Here's some good news for a grey, damp Monday. You might recall that a month ago we featured the peculiar rules on Manchester's tram system, which has not only banned cycles from being carried at all times, but extends this proscription to folding bikes, unless they've been put inside a case.
It seemed a peculiarly churlish and impractical attitude, not to mention increasingly inconvenient to those travelling between central Manchester and Oldham or Rochdale, where trains which could take bikes are being gradually replaced with the trams.
Anyhow, on Friday the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority voted to set up a new working group to "examine any safe ways in which cycles can be carried on trams". These folks will look into how other tram networks carry bikes, and how much it might cost to modify Manchester's tram carriages.
Why the welcome change of heart? Much of the reason seems to be the long-running and inventive campaign by cycling organisations in the city. In fact, the new working group will even ask the opinions of two of these, Greater Manchester Cycle Campaign and Love Your Bike.
In a touch which I particularly liked, the latter group, run by Manchester Friends of the Earth, tried to show up the idiocy of the current rules by taking ironing boards and deckchairs – which are permitted – onto trams, along with folded bikes, to show which is the more cumbersome. This explains the slightly curious picture at the top of the page.
If there is a moral to the story, then perhaps it is that patient, clever campaigning on cycling issues can make a difference after all.
