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CIT0175 Written evidence submitted by Cycling UK CORONAVIRUS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSPORT INTRODUCTION 1. Cycling UK was founded in 1878 and has 72,000 members and supporters. Historically known as ‘CTC’ or the ‘Cyclists’ Touring Club’, Cycling UK’s central charitable mission is to make cycling a safe, accessible, enjoyable and ‘normal’ activity for people of all ages and abilities. Our interests cover cycling both as a form of day-to-day transport and as a leisure activity, which can deliver health, economic, environmental, safety and quality of life benefits, both for individuals and society. Cycling UK is a member of the Walking and Cycling Alliance (along with the Bicycle Association, British Cycling, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans) as well as the Healthy Air Campaign. 2. Cycling UK has been pleased to provide oral as well as written evidence to a number of Transport Committee inquiries in recent years, notably its inquiry on Active Travel in 2019, whose recommendations we strongly supported. Our written submission to that inquiry1 provides an overview of the economic, environmental, health and quality-of-life arguments for investing in cycling, hence we do not repeat them here. 3. Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Cycling UK has been urging UK Governments to support cycling, not only as a form of healthy exercise during lockdown, but also as a means for key workers to continue making essential journeys and, more recently, as a way of recovering from the Covid-19 crisis in a way that would leave us better placed to address the crises of traffic congestion, air pollution, road danger, inactivity-related ill- health and ultimately the climate crisis, while avoiding a car-led recovery. 4. This submission considers firstly the UK Government’s response to calls from Cycling UK and its allies to support cycling during lockdown, and then as part of its post- lockdown recovery. During the period of the coronavirus crisis, there has been a rapid growth in the Government’s appreciation of the role of cycling in helping the nation recover from this crisis in a way that leaves us better equipped to address the pre- existing crises of congestion, air pollution, road danger, ill-health relating to physical inactivity, and ultimately the climate crisis. 5. The Government is now expected to publish an updated Cycling and Walking Plan within weeks, after the Committee’s evidence session with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP on 24th June, but probably before the Committee reports on this inquiry. Therefore, instead of concluding this submission with recommendations for the Committee to consider including in its inquiry report, we have suggested questions which the Committee may with to put to the Transport Secretary at this week’s hearing. We then propose to make a supplementary submission to this inquiry once the Government’s Cycling and Walking Plan has been published, in which we will set out recommendations in the light of that Plan. 1 http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/transport-committee/active- travel/written/91593.pdf THE GOVERNMENT’S ACTIONS TO DATE 6. Prior to lockdown, on 11th February, the Prime Minister announced a £5bn funding allocation to support buses and cycling.2 However no information was provided of when this funding would be available, what it would be spent on, or by whom. Nor were any further details provided in the budget of 11th March. Therefore, despite the Government’s legal commitment to having a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS),3 Councils in England (outside London) began the 2020/21 financial year with no earmarked capital funding at all (and very little revenue funding either) to invest in cycling or walking measures.4 Hence the current financial year began with a regrettable continuation of the long history of under-investment in cycling and walking. Because of this history, many councils still lack staff with the knowledge, training and skills to plan and design cycling networks and schemes. 7. At the start of lockdown, Cycling UK commended the Government’s decisions firstly to support cycle shops as essential businesses that should be allowed to stay open, and then to positively promote cycling as a way that people could gain their once-a-day stint of exercise. Shortly afterwards, the Department for Transport (DfT) also agreed with Cycling UK that we should reconfigure our Big Bike Revival (BBR) project5 (which DfT has funded since 20156), to focus on enabling health and other key workers to get their under-used bikes fixed, so that they could continue making essential journeys.7 Meanwhile, Cycling UK began fundraising so we could offer free memberships to key workers8 – around 3,000 health and social care workers have taken up this offer. 8. At the same time, Cycling UK and its allies also began urging both national9 and local10 Governments throughout the UK to support cycling as a crucial part of their response to the crisis, both to give people a way of gaining healthy exercise during lockdown, and for key workers and others to make essential journeys by means other than public transport. We urged the UK Government and local authorities to install ‘pop-up’ cycle lanes, widen pavements, close streets to through traffic, and other measures to support cycling and walking in ways that were consistent with ‘social distancing’. We pointed to examples that were already appearing in other countries e.g. Berlin,11 Milan12 and many cities in both North and South America13 and elsewhere.14 We also asked researchers from Leeds University to prepare maps showing the roads in 10 major English cities which were wide enough to accommodate an extra lane for cycling, and which had the greatest potential for increased cycle use.15 2 www.gov.uk/government/news/major-boost-for-bus-services-as-pm-outlines-new-vision-for-local-transport 3 www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy 4 www.cyclinguk.org/article/chancellors-budget-fails-get-cycling-done 5 www.cyclinguk.org/taxonomy/term/6701?keys=&field_post_type_tid%5B%5D=101&sort_by=created 6 www.gov.uk/government/speeches/big-bike-revival 7 www.cyclinguk.org/press-release/cycling-uk-keep-covid-19-key-workers-pedalling-free-services 8 https://shop.cyclinguk.org/donate/key-workers 9 www.cyclinguk.org/news/joint-call-more-space-cycling-during-virus 10 www.cyclinguk.org/blog/why-we-need-more-space-cycling-and-walking-during-lockdown 11 www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/pop-up-bike-lanes-help-with-coronavirus-social-distancing-in-germany 12 www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/milan-seeks-to-prevent-post-crisis-return-of-traffic-pollution 13 www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/world-cities-turn-their-streets-over-to-walkers-and-cyclists 14 www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/18/cleaner-and-greener-covid-19-prompts-worlds-cities-to-free-public-space-of-cars 15 www.cyclinguk.org/article/10-cities-where-pop-bike-lanes-could-benefit-millions-explore-maps 9. Unfortunately, the Government was initially slow to respond to our calls for funding to enable councils to rapidly install pop-up cycle lanes and similar measures. At this crucial moment, key members of DfT’s already overstretched cycling and walking team were redeployed to work on other aspects of coronavirus planning. However the urgency of our calls for action became even greater when it became clear that the Government intended to start reopening both schools and businesses, at a time when social distancing rules were (and still are) constraining the use of public transport. At this point, DfT senior management clearly recognised that cycling needed to be a key element of the department’s coronavirus response. 10. On 9th May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced (at one of the Government’s daily coronavirus briefings) that the Government was encouraging people to walk and cycle for essential journeys, as means to avoid public transport. He also confirmed that the Government would shortly launch a further policy document on cycling and walking. However there were conflicting statements16 17 on whether this document would be a “Cycling and Walking Plan” or an “updated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy”; whether it would be published “in June” or “in the summer”; and whether it would be launched by the Secretary of State or by the Prime Minister. A subsequent parliamentary answer18 has suggested though that it will not be a full 2nd Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), but rather a document that “will outline the process for the development of the second statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy”. 11. Mr Shapps’s 9th May statement also included funding to support local authorities in installing ‘pop-up’ cycle lanes, widened pavements, local road closures and 20mph schemes. £2bn of the previously-announced £5bn for cycling and buses was now earmarked for cycling and walking investment over the next 5 years, with £250m of this forming an ‘Emergency Active Travel Fund’ (EATF) for investment during the current financial year. There have been similar announcements of funding for rapidly installed cycling and walking measures from the governments in Wales,19 Scotland20 21 and Northern Ireland.22 12. Mr Shapps’s statement was accompanied by the launch of statutory guidance to English highway authorities,23 under section 18 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, requiring them to consider the types of measures mentioned above, as part of their Network Management Duty under section 16 of that