Cycling City York has enjoyed its busiest year yet in 2010 and early indications suggest that its hard work is paying off, with at least 15 per cent of York's population now choosing to travel by bike.

Thousands of people of all ages and levels of cycling ability have benefited from Cycling City York's busy programme of activities, which includes guided cycle rides, community cycle try-out sessions and special events for local schools and businesses. The second annual Festival of Cycling, which was held in September, proved even bigger and better than the previous year's event, attracting around 12,000 people to Rowntree Park for a fun-filled weekend of cycling-related attractions. The first ever York Cycling City Races, held in July, brought some of the UK's top cyclists to York, ensuring that people the length and breadth of the country were aware of its status as cycling city.

A series of projects aimed at improving and developing York's cycling infrastructure have also come to fruition this year. These include a partnership project with East Coast to create new access points for cyclists, pedestrians and disabled people at York Railway Station; a package of improvements on Wigginton Road; and the creation of an advance green filter light at the Blossom Street junction, which forms part of a wider scheme carried out in partnership with City of York Council.

Cycling City York funding has also been used to buy a new, ride-on sweeper to help City of York Council's Communities and Neighbourhoods team maintain the city's off-road cycle routes and paths. Lots of positive feedback has been received from residents about the impact that this piece of equipment has had during the recent snowy and icy conditions.

Cycling City York is continuing its work to fill a number of missing links in the circular cycle route around the city and has also provided funding towards the cost of developing a city centre cycle Hub Station, which is due to open in the New Year and will be run by the Bike Rescue Project.

These and other projects carried out by Cycling City York have helped to ensure that York's cycling rate continues to soar as more people enjoy travelling by bike. The full scale of the programme's success in increasing the number of people cycling will be known in the New Year, when a year's worth of data gathered from more than 40 automatic cycle counters around the city will be available.

Graham Titchener, programme manager for Cycling City York, said: "We're now in the third year of the Cycling City York programme and what an action-packed year it has been! We've reached thousands of York residents of all ages and abilities with the broad range of events, activities and projects that we've delivered this year and the early indications are that this has resulted in a significant increase in cycling.

"We're still in the process of gathering information and hope to be able to provide a clearer picture of just how much cycling has increased by the end of the financial year."

Graham added: "We won't be resting on our laurels though; we have lots more planned for 2011, including a huge workplace cycling challenge that will involve up to 100 employers across the city. This is part of our drive to introduce more people to the benefits of commuting by bike, but will also see York going head-to-head with Cambridge, which is renowned for its cycling city status, as part of our commitment to raising awareness at a national level of what a great place York is for cyclists. It should be lots of fun seeing commuters from York and Cambridge battling it out; more details about this project will be available soon.

"We'll also be continuing to improve York's existing cycling infrastructure after carrying out a city-wide audit that has helped us to identify a number of areas for improvement. This will include repainting faded lines on cycle lanes, filling potholes and improving signs."

For more information about Cycling City York's work and to find out how you can get involved, visit the website at: www.cyclingcityyork.org.uk