Chris Boardman MBE, Greater Manchester’s first Cycling and Walking Commissioner, has called for a ring-fenced, 10-year £1.5 billion fund to help transform the city region into a world class cycling and walking area.
Cycling UK calculates that this equates to around £54 a head a year, of which £25+ could go on cycling. If achieved, this sum would bring Manchester into the realms of Dutch investment, and set a good example for the rest of the UK. With few exceptions, e.g. London at c.£17, cycling spend elsewhere rarely creeps into anything like double figures.
This is all largely ambition, though. £1.5 billion spread over ten years is a huge commitment, and where it will all come from is the real challenge for Mayor Andy Burnham, and Chris Boardman himself.
Manchester says it aims, as a first step, to establish a “challenge fund” of around £50 million a year from 2019/20, which the city’s ten districts will be able to access “… if they are building to the required standard and meeting part of the costs.”
But what of the bulk, i.e. the other two thirds? Only when we see the funding sources identified, and the money both earmarked and assured, will we give the city region the three cheers it will then most certainly deserve.
Now that more and more cyclists and drivers are investing in video recording devices, the police are increasingly likely to be sent video footage of illegal road behaviour in the expectation that they’ll act on it.
Cycling UK was therefore pleased to hear about ‘Operation Snap’, a new resource from the four police forces in Wales, which is designed to accept digital evidence from the public. This is exactly the sort of pro-active policing we want to see not just in Wales but across the UK.
Cycling UK has written to three head teachers explaining why it makes no sense to introduce policies that are more than likely to discourage pupils from cycling to school.
Permits, number plates and helmets, for example, feature variously, with at least one school threatening to confiscate bikes should a child fail to comply.
Cycling helps keep children and young people fit, especially crucial now that more and more of them are carrying excess weight or are already obese.
Although schools can exercise control over their pupils’ behaviour beyond the gates in certain circumstances, they have no right to ban any mode of travel. With overzealous barriers to cycling, though, this is exactly what some of them are, in effect, doing.
Nearly 2,000 emails were sent to MSPs in Scotland after supporters used Cycling UK’s online action to help galvanise support in the Scottish Parliament for a Bill proposing to replace 30 mph on restricted roads with 20 mph, by default.
The Bill, put forward by Mark Ruskell MSP (Green), has now gathered enough cross-party backing for him to draft legislation for consideration by Parliament next year.
20 mph is one of the simplest ways to reduce road casualties and make streets feel safer.
In the two years since it was set up, a partnership targeting lorry dangers in London has stopped and checked 33,000 freight vehicles; and issued 9,114 fixed penalty notices and traffic offence reports, along with 5,600 mechanical prohibitions to operators with seriously defective vehicles.
The intelligence-led London Freight Enforcement Partnership (LFEP) involves TfL, City of London Police, DVSA, and the Metropolitan Police Service. Its mission is to raise standards amongst drivers and operators, and eliminate unsafe practices.
With lorries posing a disproportionate risk to cyclists, Cycling UK wants the Government to set up a national scheme based on LFEP’s model.
Aiming to make sure that the Highway Code reflects the advent of remote control parking and motorway assist, the DfT is consulting on changes to four rules, including two which happen to relevant to cyclists’ safety as well.
One refers to overtaking cyclists (Rule 160), and the other to ‘car-dooring’ (Rule 239). Cycling UK has been arguing for some time that both need revising: the first, which tells drivers to ‘give them plenty of room’, needs to be much clearer about the gap needed; while we think the second would be more effective if it encouraged the ‘Dutch reach’ technique (i.e. opening a car door with the “wrong” hand, which makes people more likely to turn and look properly first).
Cycling UK’s Victoria Hazael recently appeared on The One Show (BBC1) explaining why cyclists need potholes fixed. Victoria was invited to witness and rate repairs by three different methods, but stressed that planned road maintenance is the best way forward - prevention being better than cure.
Monitoring of central London’s segregated cycle lanes shows that they are moving at least five times more people per square metre than the main carriageway. Not only that, but the section between Parliament Square and Tower Hill has further improved journey times for motorised vehicles.
This clearly strengthens the case for investing in cycle-friendly infrastructure but, sadly, it seems this isn’t what everyone wants to hear. The data appear in Transport for London’s (TfL) response to a Freedom of Information request from an enquirer who seems somewhat anti-superhighway, and convinced that the scheme is making congestion worse.
Spokes, the Lothian Cycle Campaign, counts rush hour traffic twice a year along two roads in Edinburgh, and is pleased to report that bikes accounted for 16.5% of all vehicles last month. This is the highest ever November percentage
Seven boroughs in London will be transforming into greener, healthier and more attractive ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’, thanks to successful bids to a long-term TfL funding programme. Improving conditions for walking and cycling is a core ambition.
The boroughs are Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Havering, Lewisham and Waltham Forest.
According to a parliamentary answer from cycling minister Jesse Norman MP, the Government is planning to revise and reissue the national guidance, Cycle Infrastructure Design (LTN 2/08) in 2018.
He said: “… The Department is currently procuring the necessary technical expertise to take this important piece of work forward.” CID was issued in 2008, and things have moved on a lot since then.
As part of their recent 10th birthday celebrations, Wheels for Wellbeing launched what is possibly a world first with their Guide to Inclusive Cycling. In a new blog, the charity’s Campaigns and Policy Officer Neil Andrews outlines what the guide is, who it’s for and how it can be used.
News that the DfT is thinking about re-opening regional train lines closed by Richard Beeching in the 1960s, puts cycling and cyclists in a dilemma. A fair number of disused lines have since been converted into iconic and popular motor-traffic free routes, some being part of the National Cycle Network.
Now that many local authorities are facing air quality crises, they’re bound to be wanting to demonstrate how much difference investing in active travel will make.
An all-time first modelling tool from Sustrans and Eunomia should help them make the case, having demonstrated £millions of savings in terms of air quality and public health, if national targets for cycling and/or walking are met.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated its user guidance on the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for cycling and walking.
HEAT is an online tool that estimates the value of reduced mortality resulting from regular walking or cycling. The revised guidance considers the health effects of road crashes and air pollution, and the effects on carbon emissions. It can be used to assess current (or past) levels of cycling or walking, changes over time, and evaluate new or existing projects.
A judge has ordered a High Court hearing in ClientEarth’s latest case against the UK Government over illegal and harmful levels of air pollution. Reflecting the urgency of the situation, Mr Justice Nicklin has expedited the case and it will be heard before 23 February next year. This will be the third such case against the Government – ClientEarth won the previous two.
Having analysed police data from England, The Institute of Alcohol Studies reports that both police officer and breath test numbers have fallen by a quarter in the last five years.
An active, adequately resourced and visible force is a road safety essential for everyone, and Cycling UK has long called on the Government to reverse the decline in traffic policing. What we’d also like to see reduced is the blood-alcohol limit for drivers in England and Wales, from 80 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood, to 50mg/100ml, as it is now in Scotland.
Responding to the Highway’s England Strategic Road Network Initial Report (SRNIR), the Campaign for Better Transport says the focus should be on improving existing roads, ‘green retrofit’ and supporting active travel, rather than building new capacity. Cycling UK agrees. The report does mention cycling and walking here and there, but not a lot.
Ever wondered what the definition of a ‘nationally significant transport infrastructure is’? You can now find out, and why it makes a difference in planning terms.
A review of how thoroughly, impartially, effectively and consistently road collisions are investigated.
Reveals that over half of police services employ fewer than ten specialists, and that their lack of capacity is impacting adversely on justice for victims and their families.
Dedicated to the families of pedestrian Peter Price, and of twelve-year-old cyclist Jake Mitchell. Jake was hit and killed by a driver who had overtaken three cars and a tractor. The investigation into Jake’s death was far from exemplary, but there’s much good practice in Peter’s case.
A report identifying congestion as a serious problem for economic development, quality of life and public health. Summarises the steps that innovative councils have taken to reduce congestion and its impacts. Cycling, of course, features.
A publication focusing on physical activity and how it can be supported through urban planning.
A report to help non-health charities better understand and use the evidence about the social factors that impact on people’s health and well-being.
Headlines: Cycling and walking needs £1.5 billion in Greater Manchester, says Chris Boardman; Welsh Police snap up footage of law-breaking drivers; Head teachers are trespassing on parental responsibilities, says Cycling UK
Other stories: Hopes rise for 20 mph in Scotland; Agency partnership tackles lorry threat in London; Changes to two Highway Code rules could help cyclists; Cycling UK talks potholes to The One Show; London’s Superhighways move commuters; Edinburgh roads return record bike count; Seven London boroughs win Liveable Neighbourhoods funding; Cycle Infrastructure Design up for revision; Wheels for Wellbeing explains inclusive cycling; Rethinking Beeching's axe - cycling threat or opportunity? New modelling tool demonstrates air quality benefits of active travel; HEAT guide updated; ClientEarth takes UK Government back to court again; Steep fall for breath tests; Highways England must re-focus, say campaigners
New publications: Road death investigation: Overlooked and underfunded (RoadPeace); A country in a jam: tackling congestion in our towns and cities (Local Government Association); Towards more physical activity: Transforming public spaces to promote physical activity (World Health Organisation); Keeping us well (NPC)
