CTC has called on Transport Secretary Justine Greening MP to support an action plan for ‘more and safer cycling’, following a hugely positive debate on cycling [3]in the House of Commons this afternoon. CTC also echoed calls from MPs for the restoration of Cycling England in order to co-ordinate delivery of this plan.
The debate was prompted by The Times’s ‘Cities fit for cycling [4]’ campaign, launched after Times journalist Mary Bowers was left in a coma following a collision with a lorry. It was attended by 75 MPs, an almost unprecedented number for a Westminster Hall adjournment debate, with demand to speak outstripping the debate in the main Commons chamber.
CTC’s Campaigns & Policy Director Roger Geffen, who briefed MPs ahead of the debate, said: “Following the hugely positive show of cross-party parliamentary support, the Government now has a clear mandate to get on with promoting ‘more as well as safer cycling’. It should seize the moment and draw up a co-ordinated action plan to create safe conditions for cycling, and to encourage more people to enjoy its benefits for our health, our quality of life and our wallets."
He added: “The wider public benefits of cycling span so many different Government departments, but so too do the actions needed to maximise those benefits The departments responsible for health, planning, climate change, air quality and environment, traffic law and policing all have roles to play, with similar 'joined-up action' needed locally. We urge the Transport Secretary to grasp the opportunity right now to get Olympic Britain back into the saddle.”
Several MPs noted the evidence from CTC’s ‘Safety in Numbers [5]’ campaign that cycling gets safer the more cyclists there are, and called for more joined-up government between different Government departments, e.g. those responsible for transport, health, education, planning, traffic law and enforcement. There were also calls for action to make it easier to combine cycling and rail travel.
MPs also commended the activities of local volunteers from CTC and other cycling groups in their constituencies. CTC Councillor Graham Smith (from Oxford), Sue Coles (from Winchester) and Mark Kiehlmann (from Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow) all received notable mentions.
The debate had been called by MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG). Opening the debate, APPCG co-chair Julian Huppert MP outlined the health, environmental and other benefits of cycling, and noted that three quarters of all trips in Britain are less than 5 miles, a distance easily covered in a short bike ride.
He observed that the cost to society of obesity is around £20bn annually, roughly the same as the whole of the Department for Transport’s budget. Describing cycling as “the most under-rated but most valuable” of transport modes, he cited evidence from European best practice that growth in cycle use requires a consistent spend of around £10 per person annually.
He commended “the much lamented Cycling England” from its formation in 2005 to its axing in 2009 as having proved excellent value for money. He then asked his party colleague, Transport Minister Norman Baker MP, “Can we have it back please?”
Later in his speech, Huppert called on the Government to give attention to the prosecution and sentencing of driving offences, saying that “So many cyclists feel excluded from justice.”
Following on, APPCG co-chair Ian Austin MP noted the trivial sentences handed down to the drivers who killed Solihull Cycling Club member Cath Ward [6] and former British Cycling coach Rob Jefferies [7], likewise the driver of the lorry which killed Eilidh Cairns [8], who was fined £200 for having uncorrected defective eyesight but not prosecuted for any other driving offence.
CTC’s ‘Stop [9]Smidsy [9]’ campaign calls for tougher and better enforced road traffic law, to put an end to the constant cases of drivers hitting cyclists and dismissing it lightly with the words “Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You” (or ‘Smidsy’).
MPs from all three main parties queued up to echo Huppert and Austin’s calls for: more 20mph speed limits, for better cycling provision; for junctions to be redesigned to improve cyclists’ safety; for action to reduce the risks which lorries pose to cyclists; and for cycle awareness to be incorporated into the driving test. All of these being measures called for in The Times’s manifesto [10].
CTC Press Office
Email: publicity@ctc.org.uk [11]
Telephone: 0844-736-8453
CTC, the UK’s largest cycling charity, inspires and helps people to cycle and keep cycling, whatever kind of cycling they do or would like to do. Over a century’s experience tells us that cycling is more than useful transport; it makes you feel good, gives you a sense of freedom and creates a better environment for everyone.
- We provide expert, practical help and advice.
- We support individuals and communities.
- We protect cyclists’ interests.
- We campaign to make cycling mainstream and to remove the things that stop people cycling.
- We help people develop the confidence and skills to cycle.
- We promote the benefits of cycling to individuals, to society and to the economy.
CTC has strongly supported the Times’s “Cities fit for cycling campaign”, whose manifesto echoes many things which CTC has called for over many years. CTC’s views and briefing materials on various cycle safety topics can be found on the pages linked from www.ctc.org.uk/safety [12].
CTC is one of six organisations which supports the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG), through its membership of the UK Cycling Alliance. The other members of UKCA are the Bicycle Association, British Cycling, Cyclenation, the London Cycling Campaign and Sustrans.
UKCA produced an 8-point call to action [13] in advance of today’s debate, which is outlined in a 2-page summary briefing:
There is also a fuller 9-page briefing from CTC, London Cycling Campaign and Cyclenation [14] with additional detail on the actions which UKCA is calling for.
CTC’s Stop Smidsy [9] website provides further information many others cases where drivers have received derisory sentences following convictions for ‘careless’ driving offences or other charges which seriously under-state the gravity of driving which causes danger.