If we build it they will come - Traffic free to Spofforth

The Tour is still coming, the roads are going to be fixed so Cav and Wiggo can ride across them. Thing is, after that cars are going to use them mainly, which will be nice when I'm in a car but won't make me cycle anymore often.

LEGACY I keep hearing lots about LEGACY but its all talk. Here is a concrete idea for some legacy that we could all get behind.

The Nidderdale Greenway is already being loved by the people of Harrogate, be they cyclists, horse riders or walkers. I blogged about it a month ago and put a rough map online. 4500 people viewed my post, that is  viral for Cycle Harrogate. We need more of this kind of provision people want it and are using it it, this is a very good thing.

Here's is an idea that could make our town a better place and a more prosperous one too. I was sat with Harrogate Cycle Action on Monday evening being my usual stroppy self. Ginny Leonard from the CTC had come along to tell us how to try and get people interested in cycling when we realised they already are. They are mad for the Greenway in Harrogate, but not enough people from out of town know about it, yet.

Harrogate has no traffic free connection to Sustran's National Cycle Network. The nearest place you  can get on it is Spofforth. From there you can get yourself to Wetherby and on to York with barely the sniff of a car. To get to Spoforth at the moment though is back roads and a scary crossing of the main road.  Harrogate to its East is an island surrounded by a sea of cars. So kids and families don't ride to Spofforth and on to Wetherby and nobody really comes that way into town by bike.

What if the Tour's legacy was to link the excellent and much loved Nidderdale Greenway to the national cycle network at Spofforth? Then a family would have a choice of places to ride from Harrogate, west to the Dales, East to York. Bettter still folk could ride their bikes into Harrogate, stay a bit wander round the town, spend some money, maybe stop for the night (cyclists are hungry and thirsty and need places to sleep.) and then on to Ripley, eat ice cream  and on into the Dales. This is eco tourism gold and we have a winning ticket in the shape of the tour with which to make it happen.

Lets take the vision a step further. What if we got it open for next July? Folk could cycle in for the tour. How cool and bike friendly would Harrogate look? We would have shown that not only can we stage a major international cycling event but that we can get everyone in and out too.

What if whilst we were at it, we linked in the showground and put some cycle hire places in Wetherby and in town? We could help sort out the congestion problem for Yorkshire Show week. We could park some of them in Wetherby at the race course. Offer them a few quid off the ticket price and let them ride down the Tour De France cycle route into Harrogate.

We need some people to get behind this idea. We need councillors and the press to champion this. We could show Harrogate in the best possible light and build a Legacy that we can all be proud of and can all benefit from, but if we don't all want it. If we don't all make it happen. We just get Cav and Wiggo for a couple of hours and memories of when the circus came to town.