Pedal power and the new cycle lane saves the day for Goals Beyond Grass Bikes!

A mechanical issue with the van nearly cancelled a crucial session at Belmont School. Without the van, Goals Beyond Grass (GBG) had to transport three twin bikes from GL3 Community Hub using pedal power, taking advantage of Gloucester’s new super green Cycle Lane.

31st October 2024 | Tom Handley | Celebrating success, Community impact, Cycling, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, News

A few weeks ago, a mechanical issue with the van that usually transports the Goals Beyond Grass (GBG) bikes nearly cancelled a crucial session at Belmont School. With no van available, GBG had to think on their feet. Faced with the task of moving three of their twin bikes from the GL3 Community Hub to the school, the team turned to pedal power—but this time, they had an extra card up their sleeve: Gloucester’s new super green Cycle Lane!

Thanks to the new accessible cycle lane, which will eventually link Gloucester to Bishops Cleeve, the team was able to make the journey smoothly. Volunteers very kindly stepped up, guiding the bikes along the cycle lane with relative ease. Without this vital new route, what would have been a complicated and even session cancelling event was instead a manageable rescue and even enjoyable ride.

It’s moments like these that highlight how critical infrastructure, like the cycle lane, is to community organisations like GBG Bikes. Without it, the team would have been stuck, unable to transport the bikes needed for their session. The new lane not only provided a safe and green option for moving the bikes but also showcased the power of accessible routes in keeping local initiatives on track.

MaryClare Faulkner, Inclusive Cycling Lead said ‘’The GBG van that I use to transport bikes to and from different sessions had broken down on a Friday evening. Fortunately, I had been able to ‘limp it’ to the GL3 Community Hub car park (the GBG office is here) but there the steering seized, and there was no way that I could get it fixed in time to get the three twin bikes in the back of the van, to Belmont School in Cheltenham for the Sunday afternoon.

We are very fortunate in that the Hub is situated alongside the Gloucester to Bishops Cleeve Cycle Path and that the section between Churchdown and Cheltenham is the first section to have been completed. I contacted 2 GBG Bikes volunteers who live in Cheltenham and are keen cyclists themselves, to ask if they might be able to help me cycle the 3 bikes over to Belmont. Again, I was extremely fortunate that they were both available that Saturday afternoon and happy to help!

I met them both at Belmont School and we left their car there and drove in my car to the GL3 Hub to get the bikes out of the van. The beauty of the twin bikes is that all the steering and braking is controlled by one rider – so the ‘passenger’ can be someone with total visual impairment, with dementia, autism or a learning disability. It doesn’t matter if they are unable to control the bike because the ‘driver’ does that, but they can still pedal and get all the physical and mental health and social benefits of cycling.

So, we were able to cycle one bike each, on the fantastic new Cycle Path from Churchdown, towards Cheltenham, past GCHQ and along the Lansdown Road. The lack of a cycle path from there to Belmont meant that we had to cycle on the road for the last part of the journey, but the roads were quiet, so we managed to reach our destination safely! And as a result, the three twin bikes were at Belmont School, ready for our inclusive cycling Sunday afternoon session. The twin bikes are our most used adaptive bikes because they cater for all ages (from 3 to 100 so far!) and all abilities and levels of confidence.

Friends, carers and clients, siblings, parents and children, volunteers and anyone can ride on these amazing bicycles “made for two”. We then drove in my car back to Belmont to collect their car! The van was repaired in a couple of days, so I was able to collect the bikes in the van to get them to a session in Gloucester.

I admit it could have been a lot worse but I was very fortunate in three ways – being able to get the broken down van to GL3; the proximity of GL3 to the completed section of the new Cycle Path and the availability of the two amazing volunteers who were prepared to give up their Saturday afternoon and cycle on an adaptive bike back to Belmont School, ready for the Sunday session where they volunteer every week!

We know the Cycle Path is creating a lot of unfavourable discussion/anger from motorists who have faced and are facing on-going delays while it is being built; are having to drive at slower speeds on narrower roads and feel that it is a huge waste of money, but aside from the delays which will come to an end, the environment is going to be improved as a result and many more people are already cycling that route than did before, even before the whole Cycle Path is completed. Two of our GBG Bikes ‘graduates’ and advocates, who now have their own e-trikes, use the path regularly and I find it such a pleasure to cycle that route now, compared with how it used to be… absolutely terrifying! I am really hoping to be able to encourage more of our GBG Bikes participants to go for group cycle rides along the Cycle Path for a morning or afternoon “out” with a cafe stop halfway!’’

A huge thank you to everyone involved and of course the Cycle Lane for making this last-minute mission possible!