In October 2005 Cycling England granted ‘Cycling Demonstration Town’ (CDT) status to six towns across England, with funds from the Department for Transport. This funding enabled them to set up an initial three-year travel behaviour change programme – including both infrastructure and Smarter Choices measures - to increase cycling for short urban trips.
Now that Phase I of the Cycling England CDT programme is finished, Cycling England has been capturing the initial experiences of the CDTs and learning from these – as well as assessing the impact of these programmes on local cycling levels. This report contributes to Cycling England’s work on this – capturing the stories and experiences of the towns based on reflective evaluation from the local officers and stakeholders involved.

The first chapter of this report summarises Cycling England’s recommendations for development and delivery of a town-wide programme to promote cycling, developed from the lessons learnt working with the six CDTs during Phase I. The second chapter of this report reviews some of the key elements and considerations affecting the CDTs at the programme delivery level – outlining potential issues or different approaches taken, as well as sharing the lessons learnt by the towns. The third chapter tells the story of each CDT programme and what the towns did to enable and encourage cycling, as well as the challenges and issues they faced along the way.  In the fourth chapter common elements of the CDT programmes are outlined, highlighting the range of approaches taken, key considerations and lessons learnt.