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(The
text below is reprinted
with
the kind permission of Sustrans
from the Official
Guide to the National Cycle Network.)
 The
National Cycle Network is a magnificent visionary scheme passing
through all the major urban centres of the United Kingdom and
linking these cities via 10,000 miles of traffic-free routes,
quiet lanes and traffic-calmed city streets to form a comprehensive
cycling network right across the country. It is a traffic partnership
project par excellence - hundreds of bodies are involved, including
local authorities, utility companies, landowners, heritage and
wildlife bodies, rail operators and central government.
The origins of Sustrans, an abbreviated form of Sustainable Transport,
can be traced back to the significant date of July 7th 1977 (7/7/77)
when a group of Bristol environmentalists, driven by a desire
to do something about the dangers to the environment recently
highlighted by the oil crisis, set up a cycling group known as
Cyclebag. Within two years the group started a programme of building
cycle routes which has continued unabated, although now on a vastly
expanded scale, over the last 20 years.
The dismantled railway line running between Bristol and Bath was
the first railway path they converted for use by cyclists and
walkers. The five-mile stretch near Saltford was where Sustrans'
great enterprise started, a vision initially made possible by
back-breaking work undertaken by enthusiastic volunteers. Since
that modest beginning, what started as a single five-mile linear
route will become a 10,000-mile network covering the whole country,
built at a cost of more than £400 million.
Sustrans is motivated by a desire to find solutions to the problems
caused by the huge and relentless growth of traffic. Deaths, injuries,
noise, pollution, the destruction of the environment and the creation
of a lost generation of unfit children who will never have known
the freedom offered by the bicycle, are all problems inherent
in the traffic growth over the past 25 years. Every prediction
indicates that things will get worse before they get better.
 At
the heart of the issue is the status and safety of cyclists and
pedestrians in relation to the car. Proportionately, far more
people cycle in Sweden, a country which is much colder, in Germany,
which has a higher car ownership, and in Switzerland, which is
considerably more hilly. Mile for mile, a cyclist in Britain is
eight times more likely to be hurt in an accident than in Holland
or Denmark.
In 1976 Denmark had the worst child accident rate in Europe -
this led to an Act of Parliament which required local authorities
to build safe cycle routes to school. Denmark is now one of the
safest countries for cyclists in Europe. By contrast, Britain
currently has the worst child accident rate in Europe and had
to wait until 1998 before a Transport Bill was introduced that
even mentioned Safe Routes to School. Britain has lost 30 years
of cycle planning and Sustrans is pursuing strategies to bring
cycling back into the public domain.
Following
its success on the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, Sustrans made
full use of the various employment schemes available in the early
1980s such as Youth Opportunities Programmes and the Community
Programme with hundreds of young people helping to build more
paths in other cities such as Plymouth and Glasgow. At one stage,
Sustrans was in the unusual position of having just one paid employee
(John Grimshaw) and 800 people working on these very useful employment
programmes! Many of those who supervised the early gangs have
since gone on to become Regional Managers, responsible for building
the Network. No one can accuse them of lacking hands-on experience!
Negotiations with British Waterways began in 19080. Although there
are 2,000 miles of canal towpaths in the country, only a portion
are passable by bike and in those days the useable mileage was
even smaller. The Kennet & Avon Canal near Bath was covered
in a foot of impassable sludge during the winter months. This
was to be Sustrans' first towpath project and such was the state
of the canal banks when work began that all new volunteers were
told that their first job was to drive the dumper truck straight
into the canal then retrieve it. The reason? The dumper truck
had so often slipped into the water from the muddy 'path' that
knowing how to get it out again was a most important skill to
acquire! Over five years (1984-88) the path was rebuilt in stone
from Bath all the way to Devizes. It is now tremendously popular
as both a walking and cycling route.
Sustrans' reputation as path builders was growing year on year.
More and more cities such as Derby, York, Liverpool and Sunderland
had paths built through them. It became Sustrans' intention to
have one quality route in each major city to show the government
that the creation of attractive, safe cycle routes generated thousand
of cycle journeys that might not otherwise have taken place, and
enabled huge numbers of the public to learn to cycle again.
Great use was made of recycled materials in the construction of
these cycle paths: bridges were made of concrete railway sleepers,
sculptures were created from old JCBs and seats from wooden sleepers.
Deliberate attempts were made to include attractive features such
as causeways through cuttings, allowing ponds to be formed adjacent
to the path, the creation of curves to break up the monotony of
dead straight lines and bending the route to weave a way through
mature trees. This concept of making each ride full of interesting
features became known as the ''ravelling landscape''
After 15 years' experience of building paths, Sustrans began to
capture the public imagination and launched a Supporter Programme.
Supporter numbers rose from 200 in 1993 to 40,000 in 1999. By
1995 Sustrans was in a position to make a realistic bid to the
Lottery for Millennium funds for the National Cycle Network, a
vast and visionary scheme to create a 6,500-mile countrywide network
of safe cycle routes by the year 2005 with 2,500 miles of the
routes built by the year 2000. (The figure of 6,500 miles has
since increased to 10,000 due to the enthusiasm for the project
shown by local authorities all over the country).
The bid was successful and Sustrans was awarded £43.5 million.
Although this is a huge amount, it only represents 20% of the
total cost of the first phase of the project and the remainder
of the funding comes from a variety of sources including local
authorities, development agencies, the European Union, the Highways
Agency, the cycle trade and industry, and from generous contributions
from Sustrans supporters.
Britain's roads are the busiest in Europe and predictions are
that the situation will get worse, particularly in the countryside.
Sustrans' aims in creating the Network are threefold: it should
be attractive for novices, memorable for visitors and useful for
everyday cyclists. The routes also promote a programme of sculpture
and bring great economic benefit to many areas of the country.
The National Cycle Network is designed to encourage the public
to start cycling again. Sustrans believes that to persuade non-cyclists
to take up cycling it is essential to provide them with safe,
traffic-free routes so they can regain confidence. These special
paths can then connect (ideally) traffic-calmed urban roads with
a network of routes through the countryside using quiet roads
carrying less than 1,000 vehicles a day (this may sound busy but
works out at less than one car a minute).
In the cities the main thrust of Sustrans' work is to increase
the profile and status of the cyclist by re-allocating road space
to favour the cyclist over the car, for example in the provision
of Advanced Stop Lines at traffic lights, reinforcing the idea
that cyclists matter. Campaigning for lower speed limits in cities
could lead to a drastic reduction in deaths and injuries to cyclists
and pedestrians.
The Safe Routes to Schools Project aims to change one of Britain's
most shameful statistics: only 2% of journeys to school are made
by bike, despite a huge majority of children wanting to get out
of their parents' cars and onto their bikes. In Denmark the figure
is 60%. Britain is one of the very few countries in Europe where
more people cycle to work than to school. The benefits of reversing
this trend are made patently clear at a school in Ipswich where
60% of the children arrive by bike. The school has won many sports
competitions with other schools simply because the pupils are
so much fitter.
Sculpture
has come to be synonymous with the building of new sections of
the Network. Starting in Consett, funded by Northern Arts, Andy
Goldsworthy created the Lampton Worm, a long serpent sculpture
running alongside the path. All over the country sculptures began
appearing, carved from wood, sculpted from stone, welded from
steel or built of brick. The Royal Bank of Scotland generously
donated 1,000 mileposts with different versions designed by England,
Scottish, Welsh and Irish sculptors.
 Local
economies have benefited enormously from the creation of Sustrans'
long-distance routes. The first of these was the C2C (or Sea to
Sea from the Cumbrian Coast to the North Sea) which led the way
in featuring a mixture of traffic-free paths and on-road sections.
Within a year of its opening 10,000 people had cycled the trail
and spent over £1 million in the bed & breakfasts, Youth Hostels,
pubs, cafes and shops along the way. In 1995 the C2C was the Global
Winner of the 'British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow' awards. Since
then many other long-distance routes have been opened and mapped,
attracting many people to the idea of a cycling holiday for the
first time in their lives and encouraging entrepreneurs to benefit
from new business opportunities.
Sustrans has not restricted its vision to Britain alone. It is
active in promoting EuroVelo which aims to link countries throughout
Europe. The first of these European routes to open will be the
North Sea Circuit taking in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and
the East Coast of England and Scotland. A second major route,
the Atlantic Arc Project will run from Cadiz in the south western
tip of Spain through Portugal and the Atlantic Coast of France,
crossing the Channel to Plymouth and running north to Ullapool
in Scotland.
Sustrans
Information Service
Based in Bristol, the Information Service offers a range of free
information sheets covering many aspects of the National Cycle
Network, including a Traffic-Free Paths Sheet, details about the
Safe Routes to Schools Project, the Stamping Scheme, Millennium
Mileposts plus a full selection of cycling literature which can
be purchased. Goods for sale include the award-winning National
Route Maps covering the long-distance routes within the National
Cycle Network, packs of leaflets produced by local authorities
and cycle guidebooks describing rides in many regions of the country.
The Information Service now has an on-line mail order service
so you can place a credit card order for any product available
in the catalogue 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world via
the Internet site. The Web address is: www.sustrans.org.uk
Sustrans Information Service
PO Box 21
Bristol BS99 2HA
Telephone: 0117 929 0888
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