A year-long study of the Greater Manchester Bike share scheme made its debut last Thursday at Salford University.

Speakers and interested parties gathered at the Old Fire Station in Salford to read and hear analysis of the vast amounts of data collected by the Sustainable Housing and Urban Studies Unit.

Alison Coles, Researcher and Insights Project Manager at British Cycling, said: “For me, it’s about finding a blueprint that works for Manchester, but then we can replicate across the country, so we can become a cycling nation.”

British Cycling, along with members of the University of Salford and University of Central Lancashire, went through their findings, summarising the 42-page report into their key findings.

The report presented both positive and negative data in equal measure, speakers making the worrying announcement that 26% of adults 16-and-up in the UK fail to achieve a minimum of 30 minutes exercise a week.

Nick Chamberlin, Policy Manager at British Cycling, said: “The most exciting thing about this research is that it focuses attention back on what towns and cities need in the way of public bikes, and how public bikes are a really critically important complementary part of the public transport network.

“They’re not a novelty, they’re not a tourism item, they’re actually fundamentally important.”

This seminar was the first of a new series focusing on transport, dubbed the “Future Transport Seminar series”.

This series hopes to look into the future of public and private transport, and explore the social developments related to these issues.

Graeme Sherriff, University of Salford, said: “People may think about transport as just buses and trains and cars, but really this is the reality of how people get around.

“And that can mean whether they can get to work, whether they can get to a job interview, whether they can see their families, and having a really good public transport system can really impact people’s quality of life.”

The next seminar is on December 6th, in Salford University’s ThinkLab and will focus on autonomous vehicles, and will be hoping to offer some the chance to ride in the university’s own driver-less car.

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