Cycling groups have welcomed David Cameron’s pledge of £77m of public money to get more people on their bikes around England, a scheme the prime minister said marked the start of “a cycling revolution”.
The establishment of the fund represents the largest single injection of public money into cycling in England, and was due to be formally launched by Cameron alongside Britain’s most successful Olympian, the track cyclist Chris Hoy.
The cash will pay for upgrades and other improvements at 14 locations on the trunk road network that have been identified as posing an obstacle to bike journeys.
Cameron was expected to say: “Following our success in the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Tour de France, British cycling is riding high. Now we want to see cycling soar. Our athletes have shown they are among the best in the world and we want to build on that, taking our cycling success beyond the arena and onto the roads, starting a cycling revolution which will remove the barriers for a new generation of cyclists.”
The £77m, split between Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Norwich, will help improve existing cycle networks and pay for new ones, creating segregated routes in some areas. Greater Manchester (£20m), West Yorkshire (£18.1m) and Birmingham (£17m) will between them receive the bulk of the funding. Cameron will say the government “wants to make it easier and safer for people who already cycle as well as encouraging far more people to take it up”.
The government said total new funding for cycling, including local contributions, would be £148m between now and 2015, taking investment in the eight cities to more than £10 per head per year. That is in keeping with the base figure recommended by the all-party parliamentary cycling group and national cycling charity CTC. As part of the overall funding package, four national parks – New Forest, Peak District, South Downs and Dartmoor – will receive £17m between them.
The government is also calling on councils to “up their game” to deliver infrastructure that takes cycling into account from the design stage.
The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said there had been significant growth in the number of cyclists in London over the past few years but that cycling shouldn’t be confined to the capital.
While the money is significant, campaigners have argued that to emulate countries such as the Netherlands‚ where around one-third of all journeys are made by bike, as opposed to about 2% in Britain‚ requires consistent, significant spending over decades to establish a nationwide system of dedicated cycle infrastructure.
When parliament returns from recess in September, MPs are to debate an all-party report on cycling which calls for just such a commitment.
Cameron’s announcement was nevertheless welcomed. Brian Cookson, the president of British Cycling, said: “It is very encouraging that Mr Cameron has shown leadership by recognising that better provision for people who want to travel by bike is fundamental to modern transport policy.”
David Cox, the chairman of CTC, said: “David Cameron has today shown the leadership that CTC and other cycling groups have long called for.
“We now urge MPs of all parties to speak up for cycling in parliament in September, calling for the funding needed to transform Britain’s streets into a continental-style ‘Cycletopia’. With growing political support for cycling, this really might now be possible.”
Malcolm Shepherd, the chief executive of the cycling charity Sustrans, said: “This is fantastic news for those living in the successful cities. Getting about by bike for everyday journeys could become a reality for people of all ages and abilities in those areas, and we warmly welcome this initiative.
“We welcome the recognition that for the cycling revolution to become a way of life for us all this level of investment must be maintained and extended to all parts of the UK, including rural areas.
“Currently only one in 50 trips is made by bike, and we will welcome ongoing investment to achieve a ten-fold increase in cycling to make this revolution the norm.”
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