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London cyclists at traffic lights (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpgCycling UK urges transport secretary to tackle “active travel crisis”
Cycling UK has urged secretary of state for transport Chris Grayling to tackle what it describes as an “active travel crisis,” calling on him – and presumably any successor with a cabinet reshuffle imminent – to quadruple funding for walking and cycling in England by 2025.
The appeal follows the publication yesterday of a report by the House of Commons transport select committee which also called for more money to be spent on active travel.
In a letter sent to Grayling yesterday, Cycling UK’s chief executive Paul Tuohy said that action needs to be taken to avoid a “climate crisis, congestion crisis, pollution crisis and an inactivity-related health crisis.”
He called on the government to double investment in walking and cycling within the next year, and to double it again by 2025 to enable it to meet the Department for Transport’s own targets for growth in active travel.
Tuohy said: “Investment in cycling could make a huge and remarkably cost-effective contribution to tackling several of the economic, health and environmental challenges now facing our country.”
He continued: “We are currently facing a climate crisis, a congestion crisis, a pollution crisis and an inactivity-related health crisis.
“Underlying all of these crises is a ‘underfunding of cycling and walking crisis’, which has persisted for decades under Governments of all hues. It is therefore increasingly critical that you seize the forthcoming Spending Review to address it with the urgency it requires.”
Yesterday’s Transport Select Committee report said: “The Department for Transport should propose a long-term funding settlement for active travel, increasing over time. This would give the signals necessary to local authorities to make active travel a priority.
“The Department for Transport should seek appropriate funds from the Treasury to ensure the delivery of new, ambitious targets in the revised Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy that we have called on the Department to adopt.”
Cycling UK’s appeal for more money to be invested in walking and cycling comes ahead of a spending review the government is expected to launch in the coming weeks, which the charity says “would provide the perfect opportunity for the government to realign its funding priorities to cycling and walking.”
Tuohy added: “The aim must surely be to ensure that the forthcoming Spending Review delivers a renewed Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy that genuinely transforms our roads, streets and communities into clean, safe and attractive places to live, shop, work or move around on foot or by cycle, for the benefit of our health, our economy and our quality of life.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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29 comments
Popped out for a ride this morning, brushed by the wing-mirror of one of the local gammons who then brake-tested me when I dared yell and gesture. Opened his door I assume to get out and assault me further, decided against it when I lied that it was all on camera. On the brow of a hill on a bend, with no view of oncoming traffic, just yards from a 600 yard long downhill straight, all to get in front to join a usually 7 or 8 deep queue at a junction a mile further on. Utterly pointless attempt to kill me, himself, and possibly an oncoming driver (not that he'd see it that way of course)
WS it a Right wing mirror?
I thought the Mirror was the only left wing paper now.
I thought the Mirror was left wing.
More of the same since yesterday. 0.13% of the population decided who would rule the UK, and it's another hard-right piece of subhuman shit.
So, no change to transport policy, I suspect. Cyclists will still be treated as if they don't matter.
Thought you were done with the UK?
That slapping noise you heard yesterday afternoon was all of continental Europe (and Ireland!) doing one massive 'face-palm'
Nah, that was me - fapping off with anticipation of being able to ride a bicycle in a country that doesn't consider me as 'road lice'.
And a large proportion of the UK too.
Only the proletariat.
He's waiting for the inevitable coalition between Farage and BoJo.
I am. We leave Britain on the 10th of August.
"Sub-Human" or to use the German "UnterMenschen".
You hate the far right so much you have adopted one of their core beliefs.
Nice one.
-nm-
Just had the misfortune to hear BoJo's first speech as PM, including a bit about how we are going to invest in electric cars to reduce CO2 and tackle climate change, neither of which will be signficantly affected by a transfer from ICE to electric cars.
Guess how many times he mentioned Active Travel? Go on, guess; a very small prize for the first right answer.
he won't be ale to change shit between now and the next GE, what's happening now and the next 5/10/15 years and more has already being put into place and will not be changed that much unless there's a party that want to make a revolutionary change ... btw that isn't Labour in whichever guise you want to present them as.
Perhaps not, but he will be setting the agenda for the foreseeable future, and if he thinks that electric vehicles are going to save the planet, and is ignoring active travel, we are in trouble. Given his woeful ignorance about electric cars and their effects, and that he said last week that the Apollo 11 computer code was "hand knitted" and that it's re-entry was frictionless, I can say without any fear of contradiction that Boris is an utter ignoramus of Trumpian proportions.
I'm a member of the only sensible party out there, the one dedicated to stopping climate change and Brexit and massively supporting cycling and bringing in a fair electoral system: the Green Party. Nothing to do with Labour I'm afraid.
Interestingly, the code was actually hand-knitted, or woven, into the non-volatile (core rope) memory - by some of the least recognised key helpers in the launch effort (Google for stuff like core rope memory weave apollo Raytheon waltham).
The frictionless bit was classic though, sort of missing the purpose of using the atmosphere...
What do you think the chances are of mini-Trump knowing that?
Honestly, not as small as you might think - he's a hugely dangerous buffoon but not as totally without any wit or knowledge as his counterpart.... alternatively he actually remembered and possibly correctly recounted something that someone told him, which puts him a step ahead of Trump at the very least in my book.
I thought I knew a bit about computer history, but I'd never heard of that. Sounds like a modern version of quipus (knotted string used by Incas amongst others for recording info).
It's really quite cool - worth a read (the memory technology and the story of the weavers) - wires through ferrite cores, binary read-back depending on whether one of the wires went through a core or around it. There's been a few documentaries from Discovery and other places that touch on a lot of this back-ground tech from the space race days, probably mostly on YouTube as well now, some good stuff out there for perusal
Unless parking your bike is as secure, convenient and simple as parking a car then cycling will remain largely a leisure pursuit rather than a means of everyday transport.
I have never, ever seen provision for parking a bike that even comes close. At best there might be a row of steel hoops, under a canopy (in my dreams), where I can fight to wedge my bike amongst the heap, and perform some kind of origami with the lock/s in the hope that most of my bike, together with some of its paint, might still be there on my return.
It's obvious when parking my bike that I'm a third class citizen. The provision is inadequate, inconvenient, an after thought. It's like the shop (or wherever) is giving me a slap in the face.
Nottingham is undergoing alot of redevelopment atm. They've demolished a car park and bus station to extend and 'enhance' a delapidated neigbouring shopping centre. They're made the 'bold' step of stopping thru traffic in that part of town. But do you know what they are replacing carpark with? Yep, you got it, another carpark. Couldn't make it up.
Or they could take just a fraction of the insane amount they are spending on a slightly faster train. By the time it's finished, HS2 will be an irrelevance, whereas we could have a cycle network that's the envy of the world, and healthier citizens to boot.
A few days ago the government white paper on health was published with an emphasis on preventable illnesses. Lots about smoking and sugar. Nothing about active travel. Its all about empowerment - I'd like to be empowered to cycle to work without 200 idiots trying to kill me.
Couldn't agree with Paul Tuohy more, except perhaps CUK aren't ambitious enough.
"He called on the government to double investment in walking and cycling within the next year, and to double it again by 2025...."
We need a quadrupling of spending on Active Travel now and it should be at least ten times current spending by 2025. As he says we are suffering from all these crises; “climate crisis, congestion crisis, pollution crisis and an inactivity-related health crisis.” By definition, a crisis isn't something you can put off for a few years, it needs immediate attention. All these crises are the result of our utterly incompetent politicians, so it is up to them to take action now, not in five years time.
Precisely, I'd go all in and say we need £1bn for the next 25years rising by 10% each year, even then knowing how much of that gets pissed away it's probably nowhere near enough. As I keep saying, remove motors from some parts of the strategic network in built up areas and you instantly have you infra. Wide, direct and priority almost everywhere. Spend money on routes along major roads between towns and cities, 2m wide is fine for single direction, anything less is shit, 3m for bidirectional between major conurbations, importantly allowing less space for motors and making it more difficult for their users to get to places by their conveyance is the only way we will make inroads into changing people's thinking on mode of travel.
None of this will of course happen and we'll get the dogs dinner that will be Manchester, London and many other places already with their segregted, circuitous, not wide enough, not priority enough hybrid shite.
C'mon guys, choose one!
