{"id":3013,"date":"2023-02-20T14:51:38","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T14:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/?p=3013"},"modified":"2023-02-20T15:22:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:22:44","slug":"has-active-travel-england-given-up-on-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/2023\/02\/20\/has-active-travel-england-given-up-on-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Active Travel England Given Up on Cycling?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color:#D06060\">Has Active Travel England Given Up on Cycling?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2023-02-20T14:51:38+00:00\">20 February 2023<\/time><\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/stray-feb-23-700.jpg\" alt=\"Harrogate Stray\" class=\"wp-image-3014\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/stray-feb-23-700.jpg 700w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/stray-feb-23-700-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/stray-feb-23-700-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harrogate Stray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Has Active Travel England given up on cycling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bids for money from <a href=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/2023\/02\/06\/active-travel-fund-4-atf4-announced\/\">Active Travel Fund 4<\/a> (ATF4) have to be in by 24th February 2023. ATF4 is for infrastructure that enables walking, wheeling and cycling &#8211; but with a particular emphasis on walking and wheeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We Already Have Dedicated Walking Facilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When I walk into town, I can use dedicated paths away from traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I won&#8217;t fear for my physical safety. Fundamentally, it&#8217;s already safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes there are improvements that could be made. For example, the lights at crossings could change to green a lot quicker. That doesn&#8217;t need infrastructure funding &#8211; it just needs the local authority to stop prioritising people in cars over people on foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are plenty of places where new crossings would be welcome, and funding for those would be well-spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, though, no one decides not to walk into town because it&#8217;s too dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We Lack Dedicated Cycling Facilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/otley-road-feb-23-600.jpg\" alt=\"Otley Road, Harrogate\" class=\"wp-image-3015\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/otley-road-feb-23-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/otley-road-feb-23-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Otley Road, Harrogate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I cycle into town, I have to share hostile roads with motor vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will have an unpleasant or unsafe experience every time. Fundamentally, it&#8217;s not safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need a cycle network made up of quiet streets, modal filters, and physically-protected cycle tracks. We&#8217;re starting from a very low base of almost no quality infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until a cycle network is provided, most people won&#8217;t ride bikes around town. We&#8217;ll be stuck at a modal share of 2%, when it could be 30%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Is Active Travel England Moving Away from Cycling?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t know the reason why Active Travel England is prioritising walking and wheeling over cycling, but I have a couple of guesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason might be that they are data-driven, and focused on a 2030 target of 50% of urban trips to be made by active travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/tdp-50-pc-trips.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"555\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/tdp-50-pc-trips.png\" alt=\"50% of trips by active travel, from Transport Decarbonisation Plan\" class=\"wp-image-1090\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/tdp-50-pc-trips.png 555w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/tdp-50-pc-trips-300x157.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 555px) 100vw, 555px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">50% of trips by active travel, from Transport Decarbonisation Plan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Probably it&#8217;s easier to enable walking trips, since the infrastructure is largely there already, than it is to enable cycling trips, since the infrastructure is largely lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another reason might be that they want to change their image. Perhaps they feel they are seen too much as a cycling organisation, and by focusing their funding on walking and wheeling instead they aim to change the way they are perceived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Some Hope Left<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Active Travel England is still a new organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After decades of British failure on cycle infrastructure, a lot of us have invested a great deal of hope in them perhaps being able to make cycling safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are the funding body, but they rely on local authorities to do the construction work, and local authorities don&#8217;t know what they are doing. This means Active Travel England has a difficult job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The emphasis on walking and wheeling is a bit of a blow, but it&#8217;s too early to despair. There is some hope left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Has Active Travel England Given Up on Cycling? Has Active Travel England given up on cycling? Bids for money from Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4) have to be in by 24th February 2023. ATF4 is for infrastructure that enables walking,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-active-travel-england","category-atf4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3019,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions\/3019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}