Choo Choo! Here come the bikes!

This is the logo used by the group who have transformed commuting by bike along a busy road in Brighton by joining together for a safety in numbers approach, which also has the added benefit of getting to know some other cyclists.

It may not be as social as the Birmingham Critical Mass rides, which end up in the pub after work on a Friday evening, but they function to make people's journeys to work much nicer.

So, why am I telling you about this? Well, as you probably know many people think that the roads in Birmingham are a bit scary to cycle in to work along. Currently, nobody has set up a bike train anywhere in this city. We think it's time to rectify this situation and we want to make it a big story to encourage lots of people to do it.

For the last 2 years we've done high profile media work on In Town Without My Car Day, with our challenge to the power 50 and working with high profile businesses, as well as transforming a parking space into a park last year.

This year we want to do something more practical that might actually help more people out of their cars onto a more sustainable form of transport. In order for it to work, we need the help of experienced cyclists to lead the less confident, some volunteers to help with promoting it and doing the logistics of where/when the rides will happen and people to organise some kind of event at the end of it (possibly a breakfast for participants). We are in discussions with Pushbikes and Sustrans about collaborating with them already, but we can provide space in our office for a couple of people to work on this.

Fancy getting involved, then please contact us campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk or ring 0121 6326909 to get more information.