The Cycle to Work scheme should be rebranded “Cycle for Health” and opened up to low-income employees, freelance workers, and pensioners, as part of a series of reforms urgently required to tackle inequality and lack of access to active travel, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) has said.

A report published by the cross-party group of MPs this morning, assessing ‘social justice’ in active travel, including the barriers that prevent people from cycling, walking, and wheeling, also called on the government to tackle pavement parking, remove discriminatory access barriers from cycleways and footpaths, and ensure that inclusive mobility is included as a legal design standard for all active travel projects.

The report, authored by Tom Cohen and Ersilia Verlinghieri of the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, explored what the APPGCW described as the “wide disparities in opportunities to travel actively”, based on gender, age, disability, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, economic status, and residential setting.

Nine expert witnesses gave evidence to the inquiry at a parliamentary hearing, while the report’s findings were also based on evidence from nearly 100 individuals and organisations.

Cyclists at traffic lights, London
Cyclists at traffic lights, London (Image Credit: Simon MacMichael)

The report, noting that government ambitions for cycling and walking have “stalled”, identified “three principal barriers” to active travel in the UK, including the uneven provision of “appropriate environments”, the uneven distribution of and access to cycles and mobility aids, and unsupportive environments and culture.

The high cost of cycles and mobility aids, unsafe streets, lack of inclusive infrastructure, and “systemic underinvestment” were also highlighted as “key obstacles” that disproportionately affect marginalised communities from participating in active travel.

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According to the inquiry, for actions addressing social injustice in active travel to have their “full impact”, three fundamental changes are required: reducing road danger, predictable and sustained funding, and for all active travel infrastructure to be of a high standard.

This sustained investment and collaboration across government departments is key, the report says, to tackling inactivity among disadvantaged groups.

Based on the inquiry’s findings, the report published nine key recommendations, which the APPGCW says will guide its campaign efforts in parliament.

The first of these recommendations involves reducing the financial barriers to cycling by reforming the Cycle to Work scheme to enable access for low-income workers, freelance workers, and pensioners, who are all ineligible for the current initiative.

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The government’s Cycle to Work scheme – which this month was described by the Daily Telegraph as an opportunity for “middle-aged men in Lycra earning six figures” to buy “fancy new toys” – has come in for criticism in recent years, amid claims it is “sucking the lifeblood out of cycle shops”.

Last year, the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT) and senior figures from cycling retailers met with MPs from the APPGCW to make their case about the “need for urgent systematic change” of Cycle to Work.

And now, focusing on the accessibility, rather than the business side of things, the cross-party group’s report has called for Cycle to Work to be rebranded as “Cycle for Health”, opening it up to more people.

This shift, the report says, would help make cycling affordable by “supporting low-income individuals, subsidising e-cycles, recognising adapted cycles as mobility aids under Motability, expanding low-cost cycle hire schemes, and capping cycle hangar fees”.

Another reform urgently required, according to the report, is the need to clamp down on pavement parking, which disproportionately affects disabled people and parents with young children, the APPGCW pointing out that a government consultation on this issue has gone unanswered since 2020.

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“We urge the government to respond to their overdue pavement parking consultation, make unnecessary obstruction a civil offence, empowering local authorities to enforce penalties, and ensure accessible streets,” the report says.

The report also urged the government to make inclusive mobility a minimum standard for designing infrastructure “to ensure active travel infrastructure works for everyone”, and called for the removal of discriminatory barriers from cycleways and footpaths while strengthening action against antisocial motorcycle use.

“Access control barriers often block disabled people and those with non-standard cycles while failing to stop antisocial motorcycle use,” the report noted. “New guidance should focus on inclusive design, removal of historic barriers, and tougher enforcement against illegal riding.”

Cyclists in London male and female in cycle lane
Cyclists in London male and female in cycle lane (Image Credit: Simon MacMichael)

Among the APPGCW’s other recommendations are the need to provide stable, long-term funding for grassroots organisations to increase participation, better data collection, ensuring UK-wide access to free cycle training, widening its current reach, communicating with diverse community voices when planning projects, and building social justice into performance management in local transport.

“Walking, wheeling, and cycling should be available to everyone, but right now, too many people are excluded,” Labour MP Fabian Hamilton, the co-chair of the APPGCW, said in a statement marking the report’s publication.

“If we are serious about increasing active travel, we must address the systemic barriers that prevent millions from participating. This report provides clear, actionable solutions to make active travel truly inclusive. We will be working hard in parliament to push for change.”

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Caroline Julian, brand and engagement director at British Cycling, which supported the report’s work along with solicitor Leigh Day, said: “Cycling has the power to transform lives, but too often, the people who stand to benefit the most are unable to take part. The barriers outlined in this report are therefore a matter of social justice that need to be addressed now.

“We must ensure that cost, infrastructure, and safety concerns make walking, wheeling, and cycling truly accessible to all. Together with our partner, Leigh Day, we wholeheartedly support these recommendations and urge national and local governments to adopt them with urgency.”

Meanwhile, Naseem Akhtar, CEO at Saheli Hub, a Birmingham community group that encourages women from disadvantaged communities to cycle, added: “Community organisations like Saheli Hub play a vital role in empowering women, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, to access walking, wheeling, and cycling.

“However, the biggest barrier we face is the lack of long-term funding. Short-term grants force us into a cycle of uncertainty, limiting our ability to build sustainable, impactful programmes.

“Community-led initiatives are often best placed to reach underrepresented groups, but we cannot continue this important work without financial stability.”