CTC (cycling) - Activities

Activities

CTC, the UK's national cyclists organisation, promotes cycling in the UK, and had about 60,000 members in 2008. CTC's interests include cycling for many purposes:

• Recreation
• Commuting
• Transport

CTC works to encourage more people to take up cycling, to make cycling safer and more enjoyable, and to provide cyclists with the support and resources they need. Its activities vary from road safety promotion to the provision of organised cycling holidays. CTC does not focus on competitive cycle sport, since that has its own organisation, British Cycling.

CTC's successes have been a benchmarking project to spread best practice in cycle-friendly infrastructure design, and a grant of nearly £1 million to promote national standards for cycle training, standards CTC helped to develop.

CTC is organised at district level, with CTC Local Groups organising cycle rides on Sundays and during the week. The more leisurely rides are planned around café stops, the quality of the ride often being judged on the standard of the cakes; CTC has been referred to as "Café To Café" or "Coffee, Tea and Cakes".

In 2008, the CTC Charitable Trust launched the Cycle Champions' programme. Using funding from the National Lottery's Wellbeing Fund, CTC employ 13 Community Cycling development Officers around England to promote cycling in all sectors of the community, particularly those not traditionally associated with cycling. They recruit 'Cycle Champions' within the community to work towards these goals as volunteers.

In 2009, CTC, in partnership with ContinYou and UK Youth, launched Bike Club, a programme funded by Cycling England with the intention of promoting cycling, and its associated learning experiences, among children and young people aged 10–20. Locally-based officers advise on the establishment of clubs and the application for funding.

The members' magazine, Cycle, covers subjects including ride reports, product reviews and legal and technical advice. Members benefit from public liability insurance, which is extended to cover rides organised under the auspices of CTC Local Groups.

The CTC is also the organisation behind the British Cycle Quest, an informal competition which challenges members to visit six designated places in each of the counties of England, Scotland and Wales.

CTC is a member of the European Cyclists' Federation.

CTC is in the process of converting to Charitable status. Members of CTC were unhappy with this decision, but a poll of the membership resulted in the majority who voted agreeing to this change.

CTC believes that UK cyclists should continue to be free to decide whether or not they wear cycle helmets, and campaigns to keep the UK's laws as they are. CTC says that this is because putting too much emphasis on cycle helmets makes people think that cycling is much more dangerous than it actually is, and can put people off. CTC believes that health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks, so it is important that people are not discouraged. CTC also feels that the real risks faced by cyclists, such as excessive vehicle speed, are often forgotten when all the discussions concentrate on cycle helmets. CTC reviewed the current Highway Code before it was published, and helped reword some sections that could have been detrimental for cyclists.

CTC is a founder of the Slower Speeds Initiative, an unincorporated association dedicated to reducing traffic speeds on all roads. CTC works with organisations such as Transport 2000 and Sustrans, and has charitable offshoots, the CTC Charitable Trust and the Cyclists' Defence Fund.