Newsletters spread message of cycling health and sustainability

This article was published in 2020, in Magazine 146.

From Newsletter 29 (April – May 2000)

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If it’s the first time you’ve seen this Newsletter…

…it may be because it is being distributed as part of a ‘Cambridge Sustainable City’ initiative.

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Cambridge Cycling Campaign has been granted money to enable us both to improve the Newsletter and to distribute it to new locations and organisations in the local area, for a period of one year. The objective is to enable us to spread information about the environmental and health benefits of cycling for those living and working in the city.

Under the scheme this Newsletter will be distributed to secondary schools, tertiary colleges, and public libraries in the area. It will also go to many major employers in the city. We hope the Newsletter will be displayed for all to read in these places. For those who don’t currently cycle, we hope the information it contains will encourage some to start, and for those who stick with your cars, we hope it will enable you to see the benefits of having more cyclists and fewer cars in the city and its environs. For those who already cycle, please feel proud of the bit you are doing to help save the planet. Remember, due to the health benefits of exercise, regular cyclists have a greater life expectancy than noncyclists. There’s also safety in numbers, making Cambridge a safer place in which to cycle.

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What on earth is a Sustainable City?

At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, world leaders drew up a plan to protect the global environment in the present century and called it ‘Agenda 21’. Local Agenda 21 is a part of this global plan, and ‘Sustainable City’ grants are part of Cambridge’s contribution. Cambridge Local Agenda 21 Strategy has five sustainability objectives:

  • Increasing social equity: a fairer society
  • Participation: a chance for everyone to have their say
  • Improving our living space
  • Maintaining our surroundings and health
  • Conserving natural resources

Cycling and this Newsletter play a part in all these.

Newsletters 29-31 covered topics including cycle parking, the Millennium Festival of Cycling and development in West Cambridge.
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