What can the government do to make roads safer near you?

Let’s think of two parallel universes.  

Universe one: A civil servant sits at an office in Whitehall. They’ve got to make a decision. Should a pavement in Hull be widened, or is it better used for parking? They’ve never been there nor spoken to residents. They follow the standard policy, ignoring the wishes of the people of Hull and what it’s actually like on the streets of Hull. They move on to thinking about Padstow: what should parking fees be in the town centre? 

Universe two: Councillors in Bradford decide that they don’t need speed limits anymore. The government don’t get involved – it’s down to local areas to make decisions. 

Neither of these options would work well. Central government has to find a way to help councils make good decisions which work well together. They need to provide a vision and the freedom to deliver well.

The third cycling and walking investment strategy 

The government has just finished consulting on the third cycling and walking investment strategy. They’re setting a vision for what it’ll be like to walk, wheel and cycle in this country.  

Because they aren’t the ones who’ll directly make that happen, they need to show how they’ll inspire, enable and, ultimately, force partners to deliver the vision. 

The strategy has the right aspirations, but it needs three things if it’s going to do that: credibility, focus and targets. 

Street cred(ibility) 

There’s no point setting a strategy if everyone knows you can’t achieve it. They’ll just ignore it. 

But the vision the government’s set isn’t credible. It’s got the right words, but it’s just not achievable. Here’s what it says: “By 2035, the government wants walking, wheeling and cycling to be a safe, easy and accessible option for everyone – allowing people to embed the economic, health and environmental benefits of active travel into their daily life if they choose.” 

First, there’s the date. It’s taken 20 years for London to become an OK place to walk, wheel and cycle. There’s no chance we could do the same for the whole country in another 10. 

Second, the vision is passive. The number of caveats in it mean that there’s nothing to hold the government to – which is perhaps (cynically) why it was written like that. But it’ll backfire on them, because it means there’s also nothing they can use to get others to take action.

Hocus pocus thanks to focus 

The government’s vision says they want walking, wheeling and cycling to be for everybody. So do we. That means being clear how you’ll support those facing the biggest barriers right now. 

Disabled people face the biggest barriers to walking, wheeling and cycling more of their journeys, because they are often not given a voice in planning our transport and built environment. Disabled people take 25% fewer trips than non-disabled people in England.  

Addressing this accessibility gap is vital. But there’s very little focus on accessibility in this consultation. We want the strategy to specifically aim to increase the proportion of disabled people’s journeys walked or wheeled. 

Equally, there’s not enough focus on women’s journeys. Our Walking and Cycling Index found that only 10% of women cycle at least once a week, compared to 21% of men. That’s not inevitable. We’d like the strategy to focus on increasing the proportion of women’s journeys which are cycled. 

These clear focuses would filter down to local areas. They would challenge councils who are still building inaccessible routes because they’re “better than nothing”. They would encourage councils to consider all destinations – shops, hospitals and schools, for example – not just offices as has traditionally happened. 

We’ve found that focus works. Since having clear focuses within our own organisation, our improvements on the National Cycle Network are benefiting disadvantaged groups more than others. There are larger increases in total trips made by women (12%), children (22%) and people aged 65+ (42%), than men (4%) and those aged 16-64 (7%). 

By tackling the barriers disabled people face walking and wheeling and women face cycling, we’ll not only tackle the mobility gap they face, we’ll also make areas better for everyone.

Targets 

The consultation has a set of data which the government wants to monitor, but no clear targets. Will they claim success if one’s gone up 1%? If they won’t take their vision seriously, then why should councils and other partners? That’s why we want clear targets. 

There are two in particular we want to focus on. 

First, a throwback. In the second strategy, the government said that, by 2030, 50% of short journeys in towns and cities should be walked, wheeled and cycled. We want to bring this back. We think it’s a clear, bold focus, which can then be translated into local targets. 

Second, we want a target to create a Network of Networks. What does this mean? Right now, there are local routes for walking, wheeling and cycling and there’s the National Cycle Network (which we look after). But there’s nothing to bring it all together. They don’t necessarily join up and the signs look different, so if you’re trying to cycle across a borough boundary, it can be quite tricky. 

By 2030, we want councils and Active Travel England to produce a clear plan for how these networks could be joined together. There should be mileage targets every five years, so that the councils which are getting in the way can be challenged. And there should also be a focus on maintenance of these assets, so that you don’t build them and then let them fall apart straight away. 

What next? 

The government’s consultation has now closed. The minister in charge of it, Lilian Greenwood, has made it clear that they genuinely wanted people’s views on the draft strategy – it wasn’t “take it or leave it”. 

We hope that these constructive suggestions are taken on board in the final version. Whatever it looks like, the key thing is that everyone plays their part. At Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, we’re ready to do that. Let’s make it possible for everyone to walk, wheel and cycle!