Category: Travel and Transport

Looking to travel more sustainably this month? This is what you have got to look forward to: On Your Bike Day We held our first bike event this term with Dr Bike, Reading Bike Kitchen and UniCycle. We sold 10 second-hand bikes and over 40 staff and students visit Dr Bike for a free Bike check.Our next scheduled Dr Bike is the 22nd May - come along and get your free bike check!   Free Cycle Skills Sessions every Wednesday! Whatever level of cyclist you are, we have cycle courses to improve your cycling 2-3pm "Back on Bikes" for those needing practice with gears, signalling etc. and will stay on paths & roads within campus, 3.30-5pm "Bike Commuting Skills" covering more advanced skills & Highway Codes for cycling with traffic. See the cycle skills programme for details or email k.robertson@reading.ac.uk to book a place. All sessions start with bike set up and key safety checks.   Do you need a car? Campaign We're launching a new campaign to reduce single occupancy vehicles by encouraging the great travel...

The University is committed to increasing the uptake of more sustainable travel methods to and from campus. There are many great reasons for you to not bring a car, including all the great travel offers. As a University of Reading staff or student, you don’t need a car in Reading because: Bus routes 21/21a operate every 7 mins and serves both Whiteknights and London Road campuses Cycle hire and lessons. Improve your confidence and skills at free weekly cycle skills sessions. Cycle maintenance tools (including pumps) are available from the Chaplaincy and Security from Whiteknights campus. Excellent trains, including season ticket loans and discounts available for staff Car club hire on campus. Hire a car by the hour with Co-wheels Walking distance in to town Get fit cycling and walking But sometimes it’s not possible: “I live far away - I can’t walk to work!” We aim to make sustainable travel the default option, but we do understand that this is not always possible....

Creating skilled cyclists The 2018-19 academic year has seen a huge boost in participation in our programme of cycle skills sessions and events. These are aimed at helping University cyclists keep themselves and other safe while cycling on and off campus. Over 200 participant-sessions have been run since August 2018, with over 70 individuals now trained in safe road cycle skills. Some of these were complete beginners or hadn’t been on a bike since childhood and were offered support including use of loan bike and helmets along with additional sessions if needed to get skills and confidence up to cycling on roads;  while others just needed one or two to learn/ brush up on the UK highway code and pick up tips for more efficient cycling / basic bike safety checks.   A range of Nationalities have taken part which highlighted some interesting differences in cycling rules across countries: Did you know that Canadian Cyclists signal right by using their left arm bent up...

You may have seen us dotted around campus some evenings over the last few weeks (since the clocks changed) lit up like Christmas Trees. No we haven't been celebrating Christmas early, rather we've been out with a more serious message of encouraging cyclists to use lights! It's really important that cyclists use lights whether on or off campus. On the shared paths on campus, pedestrians and other cyclists can't see you without lights, so you're risking hitting them, or at least making everyone's journey uncomfortable with near misses. For your own safety when cycling on roads so that drivers can see you to avoid you It's a legal requirement in the UK and you could get a £50 fine. Our main light up event was on Thursday 15 November as part of the Green Festival where we managed to cover most of central Whiteknights campus. We were actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of cyclists who already had lights. Keep up the great work. If you...

Over 300 new and experienced cyclists have benefited from the Cycle Safety Project which has been run at the University by training experts Avanti Cycling in conjunction with Sustainability Services. Over 70 different events have been held; attracting staff and students to take part in a range of activities from cycle based training; maintenance sessions; ride leader workshops and various awareness events - including "light up campus" giving away bike lights to encourage all cyclists to be seen. Cycle based training has helped beginners learn to ride; developing others confidence and improved road skills of regular commuters. A number of complete beginners have now progressed, gaining enough confidence to cycle to work which is a great success. Many others are now more confident on roads and some have taken ride leader workshops so they can go on and help others. We have checked and fixed over 100 bikes at maintenance sessions run by Dr Bike and Reading Bike Kitchen adding to the project's overall impact. Carrying on in all weather - snow, rain and sunshine...

Here’s an update on changes to bus services and routes for Whiteknights and London Road campuses over summer. 21a stops for summer on 8 June A quick reminder that term time only bus service 21a will stop for the summer from Friday 8 June. Therefore the frequency of the bus service between Whiteknights Campus and the Town Centre will be reduced. Please check timetables on Reading Buses website. 21a will additionally run on 16 and 17 June for Open day. It will then start again for Welcome Week on 24 September. Both bus stops on Whiteknights campus closed over summer due to works on Queen’s Drive Queen’s Drive needs resurfacing so this work will take place over summer, closing the section near Whiteknights House starting on 18 June. Vehicles will not be able to use the route so both campus bus stops will be closed during this time, between 18 June to Wednesday 1 August. For those seeking to use alternative stops please ensure you read...

The results of the 2018 University Travel Survey are now in A massive thank you to everyone who took part back in January (832 staff and 734 students). You've provided some excellent feedback that we will use to update our Travel Plan Action Plan (to be published in October).A brief summary of the findings is provided in this blog - please see the full results in our Travel Survey 2018 results report (includes a 3 page summary), and our Travel Plan and Monitoring page for further details. The all important prize draw winners The student entries prize draw was won by Raagulan Umashanker a first year student of English Literature.The staff entries prize draw was won by Tom Woolmer in Global Recruitment and Admissions at London Road.They each won an iPad. Congratulations and thanks for taking part :-) How do staff and students travel to the University? The overall (combined staff and student) modal split for commutes to the University in 2018 is shown below. The...

If you need to pump up your tyres or make a few minor repairs to your bicycle while you’re on Whiteknights or London Road campuses you’re now in luck. We have two new locations where DIY bicycle maintenance equipment is available to borrow on campus, and improved equipment available in the Chaplaincy. Equipment is now available to borrow (for you to use on campus) from: The Chaplaincy Security Services in Whiteknights House Security Services at London Road. The Chaplaincy location is already marked on our campus Shower Map, and this will be updated to show the other locations soon. You won this! The equipment has been purchased using the prize money from the University Team’s great successes in last year’s BikeSmart cycle challenge. The University overall won first place out of large organisations Reading, and the Sustainability Services team came first out of smaller groups. These team prizes were in addition to many fabulous individual prizes won by staff and students accross the University. We...