Key York cycling statistics results from 2010:

• Overall cycling levels are up on a baseline year of 2008 by between +10% and +16%.

• A larger percentage increase is generally seen on the on-road sites +15% compared to off road +10% .

• Limited surveys of bridges have shown a +16% increase with Millennium Bridge being the busiest river crossing.

• There is only limited data (2 years) available for the more minor off road routes including a cordon based around Clifton Moor. These show a small decrease of –1% in cycling numbers 2009 to 2010.

• Some 80% of commuting cycling trips make use of on road facilities, 20% use the off road (mainly riverside) routes to access the city centre.

• Blossom Street is the busiest on-road radial cycle route (1775, 12-hour two way flow) followed by Bootham (1550, 12-hour 2 way flows).

• Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest cycling days whereas Sunday is the quietest.

• Hob Moor and Cinder Lane show high levels of cycling during peak periods, 70% of trips during the peak, 30% off peak. In comparison Naburn Bridge has a more even split with 53% during peak 47% off peak – more leisure cycling.

City of York Council, Yorkshire Housing and the Homes and Communities Agency have agreed a deal to buy two private housing developments that had stalled due to the poor market conditions.
The Rise at Pately Place, Acomb, was to provide 23 apartments for open market sale, but following the credit crunch several housebuilders were unable to complete the homes leaving an unfinished building development in the hands of the receivers.
The original planning permission for the scheme was granted under the pre-2005 affordable housing policy, where developments under 25 homes did not have to provide affordable housing. However, all 23 homes will now be available at affordable rents through Yorkshire Housing. Six of the homes are prioritised for council and housing association tenants who would like to ‘downsize’ from a family
house to an apartment releasing larger homes for families on the housing waiting list.
Yorkshire Housing has also bought 27 apartments at Birch Park, Huntington, 10 of which will also be prioritised for tenants wishing to downsize. Birch Park initially had 43 affordable homes secured under the council’s affordable housing policy but the development stalled in 2010 because of the lack of sales on the open market. By working with the housebuilder, work has progressed, and 102 of the homes are now for affordable rent or discount sale, increasing the scheme’s affordable housing from 22 per cent to 50 per cent.
”This is a great example of the council working with its partners to ensure that developers are able to keep building in difficult market conditions as well as providing high-quality new affordable homes. Creating affordable housing has provided developers with the certainty of sales and enabled them to continue the development against a backdrop of a challenging private housing market”