The Easter Sunday CycleWight ride

from Shanklin Station took 26 cyclists of all ages on a circular ride devised by Peter Gould. The weather for the ride turned out to be the best of the Easter weekend - dry, sunny if a little cool. The route followed the revetment from Shanklin to Sandown (some adverse reaction from the odd pedestrian) then to Yaverland and Yarbridge and linking to the Round the Island Route back to Shanklin. There were easter eggs for the younger riders to complete the course.

CycleWight was represented at a Quality Transport Partnership meeting on March 16. The QTP, which is a forum for Transport providers and users and the IW Council, has not met recently because the Council changed its committee structure to an executive and select committee structure. This meeting relaunched the QTP has a vital part of the Council's Local Transport Plan. 

The Isle of Wight Council have been allocated £5.9m for expenditure on the Roads for 2001/2. Part of that total will go towards the Ryde Transport Interchange. A record £2.9m will be for maintenance of all roads - not just main roads - which should have an impact on road surfaces on minor roads experienced by cyclists. A problem for the immediate future will be the current overspend by the rights-of-way department in repairing the damage by the recent bad weather of the bridleway network and this may affect progress on the cycleway development.

We understand that the budget for the next two years for cycling related projects will be £400,000. This includes land purchase for completing sections of cycleway, hard surfacing of existing routes and more 'safe routes to schools' and cycle lanes. The 'Quiet Roads' initiative will be launched in Adgestone. The essence of the Local Transport Plan is to develop real schemes to encourage Cycling, Walking and Public Transport. We expect to see exciting results in the coming months.

Additional advance stop lines with green texture are being installed at traffic lights at the St Johns Road/High Street junction in Ryde and at the new traffic lights at Long Lane/Staplers in Newport and in St James Square.

CycleWight Questionnaire

We asked our members to complete a questionnaire in the March 2001 Newsletter - here are the results so far:

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete it .... We had 34 completed forms!

• The most important issue by a long way was the "development of off road cycleways", Newport to Sandown, Newport to Freshwater.

  "Driver Education" was the next most important issue.

  "Slower vehicle speeds" and "Traffic calmed lanes" came in about equal in third place.

  None of you passed comment on the Carisbrooke Cycleway! Maybe we need to use it in an event to get it known...Unfortunately IWC are not keen to sign it properly - ask them why!

  You were very complimentary about the newsletter, and about our organized rides - thank you!

  Only three people had visited the website which is a shame as its very good, and a mine of up to date information!

Your additional comments covered a variety of topics. The only consistent theme was " What about a Ryde to Newport cycleway?"

Scenes from  IW Randonnee - Sunday 6th May

Checkpoint at Havenstreet where 400 of the 1200+ cyclists registered first. The blue and white signs point the way.

Randonneers leave the floating bridge at Cowes on their way to Yarmouth,

On an extremely hot Sunday 24th June, fifty cylists of all ages converged on The Bike Shed at Merstone from Cowes and Sandown. With near perfect timing, the two routes joined just outside the entrance lane. Ice creams were gratefully provided by Minghellas, and many families stayed for a picnic on what was the hottest day the year.

Sunday 17th September 2000 The CycleWight Family Ride from Cowes High School took place in fine weather with 19 cyclists of all ages enjoying the lanes from Rew Street to the Cycle Track.

The Unitary Development Plan for the Island is available on www.iwight.gov.uk

The shared use path from Carisbrooke towards Newport has now opened. From the Pond behind the Church you can cycle down to the Town Centre crossing Wellington Road and using Westminster Lane. There is a private road which joins the Pond to the main Road at `Dave Deaths'.

CycleWight  held their AGM at at Holyrood Hall, High Street, Newport on Friday 30th November at 7.30 p.m. We welcomed Dr Michael McCabe from Sway in the New Forest who entertainingly talked about his year in the media spotlight commuting by electric bike to Portsmouth via the Isle of Wight.