North Lanarkshire Council

New to cycling?

If you are new to cycling, make sure you practice riding your bike before venturing out into major traffic. Practice in a quiet place and ensure you have full control of your bike, know how the gears work and accustom yourself to your brakes.

You should be able to ride in a straight line, look behind and signal, all without wobbling!

Not cycled before, or for a long time?

Help is at hand from Cycling Scotland's 'One to One' training scheme. Training is available to adult (aged 16 and upwards) cyclists of all levels, from the absolute beginner to the more skilled cyclist and is on a one-to-one basis.

For absolute beginners, the purpose of the course is to get you up and cycling and to give you basic cycle control skills. Cycling Scotland often have new starts cycling within the first lesson! For more information on this please use the link on the right hand side of this page.

Cycling facts

• After walking, cycling is the most environmentally sound means of transport. It converts energy to mobility fantastically efficiently : the energy efficiency of cycling is estimated as the equivalent of a car doing 1600 miles on a gallon of petrol! In addition to saving energy and reducing pollution, bicycles also save space : you can park ten bicycles in the space required for one car.

• Cycling is a quick, healthy, affordable and non-polluting form of travel. More cycling will lead to less congestion by reducing the number of short car journeys. It will also help reduce air pollution and bring improvements in North Lanarkshire's environment.

• Half of all journeys made in London are under two miles, a distance easily cycled. However, the level of cycling in North Lanarkshire and Scotland is relatively low compared to many other European areas.

• Cycling makes sense as part of every day life. The average two mile journey takes just 22 minutes by bicycle. Cyclists can park freely and don't have to queue at congested areas. Making a trip by bicycle means that you can often get closer to your destination than if you used public transport, cutting down your journey time.

• Cycling can also form part of a trip, travelling by bus, train or even the car for some of the journey, and by bike for the other.

• Cycling can be done once a week and it will still make a major dent in the impact of congestion on our roads, and still have a significant impact on your wallet!

Route planning

Try planning your routes by using as many quiet, residential roads, cycle lanes and paths as possible. Try to use park, canal, river paths and Bridleway but keep away from footpaths : bikes aren't allowed unless signs are in place.

The council has produced a smartways map, which details existing recommended walking and cycling links within North Lanarkshire and beyond. This map is available free of charge and is also available to download on your computer. It is intended that this map will be updated yearly to include new routes as they are installed as detailed in the Walking & Cycling Strategy document.

First ScotRail now have a dedicated cycling Info page on their website, which details their commitment to increasing cycles on trains. For more information on this please use the link on the right hand side of this page.

Safety tips

• Read and understand the Highway Code.
• You are a vehicle with obligations like any other.
• You also have as much right to be on the road as other users!

One of the first rules of safety on the roads is be seen : wear bright clothing. Always have at least one reflector on your bike. The best place for reflectors is on the back of your pedals. The up and down of the pedals is very noticeable to motorists.

Using the cycling section of our website

North Lanarkshire is working to overcoming some of the perceived barriers to cycling, including safety issues, poor cycling environment and lack of information or skills by addressing these through SMARTways, so that people have the ability and confidence to cycle.

Within this section our objective is to provide you with an introduction to the terminology and numerous different elements of this fantastic sport, pastime or method of commuting all tied up with the bicycle.

We have attempted to provide information covering most areas of cycling. As your experience and involvement with cycling becomes more in-depth, or you want to do some training for a ride or tour, you can then move on to the Tour and Racing section where again you will find in-depth information covering most aspects of the subject.

Please use the 'contact us' box if you have any questions. For more information, see 'related articles' and 'other useful websites'