The strong results of CTC's Big Bike Revival for 2015 have led the DfT to fund it again this year to the tune of half a million pounds.
Announcing the funding at the Design Museum’s Cycling Revolution Exhibition in London, Cycling Minister Robert Goodwill MP said: “We are determined to create a cycling nation and the Big Bike Revival is a fantastic initiative getting impressive results."
Martine McCutcheon, former EastEnders and 'Love Actually' star, who was there to celebrate the funding too, said: "Helping people to fall back in love with their bike and see how it can help them get around is so important – that’s why I support the Big Bike Revival.”
Last year, CTC brought together a network of 90 bicycle recycling centres across England to host over 1,600 family-friendly events for people to get their bikes checked and repaired, pick up simple maintenance tips, and donate old machines.
The House of Commons Transport Committee has officially recognised many of CTC’s concerns about cycling safety in its report on its inquiry into road traffic law enforcement, published 15 March.
It also supports a range of solutions we have been recommending for some time and raised in the evidence we submitted to the inquiry, both orally and in writing. We now urge the Government to implement them.
So far, three candidates in London's Mayoral elections have backed calls we've made in our roadmap to get unsafe lorries off our streets.
Launched last month, the roadmap focuses on designs that help drivers see pedestrians and cyclists as easily as bus drivers can, or ‘direct vision’. This means bigger side windows in the lower section of a lorry’s passenger-side doors, along with positioning drivers nearer ground level and surrounding them with as much glass as possible.
The roadmap’s goals have already attracted the support of three candidates:
“I am happy to sign up to all the provisions of the CTC roadmap for bringing in safer direct vision lorries. Using City Hall and borough procurement processes as a lever to reduce lorry danger will be fundamental to getting more people making daily journeys by bike and on foot."
CTC published the roadmap in conjunction with an online action (now closed), which asked supporters everywhere to back Transport for London’s plans to impose tougher conditions on lorries allowed to use the capital’s roads. Nearly 1,800 people took action – thanks if you were one of them.
Safer lorries are not just an issue for London. If we can persuade London’s authorities to ban all lorries with ‘blind spots’, they could be taken off most built-up streets throughout the country within a few years.
With a wide spectrum of other elections coming up on May 5, we want all candidates to put cycling on their agenda, whatever they’re standing for or why.
This year, we’re primarily targeting the Welsh Assembly and Police & Crime Commissioner elections (England and Wales). We are supporting local campaigners working on the Northern Ireland Assembly elections too, and the ongoing collaborative campaign, ‘We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote’ in Scotland.
As welcome as any funding for cycling is, the sums involved are minuscule, not to say pitiful, in comparison with the money the Government plans to spend on road-building.
When Chancellor George Osborne announced in his latest budget (16 March) yet more funding for roads - no doubt amounting to £billions - CTC's reaction was therefore one of dismay.
CTC’s Policy Director, Roger Geffen said: “Britain has illegal pollution levels, an obesity time-bomb and a climate change strategy which is officially failing. Yet the Chancellor responds by squandering squillions on road schemes, ignoring all the warnings from experts about the lack of clear economic benefits.
“Meanwhile, walking and cycling remain cash-starved, despite mountains of evidence that they are incredibly cost-effective investments.
“His cabinet colleagues need to remind him that he’s supposed to be part of the ‘greenest Government ever’ and urge him to reallocate some of the £15billion earmarked for road-building to invest instead in walking and cycling. That would be far better for our economy, our streets, our environment and our quality of life.”
Happily, the Welsh Assembly’s Enterprise and Business Committee’s has agreed that the ground-breaking Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 actually needs a budget.
The Act, expressly designed to encourage more people to walk or cycle, was commendable on ambition, but campaigners were disappointed to find that it didn't have the funding to match.
Fortunately, in its review on the progress on the Act, the Committee has pointed this out too, saying: “Welsh Government should have a specific budget line dedicated to supporting active travel. The budget for active travel should be used for both supporting active travel infrastructure projects and promoting active travel.”
CTC recommends £10 per head a year, rising to £20 over time and, ahead of the National Assembly’s elections in May, we’ll be asking all candidates to support this level of funding.
It's not a huge amount of money, but at least the DfT is putting £5 million into Bikeability Plus, a suite of additional cycling activities and extra training based around the core Bikeability course (England).
The scheme includes introducing four-to-five year-olds in reception class to balance training, and showing older children how to fix and maintain their bikes. Pilots in 18 areas saw cycling to school at least once a week more than double to 10%.
Thanks to the funding, which is part of £50 million already allocated to Bikeability (2016 to 2020), 200,000 more children across England will benefit from Bikeability Plus.
Our newly appointed campaigner, Tom Guha, has been looking at NHS England’s plans to build ten 'Healthy New Towns'. The idea behind the towns is to link urban planning with health service delivery.
Tom, who will take the helm of CTC’s Space for Cycling campaign from the beginning of April, thinks that the Healthy Town scheme could (and should) prove to be a golden opportunity to showcase the benefits of providing well for cycling. More about Tom and his role in the next issue of Campaign News.
Transport Minister Robert Goodwill MP, who has both cycling and High Speed Rail (HS2) amongst his portfolio, has told the parliamentary committee looking at the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill that he is "... determined that the opportunities afforded by the land we are procuring are used to the full to increase cycling and walking along the route.”
This is good news, but CTC has also been pressing for routes across the line, along with measures to reduce the hazards posed to cyclists by all the associated construction traffic.
On March 1, lawyer activists ClientEarth sent a final legal warning to the UK Government giving it an ultimatum on improving its air quality plans, or face action in the High Court yet again.
ClientEarth successfully took the Government to the Supreme Court last year for failing to meet its obligations on clean air. As a result, DEFRA had to produce plans to meet the UK’s legal limits, but ClientEarth does not believe they are good enough.
CTC promotes cycling for its health and environmental benefits, not least because it is a non-polluting mode of transport. We are therefore a supporter of ClientEarth’s Healthy Air Campaign.
CTC’s Road Justice Campaign continues to lobby for a better deal for cyclists from the justice system, while our Cyclists’ Defence Fund (CDF) supports cyclists' legal cases. A number of ongoing and recent examples of injustice and highly questionable police, prosecutor and/or court decisions show how vital this work is:
Initial figures from police forces show that laws to catch and convict drug drive offenders introduced a year ago have led to a huge rise in arrests. A new roadside swab test has made it much easier to test suspected drivers. Provisional figures show that in Cheshire alone officers arrested eight times as many suspected drug drivers than in 2014.
London Cycling Campaign is calling on candidates in the Mayoral elections to commit to:
Add your voice to LCC’s calls and Sign for Cycling
Paper on the results of a large study of around 73,000 men and 83,000 women that examined the relationship between active commuting and obesity in mid-life. Found that, compared to their car-only counterparts, mixed public and active transport commuters had significantly lower BMI and body fat.
The authors conclude that their study: “… shows robust, independent associations between active commuting and healthier bodyweight and composition. These findings support the case for interventions to promote active travel as a population-level policy response for prevention of obesity in mid-life.”
Published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology
Report with recommendations from PACTS (Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety) looking in detail at a range of factors that can affect people’s fitness to drive, including: vision and hearing impairments; diabetes; epilepsy and multiple sclerosis; drugs; alcohol; fatigue; cognitive health; reduced physical strength and mobility; and personality.
A useful reference source for anyone concerned with health and safety management in relation to road casualty prevention. 32 pages.
Noting that each year in the UK around 40,000 deaths are attributable to outdoor air pollution, this report examines the impact of exposure during the course of a lifetime. Suggests a number of reforms, including putting the onus on polluters to take responsibility for harming health, action from local authorities, effective monitoring, defining the economic impact of air pollution, and leading by example within the NHS. The authors also set out six steps for the public to take, including: “Take the active travel option: bus, train, walking and cycling”. 123 pages.
To produce this report, Pro-E-Bike worked with 40 partners, from private and public sectors, large and small, in seven EU member states to assess the contribution that electric bikes used for delivery purposes can make towards safer cities and cleaner air. The project demonstrated that e-bikes were “popular, efficient, reliable and – above all – saved money compared to the motorised alternative. Most of the participants were so impressed, they are continuing or expanding their use of e-bikes, after the project end-point.”
The document outlines major learning points and success factors, and sets out nine recommendations. Aimed at city administrations, national policy makers, and anyone considering a move to employ cycle logistics. 27 pages.
For its spring public meeting, Spokes (the Lothian cycle campaign) has invited all the parties currently represented at Holyrood to send a candidate for any Edinburgh/Lothians seat or for the Lothians list, to give a short talk on their party’s concerns and commitments on cycling, and any related transport policy issues they wish to mention.
Members of the audience will have the opportunity to engage directly with the politicians, and the speakers will close with a brief summing up of what they have learned from the meeting.
A symposium providing an opportunity for government, local authorities, cyclists’ groups and other stakeholders to explore how the latest developments can be implemented and discuss how various funding streams can be used effectively to create a suitable physical environment to promote safer and easier cycling in our communities.
Delegates will:
Key speakers: David Cox, CTC; Marcus Jones, TRL; Amy Aeron Thomas, RoadPeace; Joel De Mowbray
Cycle Training & Projects Co-ordinator, Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Ten-week evening lecture series investigating individual, societal, policy and technical issues underpinning current cycling levels, and exploring proven methods of increasing cycling participation rates.
Six-week evening lecture series exploring different methods of providing for safe and convenient cycling in the urban environment, illustrated by case studies of innovative cycle infrastructure design. National design guidance, engineering standards, and UK and international cycle infrastructure design best practice will be considered in-depth, with topics presented by experts in the field of cycling infrastructure design. Taking a practical look at real-life situations, the course considers solutions for junctions, main roads, quieter streets, and signage.
Open to both professionals and volunteers, this conference is for anyone who has an interest in cycles and wants to make Britain a better place for people to ride them.
A chance to:
Two-day conference and exhibition event. Offers plenary presentations by high-profile individuals throughout the UK and beyond, with expertise and influence in cycle policy, promotion and infrastructure. Product and service suppliers to the sector will also be on show.
The organisers are currently calling for papers.
The Association of Bikeability Schemes' annual conference, to be held in conjunction with the wider Cycle City, Active City (see above).
A conference to share best practice in managing road risk, including protecting vulnerable road users, engaging drivers with safety, and managing high-risk drivers.
The agenda will feature presentations from both public and private sector operators, representing car, van, truck, and mixed vehicle fleets. Paul Kitson, cycle injury lawyer at Slater & Gordon and CTC, is amongst the speakers.
