Claims of a ‘£2 billion cycling revolution’ from Government have been criticised by Caroline Russell AM as London has only been given £5 million so far – nowhere near the £70 million gap uncovered by Caroline last week. [2]
The £2 billion announcement is a recycling of old money already earmarked for walking and cycling. London is expecting £25 million overall direct from the government of the initial £250 million but that still leaves our city well short of what it needs.
Changes proposed to the Highway Code include a consultation on the British Cycling ‘Turning the Corner’ campaign. This was a recommendation from Caroline Russell AM’s report for the Assembly Transport Committee, Hostile Streets, which focused on road danger in outer London.
Caroline Russell says:
It’s great to see Government learning lessons from London’s progress on walking and cycling, and for the completely outdated guidance on designing bike lanes to be replaced.
It was particularly good to see progress on simple measures to make it safe and easy to cross the road at junctions.
A true revolution for walking, as well as cycling, is going to need more money than £2 billion. It sounds like a lot, but it’s over five years and £27 billion will go on major roads during the same time, including £6.8 billion on the Lower Thames Crossing.
London is currently only set to get just another £20 million in funding this year from the DfT but the Mayor’s own walking and cycling commissioner admitted that boroughs had asked for a further £70 million, and that’s before anything for TfL’s roads is added on.
TfL has been forced to cut over £300 million from funding for walking and cycling this year because the Government wouldn’t support them.
These transformative measures will properly enable people to make local trips safely on foot and by bike. But if we are going to see a measurable change in the way people get around, the Government needs to find a lot more than £2 billion.
New design guidance for cycling incorporates lessons learned from guidance in London and Wales, and puts a focus on physically separated bike lanes on busy main roads, and using low traffic neighbourhoods elsewhere to ensure local streets and residents are protected from traffic danger.
Notes to editors
Caroline outlined the cut to Healthy Streets earlier this month. At present TfL papers show that against a planned spent of £417 million in walking and cycling in 2020-21, TfL has now cut £316 million and plans to only spend £98 million. Funding direct from the government to London boroughs for a further £25 million in 2020-21 is coming from the government’s £2 billion fund for England over the next five years.
https://twitter.com/CarolineRussell/status/1283070541193195525
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/pic-20072020-agenda-public.pdf (Item 13)
[1] PM kickstarts £2bn cycling and walking revolution. DfT press release 28 July 2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-kickstarts-2bn-cycling-and-walking-revolution
[2] London Assembly Transport Committee discussion with Will Norman about Streetspace, 22 July 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQmWEnTqZA
[3] Hostile Streets: Walking and cycling at outer London junctions. Caroline Russell on behalf of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Dec 2017 https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/hostile_streets_-_final_report_for_print.pdf
[4] Turning the corner campaign https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/campaigning/article/20161220-campaigning-Turning-the-Corner-author-explains-campaign-s-aims-0