Sustrans publishes new strategy for London

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans today publishes its new strategy for London, which complements the Mayor's "cycling revolution" by focusing on specific ways to get more people on bikes. The Sustrans London Strategy, which is launched to co-incide with the draft Mayor's Transport Strategy, covers the years 2009 - 2013.

It sets out projects to help new people to get into cycling, especially those from currently under-represented groups such as women and young people, and
Sustrans' London Regional Director, Carl Pittam, said: "London has seen considerable success over recent years in increasing commuter cycling in central and Inner London.

“However 84 per cent of Londoners never cycle, and certain groups are missing out especially - women make roughly half as many cycle trips as men, and journeys by children and young people have actually declined recently.

"We are glad to see that the draft Mayor's Transport Strategy includes proposals to deliver safe cycle routes, to support school cycle training, and to influence travel choices through 'smarter travel' initiatives.

“Our Strategy for London complements these goals. It comprises a range of programmes that we know are effective in getting more people cycling, from more traffic-free Greenways to targeted work with young people in schools."

In order for the Mayor's cycling revolution to be realised, much more must be done to tempt more of the vast majority of Londoners who currently do not cycle onto their bikes.

The Sustrans London Strategy aims to deliver London's cycling revolution by putting forward a range of programmes to broaden the take up of cycling in the capital. Key ones include:

Greenways

Sustrans proposes an expansion of London's greenways programme.
Greenways - quiet routes to and between green spaces, which link to other networks - are known to get new people on bikes.

Recent UK-wide research on the National Cycle Network showed that a fifth of women on the network are new or returning to cycling, and that among young people (16-24 years) women outnumber men.

School cycling

Bike It is Sustrans' groundbreaking project which works with school children and achieves at least a doubling of cycling to school levels within the first year. Sustrans intends to expand Bike It in London to make it available to all London boroughs by 2013.

Support for households

Sustrans' TravelSmart programme works with households offering tailor-made information to help people walk, cycle or use public transport more. TravelSmart is at the leading edge of the 'Smarter Choices' movement and is the most widely applied form of personal travel planning in the UK.
 

Sustrans work in delivering the DfT Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns (STDTs) has shown that a sustained period of Smarter Choices measures, including Sustrans TravelSmart can achieve increases in cycling trips of up to 113 percent. Sustrans strategy sets out the intention to bring TravelSmart to the capital by 2011.

A copy of the strategy can be found at www.sustrans.org.uk/sustrans-near-you/london.