December 12, 2024

Travel Actively Carlisle have been holding a number of community engagement events. 

During seven face-to-face consultations with the public at schools, community centres and local events as well as an online survey, 350 people’s views were gathered regarding current cycling in Carlisle. To ensure that we could collate their comments and analyse it we used a paper and online survey. The opportunity to win a prize provided added incentive for people to engage.

We gained insights from a range of individuals including children and young people, older adults and those with a long-term health condition.  Particularly of interest were their comments regarding their current cycling behaviours, barriers to cycling more, where they would like bike storage and cycle routes around Carlisle.

84% of our respondents used their bike in some capacity with 44% being for rides in their local area or to work. 30% would like to ride their bikes into the city centre and to shops, which corresponded with the 20% who also asked for bike storage in the city centre. This suggests that there is a need for cycle routes and cycle storage into Carlisle city centre. There were specific suggestions of bike storage at: Cumberland Infirmary, train station, Sands Centre, Bitts Park, Tesco on Warwick Road and Morton Community Centre on Newtown Road.

The largest finding from the surveys was a need for more, safe and maintained cycle routes, particularly along the main entries into Carlisle and into the city centre. 42% provided additional comments regarding the cycle routes. We will use the intel gathered and work with relevant organisations to try and address some of the issues raised to improve cycling within Carlisle.

For the full report contact TravelActively@cumberland.gov.uk

Interested to know more about the Travel Actively Programme?  Visited the dedicated webpage here.