Families take part in Cambridge Kidical Mass bike ride to call for safer school routes

Families took to Cambridge’s streets for a mass cycle ride to call for more safe cycle routes to schools in the county.

More than 150 people turned out for a ‘Kidical Mass’ bike ride through Cambridge on Sunday (21 September).

The Cambridge Kidical Mass was organised by the Cambridgeshire Families for Sustainable Travel group in the run-up to World Car-Free Day (Monday, 22 September).

A total of 159 people including 55 kids cycled for three miles around Cambridge, calling on Cambridgeshire County Council to create more cycle routes to schools, protected from cars.

Children with face-paint, music from bike speakers and sunshine contributed to a festival atmosphere, and the ride finished on Parker’s Piece.

Before setting off, the crowd heard from Sara Lightowlers, the event organiser, who led the crowd in chants of “Kids on bikes! Kids on bikes!”.

Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, spoke to remind the crowd that every year, around 100 people are killed or seriously injured on Cambridgeshire’s roads.

He said it was vital that roads became safer so that more people felt confident to cycle with their kids.

Thomas Preud’homme, who regularly cycles with his eight-year-old son, said: “Cycling close to cars is dangerous and intimidating but doubly so when cycling with children. My daily dread is the constant merging with traffic to avoid parked cars in Radegund Road.

“We would like the highway authorities to come up with a long-term plan to create a network of protected or quiet paths, with an extension of school streets, to make whole trips safe.”

In particular, the group is calling for the implementation of more School Streets, which are roads near schools that temporarily close to motor vehicles during school drop-off and pick-up times. This improves safety, reduces air pollution and encourages walking and cycling to school.

Peterborough has 15 School Streets currently, more than double the rest of Cambridgeshire.

Sara Lightowlers, from Cambridge Families for Sustainable Travel, said: “We know that lots of parents want to take their children to school by bike, or let their teenagers cycle to school independently - but at the moment, this can feel scary.

“We want the council to work with schools and families to develop safer cycle routes through the city. This will lead to cleaner air and less congested roads for everyone.”

Anna Williams, head of campaigns at Camcycle said: “Research from Sustrans shows that over half of children in the UK want to cycle more and two-thirds support closing streets outside schools to cars during school drop-off and pick-up times.

“The number of School Streets schemes like this have been accelerating in London, growing from 85 in 2019 to around 800 today. Cambridgeshire has a few schemes in place, but a long way to catch up.

“We’re pleased to see families from across the city pressing the county council on the need for change and demonstrating just how joyful travelling by cycle can be for all ages.”

Kidical Mass is a global movement designed to promote safer roads and active mobility for children. There have been more than 500 Kidical Mass rides held across more than 20 countries since it started in 2008.

Cllr Beckett added: “It was fantastic to join over 150 other parents and children today for the first Kidical Mass in Cambridge calling for safer routes to schools. As chair of the highways committee, and a parent of a primary school child myself, I’m passionate about improving safety for our most vulnerable road users.

“Every child deserves to be able to walk or cycle safely and it was great to see so many people showing their support for measures to improve transport-to-school safety.”