Heading to the Lakes? Leave the car at home

The Lake District National Park has a great motto: “Drive less, see more.” And a £6.9m sustainable visitor transport programme is hoping to get people to travel around the Lake District on bikes, buses and trains, rather than private cars.

The strapline to the campaign is “Let’s look after the Lake District.” Cars bring tourists – and their money – to the Lake District but with 35 million licensed vehicles in the UK, the beauty of the region is spoiled when too many of those vehicles arrive en masse.

“Leave the car behind and you’ll find there are so many ways to discover the Lake District,” promises the GoLakes campaign.

A bike&ride bus service has been created which takes up to 12 bikes and riders through the heart of the Lake District from Windermere to Whinlatter Forest. Other new bus services that can carry two bikes have also been created. The programme has funded the expansion of an electric bike hire network and there will be more conventional bike hire hubs created, as well as community bike pools in villages like Hawkshead.

The programme will also see the creation of new cycle paths to link up settlements and attractions.

A new cycling and walking festival in Staveley on July 22nd will form part of a ‘challenge week’ which will attempt to get people to leave their cars at their holiday accommodation for at least one day of their stay. There are a number of offers in place to incentivise this, including deals for cyclists.

The GoLakes campaign says:

“Help look after the Lake District, you can make a difference to less noise, congestion and pollution in this beautiful corner of the country. Help protect the environment for you and future generations.”