Enter the words “lib dem councillor cycling” into a search engine and you’ll find more stories about Lib Dems criticising or being negative towards cycling infrastructure than positive stories about Lib Dem active travel successes. Search for “lib dem cycling policies” and you’ll find little information about our cycling-related policies that is concise or compelling.

Lib Dem Friends of Cycling aims to change that. We are an informal group of party members, ranging from armchair members to seasoned campaigners and elected politicians, who all share a desire for the UK to be a safer and more friendly place for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to get around by bike.

We offer a place to discuss and promote Lib Dem policies in relation to cycling and other forms of active travel, share campaign materials and promote best practice. We support not just leisure cycling but also cycling as transport for work, education, shopping and other everyday activities.

We aim to promote policies and campaigns for safe and inclusive cycling infrastructure for all people who ride bikes, regardless of whether they ride “standard” bicycles, specially adapted bikes, cargo bikes, push bikes or e-bikes.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cycling was seen as a radical, liberating mode of transport for women, who gained greater independent mobility without relying upon, or being chaperoned by, male relatives. Increased road danger from motor vehicles and car-centric planning and social attitudes over the years changed this dramatically and these days cycling in the UK is overwhelmingly “young, male and pale”.

We want cycling to be safer and more inclusive for all, especially women, people who are LGBTQIA+, or members of BAME communities, who are more likely to be discouraged from cycling by social and cultural attitudes and who are at greater risk of harassment or assault while out riding. Building safe, inclusive infrastructure has been proven to make cycling more representative of the general population, with far more women, people of all ages and people of colour getting on their bikes.

We will give Liberal Democrat campaigners and politicians the evidence and campaign materials they need to tackle the myths around cycling and active travel and to help them to make better, more informed decisions to support active travel within their communities. In return, Lib Dem Friends of Cycling will also be a critical friend to colleagues whose policies or campaigns sometimes leave others at the side of the road, fixing punctures to our reputation as a Liberal and evidence-based party.

Why not just be a generic active travel group?
We support measures to encourage and enable more people to make more trips by walking, wheeling and even scooting, as these are all mutually beneficial, but we are primarily focused on developing cycling-related campaigns and policies at this time.

Shouldn’t this group just be part of “Green Lib Dems” or another organisation?
While cycling is more environmentally friendly than motorised transport, cycling isn’t just about being “green”. We believe that the Lib Dems should be the natural party of active travel: If Liberalism is about freedom, community and opportunity, then we should be the party of promoting freedom from transport poverty and dependency on motor vehicles to make everyday journeys. We should be leading on tackling the air pollution that chokes our cities and our lungs and protecting our communities from the negative effects of climate change. We should be giving the next generation the opportunities that many of our parents and grandparents had to be able to safely walk or cycle to school, play out with friends and travel to their local park – or even further – unaccompanied.

What are the other parties doing?

Labour and the Conservatives both have similar groups, aimed at their own members and supporters. We also need to make our voice heard in the active travel debate, particularly now as those parties both seem to be turning away from environmentally-friendly or active travel friendly policies.

If you would like to know more, come and join us at libdemcycling.org.uk and follow us on Twitter at @LiberalCycling

* Richard Shaw is a founding member of Lib Dem Friends of Cycling and has been a Liberal Democrat councillor on Sheffield City Council since 2014. He is a member of Sheffield City Council’s “Transport, Regeneration and Climate” policy committee and is the Lib Dem group representative on the council’s “Cycle Forum”.