The Kilkenny Cycling and Walking Campaign (KCWC) wanted to find away of getting people back on their bikes, but at the same time find out what was keeping from cycling in the City. We needed to find out what were the views of pedestrians and drivers of the behaviour of cyclists. How could we do this, while at the same time communicate our findings easily and effectively to the decisions makers in the County Council and other stakeholders such as tourism, the chamber of commerce and the general public? Free bikes and cup cakes was a good place to start!

Using funding through LA21 and the County Council we organised 4 bike rides around Kilkenny city of 30 minutes duration during bike week. The routes were to show the types of infrastructure available in the city, and the short cuts that are only available to cyclists and pedestrians in a city with a medieval fabric. Getting a free bike tour with a cup cake came with the price of giving feedback on cycling in Kilkenny by a voxpop. We were successful in attracting cyclists of all levels of experience, age and gender to participate doing 2 trips for novices and 2 trips for experienced riders. We even got some tourists to come along, and we ended up doing 5 trips in the end.

We got a vast amount of feedback on people’s experiences to help identify the barriers to cycling in Kilkenny, but also the views of shoppers and tourists who are the core of the city’s economic life.. We are editing it all into a 6-7 minute clip which we will then circulate and hopefully help influence the decisions and attitudes of the Council and Chamber of Commerce in future infrastructure development

Contact KCWC @kilkennycwc