The Cycle-Station Project

3.0 How are Cycle-Stations different to other related projects?

Cycle-Stations are flexible and multi-functional.

At the same time Cycle-Stations would attempt to demonstrate the flexibility of the idea with each Station show-casing different potential variants that the core idea could be turned to and incorporated within.

Of these the primary variant is to site Cycle-Stations at junctions of where two or more routes separate, in scenic countryside, and a shortish distance from a large urban centre. This means that such a Cycle-Station could be easily accessible to and from the urban centre. There could thus be two-way traffic along this spur route providing access to the cycle-station to other social groups in addition to the first group (Eco-Tourists and other cyclists)

	The spur route and the Cycle-Station could therefore be used by schools and other educational groups for cycling out from schools, etc in the urban centre to experience and assimilate various ecoliteracy points along the spur journey, - and then to have those added to by eco-educational facilities at the Cycle-Station focusing on the nature, ecology and ecosystems along the spur route and in the vicinity of the Station.
	The Cycle-Station could be used in a similar way by non-educational groups and individuals for the same purpose, as an attractive way to spend a day out from the Urban centre, including participating in the specialised facilities at the Cycle-Station.
	Cycle Stations could be a variety of work centres at the Cycle-Station rangingfrom green crafts to versions of the Baker-Brown McKay's Work-Stations. It could therefore also become a work centre in its own right crossed with aspects of Tele-Working with the spur route being the primary route for people to and from work and their hired facilities. The potential inclusion and integration of a crafts dimension, would emphasise and reflect local resources - local woods, etc. It could also explore, for instance, the connectivities between digital creativity and the prospect of Craft Ecosystems (a craft kin to the work in industrial ecosystems)
	A fourth use could also be located at the edge of the towns so they interface the country and urban and provide a number of utilities for this interface. For instance a Cycle Station could be part of a Transit infrastructure, where car parking, public bus and coach transport services were also available, and where there was immediate access to both the rural national Cycle network, or subsidiary cycle networks, and a cycle network into the town or urban centres. People visiting urban areas, for shopping, sight-seeing, or any number of purposes could thus arrive by vehicle, public or private, and transfer at this transit interchange onto cycles, part of the hub of which would be the variant of the Cycle-Station.

Bicycles would be available for short term hire, for the journey into and out of town, and the various additional cycle technologies would be also available, eg cycle-hods in a bicycle version of 'Park and Ride', cycling into the Urban centre to do their shopping and or visiting the centre for whatever purpose before returning to travel in their vehicles to their homes.

These would include the bicycle cargo carrier hods for transporting shopping, etc thus making this method of journey into towns completely pragmatic. Experiments with hod carriers are already underway, namely a hire service at Totnes Safeways, Devon, as well as other towns.

If the variant was extended to include the building of Transit facilities for the bus and (if logistically practicable) train stations it is easily imaginable to design these buidings and facilties around sustainable, green design and architectural principles. The Transit Interchange could also develop around Green Open Space ideas, and include Gardens and other environmental features to make the site an attractive space to be in and around.

  3.0 How are Cycle-Stations different continues...