England’s Mayors Pledge 3,500 Mile Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Network
Twelve of England’s Mayors have come together to make a joint statement on walking wheeling and cycling.
It is signed and supported by National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Nine Labour Mayors and two Conservative Mayors are signatories, as is Reform Party Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire Luke Campbell.
The one missing Mayor is Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns, whose area is Greater Lincolnshire.
Joint Statement
The twelve Mayors said:
‘We, the Mayors of England’s Combined Authorities, will work together to improve our streets for everyone, for the benefit of the health, wellbeing and connectedness of our communities.
This commitment to walking, wheeling and cycling, with a focus first on the school run, will help get 20 million people more active daily and create more than 3,500 miles of safer routes connecting schools with local neighbourhoods, high streets and transport hubs.
We are doing this as part of wider plans to fully integrate our transport networks, to deliver new housing and to further cement local economic growth’.
The statement contains the following commitments:
- to create a countrywide national walking, wheeling and cycling network, compromising of local networks that are safe and easy to use
- to transform the school run by delivering high-quality, safer routes in neighbourhoods nationwide
- to give people easy walking, wheeling and cycling access to buses, trams and trains (integrated transport networks)
In Autumn 2025, the Mayors will agree an initial 3,500 mile network. The project will start by creating 300 safer routes for 1,000 schools.
School Streets and Road Crossings
‘The first wave of improving active travel routes to schools will include the delivery of proven and popular schemes, including school streets, traffic-calming measures, new crossings and better pavements, clear of obstructions’.
I have strong reservations about this approach.
Gear Change and LTN 1/20 set out a coherent strategy for developing networks that would enable people to cycle for everyday trips.
The Mayors seem to have been handed a strategy based on what Active Travel England thinks local people will support the most, not what is needed to create a coherent network.
School streets are good, but what about the rest of the journey to school that isn’t on the same street as the school itself?
Traffic-calming and 20mph will only enable cycling on streets with very low volumes of motor vehicle traffic.
Road crossings are needed, but what about the stretches of road in between junctions?
The plan seems low on ambition, and not the best way of creating coherent networks.
To enable more people to cycle we also need modal filters on residential streets and dedicated cycle tracks on busy roads.
You might argue that these measures are only the ‘first wave’ of improvements but in my experience locally, cycling projects always remain tantalisingly 3 or 4 years away from being delivered – and they never get any closer.
Health
Recent research shows that 1 in 6 early deaths could be prevented with regular moderate exercise. 36% of Year 6 children are overweight or obese.
20 million people live in the twelve Combined Authority areas, and the plan should help more residents meet recommended activity levels.
This will reduce risks of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and depression.
It is part of the government’s health agenda, to build health and wellbeing into everyday activities and therefore focus on prevention rather than cure. This should ease pressure on the NHS.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said:
‘Increasing physical activity has health benefits across the life course.
As part of this, we need to make walking and cycling more accessible and safer, as well as access to green space easier and more equitable.
This will help remove barriers to improving physical activity level and could significantly improve the health of England’s increasingly urban population’.
Chris Boardman
Chris Boardman said:
‘People will only consider travelling actively if it is easy and safe.
That’s what the Mayors have pledged to do and that’s why government is backing them. It’s going to have a hugely positive impact on millions of people’s daily lives’.
The programmes will be delivered using regional resources with additional targeted investment from Active Travel England.