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Department
of the Environment, Transport and the Regions - National
Cycling Strategy
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We
have pleasure in including details of the Department of Environments
National Cycling Strategy for the UK. This is a very extensive
document and subsequently we have tried to assist by creating
a simple index of content of the document. Subject headings
are:
3:-
Cycling and Sustainable Transport
3.1:-
Introduction
3.1.1:- The following section introduces detailed discussion of the need to preserve
and restore sustainable travel patterns through land-use planning,
highways planning and specific sustainability projects. As a
whole, the National Cycling Strategy stresses the need to create
the conditions in which cycling is made more attractive than
using private motor vehicles. This requires more sustainable
patterns of development, as well as the promotion of less polluting
transport modes. Cycling fits well within the context of the
UK Sustainable Development Strategy (Sustainable Development:
the UK Strategy, Cmnd 2426, January 1994, HMSO).
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3.2:- Cycling and sustainable travel
3.2.1:- Cycling can contribute to a wide range of sustainability benefits. to
achieve them the National Cycling Strategy will seek to:
- encourage
more people to cycle and so reduce pollution, enhance local
environments and improve health;
- secure
a shift from cards to bicycles, whilst ensuring that the
space released is not filled up by more cars;
- increase
accessibility to amenities and services by bicycle;
- make
cycling safer.
3.2.2:- Cycling must be seen as an integral part of a sustainable transport strategy,
rather than a bolt-on extra. Along with walking and public transport
it is an essential ingredient for an approach that seeks to
encourage more energy-efficient, less resource-consuming means
of transport.
3.2.3:- To secure the benefits of a significant increase in cycling will require
changes to reflect the full costs of, and reduce dependence
on, the car. This can be done by:
- ensuring
that the full, external costs of car use are paid by the
user;
- using
land-use planning policies to reduce the need to travel;
- giving
high priority to local accessibility in location decisions
for jobs, shopping, education, health, leisure and other
facilities;
- having
comprehensive, co-ordinated, safe and reliable public transport;
- ensuring
that transport planners and public transport operators enable
cycling to be combined with use of public transport.
3.2.4:- The Government has already adopted policies to increase the real cost
of car use and to integrate land-use and transport to reduce
reliance on the car (PPG13: Transport).
3.2.5:- Sustainable transport is the key for Local Agenda 21, who action plans
should promote both cycling and walking and involve local communities
in the decision making process. (Local Agenda 21 is named after
Agenda 21, the manifesto for sustainable development which was
agreed by 170 countries including the UK at the 1992 “Earth
Summit”.)
3.2.6:- However, to achieve a more sustainable pattern of transport, new indicators
for assessing the sustainability of transport need to be developed.
These should emphasise accessibility, reduced car dependence,
and reduced energy use and pollution. Such indicators need to
be meaningful and usable as performance measures; capable of
indicating who gains and who loses; and demonstrate the impact
that new policies have on our quality of life.
- DOT/DoE
to consider how indicators of sustainability for appraisal
and monitoring of transport projects and schemes might be
developed
- Department
of Health to monitor physical activity in relation to cycling
and/or the rate at which it is taken up as an “exercise
prescription”.
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3.3:- Planning for local transport
3.3.1:- An effective sustainable transport policy needs clear overall goals, not
only for helping to develop options, but also in order to assess
and later to monitor performance. In order to assess the performance
of such a strategy, indicators are needed to measure the effects
of alternatives. To design schemes that will meet key objectives
requires new techniques, such as for assessing relative accessibility
by different means of transport. It is also essential that all
schemes are assessed on a common basis, allowing cycling schemes
to compete on even terms with road schemes or public transport.
The monitoring procedures for testing the effectiveness of transport
packages will need to include a review of the ability of the
Common Appraisal Framework to reflect the value of cycling.
3.3.2:- Increasingly local transport strategies are based on concerns about sustainability
and generally include a strong emphasis on demand management,
improved public transport and more cycling and walking. This
provides an enabling framework for local cycling strategies,
and can assist both cyclists and pedestrians and reduce the
conflict between them. Indeed, increased cycle use can help
achieve key objectives, especially those to increase access
opportunities, reduce congestion and pollution, improve the
local environment, improve health and help implement Local Agenda
21.
3.3.3:- Local transport strategies, in addition to providing infrastructure, will
need to address the key areas where there is the greatest potential
to achieve a transfer from the car to cycling, such as trips
to work and to school. Local transport strategies should also
address leisure travel and ways of increasing choice, such as
combining public transport and cycling.
Local
authorities to review, with the DOT, whether sustainability
is adequately reflected in recent methods for assessing both
transport strategies and individual schemes. This approach will
require a review of the role of the existing Cost Benefit Analysis
technique.
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3.4:-
Cycling as a means of local transport
3.4.1:- Local strategies should start with clear objectives and targets for cycling.
They should be prepared in close consultation with cyclists’
organisations and other transport user groups, and be integrated
with other local strategies, including development plans, transport
policies and programmes and Local Agenda 21. There should also
be links to other strategies, such as health, recreation and
tourism.
3.4.2:- Integration with land-use and transport planning and traffic management
means:
- encouraging
development patterns and the location of developments which
ensure that short strips to work, places of education and
local facilities can be made by bicycle;
- identifying
a comprehensive cycle network and safeguarding opportunities;
- linking
strategies to cycle audits of all proposed road building
or widening, and traffic management schemes;
- linking
cycling and public transport;
- ensuring
local authorities take the lead in promoting cycling, working
closely with others (e.g. employers, health authorities,
educational establishments and retailers).
- Local
authorities, for all their functions (health, education,
highways etc.), to set local targets for increasing cycling
- Local
authorities to produce their own Green Transport Plans to
show how cycling fits in with other transport policies.
3.5.1:- Cycling should be promoted as an integral part of plans by employers to
reduce the land and maintenance costs of car parking provision,
to reduce car use and to secure health benefits for their employees.
This means developing facilities such as secure parking and
showers, and providing financial incentives for employees to
encourage cycle use to and within work.
- Commuter
plans to be promoted as effective ways of reducing the impact
of demand for car travel and to encourage cycling
- Consideration
to be given to reallocating car parking space to cycle parking
as a potentially cost efficient use of land by commercial
concerns
- The
tax system to be altered to give incentives for cycle use
relative to the costs of car use for trips both to and within
work, including application to travel allowances for local
Councillors
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3.6:- Cycling in urban areas, especially town
centres
3.6.1:- There is a need to reassess the allocation of space and amount of facilities
provided, especially in town centres, for the most space and
energy-efficient means of transport: walking and cycling. Proposals
for reallocation, improved access and improved facilities need
to be an integral part of a strategy for improvements to the
environment and traffic management in town and local centres.
To achieve this, there will be a need to develop partnerships
with retailers and other service providers to promote more sustainable
means of access for people and for goods delivery. Better access
and parking for cyclists should be an integral part of such
a strategy and should be recognised in funding criteria for
local transport strategies and for regeneration funds (e.g.
Single Regeneration Budget).
- Town
centre management action plans to include proposals for
improved access, cycling facilities, publicity and promotion
- Local
authorities to work with employers and retailers to develop
easy access and secure cycle parking in town centres, at
stores and other attractors
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3.7:- Cycling in the countryside
3.7.1:- Leisure cycling has great potential for growth, it can be a stimulus to
tourism, it is a high-quality way to enjoy the countryside and
a good way to introduce people to cycling for their everyday
transport needs. To encourage more leisure cycling there needs
to be small-scale improvements, especially near to where people
live, followed by better signposting, marketing and information.
Flagship leisure routes, using quiet roads or disused railway
paths, can increase the profile and boost leisure cycling in
town and countryside.
- Safe
local links to be promoted between town and countryside
- Recreational
and leisure cycling to be promoted as an alternative to
travel by car
- The
multi-purpose value of cycling investment for health, leisure
and transport interests to be recognised.
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3.8:- Longer journeys
3.8.1:- For longer journeys, bicycles can combine very well with public transport,
especially rail. With provision at both ends of a longer public
transport journey, this combination can offer competitive door
to door transport choice. Combining cycling with public transport
requires improved provision and a strategic approach to its
development. There are no legal or practical constraints to
prevent such improvements, which can also benefit other passengers.
However,
planning and co-operation are essential to ensure that space
on trains is used flexibly, and that secure parking and effective
information is provided at stations.
- Ensure,
as railway rolling stock is refurbished or renewed, that
there is sufficient flexible space on all passenger trains
to carry bicycles
- Plan
to provide secure cycle parking at all public transport
interchanges by 2000
3.9.1:- The available resources will need to be more targeted on cycling to bring
about a significant change in cycling's share of all journeys,
and to counteract the effects of long-term under-investment
in cycling. TPP “packages” (in England) and other programmes
need to be more cycle orientated as part of a cost efficient
and integrated approach to transport. Resources within other
programmes or projects should contribute to the objective of
growth in opportunities to cycle. The shift of priority (or
resources) to those schemes which provide for alternatives such
as cycling, rather than those which simply increase motor traffic
capacity, will need to be maintained. Other sources will include
partnerships in the fields of health, education, urban regeneration
and in the countryside, as well as private developers, sponsorship
and the National Lottery, and public transport improvements.
3.9.2:- Above all, there needs to be a cultural change whereby local and national
Government and all their partners “think bike” as part of sustainability.
A successful cycling policy will only happen if it is owned
by all the “stakeholders”, not driven only by minority interests.
The stakeholders include the community at large. Campaigns like
“Travelwise” are a start towards building the new “think bike
culture” as part of an integrated transport policy.
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