Get Britain Cycling petition nearly two thirds of way to target inside first month

The petition from Times journalist Kaya Burgess urging Prime Minister David Cameron to embrace the findings of the Get Britain Cycling report is nearly two thirds of the way towards hitting its goal of 100,000 signatures just a month after it was posted to the government’s e-petition website.

If the petition, posted on 24 April and which will remain open for 12 months from that date, manages to collect 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee of the House of Commons. Currently it has a little more than 62,000 signatures.

If you haven’t already signed it, please do by following this link. Likewise, if you have family or friends who haven’t signed it, ask them to do so, and publicise it at your workplace, club and through social media; the more people hear about the petition, the more will sign it, and the closer the Get Britain Cycling report will get to being debated in the Commons.

The petition reads:

Promote cycling by implementing the recommendations in the 'Get Britain Cycling' report.
Responsible department: Department for Transport

We the undersigned call on the Prime Minister to pledge that the Government will implement the recommendations in the 'Get Britain Cycling' parliamentary report.

The inquiry, chaired by a cross-party panel of MPs and peers, heard that promoting cycling as a healthy and affordable way to travel can tackle Britain's obesity crisis, save millions from NHS budgets, boost the economy and reduce congestion on our roads and trains.

The inquiry’s 18 recommendations focus on reallocating investment, safer road design, lower speed limits, better training and strong political leadership.

This will require cross-departmental consensus led from the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, not just from the Department for Transport.

In the Commons on February 22, 2012, the Prime Minister said of The Times's ‘Cities Fit for Cycling’ campaign: “If we want to encourage the growth in cycling we’ve seen in recent years, we need to get behind campaigns like this.”

Now is the time to act on those words.