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Transport Secretary tells councils to stop "abusing" emergency active travel funding

Grant Shapps says further funding could be withheld

Emergency measures to improve active travel are “hugely popular with the silent majority” according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. He has however warned councils who have “abused” the cash that they may receive no further funding.

In an effort to encourage more people to walk and cycle, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced a £225m Emergency Active Travel Fund in May.

Writing in the foreword to new guidance associated with that funding, Shapps said: “The government … expects local authorities to make significant changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians.”

Only around 20 per cent of the fund has so far been allocated and it appears the Government has been unimpressed with much that has been produced.

Writing in the Telegraph this week, Shapps threatened to withhold cash that has yet to be formally allocated.

“Where some councils have abused the cash, my message is clear: speak to local residents, get it fixed or no more cash,” he says.

Shapps does however believe that many people – not just cyclists – have benefited from measures to tackle rat-running drivers, reduce danger around schools and make walking and cycling easier.

“These measures sometimes cause noisy opposition, but surveys show they are hugely popular with the silent majority,” he writes.

“But as you’d expect with things which are trials, not everything has worked. That’s why they’re trials – so they can be changed.”

Providing examples, he says: “Some councils have introduced random one-way systems, which don’t seem to offer many benefits to anyone.

“Some of those plastic barriers that have gone up in town centres to widen the pavements can actually prevent pedestrians, including disabled people, crossing the road. They narrow the carriageway for traffic, causing congestion and increasing danger for cyclists. They reduce parking for essential visits to the pharmacy or dentist or doctor. And they don’t seem to be much used by pedestrians either. So a number of them will be coming out soon.”

Flagging another significant change, he adds: “We’re also telling councils that now the height of the emergency has passed, there’s time to consult people more.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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18 comments

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abeverley | 3 years ago
1 like

This is actually a well-written and clever article. Bear in mind the audience it is addressed to. It empathises with them, gets them onboard with the message they want to hear, and then goes on to explain why good quality cycling infrastructure is needed in urban areas. It also points out that those complaining about the latter (probably most of the readership) are in the minority.

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Rich_cb replied to abeverley | 3 years ago
1 like

Exactly.

It's not written to appeal to the already converted.

It's written to appeal to those currently opposed.

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mdavidford | 3 years ago
2 likes

What is the context of the remark about "abus[ing] the cash"?

Undoubtably some of the schemes will have issues like those described that will need to be addressed, and some others will need to be removed or completely rethought. But if that's what Shapps means by 'abuse' then he doesn't seem to understand his own policy. After all, that was what it was meant to be all about - trying things out to find out what works.

If, on the other hand, he means councils using the money to put down fresh paint on existing substandard 'infrastructure', then fair enough.

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Awavey replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
2 likes

Annoyingly pay walled,but his opening sentence is "I'm a petrol-head." dont think we need to read further to understand which dog whistle he is using there. He goes on to say he's more accurately an electric head but believes our roads should be good to drive on, so he's no doubt bending to the will of his noisy back benches who are demanding to rip the protected lanes out because some motorists dont like them

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Rich_cb replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
0 likes

Did you read the article?

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Bmblbzzz | 3 years ago
7 likes

“Some of those plastic barriers that have gone up in town centres to widen the pavements can actually prevent pedestrians, including disabled people, crossing the road. They narrow the carriageway for traffic, causing congestion and increasing danger for cyclists. They reduce parking for essential visits to the pharmacy or dentist or doctor. And they don’t seem to be much used by pedestrians either. So a number of them will be coming out soon.”

Shapps seems to want cake without having that tiresome mixing and baking. You cannot reallocate road space to pedestrians and cyclists without taking that same space away from motorised traffic. 

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CygnusX1 replied to Bmblbzzz | 3 years ago
4 likes

The issue is with continuous lines of "rhinos" as shown in the picture at the top of this story. 

It is now impossible as a pedestrian to cross the street anywhere but at road intersections. Look at the picture - you want to get from the blue fronted shop to the bus stop across the street by the glass building. How do you do it?

Any protection of cycle lanes or extended pavements needs to be permeable for pedestrians (or cyclists) wanting to cross to the other side.

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Bmblbzzz replied to CygnusX1 | 3 years ago
1 like

That is an issue and one I'm familiar with, but again, bearing in mind these schemes are "temporary" and were installed in a hurry, it's the same point: local authorities were asked to do this, they did it, and he's complaining that they did it. What he could do is say, great, now we need to assess these schemes and replace the rhinos (new term to me, thanks!) with proper kerbs and wider pavements.

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David9694 replied to CygnusX1 | 3 years ago
1 like

.. to see his flat mate

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Awavey replied to CygnusX1 | 3 years ago
3 likes

replace barriers with constant stream of vehicle traffic and pose the same question and no one would blink an eye if you told them they had to cross the road at the corner of the street.

which maybe not the right approach either, but by default we create roads with invisible barriers to cross them by encouraging motor traffic unfettered use of them, and no one cares about the pedestrian then. We install some minor pieces of cycling infra to try and promote a better way of using the space, and yes it could be made to be more permeable to cross the road in that example, but that would surely be the feedback from the trial, but rather than make a minor correction, suddenly everyone is campaigning to pull it out completely because they are concerned all about pedestrians suddenly.

Shapps didnt write his piece for the Telegraph because a council has used rhinos instead of a more permeable barrier (and fwiw they probably did that only because there was bizarrely a shortage of barriers in the country and thats all they had available)  he's being the arch politician appealing to his partys core voters and backbenchers by echoing what they say about how councils have abused the funding and need to reverse the changes and consult more, which we all know kicks most schemes back into the long grass and we are back to square one

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brooksby replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
3 likes

Awavey wrote:

replace barriers with constant stream of vehicle traffic and pose the same question and no one would blink an eye if you told them they had to cross the road at the corner of the street.

There was a letter I read recently (cannot remember where, sorry) and someone was complaining about the new pop-up cycle lanes.  The crux of their point was that they were worried that someone was going to get knocked down because they had to remember to look before crossing the cycle lane.  Which led me to wonder how they ever managed to cross the road...

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brooksby | 3 years ago
5 likes

The lesson I'm taking away from all the 'pop-up' infrastructure in the middle of Bristol (wands - a base melted into the tarmac and then a wand 'popped' into the top of it), is that a scarily high number of motorists don't seem to be able to drive along a road without hitting these things!

The council's repair teams are outside my office every couple of days reseating the bases or putting the wands back in, where they've been knocked over/down.

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zedbedboy replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
3 likes

Drivers are mostly locked in to using the kerb as their guide for road positioning. One of my local roads has cycle lanes painted each side and the central white line removed  . I get the idea is to create more perceived danger and reduce traffic speed a a result. However, 90% of drivers can't help themselves from driving 1-2 feet from the kerb and within the painted cycle lane. I do understand that it takes some re-adjustment and concentration for a driver to position themselves correctly in this road set-up. However, this is the crux. It's clear that 90% of drivers don't possess either of these attributes. Painted white lines don't provide the safe space cyclists need to travel. I can only see the Dutch model working in the future and we will need a whole lot more investment than £250M to achieve that. 

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brooksby replied to zedbedboy | 3 years ago
7 likes

You may have a point there.  The local BTL news commenters all complained about how these protected lanes were taking up road space, forgetting that the wands are only protecting painted lanes that were already there.  If these people think that the wands are taking up space then they're admitting that they never stayed out of the painted lanes...

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Bmblbzzz replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
3 likes

The allegation has been made that a few drivers are deliberately knocking the wands down in protest. Whether this is true or not, I don't know.

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Awavey replied to Bmblbzzz | 3 years ago
8 likes

Allegation? We had the video of the driver in Brighton actually doing it last week.

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Captain Badger replied to Bmblbzzz | 3 years ago
5 likes
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Bmblbzzz replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
0 likes

Hadn't seen that. Wonder if it was an Uber driver in Bristol too? (No reason it should have been particularly.)

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