I learned to cycle when I was a child and had my own bike, but then I outgrew it and life got in the way and I didn't cycle for years. I used to watch people cycling and wished I still could, especially here in Oxford, but I just didn’t have the confidence. I just resigned myself to thinking it wasn’t going to happen and I walked or I bussed everywhere. Then I found out about JoyRiders and joined their learn-to-ride sessions. It was a game changer for me.

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At St Frideswide’s we’re really keen to get more people on bikes and we have a dedicated programme, ‘St FridesRide’, to encourage more cycling, which includes a bike library, help with cycle training and now a bike bus. We fundraised for the programme – I have ridden to Land’s End and back twice now, and friends have ridden from England to Switzerland along the Rhine and to Croatia – and we even managed to raise enough for a new specialist small group teacher.

COMMUTING BY BUS

“One really nice thing is that I have some travel buddies – people on the same bus - we chat every day! The other major advantage is that I use the time on the bus to catch up on lots of things I never normally have time for such as life admin, sorting emails, etc. For anyone else thinking about this, I would say do it! People say they don’t have time, but time spent on the bus is much better than circling the car park for the millionth time. Not having to park is a huge, huge relief. I’m glad I swapped.”

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