Nice to meet you, to meet you...

Issue 9: May 09

Didn't recognise you without your helmet
We had our first ever meeting 'off the bikes' on April 22nd, where 14 of us got together to discuss 'The State of the Route'. It was great to see so many people, and we had a good chat, that allowed us to find out, that most of us are prepared to put in some effort to get other people cycling, and to press for improvements to the route.

To try to encourage more people to commute by bike, we're hoping to run a bike bus every day during bike week (June 15th - 19th). If you are able to ride that week, please tell us on our online poll:

• http://www.doodle.com/afem8uyn37yr4g35

To improve the route, we are encouraging people to use the facilities at:

• http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/
• http://www.bradford.gov.uk/contact_us/online_forms/potholes_form.htm
• http://www.fixmystreet.com/ 

• http://www.bradford.gov.uk/contact_us/online_forms/transport_and_infrast...

to try to make sure the bus and cycle lanes are kept clear.

All the notes about the meeting will appear on the site soon,  on the Meet Up page.

Talk to each other
We think that riding together is generally a good thing. One of the things hindering people getting together to ride on other days is direct communication with each other. To try to find a way to make this easier for people we now have a Google Group:

• http://groups.google.co.uk/group/airevalleybikebus

By signing up, you can send an email to the group. This then goes to everyone else in the group. Replies are all held online, so you can follow the conversation. It's a bit like a forum and it's a bit like email. If you're not sure about signing up, you can visit the group and just see what's going on anyway.

See what you think.

Stats
It's good to see that the upward trend from Christmas is continuing. More miles, more riders, etc. We managed 257 miles between us on the morning route, which is the most in one month so far. (It has been a long month - 5 weeks!) Remarkably, it's also been dry on Bike Bus days, no sign of the April showers for us!