Get Britain Cycling
About the campaign
Cycling UK’s vision is for a healthy, happier and cleaner world, because more people cycle.
We’ve been campaigning for this for years, so when in 2012 the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG)* invited people to tell them how we could get Britain cycling, we leapt at the chance.
Not only did we submit oral and written evidence to the inquiry, but also drafted a related Early Day Motion (EDM) 679. The EDM, tabled by APPCG members, proved to be one of the top ten most signed in the 2012-13 session of Parliament.
In April 2013, the APPCG published a full and summary report of their inquiry, listing 18 recommendations to government, divided into five broad themes:
- A new priority for investing public funds
- Redesigning our roads, streets and communities
- Safe driving and safe speed limits
- Training and education
- Political leadership
Our vision is to realise the full potential of cycling to contribute to the health and wealth of the nation, and the quality of life in our towns and local communities. We believe this is both possible and necessary.
We need to get the whole of Britain cycling: not just healthy people or sporty young males, but people of all ages and backgrounds, in urban and rural areas.
We need to change the culture of how we use our roads, so that people are no longer afraid to cycle or allow their children to do so. Our streets, roads and local communities, need to become places for people, where cycling and walking are safe and normal
Although the Government’s response to the report in August 2013 triggered mixed reactions, more than 100 MPs debated Get Britain Cycling and gave its recommendations unopposed backing a few weeks later.
The report also prompted the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, to say he wanted a “cycling revolution” to “remove the barriers for a new generation of cyclists”.
Disappointingly, though, the Department for Transport’s Cycling Delivery Plan released over a year later wasn’t as revolutionary as we’d hoped, and the funding that followed, though welcome, wasn’t as impressive as it needed to be either.
But that was just a start. Speaking at a meeting of the all-party group in 2019, Cycling UK’s policy director Roger Geffen credited Get Britain Cycling with helping to spur the Government to adopt the 2017 Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) under the Infrastructure Act 2015 (s21).
CWIS1’s central ambition was to make cycling and walking “the natural choices for shorter journeys, or as part of a longer journey”, and it set cycling targets.
The strategy was a positive move and we warmly welcomed it, even if it wasn’t quite the best version of itself it could be (which is why engaging in the drafting of its obligatory sequels is important to us).
We’re also now benefitting from good, official guidance for local authorities on designing high-quality, safe cycle infrastructure.
While the thinking behind Get Britain Cycling’s themes has advanced since 2013 and is still developing, and we’re still taking national and local decision-makers to task as necessary over the priority they give to active travel and the funding they allocate to it, the report’s legacy is proud, impactful and still felt today.
*This group is now the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking