Active City Conference 2025

On 2 and 3 July, York is hosting the annual Active City Conference at the Barbican. This will see more than 400 active travel experts relocate to York for two days. The council have offered York Cycle Campaign the opportunity to get involved and our main contribution will be organising a public mass ride to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the iconic Millennium Bridge. 

Millennium Bridge 25th Anniversary Ride

Wenesday 2 July, 6pm: Bring a picnic and join us for a fun-filled cycling parade with a huge diversity of bikes and music on the move in this celebration of York’s cycling culture. Let’s show the conference delegates what a welcome York’s cyclists can give! The ride will start near the conference venue (the Barbican), just inside the city walls on George Street (outside the Phoenix pub). We’ll proceed through the city and along Terry Avenue to finish on Millennium Fields for a picnic (with Coffee Bike and Ice Cream Boat in attendance). Everyone of all ages is welcome – but please register on Eventbrite if you can so we can gauge numbers.

We need marshals for this event, please sign up to help – as well as registering for the ride itself. 

Pre-Conference Reception 

Tuesday 1 July, 7-9:30pm at Cycle Heaven: Members are invited to the reception for Delegates and Campaigners at Cycle Heaven. With free buffet and a pay-as-you-go bar. Watch this space as we may have some high-profile guests! Please sign up if you are coming for catering purposes.

Other York Cycle Campaign and related dates for your diary

York Cycle Rally

20-22 June: York Cycle Rally – York’s annual cycle festival on the Knavesmire with rides, displays, talks, fun and frolics for all the family. Free entry.

West Bank Park fair

29 June, 1-4pm: YCC will have an information and recruitment stall at this free annual event held in West Bank Park, Holgate/Acomb (various entrances including Holgate Road and New Lane).

Friday evening social ride

27 June at 6:30pm – short ride sets off from York Minster at 6:30pm and ends in a cafe or pub (last Friday of each month). All welcome.

Lazy Sunday rides …

Campaign members are invited to try out the York Rouleurs introductory ‘We rides’ on summer Sundays. The rides start from opposite Cycle Heaven on Hospital Fields Rd. They are gentle leisure rides at a nice steady pace to cafes such as Naburn Lock and Balloon Tree cafe, taking 45mins to an hour each way, with coffee and cake or brunch at the cafe. The pace is set to one everyone can manage. Options for longer and faster paced rides are there on the York Rouleurs website for those who are interested. If you want to know more about trying out the ‘We ride’, please email York Rouleurs. 

Cycle security marking

Sat 12 July from 10-12 at Acomb library

Sun 10 Aug from 3-5pm at Acomb police station

Note: these events are subject to last minute changes in time, so please double-check beforehand.

Olympic cyclist in conversation

14 July, 7-9pm, The Crescent, YO24: Emma Pooley, silver medal winner, is launching her new memoir (and recipe book). Tickets are £13 (or £31 including the book).

Recent events

Cycle with Pride

On 7 June, YCC joined the massive, colourful Pride parade from the city centre to the Knavesmire to demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity in our membership and our campaigning. And we were delighted to be far from the only cyclists in the parade.

News

Station cycle stand removal

Several members have contacted us about the plans to remove 50 station cycle stands on 16 June. Cllr Kate Ravilious (Executive Member for Transport) told us that this is necessary for a substation to be relocated and LNER has estimated that works will finish by late September. The colour-hatched sections on the plan above will be closed in sequence (so two areas will always remain open) and the racks marked as dashes at the far left of the plan will always remain in use. This means around a quarter of the racks will be out of action at any one time. Cllr Ravilious has stressed to LNER that continued access to these racks is essential because they are the only ones able to accommodate cargo cycles, and not everyone can use the two-tier racks in the short stay car park. Unfortunately crowding seems inevitable but hopefully there will still be space for everyone. Let us know if you have problems.

Disappearing cycle lanes

Cllr Ravilious also tells us that the Council is receiving enquiries about why the cycle lanes on Huntington Road have been removed. She explains that the cycle lane markings were narrower than current standards (LTN1/20 specifies 1.5m minimum) and cites research evidence that this is more dangerous than no cycle lane because a narrow lane encourages dangerous close passing of cyclists by drivers. Where cyclists are not confined by lines they can follow the Highway Code recommendation to take a safer, more central position in the carriageway. This is the advice given in cycle training – but is probably only followed by more assertive cyclists. Our members will be aware of many sub-standard cycle lanes across York: the Council is not proposing to remove them all. Huntington Road was being resurfaced, and the Council is ensuring that any infrastructure they replace is compliant with the most recent guidelines. Although this incident has flagged the area as needing safe, segregated cycle infrastructure, there are sadly no plans to provide this in the short term.

Sustainable Transport Corridor city centre plan

A consultation is due to start in June on plans for a bus priority route between York Station and Tower St via Ouse Bridge. With an estimate that this could remove up to 75% of general traffic this could massively improve cycling conditions and air quality in the whole area. It may also allow for better organised deliveries and extending pavement cafes in streets like Micklegate. This could be quite controversial so it’s really important that our members ‘speak up’ in support and encourage schools, businesses, parish councils etc to also support it and the better bus services that it is hoped will result. Watch out for more news soon! 

Ancient hospital delays St Leonard’s Place re-opening

Work to fix the void that opened up in St Leonard’s Place recently was delayed for archaeologists to explore the remains of what they think is the medieval hospital formerly standing on the site. As of 13/14 June, the road is now fully open again so you no longer have to wheel your cycle past the roadworks on the way into the city. 

Living on an island

Leah, YCC lead on SecureCycle York, was recently on holiday in the Channel Islands and sent us this photo: “Nobody locks their bike in Alderney, but unfortunately in York bikes must always be locked with good quality D locks”. And if you haven’t already taken the opportunity, get your cycle marked at one of the free Bike Register events.  

Opportunities and actions

Wanted: ride marshals (no experience required)

We need volunteers to join a team of marshals for the Active Conference ride on evening of Wednesday 2 July (ride starts at 6 near the Barbican, marshals will be needed before this). There will be lots of transport planners, campaigners and cycle activists in town, so it’s important that we make a good impression! No previous experience necessary – briefing will be given. Please register on Eventbrite if you can help (as well as signing up to the ride itself).

Wanted: Stall Co-ordinator

We need a volunteer to organise our recruitment stalls, as Leah our dynamic Recruitment Lead is now focusing her energies on SecureCycle York – an initiative led by the Campaign to take action against cycle theft. SecureCycle York is itself an excellent recruitment tool, so Leah wants to put all her energies into this, leaving us needing someone to lead on the regular stalls. Ideally, we’d like to run these at least quarterly, and when additional opportunities arise if resources are available. You would recruit volunteers to help, liaise with the folks at Cycle Heaven who look after the gazebo and other kit, and turn up for some of the time on the day. Equipment transport is usually provided via the Cycle Heaven van. If you are interested, do email Leah. She will give you all the support you need to get going. 

Help needed for Cycle Rally and Homestead Park

YCC will have a recruitment stall at the annual York Cycle Rally (Knavesmire) and we need volunteers to help us on 21 and 22 June. Please text Leah on 0753 6030550, even if you only spare a couple of hours.  

We are also considering having a stall at Homestead Festival on 5 and 6 July in Homestead Park (Clifton Green). The viability of this depends how many volunteers we get. Let us know if you can help by emailing us: the more volunteers, the less the individual load. 

Thank you!

Cycle cameras make change

There is a brilliant group of members who regularly film whilst cycling and upload unsafe incidents of vehicles on North Yorkshire Police’s Op Snap with the aim of having an impact (fine, training, points, etc.) on the offender.  If you want to work with us to find out how to operate video equipment and submit footage to the North Yorkshire Police, please text Leah on 0753 6030550.  We will be offering a training session, so watch this space. We will also provide evidence of the most unsafe junctions in York to the Council, hoping they will be rectified as soon as possible. 

Make a Mate a Member

Help us grow our influence and bring more cyclists into our membership. We’re delighted to say that after almost doubling our membership in the last 18 months we’re at around 350 strong, but we still need more! More members mean more people to help with all the activities and actions we take to make cycling safer and more accessible for everyone in York. From commenting on planning applications, to organising or helping on group rides, having a stronger collective voice in consultations and decision sessions, writing press releases or appearing on local radio and tv, to taking photos and videos of our engagement events or just ordinary cyclists that represent who we are – there’s loads of stuff to get involved with! Members also get exclusive access to a range of fabulous speaking and social events that make meeting other cyclists great fun and help us pinpoint the issues that matter most. Tell your friends about York Cycle Campaign and try to encourage at least one mate to be a member of our awesome campaign!

And in other news…

Reform declares war on LTNs

Reform announced they would remove all the Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the 10 councils in England over which they now have control – only to discover none existed in those areas anyway. However, this doesn’t bode well for future active travel initiatives if Reform’s influence carries on spreading. 

To tweet or not to tweet

A small-scale survey by a University of Liverpool researcher suggests that cyclists using social media to influence local authorities may unintentionally alienate them. Because online activity can become associated with negativity and abuse, the study concludes that face-to-face contact, emails, and formal consultation may be the best ways to positively influence the opinions of local leaders.