Liberal Democrats propose £1.2 billion per year for cycling infrastructure

'aren't the lib dems currently in power? '

No. They're the minority party within a coalition. But, why bring facts into this?

Sadly, building designated cycle lanes marked by different coloured tarmac does not make cycling safer. My mother was on a ‘red carpet’ cycle lane when she was killed, the driver being completely unaware of the cycle lane. Cycling will only become safer if drivers who are unable or unwilling to drive without consideration for other road users, automatically lose their driving licence. Reserve prison for those who flaunt the ban. This would be sufficient deterrent for most to drive more carefully & would protect society without incurring massive prison costs. The costs saved could be invested in road policing. The change could be made very quickly at little or no cost and with a little publicity would have immediate effect.
On the continent where cycling is a safe, convenient & desirable way to get around, cycle lanes are segregated by a physical barrier. They are for the exclusive use of cyclists. If cycle lanes are to achieve their aim, there must be severe penalties for those who drive or park in the designated cycle space.

Dr Julian Huppert MP is actually _co-chair_ of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group with Ian Austin MP.

WTF? Just reduce the number of cars on the road instead.

The thing is that for years the LibDems, and prior to that the Liberal Party, have made manifesto promises in the certain knowledge that they would never be called upon to deliver. The £1.2B a year for cycling is just another empty pledge.
After the next Election the LibDems will either be propping up another minority Government, in which case they will drop this policy as a matter of pragmatism, or they will be on the Opposition benches where they can go back to saying what they would do if they had the power.

I wonder what this comment thread would look like if the BNP announced their support for £1.2 billion yearly spend in cycling infrastructure?

To be fair, their manifesto pledges were based on being the party solely in power. In a coalition as a junior partner they have only limited influence on policy

I think this sets them out as the most pro cycling mainstream party out there, which may be enough to swing votes their way from the likes of us

Of course I'd rather they were pushing this policy now within the coalition, and would hope this influenced government policy if they are part of a coalition in future.

I agree there is little chance of them getting in power on their own, and hope this is not an empty promise.

The LibDems promise on tuition fees was not just part of the manifesto. LibDem Politicians signed a pledge to the NUS as individuals.

It inspired a lot of people to vote and its not just that they didn't follow through on a pledge, it went completely the opposite way, early 2000s fees were around £1000 end of the decade £3000 and now £9000. Those kind of raises aren't in line with inflation and it punishes people who are genuinely trying to seek a better future! It isn't infantile, he made a promise. Convinced people to vote for him and when it came to the crunch he bailed!
The coalition has turned universities into a business, universities rip students of now and have been given the permission to do so by the gov. The country is punishing its future with fees.
If you want infantile, nick clegg smells like poop.

I do not consider it infantile to be unhappy about Nick Clegg not honouring his pre election promises on tuition fees. He and his party were not forced into a coalition.

Clegg had seemed to inspire a lot of young people during the election campaign, and a lot of this has subsequently been lost.

It will take a lot for me to ever vote Liberal Democrat again.

Mainstream media are often portraying this as an expensive sop to a bunch of minority hippy lunatics on bikes. Such a shame.

Is worth seeing if it's in their manifesto come next election, and if it is, a closer look at local candidate, planning and implementation of pro-cycling measures, and the rest of the manifesto.

If nothing else, the slim possibility of p***ing off Rod Liddle and the readership of the Daily Fail has got to be worth a wasted vote.

I assume they have a crack squad of flying monkeys ready to go as soon as the election is won?

aren't the lib dems currently in power? - why wait to be elected to push thru these policies?

No.
It illustrates very clearly that the professional political class who see politics as a career rather than an opportunity to serve their country have wasted any respect they may once have had.

The only reason, the only bloody reason, that this has been proposed is because someone has noticed that cycling is becoming popular and appeals to a demographic that the Lib Dems would like to attract to vote for them.

Lets be grown up? The grown up thing to do is to treat everything suggested by a politician with an enormous dose of cynicism until proven otherwise.

I'm not a Lib Dem, but the whole thing on ripping into them for the tuition fees thing really just illustrates how infantile the public political discourse is in this country (that and the knee-jerk ALL POLITICIANS ARE ALL LYING GREEDY SCUMBAGS ALL THE TIME response we tend to see on comments sections/Twitter).

OK, so if they got into coalition, they might not actually push this money through. But it would be on the table for discussion, and that alone is a step in the right direction. Let's be grown up and say that this is tentatively good news.

How dare they propose to do things that might help us everyday cyclists.

Tear into them chaps, the beggars!

If a Lib-Dem told me it was raining I'd go outside to check. At least we know the Tory party will be nasty swine and the Labour party will be pathetic spineless dimwits. The Lib-Dems have sold their crappy little sit-on-the-fence souls for a one time chance at being in power and they have messed it up at every opportunity.

Pandering to cyclists with a pie-in-the-sky promise is more of the kind of no tuition fees lies that the yellow chimps told last time.

Remember when they said that students wouldn't pay fees? Yeah...that happened.

Tbh the lib dems know they are not getting in so they can make these proposals without having to worry that much.