Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
28th November 2024
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh today set out her vision for an Integrated National Transport Strategy for England, in a speech at Leeds Civic Hall.
What were the main points, and what does it mean for cycling?
Read about Haigh Sets Out Vision for Integrated National Transport Strategy.
20th November 2024
Active Travel England have published their scheme inspection procedure - how they look at completed schemes and decide if they are compliant or not.
How does the system work?
Read about Active Travel England Scheme Inspections.
18th October 2024
90% of respondents to a survey for Swapfiets said they are too scared to cycle in UK cities.
What are the main reasons people give for being frightened to ride a bike in an urban area?
Read about Swapfiets Survey Shows 90% too Scared to Cycle in UK Cities.
9th October 2024
Oxfordshire is leading the way with forward-looking transport policies which reduce car-dependence.
What did the Cabinet Member for Transport tell the local paper about the big picture?
Read about Transport in Oxfordshire - the Big Picture.
1st October 2024
Our Changing Travel 2023, published by the DfT, analyses post-pandemic transport trends via an online survey.
What do respondents say about their willingness to change the way they travel for environmental reasons?
Read about Our Changing Travel Post-Pandemic.
21st September 2024
The latest road traffic statistics have been published by the DfT, for the period up to the end of 2023.
What is the picture for motor vehicles and for cycling?
Read about Road Traffic Statistics 2023.
20th September 2024
England's Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman appeared at Active Travel Café this week.
There was some long-overdue optimism and enthusiasm. What did the former Olympian have to say?
Read about Boardman at Active Travel Café.
11th September 2024
A written Parliamentary question shows that the Tories are still attempting to prosecute a culture war against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
What changes to the party would enable it to make a positive contribution to UK politics?
Read about Tories Still Prosecuting LTN Culture War.
7th September 2024
Local authority capability ratings for 2024 have been published by Active Travel England.
Which councils are up, which are down, and what's the overall picture?
Read about Active Travel Capability Ratings 2024.
29th August 2024
Cycling is stuck at 2% of trips and 1% of distance travelled according to the latest National Travel Survey.
What else does the NTS tell us about how people travelled in 2023?
Read about Cycling Stuck at 2% of Trips in National Travel Survey.
20th August 2024
Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh is promising unprecedented levels of funding for cycling and walking.
What did Haigh tell Laura Laker when they met recently?
Read about Labour Government Promises Unprecedented Levels of Funding for Cycling and Walking.
4th August 2024
A Cycling UK survey shows that 70% of 4,000 respondents wanted more cycle-friendly routes.
The demand for cycling is there, but what is preventing people from pedalling?
Read about Cycling UK Survey Shows 70% Want More Cycle-Friendly Routes.
3rd August 2024
Active Travel England has published guidance about their Design Assurance Service, which helps local authorities deliver high-quality walking, wheeling and cycling schemes.
What is the service, and how do local authorities access it?
Read about Active Travel England Design Assurance Service.
31st July 2024
Secretary of State for Housing Angela Rayner has launched a consultation on proposed changes to national planning policy.
What do the revisions mean for active travel?
Read about Consultation Launches on Proposed Changes to National Planning Policy Framework.
22nd July 2024
Sport England's Chris Boardman is on an 8-day bike ride to Paris to highlight the need for climate action.
How is global heating affecting sport, and who has Boardman met along the way?
Read about Chris Boardman's Pedal for Paris.
18th July 2024
The new government must publish Local Transport Plan guidance, according to the Climate Change Committee in a report published today.
What if anything do they say about active travel?
Read about Government Must Publish LTP Guidance, Says CCC.
14th July 2024
What clues as to the new government's approach to active travel can we pick up from its first days in office?
Who are the new ministers, and what have they said?
Read about Early Signs of New Government's Approach to Active Travel.
28th June 2024
Sustrans has published a manifesto with five requests to the next UK government.
It wants investment in the National Cycle Network. What else is on the sustainable transport organisation's wishlist?
Read about Sustrans Manifesto 2024.
18th June 2024
The Reform Party is against clean air, it transpires from their manifesto.
What regressive transport policies are they putting forward, and is there a cigarette paper between them and the Conservatives?
Read about Reform Party Against Clean Air.
13th June 2024
The Labour Party published its manifesto today. References to active travel are few and far between, and there is not enough information to understand how good a Labour government would be.
What clues to active travel policy are in the manifesto?
Read about Active Travel to be Devolved to Mayors and Councils under Labour.
12th June 2024
The Greens have today published their manifesto for the upcoming General Election. They propose chunky funding of £2.5bn a year for active travel.
What else do they have to say about active travel and broader transport issues?
Read about Green Party Proposes £2.5 Billion a Year on Active Travel.
11th June 2024
The Conservatives have today published their manifesto for the upcoming General Election. Unfortunately, on transport it's all about 'backing drivers', and there's little or nothing it for active travel.
What do the Conservatives have to say about transport and net zero?
Read about Conservative Manifesto Sets Out Nightmarish High-Traffic, High-Carbon Vision of Future.
10th June 2024
The Liberal Democrats have today published their manifesto for the upcoming General Election. Unfortunately, it says next to nothing about active travel, although at least it isn't hostile.
What does the party have to say about transport?
Read about Liberal Democrat Manifesto Says Next to Nothing about Active Travel.
6th June 2024
Cycling UK has published a six-point manifesto in advance of the UK General Election on 4th July 2024.
What are their asks of the parties and the next government?
Read about Cycling UK General Election Manifesto 2024.
26th May 2024
The government has just been forced by the courts to publish an Investment Insights report that told it in 2020 how much it would need to invest in active travel to meet its 2025 goals.
Did the government invest enough?
Read about CWIS Investment Modelling.
24th May 2024
Cycling miles were down 7% in 2023 according to DfT statistics.
What happened to motor vehicle mileage, and what's the picture locally in York and North Yorkshire?
Read about Cycling in 2023 Down 7% on Previous Year.
29th April 2024
The new Active Lives survey results show active travel recovering from its pandemic dip, but not yet back to pre-pandemic levels.
What else does the survey tell us about activity rates in England?
Read about Sport England Active Lives Survey Results 2022-23.
20th March 2024
A new report called Move Free focuses on the economic aspects of transport and the negative effects domination of places by cars.
If the analysis of the ills is largely correct, is the prescription sufficient for a cure?
Read about Move Free Report by Create Streets.
17th March 2024
Safe streets are under attack again by Mr Sunak and his government of unprincipled opportunists.
They are seeking to undermine Low Traffic Neighbourhoods despite the report they commissioned showing that LTNs are popular.
Read about Safe Streets Under Attack in Dying Days of Desperate Government.
9th March 2024
A report commissioned by Mr Sunak to show that Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods are unpopular and ineffective has reached the opposite conclusion.
What does the leaked report say?
Read about the Sunak's Anti-LTN Report Finds LTNs Popular.
6th March 2024
The 2023 Sustrans Walking & Cycling Index has been published. It looks at progress in making walking, wheeling and cycling more attractive in selected cities, and includes an attitudes survey.
I focus on the report for Birmingham.
Read about the Birmingham Walking & Cycling Index 2023.
26th February 2024
Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street is planning a Birmingham to Coventry cycleway using HS2 access and maintenance tracks which would otherwise be dismantled.
What does Street have to say about the project?
Read about HS2 Cycleway West Midlands.
12th February 2024
In a new report the charity IPPR looks at how much funding is needed in England for a world-class active travel network.
What figure per head per year do they suggest?
Read about the IPPR Stride and Ride Report.
30th January 2024
Edinburgh's pavement parking ban comes into force this week, with possible fines of £100.
How will this help blind people and others, and what is the position in England?
Read about Edinburgh Pavement Parking Ban Comes into Force.
22nd January 2024
Warm words about cycling are better than the opposite - cold comments? - that we've been hearing from Sunak's lot lately.
But what did Labour's co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling & Walking say about the party's approach to active travel?
Read about Warm Words but Few Clues as to Labour's Cycling and Walking Policy.
19th January 2024
As you can probably tell by the buzz of excitement on your high street, the latest results from the National Travel Attitudes Study are out.
What do respondents say would encourage them to cycle more?
Read about National Travel Attitudes Study Wave 9 Cycling.
16th January 2024
Oxfordshire has produced an Active Travel Strategy with lots of good stuff in it.
How do they intend to go about 'mainstreaming' cycling and walking?
Read about Oxfordshire Active Travel Strategy.
15th January 2024
Active Travel England's Head of Inspections Brian Deegan was special guest at Active Travel Café last week.
What has ATE been up to recently, and what are its plans for 2024?
Read about Brian Deegan at Active Travel Café 9th January 2024.
2nd January 2024
With other local authorities in the process of writing new Local Transport Plans, it's useful to look at one council that's ahead of the game - Oxfordshire.
What is Oxfordshire's Vision for transport in the county, and how is the Vision backed up with Key Themes, headline targets and Policies?
Read about Oxfordshire's Local Transport and Connectivity Plan.
7th November 2023
The government has made little progress on its active travel targets and is likely to miss its 2025 goals, according to a new report by the Public Accounts Committee.
What does the committee think of the impact of Active Travel England, and how can active travel get back on track?
Read about Little Progress on Active Travel Targets, says Public Accounts Committee.
18th October 2023
The government should invest more in public transport and active travel, and take measures to deter car use, says the National Infrastructure Commission.
Where should the investment be targeted?
Read about the Invest in Public Transport and Active Travel, says National Infrastructure Commission.
12th October 2023
TfL has produced a summary of the impacts of LTNs in London, based on two types of study.
What are the study types, what does the evidence say about LTNs, and will Mayor Sadiq Khan continue to back boroughs that install them?
Read about the Impacts of LTNs in London.
9th October 2023
The All Party Cycling Group has published a new Road Justice report which provides reassurance that some MPs understand active travel.
What are the report's recommendations?
Find out in All Party Cycling Road Justice Report.
3rd October 2023
The Tories have come up with a laughable "plan for drivers", full of gaslighting and Doublespeak.
As well as the posturing and propaganda, they are intent on doing some significant damage to transport in England.
Read about Laughable Tory "Plan for Drivers".
2nd October 2023
Irresponsible Prime Minister Sunak wants English streets to be more dangerous.
Instead of confronting the big challenges of our time - public health, air pollution and global heating - he is focused on the hours of operation of bus lanes, which isn't even a central government responsibility.
Read about Irresponsible Sunak Wants More Dangerous Streets.
11th September 2023
Cycling traffic in England was down by 5.2% in the year to June 2023.
Where does that figure come from, and how does it compare with vehicle miles travelled in the same period?
Read about Cycling Down 5.2% in Year to June 2023.
5th September 2023
Sustrans are backing the proposed Greater Cambridge Sustainable Travel Zone.
What is state of play on this scheme that forms part of the Making Connections plan, and what are the next steps?
Read about Why Cambridge Sustainable Travel Zone is Needed - Sustrans.
31st August 2023
In a blow to those who like to portray cars as essential, government statistics show that the majority of drivers are pootling to a National Trust property or the shops. What else does the National Travel Survey reveal about our travel habits?
Read about the Majority of Car Trips are for Leisure or Shopping.
29th August 2023
85% of drivers exceeded the speed limit on 20mph roads in 2022. That is the starkest figure in the DfT's Speed Compliance Statistics for Great Britain, but there are other insights too into the extent of law-breaking on the roads.
Read about the 85% of Drivers Speed on 20mph Roads.
10th August 2023
The Transport Planning Society has written to Rishi Sunak to defend and support LTNs and the wider active travel agenda.
It comes after Sunak used an interview with the Sunday Telegraph to promote rat-running on residential streets.
Read about Transport Planning Society Writes to Sunak to Defend LTNs.
1st August 2023
When asked whether they favoured using various modes of travel, Britons were evenly split about cycling.
The idea of riding a bike appealed to those in other countries more, though.
Read about Britons Split Over the Merits of Cycling.
30th July 2023
Sunak wants more rat-running traffic on residential streets throughout the UK.
Why is he uninterested in quality of life for residents, clean air, or residential roads that are safe for people to walk or cycle on?
Read about Sunak Wants More Rat-Running Traffic on Residential Streets.
29th July 2023
The House of Commons Transport Committee notes in a new report that National Highways has been handling complex network expansion projects badly.
Are these projects consistent with the UK's decarbonisation obligations, and should they be cancelled?
Read about Stop Building New Strategic Roads, says Transport Committee.
25th July 2023
Oxfordshire has planned a draft Strategic Active Travel Network for the whole county.
How did they go about it, and will it result in on-the-ground improvements to the cycle network?
Read about the Strategic Active Travel Network Oxfordshire.
24th July 2023
An Ipsos report on attitudes to travel pre- and post-pandemic was published earlier this month.
It shows how people say they travel, and what would persuade them to travel more sustainably and use their cars less.
Read about the Ipsos Our Changing Travel Report for DfT.
5th July 2023
A look at Quantified Carbon Reductions, which will be a central plank of councils' next Local Transport Plans, unless PM Sunak sabotages all the work that has been done on this.
Read about Quantified Carbon Reductions.
4th July 2023
Five years after the M1 was widened between junctions 10 and 13, traffic moved more slowly than before.
Why did none of the predicted time savings and economic benefits materialise?
28th June 2023
The Climate Change Committee's 2023 Progress Report paints a picture of a government relying on unproven techno-fixes, and without the courage to make the meaningful changes needed to prevent climate breakdown.
Read more about CCC Progress Report 2023.
27th June 2023
Photos from the men's road race at the British Cycling Championships 2023, held on a circuit starting and finishing at Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
Read more about British Championships Men's Road Race 2023.
7th June 2023
The DfT is not on track to meet its 2025 active travel objectives. It hasn't been tracking what councils have done with their funding, and the incompetence of some councils has led to 'patchy delivery'. Can Active Travel England save the day?
Read about DfT Will Fail to Meet its 2025 Active Travel Objectives - NAO.
6th June 2023
There's no doubt that Active Travel England have been hyperactive since they were set up in August 2022. What does the Annual Report say about the agency's performance?
Read about Active Travel England Annual Report.
4th June 2023
ATF4 bids have already been made and decided on, but the ATE guidance to councils reveals a lot about why bids succeeded or failed, and what schemes ATE wants to fund.
Read about Ten Points about Active Travel Fund 4.
1st June 2023
Active Travel England becomes a statutory consultee in the planning process from today. Could this be a game-changer?
Read about Active Travel England to be Consulted on Planning Applications from Today.
19th May 2023
The allocations to councils from Active Travel Fund 4 were announced today. Who were the big winners?
Read about ATF4 Allocations.
18th May 2023
A new report called Reverse Gear assesses government policies on modal shift, travel demand and electrification, and concludes that we need a 20% traffic reduction by 2030. Does the DfT have the policies to achieve it?
Read about Only 20% Traffic Reduction by 2030 Consistent with UK Climate Goals.
10th May 2023
The DfT is consulting on a new policy for motorways and trunk roads. Is it a case of 'if you want to build a road, you can build a road'?
Read about DfT Major Road-Building Policy Pays Minimal Attention to Climate and Nature.
29th April 2023
The DfT has launched a new Cycling Index for England, showing cycling levels on a rolling annual basis. How does it look for the year to December 2022?
Read about New Cycling Stats from the DfT.
31st March 2023
The Alan Turing Institute is to collaborate with Active Travel England, to create new software and data science techniques. This will help councils build infrastructure that will deliver benefits to the maximum number of residents.
Read about Alan Turing Institute to Collaborate with Active Travel England.
11th March 2023
Active Travel England has published its ratings of local authorities in England. They are on a scale of 0 to 4. Who is brilliant and who is awful?
Read about Active Travel England Publishes Local Authority Ratings.
10th March 2023
As the DfT budget is squeezed, the Transport Secretary is planning savage cuts to the active travel budget.
Read about Government to Make Savage Cuts to Active Travel Budget.
20th February 2023
In the latest round of active travel funding there is a particular emphasis on walking and wheeling - not cycling. Has Active Travel England given up on cycling?
15th February 2023
Wales has announced an inspiring road-building policy, with strict tests before any new highways can go ahead.
Read about Inspiring Welsh Road-Building Policy.
6th February 2023
Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4) has launched today. Local authorities can bid for a share of £200 million for active travel projects.
Read about Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4).
31st January 2023
An early report about the draft new Manual for Streets is encouraging. It would ask developers to create streets with a maximum design speed of 20mph.
Read about the Draft Manual for Streets is Promising.
29th January 2023
While some councils set out green goals that they have no intention of implementing, others are genuine and are getting on with positive changes.
The London Borough of Hackney has a 3-year implementation plan.
Read about Hackney Moves Forward with Low Traffic Plans.
19th January 2023
Islington is retaining its existing LTNs or Liveable Neighbourhoods and forging ahead with more. Meanwhile Birmingham City Council is making LTNs in Moseley and Kings Heath permanent.
Read about Islington Forges Ahead with Liveable Neighbourhoods.
17th January 2023
In a session with the APPGCW, Minister with responsibility for cycling Jesse Norman said that the Active Travel Fund 4 will open 'soon to very soon'. Pavement parking and new housing developments were among the other topics discussed.
Read about ATF4 Funding Will Be Released 'Soon to Very Soon'.
2nd January 2023
Active Travel England has announced a £32.9 million Capability Fund, designed to train up engineers and planners at local authorities.
The ultimate objective is to build high-quality active travel schemes to consistent standards across England.
Read about £32.9 Million Capability Fund.
