Transport: questions for local politicians re cycling
By Ben Brangwyn 20th April 2012
Getting politicians to thing hard about bikes, money and safety.
Just saw a very impactful set of questions from Sustrans designed to raise cycling issues to local politicians canvassing ahead of the Welsh local elections. There’s something here for all of us.
We want to demonstrate that walking and cycling is an important election issue so we’ve put together three questions we’d like you to ask them when they come knocking at your door.
- What are your policies to encourage walking and cycling?
- Adopting a fresh approach to transport planning can bring benefits to people’s health, families and to the wider community – promoting economic growth, better social integration and improving our natural environment.
- Research endorsed by the DfT shows that for every £1 spent on promoting cycling, there are savings of £4 from falling congestion and, when health benefits are taken into account, savings in the order of £9. This compares favourably to road spending which often fails to show a return of £1 for every £1 invested.
- Examples of specific policies that encourage people to walk and cycle more often include:
- Investing in travel behaviour change programmes to encourage people to travel more sustainably in their communities.
- Giving every child and young person the knowledge, skills and confidence to establish the habit of travel by foot and bike early in life.
- Investing in high quality walking and cycling networks in rural and urban areas reallocating road space to provide safe routes to everyday destinations that are integrated with public transport.
- Do you know how much it costs to build a mile of road in Wales? Do you know how many miles of walking and cycling route could be built for the same amount of money?
- An analysis of eight road schemes* in Wales found it costs, on average, nearly £20million to build just one mile of road.
- In contrast, walking and cycling routes cost, on average, just over £300,000 per mile**. For the price of one mile of road, you could build over 60 miles of walking and cycling routes
- Call to action: Will you pledge to increase the number of 20mph limits and zones in our local community if you are elected?
- Twenty is safer, cleaner and encourages more people to walk and cycle. In places where collisions are high it offers the potential to prevent death and injury and in other areas it creates more pleasant environments to travel through and encourages more people to walk and cycle.
- Figures from a recent study show that nearly 600 killed or seriously injured child casualties could be prevented in Great Britain each year if 20mph residential zones were in force.
- Please do let us know if any of your local candidates pledge to implement 20mph limits and zones in your local area. We will then do everything we can to make sure they keep this promise!
If you are interested in finding out more, please download our local discussion pack by following this link or contact Kate Davies (Tel: 029 2065 0602 or kate.davies@sustrans.org.uk) to request a paper copy.
* Road schemes analysed: Relief road for Porth/Lower Rhondda Fach; Porthmadog Bypass; Road Improvement Scheme between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Cancoed; Angel Way development in Bargoed; Church Village By-pass; Holyhead, Angelsey; Port Talbot, Peripheral Distributor Road; Dualling A465 between Brynmawr and Tredegar
**Calculated from an analysis of twenty-four walking and cycling schemes in the south Wales valleys.
Well done Sustrans for putting this list together and for the work they do making it safer for all of us cyclists.