RESEARCHERS at Oxford Brookes University who studied how older people in the UK experience cycling have won a national town planning award.

They took home the top prize in the Academic Award category at the 2017 Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Awards for Research Excellence.

The team have been recognised for the cycle BOOM research project – a three-year study looking at how older people's experience of cycling affects their independence, health and wellbeing.

Dr Tim Jones, who led the cycle BOOM study, said: “Our research demonstrated that older people who currently cycle, or who have tried cycling, recognise the positive benefits it can make to their health and wellbeing, however they find infrastructure in the UK generally unsupportive of their needs.

“The way our towns and cities are designed, as well as cycle technology, needs to consider the diverging capabilities of different users, if cycling is to be embedded in the lives of an increasingly older population."

He added the study reinforced the case for dedicated cycling infrastructure and slower speed zones.

The winners were announced on Tuesday during the 2017 UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference at Queen’s University Belfast.