IPPR Stride and Ride Report
Independent charity the Institute for Public Policy Research has published a new report on investment in active travel in England. It’s called Stride and Ride.
The report contains five recommendations:
- A 10-year funding guarantee for active travel, with investment ramping up to £50 per head per year by 2029
- Funding for active travel should be drawn from multiple sources, including reallocating money currently earmarked for road-building
- The National Cycle Network should benefit from a 10-year investment plan administered by Active Travel England (ATE)
- Active travel funds should be allocated to local and regional authorities from single-pot, long-term funding settlements, with spending overseen by ATE
- The next government should publish an integrated national transport strategy to guide all investment over the coming decades
The report says of the proposed national transport strategy:
‘Decades of experience tell us that warm words and tokenistic investment in walking, wheeling and cycling do little to change behaviours if most government policy and investment locks in car dependency.
It is only by clearly setting out the long-term goals for transport, and how multiple modes can contribute to achieving them, that we will meet our climate commitments and provide the opportunity for people to live healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives.
Ippr report, p27
Aim of the IPPR Report
The aim of the IPPR report is to identify the level of investment needed to deliver a world-class active travel network. This means a high-density network where routes are joined-up and coherent.
£2 billion a year for 10 years could deliver 27,000 miles of cycle routes to Dutch standards. The Netherlands has around 47,500 miles of such routes.
Current Failure on Active Travel in England
‘Successive UK governments have failed to protect safe space for cycling, and have seen cycling levels drop well below those in other European countries as a result.
Cycling peaked in the UK 75 years ago, when it accounted for over a third of all traffic (37% in 1949), dropping to 10% in 1952 and crashing to just 1% in 1973.
Despite the best efforts of advocacy groups to reverse this decline, UK government policy has locked in car dependency through ‘predict and provide’ approaches to transport policy, and investment that has favoured road-building to address increasing traffic congestion’.
Ippr report, p7
In 2020, the government’s Gear Change plan announced a new golden age for cycling, but it has not translated into results. The Public Accounts Committee says the DfT is not on track to meet its cycling and walking targets.
In the period 2016-2021 spending was:
- £3.3 billion on active travel (2% of the total transport budget) but
- £42 billion on roads
‘Funding for active travel schemes is not only insufficient but also highly uncertain and challenging to access.
In 2021, the year with the highest capital investment…spending on infrastructure was £205 million. Recent cuts to the active travel budget mean that this capital funding from DfT will be just £50 million in 2024′.
ippr report, p10
The report points out that funding is provided through 36 different funding streams, often via competitive bidding.
‘Looking ahead, if we are to deliver an active travel network worthy of a walking, wheeling and cycling nation, it is clear that the UK government must match warm words and targets with greater and longer-term funding that meets the existing ambition within England to get more people travelling actively’.
ippr report, p11
Templates for Success
There are templates for success, which show what can be achieved.
From 2016-2021, London spent £24 per head per year on Healthy Streets.
Other countries have prioritised investment in cycling:
- Copenhagen has spent £35 per head per year on its cycle network
- Flanders is spending £39 per head per year on new cycle paths
- Ireland is spending £31 per head per year
- Wales is spending £22 per head per year
- Scotland is spending £58 per head per year and
- Northern Ireland has a legal commitment to spend 10% of its transport budget on active travel
Review of LCWIPs
The IPPR analysed the active travel investment needed to meet local demand in England by reviewing twelve Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs).
LCWIPs contain (or should contain) high-level costings of the networks they propose.
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester’s Bee Network involves protected space for cycling, crossings, and filtered neighbourhoods.
It is estimated to cost £1.5 billion, for a benefit of £6 billion.
D2N2 Region
The D2N2 region is Derby and Derbyshire plus Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Their plan is costed at £707 million over 15 years.
Cost Per Head Per Year in Various Areas
The LCWIPs showed a range of costs per head per year:
- £16 in Liverpool City Region
- £46 in D2N2
- £53 in Greater Manchester
- £91 for Leicester to reach Waltham Forest levels of service
Investment Plan for England
The IPPR’s investment plan considers not only the LCWIPs, but also the National Cycle Network. It then looks at what is spent on active travel in the most ambitious countries, regions and cities.
The average amount needed to deliver the schemes identified in the LCWIPs reviewed is £35 per head per year for 10 years.
The National Cycle Network needs £3 per head per year between 2019 and 2040 to deliver the Paths for Everyone project.
The IPPR report comes up with three scenarios for spending between 2025 and 2035:
- status quo – 2% of the transport budget on active travel (untenable)
- matching local demand – £35 per head per year to build the LCWIP networks
- world-class network – 10% of all transport spend, or around £50 per head per year
75% of spending should go on infrastructure, and the rest should be spent on other interventions including:
- integration with public transport systems
- cycle storage
- public engagement
- behaviour change schemes
- subsidy schemes for bikes, ebikes and cargo bikes
Some of the money should come from reallocating the existing transport budget.
Funds can also be generated by schemes like congestion charging, workplace parking levies, and ending the freeze on fuel duty.
The whole transport system should be aligned behind delivering an integrated, multi-modal, inclusive, green transport system. This requires a national transport strategy for England.
The IPPR suggests ramping up active travel investment, starting at £20 per head in 2025 and reaching £50 by 2029. It would then stay at £50 through to 2035.
Benefits of Investment in Active Travel
‘There is overwhelming evidence that investment in active travel infrastructure brings significant benefits, including large returns on investment, addressing emissions from road transport, reducing regional inequalities, and improving health.
Despite this, investment has remained low, and walking, wheeling and cycling rates lag behind much of Europe’.
ippr report, p26
Adopting the IPPR’s investment plan would change that.