Three miles of new cycling track were officially opened in Northampton at a celebration of bicycles.
The Connect2 route, which runs from Southbridge to Upton, is designed to encourage more people to walk and cycle around the town rather than use cars.
The Sustrans charity, which developed the scheme with Big Lottery funding, said the numbers of new people using the route would be recorded using counters attached to sensors that can detect the difference between a pedestrian and a bike.
Matt Easter, regional director of Sustrans, said: “We don’t think this will just get people using it for leisure, we’re hoping people who normally drive between these places will use it to commute by.
“We’ve done many of these schemes across the country and quite a few of them are in quite dreary urban areas, but Northampton’s has a beautiful route near the riverside, which people perhaps don’t make enough use of.”
Free rickshaw rides, a pedal-powered Scalextric and a bicycle wall-of-death were some of the other attractions at the Celebration of Cycling event at Becket’s Park on Saturday,
Michael Ellis MP for Northampton North, who attempted the “Bomberdrome” made by the Northampton-based Ministry of Bicycles, said: “On the back of our success at the Olympics, this is a fantastic event.”