Bike Worcester - 2025 review of the things
It’s the time of year when you might hear Noddy telling you about fast approaching winter festivities, which also means its close to the end of the year, and time for the Bike Worcester huge and funky review of the 2025 things!
In 2025 we flexed a little, with coverage on regional and national TV, and by hosting the World Bike Bus summit in little old Worcester, making friends and building bridges with like minded folk in the UK, Europe and the USA.
We’ve got loads to cover and probably loads I’ve forgotten, so lets crack on, and then y’all can fill the comments with everything I’ve missed.
January
The recently opened Kepax Bridge, with plenty of footfall and the inevitable and increasing frequency of flooding of the River Severn, unfortunately meant the promised attractive riverside figure of eight route for walking and cycling was a pipe dream (still happy if any City or County Councillors want to try and navigate it with me on two wheels, particularly those who repeated ‘the figure of eight’ in meetings and to the press). 12 months on the only thing to have changed is a couple of warning signs stating No Cycling have been erected on the West side of the river (despite an incredibly inviting tarmac path at the Kepax end). Oh, and the Severn Way is closed to the North of the bridge. Yours truly also attended the Magistrates’ Court as a witness to a driver facing the charge of Driving without due care and attention for a close pass (yes, it is an offence), after submitting video evidence to West Mercia Police via the Operation Snap portal. Welcome to 2025!
Sweet sweet tarmac, but what’s with the No Cycling sign?
February
February brings with it St Valentines Day, and a perfectly scheduled blog on desire lines (aka elephant paths). After years of waiting we finally got all the stakeholders in one room to talk about the danger faced by people travelling by bicycle in and around Worcester (MP Tom Collins, West Mercia Police, Police and Crime Commissioner, and officers and leaders from the City and County Council) with a follow up meeting planned for later in the year (spoiler: this hasn’t happened yet).
The gang talk road danger with an emphasis on drivers close passing folk riding bikes
Following on from the issues around Kepax Bridge and the mythical attractive riverside figure of eight route for walkers and cyclists, we made an appearance on Midlands Today (for some reason cycling incredibly slowly(?).
March
March saw the opening of the active travel route following the railway viaduct, linking Foregate Street station in the city centre to the riverside paths, Sabrina Bridge, and the University campus in St Johns. This involved knocking down and a building (so not a low cost improvement) but an excellent and strategic decision. More work is now needed to make the entire route the most attractive street(s) in Worcester (and ensure it doesn’t become established as a free car park).
Foregate Street active travel route opens, following the railway viaduct arches
We had an incredibly busy Saturday, where our volunteers simultaneously supported the International Women’s Day celebration at the Guildhall (followed by the Women led Critical Mass later in the month), a bike jumble sale buying and selling bits for bike recycling, and fettling bikes at the Repair Cafe.
Rob and I also attended the Shrewsbury Moves conference, with Rob invited to speak on an expert panel, rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the UK active travel scene. Another example of what can be done, and how far Worcester and Worcestershire is behind the curve (plus ideas a plenty brought home for Bike Worcester).
April
The start of the month was a low, with the passing of Bike Worcester stalwart Jim Pantall, following a tricycle crash into a bollard in fading light a couple of months earlier. A lack of safe cycling infrastructure in the city contributed to his death. Jim used his trike as a mobility aid, and preferred travelling under his own steam for short journeys rather than using his car; an inspiration to us all, he will be greatly missed.
Jim Pantall, legend
April also saw Bike Worcester punching well above its weight with the city hosting the 3rd Global Bike Bus Summit. It was an amazing effort by so many volunteers in the Bike Worcester community (personal highlight was Jo saying ‘Do you think we need a string quartet? I’ll make some calls.’), but huge kudos goes to Katie and Rob Collier and their organisation skills, cognitive capacity and elbow grease. With events at the Hive, the Arches, the Guildhall, the Granary and the University Arena, it was truly epic. Our international guests from the UK, Europe and North America were blown away with the event, the city and the weather, and the fact that many of them were provided with a bike to use during their stay courtesy of the Grease Monkeys was the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.
The next summit is in Lisbon in 2026.
May
No sooner had the Global Bike Bus Summit finished and Rob was onto his next project, developing and launching the Bike Worcester Strategy; hopefully writing blogs is part of it (?). We raised a glass and said a fond farewell to the Crowngate (now Friary Walk) bike parking facility, an amazing space provided by Friary Walk Manager and local legend Mike Lloyd, generally considered to be the safest and besterest place to leave your bike in the city. Time for the City Council to step in and provide a replacement? Also in May a few of the Bike Worcester crew took a field trip to Bristol to take part in one of Dom Whiting’s drum and bass mass bike rides; it was EPIC; a strong recommend for adults and children alike next time there’s one local(ish).
June
For some reason I haven’t got many notes as to what happened in June, but I have got lots of lovely holiday photographs.
Oh yeah, Rob and I cycled to Spain, that explains it. We set off from Worcester, took in a Bike Bus in Winchester (the Winch) and headed south through France and across the Pyrenees. We rode some bikes, we played some games. We’ve still got mucho videos to share of gorgeous cycling infrastructure; watch this space.
Worcester City Council signed off on its second Active Travel Action Plan 2025 - 28 and, similar to the first one, is best described as a missed opportunity and a huge disappointment; we wrote about it here. Also in June we said bon voyage to Sam and Beck as they packed up their belongings into their panniers and set off on a bike trip to forever. You can follow their travels here. May the wind forever be on your backside, so long, and thanks for all the fish.
July
July brought with it Worcester’s 50th consecutive monthly Critical Mass ride (3rd Saturday of the month 10:15 meet starting at Cafe Viaduct no fixed route suitable for all). It was also the end of the school term, so a break from Bike Buses (boooo) but our inaugural Big Bike Bus ride to Churchfields Farm for ice cream (yaaay)!
Following on from some time lapse footage of Foregate Street in 2024 where we counted the number of drivers illegally parking / over ranking (over 300 in 24 hours) to highlight the frequency of the activity, I ended up on Good Morning Britain being labelled a vigilante by Richard Madeley. I’m not sure the definition fits, but nice to be compared to Batman all the same. If nothing else, it was lovely to have my hair and makeup done. As for any follow up with Worcester City or Worcestershire County Council? Absolutely nothing. Although in November there was a serious incident when a pedestrian was hit by someone driving a car at this exact location.
August
August saw us attend a number of summer fetes with our new mobile bike workshop, generally spreading the Bike Worcester message and getting down to some serious sun kissed fettling. It also saw the launch of our water bottle refill scheme in association with city bars and cafes, and Worcester BID; people visiting the city are encouraged to fill water bottles for free, rather than buying single use plastic bottles of water. In conjunction with this stickers were stuck on city bike racks thanking people for choosing to travel by bike. We’re looking forward to pushing hard on this in the spring of 2026.
September
With Autumn upon us the new school year started, and with it Bike Buses a plenty. We also welcomed students to the city attending a couple of events on campus, including raffling one of our recycled bikes courtesy of the Grease Monkeys. Katie and Rob also attended the BBC Hereford and Worcester Make a Difference Awards to represent Bike Worcester, and the good work done by our volunteers.
October
October was a busy affair. Cycle to School week saw our Bike Bus community in Drakes Broughton organise a full week of activities for children at St Barnabas Primary School. We also welcomed Emily Cherry (Bikeabilty) and Chris Boardman (Active Travel England) to Oldbury Park Primary School to take part in a Bike Bus to school, and record interviews with parents and children to promote the Bike Bus movement nationally. Mr Boardman’s first impression of Worcester? The bike lane on New Road.
Also in October the cycling community in Worcester came together to provide a comprehensive and detailed response to the Worcestershire County Council LCWIP consultation. Thank you to all who contributed, and you can see a copy of our response here. The LCWIP will shape improvements to the cycling network in the city over the coming decades, so essential people who currently travel by bike have their voices heard.
Finally we were nominated for another accolade for the Bike Bus Summit at the BikeBiz awards, and finished the month with the inaugural Dusk till Dawn bike ride, dressed as vampires. All killer, no filler.
November
November saw Worcester host a Glow Ride (basically a Critical Mass ride in the dark) along with other cities up and down the country, supporting the Cycling UK ‘My ride, our right’ campaign. The weather was suboptimal, but we had a great turn out, including the lovely folks from Cycling UK who did some filming and interviews. Building on some women’s sessions held in the Bike Worcester workshop earlier in the year, we also hosted two beginners maintenance sessions for women, called Pizzas and Punctures, and saw our 500th bike roll out of the Bike Recycling workshop. Oh, and The Mayor of Worcester Matt Lamb joined us on the November Critical Mass (himself being the recipient of a recycled bike earlier in the year).
December
In true Bike Worcester style (leave it till the last minute) and with seemingly minutes until the deadline we decided to take part in the Worcester Cathedral Christmas Festival, and promptly made something resembling a tree one out of bits of old bikes. Huge thanks to Fleur for making a Kiki. We hosted a super mega combined Critical Kidical Mass mashup innit, finishing at Kyndfolk for crafts and breaking out our new badge maker. But our Christmas present? A couple of dropped kerbs in the city; you know we love it.
Real Kiki and baby Kiki captured in the wild
So that’s it, another year, another list of things that we’ve done. I think it’s fairly impressive. Nope, very impressive.
‘That’s all well and good Batman, but how you gonna make 2026 even better?’
Great question Darren at the back, loving the scarf by the way.
Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is we have an amazing community of people who are already on the (bike) bus with our vision, to make Worcester a better place for everyone by enabling and encouraging more people to travel by bike. And in 2026 we’re going to make friends with a whole load of new folks who also want to make a difference. What we do is led by our community, and we look forward to hearing their suggestions and ideas.
Plus we’ll be continuing to grow the cities Bike Buses and to spread the word beyond the city (meetings with Bewdley and Wolverhampton already in the diary), we have the monthly Critical Mass, more bikes to recycle, more Bikeabilty. We plan to launch our new bike loan scheme in February, with cargo bikes, adult trikes, e bikes and tandems available for the public to take on a short term loan, will be completing our Room to Ride campaign in collaboration with West Mercia Police, as well as working with the University of Worcester on research opportunities.
So thanks to 2025, it’s been a blast. Roll on 2026!
