Investing in cycling pays off, but ministers
are ignoring the evidence | Environment |
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2020/feb/12/investing-in-cycling-pays-off-but-ministers-are-ignoring-the-evidence
as of Sun Feb 23 2020 22:03:05 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
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Bike blog
Transport policy
Investing in cycling pays off, but ministers are ignoring the evidence
A report shows that when bike lanes are built, people cycle more and drive
less
Laura Laker Wed 12 Feb 2020 07.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 12 Feb 2020 07.03 GMT
The most successful routes were segregated from motor traffic, rather than
just painted onto roads. Photograph: Joe Dunckley/Alamy
If you took a time machine back to John Dobson Street in central Newcastle
in 2013, you’d be struck by its transformation in the years since.
An inhospitable dual carriageway has been replaced by a single carriageway
with wider pavements and a 400m bike lane. The result: a fourfold increase in
people cycling along the route.
reveal how just 14 disconnected cycle schemes in eight English cities, part
of the government’s Cycle City Ambition Fund programme (CCAF), have cut
440,000 car trips per year, replaced 2m kilometres of driving with cycling
trips and made cycling attractive for a broader demographic.
This week the government announced £5bn over five years for cycling and
buses, including 250 miles of cycle routes, which they say will be built to
tough new design standards. Although Boris Johnson said on Tuesday in the
Commons that just £350m of that would be for cycling, this appeared to be a
mistake. The DfT says there will not be any clarification on how much money
will go where until the spending review
The transport announcement was met with derision from the opposition for
its piecemeal nature, though Johnson said more money was coming in this
month’s budget. However, the new CCAF report highlights how important it is
for the government to build quality cycle routes that are more than just
white paint.
and yet it suffers the most myopic planning. So it was that in 2013, just
eight English cities and regions received money to spend, sharpish, on
cycling infrastructure and “softer measures” such as training and promotion.
The lucky few sprang into action. They were: Birmingham, Cambridge, Greater
Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Bristol, Bath and north-east Somerset
and south Gloucestershire, and West Yorkshire Combined Authority (Leeds,
Bradford and neighbouring areas).
They came up with a mixed bag of cycle superhighways, shorter segregated
routes, “mixed routes” of quiet roads, green space and segregated paths, city
centre schemes, canal towpaths and junction treatments. Some were very good;
others were not.
The initial findings were city-wide increases in cycling in all eight areas
and, in some places, a decrease in car journeys. But their success varied.
These are interim figures, with work on the final report just starting.
Their lessons are:
• Build it and they will cycle more – and drive less. The report’s authors
note a very clear cycling uptick in cities that invested in cycling
infrastructure, many with a similar magnitude of reduction in car use. At
least 440,000 car trips per year have switched to cycle trips because of the
new routes, or roughly 2m kilometres of driving. Some of the increase was a
continuation of an upward trend in cycling before investment, which means
many cities were “pushing at an open door”.
• All cycle lanes are not created equal. Consistent, kerb-protected routes
are a better investment than the less ambitious white-paint-on-the-road
routes, if you want more people using them. The most successful routes were
away from motor traffic entirely, including improved towpaths in Birmingham,
where cycling increased by 157%. In Manchester, a decent-quality protected
cycle route on Wilmslow Road has prompted increases of between 85% and 176%
since completion – and numbers are still climbing. On Manchester’s Broughton
cycleway, a lower-quality route “protected” by plastic wands and “armadillos”
(little rubber blocks bolted to the road), there was, however, little change.
• Better cycle routes mean greater diversity. The new infrastructure seems
to attract people who are more representative of the general population.
Surveys found 18% of new riders were from ethnic minority groups compared
with 8% of existing cyclists and 14% of the general population. About 43% of
new cyclists were women, compared with 33% of existing riders. The findings
also suggest more new cyclists were from households with lower than average
earnings than existing riders.
• A bike lane here and there isn’t enough to improve safety, or perceptions
of safety. For that, you need a network. Surveys from the eight areas showed
little improvement in how safe people felt cycling there – particularly where
children were concerned. This is hardly surprising, as most changes were only
to a road or two in each location.
• Cycling investment brings health benefits. Half of people who already
cycled and four-fifths of new cyclists say they noticed improvements in their
wellbeing because of the new cycle routes.
The government has admitted that it is just 40% of the way to its target of
doubling cycling by 2025, and that “substantial further investment” is
needed.
The charity Cycling UK says that to meet the target, the government must
invest a further £6-8bn by 2025 on top of the £2.4bn the government believes
will be spent by 2021, as well as decent new design standards for cycle
infrastructure.
If our time machine could travel seven years into the future, we should
expect to see similar people-friendly transformations in town and city
centres up and down the country. Boris Johnson told the Commons yesterday
that he wanted a new generation of cyclists to “pedal safely and happily to
school and work in tree-dappled sunlight on their own network of segregated
paths”. The excuses for not building that network are getting harder to make.
Topics
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Bike blog
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