The Government is investing an extra £214 million in cycling: £114m is for the eight English cities who’ve already received Cycle City Ambition Grants (Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Oxford); and £100m for the Highways Agency to improve cycling along and across its network of motorways and trunk roads.
This is the single biggest cash injection into cycle planning that England has seen so far and CTC welcomes it as far as it goes. However, it still falls far short of the £10 per person per year recommended by the Get Britain Cycling report, and is meagre in comparison to the £24bn allocated for the roads programme and £40bn for the HS2 rail link.
It also offers nothing to the many other councils who want to play their part to Get Britain Cycling. The Government needs to address this if it is to form remotely meaningful partnerships with local authorities and businesses, as proposed in its draft Cycling Delivery Plan.
CTC’s Chief Executive Paul Tuohy said:
“This has been a hard fought interim victory, not just for the cycling campaign community but also for the Department for Transport staff and MPs who’ve worked hard with us to Get Britain Cycling.
“We now need to keep pushing leading politicians in all parties to raise the annual funding for cycling up to the level of at least £10 per person, increasing progressively to £20 as cycle use rises – not just for the selected cities but for the whole of Britain."
Our message to local authorities and campaigners everywhere is: ‘Let’s keep up the pressure, it’s starting to work!’
Paul Tuohy, CTC Chief Executive
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP made the £214m announcement at a Cycling Summit in Bristol on 27 November, where he and the minister for cycling Robert Goodwill MP were also entertained at CTC’s Big Bike Revival stand. There, the CTC team rose to the challenge of fixing bikes in the presence of such high profile politicians and, during a busy morning, repaired 25 machines to the delight of their owners.
Given the perennial reluctance of politicians to provide sustained, adequate funding for cycling and walking, CTC and partners are lobbying for the Infrastructure Bill (England) to include an amendment that would force the Government to adopt and abide by a Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy. This would set:
The Bill has now passed to the committee stage for the consideration of 21 MPs. Please take action by writing to your own MP, asking them to put pressure on their party's representatives on the committee to back the amendment, and/or to speak up for it when the Bill returns to the Commons chamber in mid-January.
Transport Minister Robert Goodwill’s answer to a recent question in Parliament from Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick demonstrates how crucial a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy is (see above).
The minister revealed that only £127 million of £3.1 billion (4%) of Local Growth Fund spending by the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England will go towards walking and cycling schemes. Indeed, over half of the £127m comes from just two LEPs - the South East and West of England, who are investing £45m and £20m respectively. 24 of the 38 LEPs listed have invested a miserable £0m.
If all LEPs want to be really wise investors, they would do well to recognise cycling as a proven cost-effective investment. As we reported in November’s Campaign News, a recent Government report shows that it typically delivers over £5 of health and other benefits for every £1 spent. This is well above the typical benefit-to-cost ratios for major road and rail schemes, where 2:1 is considered “good” and 4:1 “very good”.
Consultation on the Government’s draft Cycling Delivery Plan has now closed. As mentioned in November’s Cycle Campaign News, CTC has submitted its response emphasising our main call for a commitment from the Government to fund cycling to the tune of at least £10 per head per year – not just ‘explore’ the possibility of achieving this figure in the next-but-one term of Government!
The DfT is predicting a downturn in cycling from 22.1 trips per person per year in 2015 to 20.5 in 2040, according to an answer to a Parliamentary Question asked by Julian Huppert MP (Lib Dem).
On top of this, they are also forecasting an upturn in car/van driving from 447.6 in 2015 to 507 trips per person per year in 2040, a prediction that
A graph on car miles in the DfT’s own report on its forecasts demonstrates this mismatch particularly well (see right). According to the latest transport statistics - see below - between 2012 and 2013, light van mileage rose slightly, but car/taxi mileage dropped again, also slightly.
Although the DfT says that the National Transport Model (NTM) that they use to make their predictions “…should not be viewed as what we think will actually happen in the future, or what we want the future to look like”, it nevertheless informs transport decisions. So, if the DfT predicts a rise in car traffic, the Government is persuaded to build more roads (as is happening - they don't seem to take much persuading); likewise, if the DfT predicts a drop in cycle traffic, the case for providing for cycling is weakened. It is, as CTC pointed out earlier in the year, a matter of planning to fail.
The NTM is, however, based on the “expected path of the key drivers at the time of the forecast” and assumes no change in government policy beyond that already announced. Specifically, it does not account for the impact of the Cycling Delivery Plan (still in development) either. A strong commitment to the Plan, and the money to support it will, we hope, defy the NTM's currently self-fulfilling prophecies.
The DfT has just published the latest annual report, together with the associated tables, on transport in Great Britain. Much of the data has already been published in separate batches, but this publication rounds up and comments on it, thus presenting a comprehensive account of the nation’s travel habits. It includes statistics on:
It says that: “Both walking and cycling trips have declined since 1995/7, but the trend in cycling trips has been mixed since 2007,” and that: “The average distance people cycle in a year has increased since 2005. In 2013, the distance was 49 miles per year (8% greater than in 1995/97).”
“Many more people are walking and cycling for everyday, shorter journeys, usually up to 2 miles for walking and up to 5 miles for cycling. Active travel is seen as the norm, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, or background. Roads are quieter and safer, encouraging more people to walk and cycle for shorter journeys. Far more people will get about cheaply for work, studying, shopping and socialising.
“Increased investment in pedestrian and cycle infrastructure, behavioural change and training has resulted in generational changes in travel habits. Walking and cycling as mainstream travel options support equality in opportunity and improvements in the environment. People are enabled to make healthy living choices to treat and prevent disease, address the impacts of sedentary lifestyles and reduce health inequalities.”
If this happens by 2030, then Transport Scotland’s just published vision will have turned into reality.
Amongst other future attractions are lower speeds; either segregated cycling provision for all main roads into Scotland’s town centres, or "high quality direct, safe and pleasant alternatives"; high quality car-free or low-vehicle shopping streets; and a major shift in transport and land use planning “…away from vehicle movement towards creating a sense of place and prioritising travel by active modes, with a strong emphasis on sustainable and people-centred planning and design.”
As always, success for this admirable vision will largely depend on adequate funding and the support of an action plan.
Somerset has become the first shire county with over 30% of its county councillors committed to Space for Cycling, CTC’s national campaign calling on councils to make our roads safe and inviting so that everyone can cycle. Since then, Hereford County Council has followed with 47% of councillors backing the campaign.
Two recent cases have, sadly, demonstrated how much further work needs to be done make sure that both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) mete out justice to cyclists:
Back in the summer, we reported on the case of cyclist Kristian Gregory, who appealed against a £50 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) issued by the Metropolitan Police for straying over the white line marking a woefully sub-standard cycle track in London. On Wednesday 17 December, Kristian appeared at Bromley Crown Court to plead "not guilty” and now faces a court appearance in early February 2015. His defence is being supported by the Cyclists' Defence Fund (CDF).
CTC, Sustrans, the London Cycling Campaign and RoadPeace have now joined CDF in writing to the CPS, urging them to drop this case as not being in the public interest, given the triviality of the alleged offence and the lack of legal clarity about where cycling is permitted at this location, due to poor signing.
In contrast, the driver of the Nissan car that hit 70-year old cyclist Michael Mason earlier this year in Regent Street, London, has so far escaped prosecution. Mr Mason died three weeks after the incident. The Police did not even refer the case to the CPS, in an apparent clear breach of CPS guidelines. Following discussion with Mr Mason’s family and with CTC ambassador Martin Porter QC (who represented the family at the inquest), CDF has confirmed that it will be supporting action to ensure justice is done.
MPs and relatives of road crash victims came together at the beginning of December to discuss the justice system’s handling of criminal driving. The meeting was organised and chaired by Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West (Lib Dem), who has been supporting two bereaved families in his constituency.
The discussion, which CTC attended, covered the failings of collision investigations, charging decisions, sentencing levels and the treatment of victims - all issues central to our Road Justice campaign. Mr Mulholland plans to collate the comments into a manifesto to influence the Government's forthcoming offences and penalties review, and to seek change in the run-up to the 2015 General Election.
A European Union law to make trucks more aerodynamic and safer for vulnerable road users will be delayed by around five years, thanks to an industry-led push. Lorry manufacturers, such as Sweden’s Volvo and France’s Renault, wanted more time to develop the vehicles, largely because of fears about being disadvantaged by competitors. Unfortunately, their pleas have succeeded.
The new law allows truck-makers to design in a longer ‘high speed train’ type of nose and bigger windscreens, making it much easier for drivers to see cyclists and pedestrians outside their cabs than the traditional ‘brick’ shape permits. The new designs, however, will probably not appear on the roads until around 2019, while a 3-year moratorium won’t end until 2021/22. Also, they will be voluntary, not mandatory.
For the sake of greater “economic efficiency” and freeing professional hauliers from “unnecessary regulation”, the Government has decided to increase the national speed limit for heavy goods vehicles of more than 7.5 tonnes on dual carriageway roads from 50 mph to 60 mph (England and Wales). This follows an earlier decision to increase the HGV national speed limit for these vehicles from 40 mph to 50 mph on single carriageways, a worrying move given the disproportionate risk that lorries pose to cyclists.
The DfT says: “Our impact assessment, which has been scrutinised by independent experts, concludes that there is not expected to be an adverse effect on road safety, but we will be monitoring the impacts closely.” This appears to be a highly risky approach, suggesting that the Government is putting commerce first and the lives of road users second. The change is expected to happen in April 2015.
Transport Minister Robert Goodwill has called on pharmacies to help customers understand changes to drug-driving legislation that will make it an offence to drive whilst over specified limits for 16 drugs, half of which are illicit and half used for medicinal purposes.
It is already – and remains – an offence to drive if the ability to do so is impaired by drugs, but this is the first time that specific limits have been set.
However, patients who are able to drive safely will have a medical defence if they take their medicine in accordance with advice given by a healthcare professional and/or printed in the accompanying written instructions. As the specified limit allows for the normal recommended doses, those who take their medicines as intended should not be affected by this legislation, which is expected to come into force next March.
CTC welcomes the changes, believing that the definitions and standards for drug-related offences should relate solely to whether a drug impairs the ability to drive and not to whether it is legal to use it.
The Near Miss Project (funded by Blaze and Creative Exchange) has been studying cycling incidents that don’t result in injury, hoping to help make cycling safer and more enjoyable. The team has collected nearly 1,700 detailed cycle trip diaries from the UK and beyond, with information on nearly 5,000 incidents from over 25,000 miles cycled. The data will be used to make recommendations on design, enforcement and education.
The team’s going to be very busy over the next few months crunching all the data. In January some interim results will be released at a special edition of The Bike Show. In February and March, there will be briefings about near misses for policy-makers, practitioners, and road users, while the team hopes by April to have had their first peer-reviewed paper accepted.
TfL is beginning work on the first two ‘Quietways’ in London - routes intended to give cyclists a direct, pleasant, back-street alternative to busy main roads. The plan is to open them in May 2015.
Five more routes are at the design stage and around two dozen more will be implemented or in progress by 2016. TfL has awarded Sustrans a three-year contract to help deliver the £120 million network in partnership with the local boroughs and other partners whose roads they will use. Eventually, every London borough will be served by the Quietways.
The Mayor, Boris Johnson, said that the routes “…will make cycling much more accessible for ordinary people, in their ordinary clothes, revealing some of London's hidden gems along the way."
Belfast is to become a healthier city by encouraging people to incorporate walking and cycling into their daily travel.
The city’s ambitions are set out in Belfast Active Travel Action Plan 2014-2020, which says: “Belfast is a city that is well suited to walking and cycling. Many local amenities such as schools, shops, places of employment and leisure opportunities are within a short distance from residential areas, with many of the journeys made in the city, within distances that could be easily walked or cycled, for most people.”
Infrastructure improvements, education, promotion and partnership-working are the methods the city will use to achieve its goals.
The Mayor of Bristol has helped deliver the first of 40 emergency cycle repair kits to the city’s central library. The other 39 are being delivered to various community venues right across Bristol in time for Christmas, as part of the Better By Bike project funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
The Campaign for Better Transport has been looking at how different towns and cities measure up in terms of public transport provision, cycling and walking facilities and land use planning policies that support sustainable transport.
Peterborough, Colchester and Milton Keynes, it concludes, are the hardest places in England to live if you don't have access to a car, while London, Manchester and Liverpool are the easiest.
... at the 2014 CTC/Cyclenation conference, hosted by the London Cycling Campaign back in November.
There were many highlights - in fact, it was all one big highlight - including: a presentation by a DfT representative on the Cycling Delivery Plan; an inspiring talk on how to get big businesses to back cycle routes and not object to them; and a range of expert lectures on various design standards - "it was like a really good course on the subject", as one impressed delegate said.
Ask your MP to support an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill that would make the Government adopt a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Take action now!
420 pages of statutory guidance on the planning, design, construction and maintenance of active travel networks and infrastructure, published in consequence of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013.
The guidance is not only for professionals, but also for the general public, who will need to be consulted on the maps and active travel schemes that result from the application of the Act. It also recognises that: “There is an important role for user groups in assessing whether the proposals made by local authorities meet the standards set out in this document.”
CTC was represented on the writing team and the document will be kept under review.
For advice for campaigners on the Act and getting the best out of it, see the presentations made at our recent training day in North Wales by Dr Richard Keatinge and CTC's Campaigns Director Roger Geffen.
The first five chapters of Sustrans’ manual to inform best practice among engineers and planners, and provide a concise and visual guide to cycle-friendly design. The chapters offer further detail on the concepts, ideas and best practice already outlined in the ‘Handbook for cycle-friendly design’.
The draft chapters cover:
Sustrans is welcoming feedback prior to updating the above later in 2015 (comments by end of May 2015), and will release the remaining chapters over the next few months.
A straightforward, one-page, illustrated briefing on how to turn the vision for 20 mph into reality. This is what you do: “Democratically create and agree a vision of 20mph streets. Then engage and implement it. Continue engaging about it with residents and enforce it for better driver compliance.”
A round-up of Europe’s progress on road safety, with priorities for the future. These include encouraging the adoption of both “a clear hierarchy of transport users […] with pedestrians and cyclists at the top of the hierarchy”; and an EU-wide maximum speed of 30km/h [about 20mph] in residential areas and areas with high levels of pedestrians and cyclists.
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There has been much conflicting evidence over the years on the effect that traffic pollution has on cyclists. Some say that cyclists are better off than drivers, some that they are worse off and others that (not surprisingly) off-road routes are preferable to heavily trafficked roads. The subject has come up again recently with a report from the Environmental Audit Committee (House of Commons) on its inquiry into air quality, and anew study on physical activity and pollution:
Report, with recommendations, following the Committee’s Inquiry earlier in the year. It champions Low Emission Zones, and the need for planning laws to protect children from air pollution. It also says that legal air quality obligations should be included in new infrastructure and road building plans; and recommends the launch of an independent public inquiry to look at the required action on air pollution.
Committee Chair, Joan Walley MP, says: “Ministers must pluck up the political courage to take the potentially unpopular decisions necessary to get the most polluting vehicles off the road and encourage more people to walk, cycle or take public transport.”
The report also notes the failure of the Government to meet legally binding limits for concentrations of major pollutants and to follow recommendations made by the Committee in earlier reports.
An academic study of the short-term health effects of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) in healthy people, and any possible modifying effect of physical activity (PA). Having tested 28 participants at rest and cycling in different scenarios, the authors conclude that: “In a healthy population, intermittent moderate PA has beneficial effects on pulmonary function even when performed in a highly polluted environment. This study also suggests that particulate air pollution is inducing pulmonary and systemic inflammatory responses.”
Published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine,0:1-10. Doi: 10.1136/oemed-2014-102106
See also a useful summary and commentary on the study from Adrian Davis as part of his 'Essential Evidence on a Page' series for Bristol City Council.
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Annual health surveys are a useful source of information about levels of physical activity and the prevalence of conditions that regular cycling could help to alleviate. Both Scotland and England have recently published their 2013 reports:
A highly detailed report on the health of people living in Scotland, including a section on physical activity. Finds, for example, that: “In 2013, 64% of adults met the guideline to do at least 150 minutes moderate or 75 minutes vigorous activity over a week. One in five (21%) did fewer than 30 minutes of moderate or 15 minutes vigorous activity per week.”
The latest in a series of surveys designed to monitor trends in the nation’s health. A key finding is:
“Around a quarter of adults in 2013 were obese, (26 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women). Being overweight was more common than being obese and 41 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women were overweight, but not obese.”
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A report on 74 interventions (in 18 areas) that are being discussed or piloted somewhere around the world to tackle the growing obesity crisis and which could, potentially, become the components in a strategy. The researchers found sufficient data on 44 of these interventions, in 16 areas.
Setting the scene, the authors say that: more than 2.1 billion people - nearly 30% of the global population or two and a half times the number of adults and children who are undernourished - are overweight or obese; obesity is responsible for about 5% of all deaths a year worldwide; and it costs the global economy roughly $2 trillion annually, or 2.8% of global GDP - nearly equivalent to the global impact of smoking or of armed violence, war, and terrorism.
Concludes that as many sectors as possible need to engage in tackling the problem through a systemic, sustained portfolio of initiatives, including “… restructuring urban and education environments to facilitate physical activities.”
A 12-page document setting out five ways to improve child health outcomes. One of its recommendations is to “encourage physical activity for all children and young people – with and without disabilities – by building on the Olympic legacy, creating more cycle lanes and promoting 20 mph speed limits”.
A ‘think piece’ exploring the extent to which England’s public health structures are able to respond to our ageing population. Amongst its recommendations, it says: “Local health strategies should prioritise long-term health initiatives over short-term target hitting. For example, Ageing Well strategies could usefully focus on increasing physical activity earlier in life to ensure people have an active, healthy old age.”
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A report based on a survey that collected data from European citizens in the 28 member states on their transport habits, opinions and perceptions. 8% of the people surveyed said the mode they used most often on a typical day is a bike. Naturally, the Eurobarometer found that people cycle most in the Netherlands (36%), followed by Denmark (23%), Hungary (22%), Sweden (17%) and Finland (14%). Malta (0%), Cyprus (1%), Greece and Ireland (2%) are at the bottom. At 3% each, Spain and UK are way down the table too. Interestingly, the gender split for the EU as a whole is even, unlike in the UK where males over 17-years-old make around 24 cycle trips per year on average and females around 7.
For more of the results, see ECF’s analysis.
A picture, gathered from a scan of all publicly available documents, of how much European money each EU country has made available for cycling at national and regional level, explicitly, implicitly and indirectly.
Do not be alarmed to see the Netherlands and Denmark with €0.00 against their name: the report explains that these ‘traditional’ cycling countries “did not allocate any significant EU resources for cycling explicitly, most probably because they use national and/or regional resources for these measures.”
Of the UK (and Greece and Sweden) it says, “There was further good news in Greece, Sweden and UK where dedicated resources for cycling were allocated for 2014 - 2020 (even if the amounts were limited).”
A study quantifying the contribution that the cycling sector makes to job creation in Europe. Takes multiple cycling-related activities into account, e.g. bike retail, bicycle manufacturing, bike infrastructure investment, cycle tourism and bicycle services.
Found that around 655,000 people work in the cycling related sectors in the EU (mostly in cycle tourism), and concludes that doubling cycling’s modal share would create 400,000 additional jobs, reaching a total of more than 1 million jobs in the cycling economy.
The study also suggests that cycling has a higher employment intensity per million of turnover than other transport sectors, thus offering a higher job creation potential. Furthermore, cycling jobs are more geographically stable than other sectors, benefit local economies, and offer access to the labour market to lowly qualified workers.
A collection of case studies from 11 European countries, analysing fiscality (i.e. tax regimes, largely) that apply to commuting. Offers specific country-by-country recommendations on how fiscal regimes can be used by governments to create a better balanced mobility – i.e. more cycling, less driving. Looks at, for instance, Belgium’s cycling mileage allowance for home-work travel and the tax exemptions for the provision of bikes by companies to their employees in the UK and in the Netherlands.
Research showing that: 3.3 million people watched the Tour de France in Yorkshire and 1.5 million in Cambridge, Essex and London; that the race brought in £128 million for the host areas, with Yorkshire netting a £102 million economic boost; and that the event had an inspirational effect - the post-event survey suggested as many as 30% of spectators have increased their cycling levels.
The report also highlighted CTC's Otley Spectator Hub, an inclusive cycling session for people of all ages and abilities both to watch the race from a vantage point and try out adapted cycles.
Are you cycling from shop to shop desperately hunting for the ideal Christmas present for a 0-6 year old? Go online instead and buy this page-turner!
There are few cyclists who won’t feel upset for young Dominick when Fred, his magic bicycle, is stolen, and who won’t cheer when his Uncle Tom the magician comes to the rescue.
The text and illustrations are engaging, and the plot a joy for any cycle campaigner (budding or otherwise).
26 full colour pages (16cms square). £5. A third of profits from the book go to the London Cycling Campaign charity. Available exclusively from LCC’s shop.
Confirmed keynote speakers include:
The conference format includes 'Speed Networking' case study discussion forums, workshops, panel discussions, case study and key-note presentations taking place over the two days.
Wide area 20 mph limits are being adopted in most of the UK’s iconic cities and there is pressure for 20 mph to become the national default limit where people live, work, shop and learn.
The recognition of benefits from setting such a standard now go far beyond road danger reduction. They include a more attractive public realm, public health, active travel, noise and emission reduction, traffic reduction.
Studies and presentations at the conference will include:
Speakers include:
The conference will be hosted by Cambridge City Council and bring together presenters from local authorities, academic, NGO and consulting organisations.
Situated at the crossroads of Eurovelo bike routes 6 and 1, two major cyclo-tourism routes, Nantes will seek to meet four key objectives as it hosts the next Velo-city event:
