Accelerate the Bee Network
We continue to ask for better governance for and a faster pace of delivery of the Bee Network. You can find out more about our asks in our Bee Network Manifesto. Now that the decision to allow bikes on trams has been agreed, we will continue to push for the delivery on all 147 trams in 2025/2026 to support the ‘first mile’ approach. As the GM Transport Strategy for 2040 is being refreshed this year, we will be campaigning for more ambitious right mix targets and for those targets to be broken down more specifically by district council.
Home to school travel
Home to school travel also features high on our list. We support the proposed GM School Strategy. Now that 9 of the 10 councils in GM have the powers to enforce moving traffic offences, we will continue to lobby for them to use those powers for more permanent School Streets across Greater Manchester, enforced through ANPR cameras, rather than volunteers. We will also continue to campaign for more officer resource at a GM and local council level to support and co-ordinate School Streets and wider interventions that encourage walking, wheeling and cycling to school. We will also work to bring together and share examples of best practice across GM so that each local council and school is not ‘reinventing the wheel. We also want to see more safer routes for home to school travel and support the GM Safer Routes to School project. We applaud Manchester Council’s committment to ensure safe places to cross outside every school and park by 2028 but have yet to see any progress.
Pedestrian Manifesto
Making it easier and safer for pedestrians also stays as one of our key campaign priorities. Too often roads space is disproportionately allocated to vehicles with little priority give to those walking and wheeling. We want to see less obstacles on pavements and footways such as barriers and street furniture, an end to pavement parking, shorter waiting times for pedestrian crossings and better uses of infrastructure such as size road zebras. We will continue with our legal challenge for discriminatory barrier removal across GM. You can find out more in our Pedestrian Manifesto.
Vision Zero
We support the GM Vision Zero strategy and action plan.
We aim to support its ambition for Greater Manchester to have zero fatalities and life changing injuries on our roads by 2040 whilst increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
Expanding our reach and support
In 2025, we plan to extend our reach and support across GM by collaborating with other aligned active travel groups and encouraging more active travel campaigners to set up their own local Walk Ride groups, particularly in the north of the region. We aim to ensure more voices are heard from a more diverse range of active travel campaigners. We will do this by telling their stories through our videos and blogs. We will also host events to bring people together to share knowlege and ideas.
In order to more rapidly grow our influence both politically and across Greater Manchester’s communities, we need more funding maximise the positive impact of Walk Ride GM on the region and beyond.
There are currently some overheads to sustain our voluntary activities, such as Cycling UK affiliation to ensure Public Liability Insurance at events, promotional materials and videos to spread the word, and other ongoing administration and technology running costs.
In the longer-term, we aim to employ a dedicated staff member to undertake a number of the day-to-day tasks that will expand our influence and support and engage our local groups.
If you are able to support us financially, you can donate via this link