Survey / Galway School Bike Count

Survey / Galway School Bike Count

As part of Bike Week, Galway Cycle Bus and Galway Cycling Campaign have teamed up to do an ambitious yet simple project this week: we’re going to count the number of bikes outside every primary and secondary school in Galway City.

We want to find out how many children (and teachers) are cycling to school in Galway. We can see the amount of bikes at schools has increased. We want to count the bikes this week and to repeat the exercise a number of times at random throughout the school year.

We’re asking parents, teachers and principals to count, and photograph, the student bikes parked on school grounds on Tuesday 22 or Wednesday 23 September and send them onto us via email, DM on Twitter, or on a form on the Galway Cycle Bus website.

Data will be shared with all participating schools and all data gathered will be published for analysis.

Email galwaycyclebus-at-gmail-dot-com to participate and for more information.

Virtual community screening / MOTHERLOAD, the movie: a covideo party and Zoom Q&A with director Liz Canning

Virtual community screening / MOTHERLOAD, the movie: a covideo party and Zoom Q&A with director Liz Canning

Our grand finale to Bike Week 2020 is hosting MOTHERLOAD as a virtual community screening and covideo party. We’re delighted that director Liz Canning will join us for a Q&A on Zoom immediately afterward for a panel discussion with urban liveability and health experts.

This 86 minute documentary from the USA captures a new mother’s quest to understand the increasing isolation and disconnection of modern life, its planetary impact, and how cargo bikes could be an antidote. It won a Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2019.

Film maker Liz Canning cycled everywhere until her twins were born in 2008. Motherhood was challenging and hauling babies via car felt stifling. She googled ‘family bike’ and discovered people using cargo bikes: long-frame bicycles designed for carrying heavy loads. Liz set out to learn more, and MOTHERLOAD was born. 

Watch MOTHERLOAD official trailer on YouTube

Join us on Sunday evening, 27 September, for a covideo party on Twitter using the hashtags #MOTHERLOAD #MOTHERLOADgalway.

Film maker Liz Canning will join us straight afterwards for a Q&A with a panel of urban liveability and health experts, parents, and the Galway Cycling Campaign.

Register for your MOTHERLOAD and Zoom meeting links here.

Screening and Q&A details

Links will be emailed to you on the day of the event.

Screening time: 7.30pm to 9pm

Q&A on Zoom: 9pm to 10pm

Handles: @MOTHERLOADmovie @GalwayCycling

Hashtags: #MOTHERLOAD #MOTHERLOADmovie #MOTHERLOADgalway #BikeWeek2020

Bike Week 2020

This event is organised by the Galway Cycling Campaign and funded through a Bike Week 2020 grant awarded by Galway City Council.

Bike Week is a Government of Ireland initiative, under the broader Active Travel initiative.

Galway Cycle Bus announces summer Family Cycles

Save some August dates in your diaries for Family Cycles in Oranmore, Renmore and Knocknacarra.

The Galway CycleBus is delighted to announce that they will organise three Family Cycles in August in Oranmore, Renmore and Knocknacarra.

Communities all over the city and county want to establish cycle buses in the absence of safe and protected cycle ways to schools. These family cycles will hopefully make connections between parents and encourage them to establish cycle buses in their own areas. 

In Oranmore on Saturday 22 August, the family cycle will tour the village and take the Maree Road out to Renville Park for a picnic and games. 

In Renmore on Saturday 5 September, a family quiz will be followed by a spin around the residential and amenity areas, and will conclude with a trip to the beach in Ballyloughane for fun and games. 

In Knocknacarra (date TBC), a family cycle around the neighbourhood will finish with a treasure hunt in Barna Woods. 

Parents, schools and local businesses are invited to get involved and contact the Galway CycleBus at [email protected] or on social media. 

These events coincide with the Cycling Rural Collective’s campaign to ‘Get to School on Your Own Fuel’.

Back on the saddle – CycleCoffeeCake pedals to Renmore this August Bank Holiday weekend

CycleCoffeeCake pedals off again this August bank holiday weekend on Saturday 1 August at 10.30am from the Huntsman Inn, College Road. The route will explore quiet and calm routes to and through Renmore, Ballyloughnane beach, and Roscam.

The first CycleCoffeeCake event pedalled from Nimmo’s Pier in the Claddagh to Blackrock and finished and Ground & Co Salthill.

CycleCoffeeCake is a gentle social cycle event for adults of all ages and abilities. People who are new cyclers, nearly-new or who have returned to cycling during coronavirus lockdown are particularly welcome.

For contact tracing purposes, participants must register in advance for CycleCoffeeCake here.

The cycle will last about one hour and end at a local café for coffee, cake and chats.

The Galway CycleBus will host a family cycle in Renmore with more later in August so parents who are considering cycling with their children to Scoil Caitríona and Scoil Dara in just a few weeks time may find that CycleCoffeeCake gives them the boost of confidence they want to feel able and safe cycling within their neighbourhood.

Organiser Martina Callanan says that a remarkable two thirds of participants of CycleCoffeeCake events this summer are women who are new to cycling or have hopped back on the saddle after years, or decades, of absence.

Women are the reason we have a bike boom this summer. It’s almost impossible to buy a new or second hand bike in Galway. Mammies have rediscovered their own joy and freedom in cycling after spending time with their children on bikes during lockdown.

Many want to feel confident again on bikes, and CycleCoffeeCake events shows them quiet routes in their neighbourhoods as well as access to a community of people who want cycling to be a very real and safe option for everyday transport. “

Neasa Bheilbigh of the Galway CycleBus in Knocknacarra says that many parents want their children to cycle to school.

Cycling is quick and independent transport, which saves parents time, and is easy exercise for young people. As we prepare to go back to school, mums, parents and caregivers want safe and quiet cycle routes for their children and teenagers. CycleCoffeeCake is a great way for parents to regain their own confidence on bikes.

Eqre Square is about 12-18 minutes by bike from Renmore and 24-30 minutes from Roscam. Travels times are based on a gentle pace of 16kmph and include wait times at junctions.