Sustainable Transport Award for Jagonari Cycles! Community Project

Jagonari Cycles!, a project that is training local Bengali women in Tower Hamlets how to ride bikes has won the best ‘good going’ event at Transport for London’s Sustainable Transport Awards.

The project, developed by the Jagonari Women’s Resource Centre and London Cycling Campaign’s Community Project , uses money provided by local cycling group Tower Hamlets Wheelers and a pool of bright orange Dutch-style bikes that were provided by the ‘good going’ campaign to offer free cycle training to women in the local community. Training has been underway since March 2005 and group rides will build the women’s confidence to use their new-found cycling skills.

Nurjahan Khatun of the Jagonari Centre said: “By learning to ride bikes we’re challenging social stereotypes and encouraging women of all backgrounds and ages to cycle.”

Lucy Davis, community cycling officer at London Cycling Campaign said: “Jagonari Cycles has made great use of the resources available to craft a cycling project that suits and is tailored to meet the needs of all involved.”

Patrick Allcorn of Transport for London said: “The Jagonari Cycles project has been successful in working towards sustainable travel awareness in a community often considered as hard to reach and uses practical demonstration to explore new transport options.”