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Big Ben © Simon MacMichaelSustrans calls on next government to provide sustained, long-term active travel funding
With a general election looming on 6 December, Sustrans has called for sustained long-term funding for cycling and walking, as well as urging the next government to take leadership in reducing emissions from motor traffic.
Launched today, the Sustrans General Election 2019 manifesto asserts at the outset that “climate change is the biggest long-term threat facing the UK” and that the election provides “an opportunity for political parties to support action that will lower carbon emissions by making it easier for everyone to walk and cycle.”
Sustrans has created five key ‘asks’ “for the next government to commit to and help more people reduce their over-reliance on the car and instead walk or cycle for everyday journeys.” Those are:
Ask 1 – Provide sustained long-term investment in walking and cycling, to support an updated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, and the National Cycle Network
Ask 2 – Commit to a 20-minute neighbourhood planning principle for all cities and towns. This is designed so all people living in cities and towns are within a 20-minute walk from their everyday services and needs
Ask 3 – Transform the journey to school to help children travel safely and independently by foot, scooter or cycle
Ask 4 – Ensure places are accessible for everyone
Ask 5 – Establish a UK-wide Greenways Taskforce and Greenways Citizen’s Assembly so that communities can develop a vision for, and put in place a Greenways Programme.
Commenting on the launch of the manifesto in a blog post, the sustainable transport charity’s CEO Xavier Brice said: “Sustrans has set out a positive vision of change to all politicians ahead of this general election.
“Our vision is a society where the way we travel creates healthier places and happier lives for everyone.”
He added: “This manifesto sets out clear asks for the next UK government to show leadership on curbing road transport emissions and make walking and cycling the easiest and most convenient options for more people, regardless of gender, age, abilities and ethnicity as a matter of urgency.
“Investment in good quality walking and cycling infrastructure is essential to making our nation happier and healthier and ensuring that the future is sustainable for generations to come.”
As the main parties launch their own manifestos in the coming days, we will be reporting on what commitments – if any – they are making to sustainable travel, and to cycling in particular.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
The principle of walkable neighbourhoods that I know from the literature calls for everyone to be within a 5 minute walk of daily needs - milk, paper, bread, fags, etc - not 20 minutes!
My PE teacher at school used to go in his car to the cake shop at lunch. It was maybe 400 meters ?
People are lazy and until the cost or inconvenience of driving puts them off - they will drive.
I've even seen people walking their dogs from their car. A country lane too. Weird woman.
I have never driven and so cycle a lot to supermarkets and for town centre shopping and most of the time the cycle parking puts me closer to the entrance than most of the car park at the supermarket, closer than the parent parking almost all of the time. And in town centres, right in the middle of the shopping area.
Sometimes the provision is difficult to find, and it has improved over the years, and occasioanally it will be nearer the exit rather than the entrance. But very rarely full.
I definetely do not miss multi storey car parks, stinkey staircases and lifts.
Maybe it's just my local Lidl then. A few front-wheel-bender hoops welded to the outside of the trolley cage, no way to secure the frame itself, no shelter, and bloody awkward to negotiate. Yes, it is closer to the doors, but it's useless, worse in fact.
The nearby Intu shopping centre - a popular car cruising venue accessible via a network of multi-lane roundabouts, does have a number of bare metal Sheffield bike racks, all located just yards from the nearest shelter. It's as if they don't want to encourage cyclists - I've never seen one. Even the Halfords - customers transport their bikes on their car!
@Rich_cb There is also the convenience and worry factor, at least compared with cycling.
My local supermarket is in easy cycling distance. Car parking is a very obvious and integral part of the site design, the invitation to drive is made even before the supermarket was built - it would have been a consideration before the land was purchased; is there room for parking?
No surprise, it takes moments arriving by car to park up conveniently and securely.
Cycle parking provision is an inadequate afterthought, inconvenient, physically awkward, time consuming, exposed to the weather and to damage. It is a stressful experience, best avoided.
Strangely my experience is the opposite, my local supermarket has a huge car park but poorly designed infrastructure means you can queue for 20+minutes to get out, that's longer than it takes me to cycle there. The bike rack is right next to the shop and under a small amount of cover.
I find not having to think about parking one of the best things about cycling.
I think part of the issue with car use for ridiculously short trips is the very low opportunity cost of such a trip.
You've paid your VED, Insurance and VAT etc upfront. Your depreciation cost won't really be affected by an extra mile or two. The cost in fuel is a few pennies.
If we scrapped VED, insurance tax and VAT on new car purchases and raised the exact same amount of money through road charging I reckon you'd see a huge change in behaviour, if that 100 yards to the shops cost you £5 you'd be far more likely to walk surely?
Politically impossible at the moment of course.
even with permeable places for bikes, I know people when faced with just a 1.5mile bike commute on a traffic free cycle path, no hills or anything, will still choose to drive their car,even though its often twice the distance instead
Hopefully CB will be asking his fellow panellists on Question Time whether they will be supporting the cheapest, most effective method of improving health, environment and congestion. I have no doubt they will all say that they support it in principle, but they couldn't possibly sign up to something so radical. So radical that that hotbed of sedition, the BMA are calling for it.
Except that it isn't just planning, but the inherent laziness of a great deal of the population. My neighbours will get the car out to go to the shops or to the takeaway, in the village I live in. That's about 800 metres tops! I consider it too close to bother getting my bike out, and just walk it, and yet I have neighbours who will GET THE CAR OUT
Well unfortunately, it is easier to get the car out. You can go down the shops in yer onsie and fluffy slippers it seems. The area between a car and facilites does seem to be an extension of the house for many people, weather that's taxiing kids or shopping.
If I were king, I'd make a law against wearing a onesie and slippers in a shop or other public establishment.
Mrs dobbo will drive her car to our town centre, just ten miniutes' walk away. I've given up trying to convince her otherwise. She supports active and sustainable travel, and knows all the issues, but won't put herself out. If she can't be persuaded what hope of getting other people to change?
That is why sensible places - in the Netherlands, Denmark, Waltham Forest, etc, make town centres permeable to bikes (and pedestrians and other active travellers) and bloody difficult for people in cars. That makes it easier to use healthy ways of moving, and stops people getting run over as much.