Launch of The SHoRes Bicycle Library
East Riding of Yorkshire Council are excited to announce that The SHoRes Centre, Withernsea has been awarded the contract for the provision of the new bicycle library in Withernsea. The centre already provides a wide range of services and resources for the community and are very excited to be part of the BITS project.
The bicycle library launch evening took place on Friday 30th July which created a real buzz in the community, especially with the launch coinciding with the opening of a new cycle café and bike maintenance workshop. The bicycle library was launched by East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s (ERYC) portfolio holder for economic growth and tourism, Councillor Jane Evison; the Chair of SHoRes Councillor Lynn Healing and Jayne Nendick, the CEO of SHoRes.
Jayne Nendick, CEO of the Shores Centre said of the project:
‘we are excited to be part of the BITS project to manage the bike library and the additional opportunity it has brought us outside of the BITS project to evolve the Blue Door pop-in Café and bicycle workshop, so that it becomes a community hub that compliments employment and training opportunities alongside health and wellbeing. We aim to develop people’s skills to enable them to look after their own bicycle and engage with other community members. We want to develop a cycling culture in Withernsea and for it to become an area for cycling tourism which we hope will have a positive impact on local businesses and the surrounding area.’
There are currently 37 cyclists already signed up to the project and happily cycling in the town with their new bikes with a further 3 people waiting to pick up their new cycles in the coming week.
Each bike is fitted with a See.Sense sensor tracker that is linked to a data platform that provides near-real time data insights, as well as a See.Sense light and app to provide a user-interface for the cyclists who loan the bikes.
Data collected includes popular routes, speed, dwell times, plus granular sensor data on swerving, braking and collisions as well as in-app user reports, which will be used by East Riding of Yorkshire Council to inform cycle infrastructure planning, and will also be used by the ‘cycle buddy’ to monitor behaviour change, and provide individualised support to users, such as the creation of travel routes, and to provide them with incentives and assistance to cycle more. Individual ride stats such as calories burned, and CO2 saved are also provided to the user in-app.
One of the new recipients of a bicycle, Claudine said ‘Instead of driving I am now cycling around the town more often and it’s really opened my eyes to the world around me and how the beautiful the countryside surrounding Withernsea is. I am hoping to use the bike to get fitter and to be more sociable as I am cycling with my friends who also have bicycles through the library’
Along with the loan of a bicycle, the SHoRes team are supporting individuals through a cycle buddy whose role is to support the cyclists with road safety advice, safe cycling and bike maintenance as well as guided group rides. Plans are in process to set up several events that cyclists can participate in. To date participants have taken part in group rides and have had some 1:1 training to improve their cycling skills with some further cycle maintenance sessions to be held in the coming months.
The bike library has received part funding through the ‘Bicycles and Intelligent Transport Systems’ (BITS) project, which has been co-funded by the North Sea Region (NSR) Programme of the European Union. For more information about the project, please visit the BITS website.
For more information on the SHoRes Bike Library please contact 01964 615190 or email info@shores.org.uk
(One of the cyclists has already personalised her bicycle)
Bicycles ready for collection during the launch event