids to school in a decent time, (dejavu?) and doing it in a manner that stimulates your children for the fun or busy day of learning and fun ahead and to be fair it can be pretty boring strapping the kids inside the car or sat in the child trailer in my case, especially when it's too small now. That makes me really sad but it's progress i suppose!

See, I've gone off on a tangent again - Muppet. I joined the twitter chat for a while which seemed to last for days, while on and off it's gone from a let's get the kids to school without an engine to the #SchoolWalk #SchoolPedal and #SchoolScoot a way to promote cycling and scooting to school with the children, be it you scoot, cycle or walk. no matter who's riding it's still a fantastic way to get out and about and take in the crisp and fresh autumnal air, even if the air quality locally is worse than some parts of London thanks to the A5 but anyway ;)

GrampsBike - En Route to the Keech Star walk 2014 completed
that night, the last part arrived that afternoon!
And no - 7 lights is not overkill! ¬_¬

What makes this awesome for me is how I've just become a Sustrans volunteer with the CBC Travel Choices service, with the aim to start a school based cycle scheme for parents and including children once my training is completed to a higher level and as such I want to use the #SchoolWalk #SchoolPedal and #SchoolScoot ideas to create parent controlled group rides from set destinations to school,

for instance for children at School A have a set group who come from one side of town and another who come from the other side of town so 10 parents get together and arrange for children to scoot and pedal with the chain starting with the parents farthest away and the chain increases from there with parents joining at set points closest to the most convenient route. Similarly set on the way back.

While this will need future planning and risk assessments and health and safety input to ensure child and parent protection I see it could work fantastically well as a project to get more people using their bikes and scooters. Especially with Bikeability and Scootability courses designed for both children and adults and the possibility of other community based goodness too if all goes well!

One thing I will add is to ensure you've bright and have lights, even a front silicone one on a scooter at the least for the darker days and nights coming around the corner, my friend Liska at New Mum Online has some reviews on the clothes Aldi sent her as well as info on lights and special cyclist friendly deals at Aldi from the 25th, (I'll be popping in to see what I can buy tomorrow. my old speedo was from Aldi and I took it over the mileage clock twice. working out at around 20,000 Miles on one bike and I stupidly left on my old GT bike when it became a money pit.)

On thing I worked out last night was the savings riding, scooting and walking to school can quickly rack up, while I can only comment on public transport over driving it's still a large amount.

For instance, a Luton and Dunstable Arriva day ticket costs £4.30, A weekly ticket is £17.00 Whereas a HipHop Day ticket (use on all Arriva and Centrebus services and some Grant Palmer services) is £4.60 for a day ticket and £18.50 for a weekly ticket.
For clarities sake I've not included monthly and yearly tickets yet as I want to confirm the prices and any proposed increases before working them out. They will come soon.
Now if you use the bus 6 days a week, all year it will cost a maximum of £1341.60 or £1435.20 for a hiphop day ticket.

Similarly weekly ticket costs come out to £884 and £964 throughout the year.

Potential savings of £800+ are not to be sniffed at in my opinion, and that includes maintenance of bikes or scooters.

If you want to join in with the project let us know in the comments, with blog posts I'll happily share with everyone and add to the post also. Also If you can't scoot or pedal to school we can help find bike confidence courses for all levels to complete learners to advanced riders who need to wind their necks in a bit (oh wait, that's me again)