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"I welcome consultation because this is something people want" says Chris Boardman as Government issues new bike lane guidance to councils

“If you asked people 10 years ago, ‘Is it okay if we put 30% more traffic down your road?’ there’d be incandescent rage – but that consultation never took place”

Greater Manchester’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner Chris Boardman has welcomed the Government’s “tough new conditions” to ensure cycle schemes are consulted on. “People want the change,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.

The government yesterday released another £175m from the £250m Active Travel Fund, allocating it to local authorities in England to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps recently criticised the quality of some of the pop-up bike lanes created with the first tranche of funding and so new guidance emphasises the need for public consultation before constructing such schemes.

 

The new guidance says that councils must:

  • Publish plans to show how they will consult their communities, including residents, businesses and emergency services, among others
  • Show evidence of appropriate consultation prior to schemes being implemented
  • Submit monitoring reports on the implementation of schemes 6-12 months after their opening, highlighting how schemes have been modified based on local feedback to ensure they work for communities

Boardman, who will shape how £16m is spent in the Greater Manchester area, welcomed the move.

> 8 out of 10 people support measures to reduce motor traffic according to Government survey

Highlighting how unwelcome the current road traffic situation is, he said: “Nobody asked for the amount of traffic that we’ve got on our residential streets right now.

“If you asked people 10 years ago, ‘Is it okay if we put 30 per cent more traffic down your road?’ there’d be incandescent rage – but that consultation never took place.

“But that’s what happened. We now have 20 billion more miles driven past people’s homes than we did just 10 years ago.

“So people actually want the change. But those changes have to be done properly and they have to be in consultation – not done to people.

“So I absolutely welcome more consultation because we know that this is something people want.”

Local authorities will be required to engage closely with the Department for Transport (DfT) throughout the process – while Active Travel England – once it is set up – will further assess plans to ensure they are of sufficiently high quality.

Boardman said this was an equally important element.

“It’s the insistence on standards as well as consultation to make sure that what we get actually gives people in cars a genuine motivation to get out – so they can look out of the window and say, ‘Do you know what? I might try that.’”

Expanding on that, he added: “I think in its crudest terms, you have to be able to look out of the car window and see something that looks easy and safe – because if it doesn’t, then why would you get out of the car?”

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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2 comments

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HarrogateSpa | 3 years ago
5 likes

I agree with Boardman (as usual). You need people to look out of the window and think 'that looks good.' At the moment, that would never happen where I live.

You have to look after people all the way, at every bit of the journey - like the Birmingham Blue Routes, but for a whole network.

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
5 likes

I missed that when I listened to Today this morning, I just heard the bit where the repeated the DM's gammon rabid driver comments.  I'll go back and listen again, I hope it's as good as CB's previous stuff.

He's right as usual, and I hope this signifies a change in policy by the BBC to actually feature the benefits of cycling, not just attack it like the gutter press.

EDIT: No, the BBC's policy hasn't changed.  There was a ten minute section on R4 news this morning which was a blatant advert for electric cars, but no mention of the devastating effects of mining the battery materials, or the pollution from brakes and tyres, nor that they are likely to make congestion, obesity, danger and detterence of active travel worse.

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