My CTC membership is almost expired but I haven't really noticed any personal benefits to my membership, didn't even get all the magazines. So what does Sustrans offer different to CTC??
I was thinking of joining the ctc but I already have insurance...and to be honest I see no benefit to me in joining...so I thought about not joining. Besides I am allergic to beards and sandals.
Insurance and a coherent pressure group on speaking on our behalf is worth a few quid a year. The mag TBH is just a bonus.
if you're not getting the mag then let me know and I'll sort it out. Better yet, let me know which ones you're missing and I'll do my best to sort that out too. You get a campaigning organisation, controlled by its members, beholden to no-one, that believes that cycling is the future for transport in cities, and that cyclists have a right to ride on the road. You get a network of right to ride reps that knock on the doors of their local councils, asking questions, and putting the case for safer roads, cycle stands in public places, and consideration of cycling when roads are redesigned. You get the hundreds of rides that set off every week. You get the legal protection, which is handy if you're hit by something, and you get the fund of advice that's built up off millions of miles ridden.
*Exactly* Join British Cycling or the CTC but Sustrans? Never Sustrans. You don't have to be a racing cyclist to join British Cycling. You don't have to be a cycling tourist to join the CTC. By joining BC or CTC you are doing the future of cycling a favour. Join Sustrans, and you are doing the future of cycling a huge disservice IMO.
Simon put it better than I could - I joined recently - the mag and discounts are nice, but the reasons he outlines in the second paragraph are the reasons I signed up.
I am a member of both and I think that they have diffrent aims. The CTC is a campagning group for the rights of cyclists. Sustrans is trying to achieve traffic free routes where possible for cyclists and walkers to avoid main roads and congested town centres where possible.
Membership of CTC can also introduce you to people in your area/region to go on rides with. My regional group organise weekly rides, tourist trials etc. I have never used them myself, but the option is always there. Sustrans just provides some routes to ride on, some better than others and some more direct than others. I would personally rather walk the Sustrans routes and ride on the normal roads - but that might just be peculiar to Northern Ireland routes.
With, allegedly, the unfortunate result that the roads are even less welcoming to cyclists. I'm no Lance Armstrong (or even Greg Lemond ) but I don't want to have to share with walkers - I'm too quick* and they and they're bloody dogs are too ill-disciplined. *Not a claim I often make about my cycling.
I agree with Paulus - you should join both. I don't want to repeat points made at length in other threads, but Sustrans is not about trying to get existing cyclists off the roads. It does provide off-road alternatives to be busy main roads, and shared used paths, which are aimed squarely at people who would not otherwise be cycling. It has also developed the national cycle network which is mostly road based. And in York where I live it has run a very successful programme to encourage secondary school children to cycle to school on the road.
