Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir on his bike with Pamela Grove-White, Sustrans Active Travel Officer-CHIPS and Sharon McBratney, Asda Communities Officer, Dundonald
Promoting the CHIPS workplace survey
Asda staff helping promote the workplace survey for CHIPS project
Sustrans is working in east Belfast to tackle high levels of air pollution caused by car traffic and promote alternative options, such as cycling for commuters. The €4.4m CHIPS project (Cycle Highways Innovation for Smarter People Transport and Spatial Planning) will see Belfast collaborate with leading cycling nations – the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the Republic of Ireland over the next three years.
The project, funded through Interreg North-West Europe, aims to tackle air pollution caused by car traffic in North-West Europe by building better infrastructure for cyclists and encouraging bicycle commuting. The CHIPS partners forecast a 150 to 300 percent increase in the number of cyclists as a result of the project.
“ This is a brilliant boost for cycling on the Comber to Belfast corridor. ”
The first step involves coordinating a survey across the nine partners to identify the barriers preventing people commuting by bike. Sustrans is surveying workplaces in the East Belfast area, both large and small, to see how people travel to work and what prevents them travelling more actively. The next step is to work with key employers close to the Comber Greenway to encourage and support people to cycle. Programmes that we develop in Belfast will be shared and implemented by partners across Europe.
An ‘Active Travel hub’ will be established at the Holywood Arches in east Belfast to provide a public base for the project. There will also be investment in smart cycle storage units utilising modern technology such as swipe cards for security; bike service points and a pilot programme developing the potential of e-bikes for those who have longer distance commutes or live in hillier areas.
Sustrans Northern Ireland Director Gordon Clarke said: “This is a brilliant boost for cycling on the Comber to Belfast corridor but we will also benefit immensely from the innovations being developed by our partners in Brussels, Frankfurt and the Netherlands.”