Headline Message

• Encouraging and incentivising people to try out alternatives to the private car are valuable and cost-effective complements to improving cycling conditions on the road.  
• Often known as ‘smarter choices’, measures that are designed to do this include: elements of travel plans; advertising / promotional campaigns, cycle maps, marketing directly to individuals, tax incentives, cycle training, rides, plus events and activities for specific groups of people.

Policy Key Facts

• Smarter choices (or 'soft measures') are particularly cost-effective in terms of congestion, yielding on average £10 of benefits to every £1 spent.
• Smarter choice programmes in the Sustainable Travel Towns of Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester made a positive contribution towards economic growth, reducing carbon emissions, increasing health, promoting equality of opportunity, and improving quality of life.

Cycling UK View

• Smarter choice measures are:
  • a proven way of reducing car use and carbon emissions
  • an effective means of encouraging people to take up cycling, or to cycle more often
  • a good investment, offering an excellent return 
• Investing in ‘smarter choices’ is at least as important as investing in physical improvements to the highway network. 
• Both national and local authorities should dedicate sufficient resources to smarter choices, recognising that they rely on revenue rather than capital funding.

2016-03-30 00:00:00 Europe/London

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