Lights Up Manchester - what an experience!

This blog is written by Katherine Cory (on right) - Families Coordinator at Women on Wheels & Co-founder of Shawlands Bike Bus.

What inspired the trip

We first met Belinda Everett, the Bicycle Mayor of Manchester, in March of this year when myself, Shgufta, Holly and Salma went on an inspiring trip to Manchester and London. We wanted to seek out women-led cycling organisations and community groups to learn from and connect with. (See our blog from earlier in the year here!)

Belinda let us know about her Lights Up ride at the time, we put it in the diary and had kind of forgotten about it… until recently, when it popped up in the calendar and I thought “You know what? I’ve got to go to this!” I roped in my good friend Carol (of Sunny Cycles, Clyde Cycle Park and Glasgow Gals fame) and we decided to make a trip of it, using Sunny Cycles folding bikes, with a plan to test out travelling by bike and train - and have some fun on the way.

I have to say, I was a wee bit nervous - I hadn’t travelled by train with a bike much before - aside from a sunny trip to Millport with Women on Wheels and locally in Glasgow when coming home late from town. First, I tested the wee folding bike by going round my neighbourhood, and initially found that I was a bit top-heavy on it. It certainly felt different to what I'm used to. But I quickly got the hang of it and it soon felt light and easy to ride - I especially liked how compact the bike was sitting in my hallway. My kids didn’t even notice it was there for the first few days! 

Next up was deciding what to bring. I don’t like cycling with a heavy backpack on my back, so a pannier it had to be. We were only going for one night, so I packed minimally and only the essentials (including three of my favourite high-vis, fairy lights, disco wheel lights and home-made high vis wings bird wings!). We were going for the Lights Up ride after all - so there was going to be glitter, colour, music and fun. Cycling is so joyful and I’m trying more and more these days to not take things too seriously and have some fun! 

This was the second annual Lights Up ride in Manchester - organised by the magnificent Belinda from Bee Pedal Ready and Anna from Station South. They decided to start the ride to help address the fact that so many women in Manchester completely stop cycling in winter because of feeling unsafe on roads, in parks and on traffic-free routes. The ride aimed to empower women to embrace the dark, have some fun and reclaim public spaces on their bikes.

There is evidence that the number of women cycling in general is falling due to many barriers, with not feeling safe at the top of the list. The numbers drop even further as soon as autumn hits and the nights are darker.

Belinda and Anna want to change this. And wow their Lights Up event had impact! The team impressively collaborated with students and staff at Manchester Metropolitan University, entwining student projects with the ride and ideas behind it. There was a massive Lights Up digital artwork on a huge screen on the side of the School of Digital Arts. Manchester’s Bee Network staff attended the event, giving out freebies and there was a women-run tea and cake truck helping feed and warm the crowd. 

The Ride

Carol and I cycled down to All Saints Park - a great, central meeting point in a beautiful civic square outside MMU. The buzz was electric! Women arrived on organised feeder rides, or on their own - all with a shared excitement, high-vis colours and bagfuls of lights and banners ready to set their bikes up. There was chatter and laughter and bopping to Sister Sledge. I loved meeting new people with a shared interest. I talked to a mum who, like me, started cycling around Covid times with her family and is looking to start a bike bus (or bike train as they call them in Manchester!) at her local school. We chatted to a woman who worked at the university and cycled to commute, but was looking to meet more like-minded people. We noticed among the crowds were women with purple high-vis - these were the organisers/helpers and ride leaders! The light started fading and everyone’s bike and fairy lights started to glow. It was such a magical atmosphere and was so great to see a range of bikes including cargo bikes and trikes coming along. 

Belinda got on the megaphone, told us a bit about the route, what to expect from the ride leaders, some general safety and suggested having a chat with people you don’t know on the ride - I loved the idea of this! Once the sun was down, we set off and the energy was incredible! The ride was about an hour and we cycled along busy Oxford Road, residential streets and through two very dark parks - Whitworth Park and Platt Fields Park. Platt Fields was my favourite - there were so many of us that when we went round the path of the park, if you looked back we almost made an entire circle of the park with fairy lights and tunes.. 

One of the biggest takeaways I have from the experience was how impressive the ride leaders were. Carol and I are often leading or being Ride Leaders on our rides, so it was a real treat for us to just ‘be’ in the ride. I think there must have been around 20 Ride Leaders - all in suffragette purple vests (and lots of sparkle and glitter). There were also three mechanics on the ride too - with clear signage to identify them. The Ride Leader team were noticeably well practiced on the route and worked in a buddy system of twos and also most inspiringly a relay system! Carol and I picked up on this early on and thought the tag teaming was super impressive. 

Victoria Baths

The ride ended at Victoria Baths - much like our Govanhill Baths in Glasgow. The venue is used for big events and was the perfect place to fit in 150 bikes and people! With some fantastic food from MUD kitchen in Platt Fields Park and some thoughtful work by the MMU students (and don’t forget the good tunes), there was a collective atmosphere of achievement and joy and it was the perfect end to the event. 

Belinda and Anna will continue to be an inspiration to us here in Glasgow - the bigger problems which are leading to less women cycling need tackled, and it’s us here on the ground in community organisations who are taking action to change things. We need each other and we need to be loud and visible and get round those important tables where decisions are being made. I’ve come back from Manchester with a renewed fire in my belly to continue with the work we do - and with some more fun, sparkle and volume.