Big Bike Revival to get thousands more people cycling regularly with £4m boost

• Cycling UK’s unique Big Bike Revival programme offers free cycle skills, fix sessions and led rides to beginners or people who don’t cycle regularly
• The programme has reached more than 700,000 people since 2014
• New funding from Active Travel England runs until March 2025

Thousands more people will start cycling, or be given support to cycle more, thanks to a new £4m funding boost for Cycling UK’s Big Bike Revival programme.

Big Bike Revival provides funding for events designed to increase cycling skills and confidence in people who don’t cycle at all or who aren’t regular cyclists. Events, which include ‘learn to fix’ and ‘learn to ride’ sessions as well as led rides, are delivered locally by community groups and not-for-profit organisations.

Active Travel England funds the programme, which is in its ninth year and will now continue until March 2025.

Cycling UK believes that the Big Bike Revival offers people the freedom to choose cycling as an affordable and sustainable form of transport, which is especially valuable in the continuing cost-of-living crisis.

The programme has a track record in supporting people to make more journeys by bike: figures from 2022 show that over a third of those people taking part in the programme switched to cycling for some or all of the short journeys they previously travelled by car.

Cycling UK chief executive Sarah Mitchell said:
“I’m delighted that we can now reach even more people than before through the Big Bike Revival. We know what an impact the programme has had from talking to some of the 700,000 people who have taken part over the past decade. Many of them have changed the way they travel after coming along to a Big Bike Revival event.

“We estimate that over 40 per cent of adults in England have access to a bike, but only one in six of them cycles more than once a week. So this significant new funding will enable us to spread the benefits of cycling to even more communities, improving health and wellbeing and saving people money in a cost of living crisis.”

National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman said: 

“If we want everyone to have more transport choice and our children to enjoy easy, everyday independence, we must give people the skills they need to ride with confidence and the ability to keep their bikes roadworthy. The Big Bike Revival is an opportunity to help everyone who’d love to cycle to work, the shops or school with the kids do just that. And if more of us feel confident to get around in a health-giving, planet-saving, community-enhancing, low-cost way, we'll all reap the benefits.”