4 News LTT621 03 May - 16 May 2013

Lee Baker reports on the launch of the Get Britain Cycling report at theLTT-supported Cycle City Expo held in Birmingham last week

ANY CITY can become acycling city but only if action istaken to increase the popularityof the bicycle as a mode of trans-port, according to AECOM.

Mike Harris, landscape archi-tect at AECOM, told delegates atCycle City Expo how citiesknown for being car-dominatedacross the world were increasingcycling.

“Portland, Oregon, is goinggangbusters on building cycle-ways and has got eight per centof people cycling. If a sprawlingUS city can do it, then a city likeBirmingham here in the UK cando it. But people have to want tocycle.”

Harris said attitudes to cyclinghad been turned around in thecar-dominated city of Sydney inhis native Australia. A ‘noexcuses’ zone map showing theareas that were a 20-minute bikeride from the city centre pro-duced by AECOM for the City ofSydney was used to promotecycling as a quicker, cheapertransport mode.

Harris also referred to a ‘nolosers’ approach to win residentssupport for new cycleways bynot removing car parking spaces.

Elsewhere at the conference,Carlton Reid, executive editor,Bikebiz, said that the UK couldlearn from past experience.“World-class cycling infrastru-ture” in the new town ofStevenage with end-to-end seg-regation had failed to promotecycling because the city “alsomade it convenient for motoriststo get around”.

Fivefold budget increase called forto provide 10% of trips by bike

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiryhas urged the Prime Minister toget behind a national cyclingaction plan backed up with a five-fold rise in spending in England.

The All Party ParliamentaryCycling Group says that acycling budget of at least £10 perperson per year is needed overseveral decades – compared to £2in England outside the capital –if Britain is to reap the "massiveeconomic benefits" enjoyed byDutch cities. It concludes thatBritain can by 2025 increasecycle use to 10% of all journeysfrom two per cent today.

The report, written by Profes-sor Phil Goodwin, says that thereis "nothing in the nature of theBritish temperament whichmakes it impossible to see sub-stantial double figures of modeshare"; pointing out that cyclingin the Netherlands showed along-term decline as car owner-ship increased before this trendwas reversed through pro-activepolicies.

To achieve a similar shift in

Britain, the report says that bothhigher budgets and better designare needed. It says the Londonmayor is already planning toincrease spending to £14 perperson per year and the CyclingDemonstration Towns spent £14-£17 per person per year. The ideais that the extra spending wouldbe made possible by re-prioritis-ing existing transport budgets.

The report recommends: sub-stantial reallocations of roadspace, with segregated lanes on40mph+ roads “important” andon 30mph roads “desirable” andon higher-speed routes vital; sep-arate traffic signals for cyclists;

overhauling existing design guid-ance to reflect continental bestpractice; enforcement of drivingor parking in mandatory cyclelanes and amending the law sodriving that causes danger is notdismissed as 'carelessness'; andspecial highway maintenancepolicies for cycling facilities.

The drive to increase the pro-portion of trips undertaken bybike – rising to 25% of all trips by2050 – also requires leadershipand so should be overseen by aGovernment national cyclingchampion responsible for deliver-ing a cross-departmental cyclingaction plan, the cross-party com-

mittee concludes.Goodwin says in a foreword to

the report that the transport pro-fession of his generation "hasgrown up thinking that cycling,though worthy, is of small signif-icance... we were wrong. In 2011there were in total more peak-period cyclists than cars crossingthe Thames by six great bridges –an astonishing demonstration ofthe contribution already made bycycling to traffic flow in the city".

Roger Geffen, policy & cam-paigns director at cycling lobbygroup CTC, said it was the mostimportant week in cycling politicsfor 15 years. “We welcome thiscross-party consensus on thevalue of cycling. We now wantthe same cross-party consensuson long-term investment incycling that we have seen agreedin order to deliver HS2.”

However Councillor JamesMcKay, Birmingham’s cabinetmember for green, safe and smartcity, who opened the Cycle CityExpo, told LTT: “I’d love a biggercycling budget, but we haven’tgot access to £20m a year.” TheCycle City Ambition bid couldprovide £10m (see below, left).

Any city can become aCycle City, says AECOM

Cycle City Ambition bids in:Birmingham plans revolution

BIRMINGHAM CITY Councilsubmitted a bid to the DfT thisweek for £17 million of the CycleCity Ambition grant to turn “acity built for the car” into a ‘cyclecity’.

Cycling in Birmingham hasincreased by 75% since 2005 butat 1.7% cycling’s modal share ofjourneys in the city remains atbelow the average for Britain of2%. Councillor James McKay,told the Expo delegates: “It mightnot have computed, seeing thewords ‘cycling’ and ‘Birming-ham’ together. Think ofBirmingham, you think of thespaghetti junction.”

The city’s bid for £17 millionfollows Atkins’ drawing up of acycling strategy for the city,which Adrian Lord, director atAtkins, said focused on tacklingthe lack of permeability forcyclists caused by one-waystreets and road junctions. “Thereare roads where you need greatersegregation, and some roads arewide enough to put in segregatedfacilities.”

Birmingham says with£22.9m, including match funding,it would deliver 115km of newcycling routes and improvementsto 95km of existing routes, focus-ing on infrastructure within a20-minute cycle time of the citycentre.

Chris Tunstall, BirminghamCity Council’s interim director forsustainability, transport and part-nerships, told LTT: “The messageis, ‘if Birmingham can do this,any city can’.”

The DfT said in guidance forthe £30m grant that it expects toaward this to up to three CityDeal authorities; £20m to onelarger city and the rest to two ofthe 20 smaller City Deal authori-ties (LTT 22 Feb).

Birmingham will face compe-tition from other first wave CoreCities including from Transportfor Greater Manchester, whichhas bid for £20m for its ‘Velocity2025’ strategy to build sevenstrategic ‘spokes’ or cycleways,segregated from traffic wherepossible, in order to increasecycling by 300% by 2025.

Professor Phil Goodwin and Philip Darnton launching thereport at Cycle City Expo in Birmingham last week

Sprawling cities can becomecycling cities: Mike Harris

CYCLING CYCLING

CYCLINGby Lee Baker

See video interviews with

John Dales @johnstreetdalesLilli Matson says TfLgrappling with theconundrum of promotingcycling in the context of tradtraffic modelling approaches. 25 Apr 13

James Gleave @jamesgleave1@johnstreetdales strange,considering their own modelpredicts and has recordedreducing traffic levels.25 Apr 13

John Dales @johnstreetdales@jamesgleave1 Yet RoadsTask Force still seems to bebelieving DfT traffic growthforecasts, ignoring bothhistory & peak car. 25 Apr 13

TransportXtra @TransportXtraPhil Goodwin says more oftransport budget should goon cycling so there are no newdemands on nation's finances.What will get the chop?25 Apr 13

WandsLS @WandsLS@TransportXtra Makes senseto fund the best value formoney schemes - so reallocatefunds from road projects towalking & cycling…25 Apr 13

Swanky Cyclist @UrbaneCommuter@WandsLS @TransportXtraSuggest SEMMMS for me,would ya? £290m for a shortbit of dual cabbageway noone would miss.25 Apr 13

David Arditti @VoleOSpeedMatson chillingly tells us thatthe Treasury don’t understandthe economic case for whatTfL are doing. Battle formoney. #cyclecityexpo25 Apr 13

John Dales @johnstreetdalesAt #cyclecityexpo,@philippank says his oppofrom another national paper

#cyclecityexpo

THE CYCLING Commissionerfor London, Andrew Gilligan, hasacknowledged that some CycleSuperhighway sections are “littlemore than blue paint” and theyneed to be upgraded or divertedto provide adequate facilities.

Gilligan, speaking to LTT atthe Cycle City Expo, echoed thecriticism made of the superhigh-ways by cyclists when they werefirst introduced (LTT 25 Sep 09).He acknowledged: “Not all thecycle infrastructure that’s beenput in has been met with satisfac-tion from cyclists. A lot of theCycle Superhighways in particu-lar.”

He said the problem was thatthey were on the Transport forLondon Road Network, which“has to fulfil so many purposes,they are compromised”. Theywould only remain on the TLRNif they can meet the criteria of“adequacy,” he said. “We will re-route some of them, with

agreement from the boroughs.”He confided that he “wouldremove Cycle SuperhighwayEight altogether if I could”.

He was speaking as LondonTravelWatch raised concernsabout the mayor’s cycling vision,including the loss of bus priorityand conflict between cyclists andpedestrians accessing bus stops.

Gilligan also revealed that hewas seeking changes to the CycleSuperhighway Five as proposed,including diverting it away fromthe proposed route of Vauxhall

Bridge Road on the TLRN if analternative can be found. He saidthe CS3 route was successfulbecause it used borough roads.

To implement the mayor’scycling vision, “the main taskwill be getting political agreementfrom the roadowners,” he said.Gillian was confident that theboroughs would support new,diverted and extended CycleSuperhighways on their roads.Westminster City Council hadbeen “incredibly good” with anew draft cycling strategy “more

ambitious than ours”.Gilligan told delegates that seg-

regation was not alwaysnecessary, highlighting that theborough with the highest rates ofcycling, Hackney, does not relyon this.

He said that the fact that therehad only been a 1% growth incycling in 2012 compared todouble digits the year before mayhave been down, in part, to “theall consuming focus on safetyputting people off” despite thefact “it is far safer than it was.”

The commissioner also said hewanted to “minimise” studies forschemes. “I do not want to seeanother CRISP (Cycle RouteImplementation and StakeholderPlan) survey in my life. We knowwhere people want to cycle.”

“It’s a political process,” hesaid. He was convincing “theTory councillors who had nevergot on a bike in their life” of theneed for schemes, he said, bytelling them that if more peoplecycle, “they’ll have less competi-tion for a parking space”.

TransportXtra.com/ltt News 55

THE BUZZat the CycleCity Expoevent wastangible, with

early 500 registered delegatesall wanting a role in ‘gettingBritain cycling’ The challenge,however, will be to translatethis enthusiasm into concreteaction.

Cycling has come a longway, with transport profession-als admitting their mistake atnot taking it seriously and TheTimes campaigning hard onthe issue. But much remainsthe same. The DfT is stillwedded to appraisal methodsthat, factoring in delays tovehicular traffic, may notjustify spending on segregatedfacilities on busy roads that theGet Britain Cycling report rec-ommends.

One answer is to reform theappraisals. Professor PhilGoodwin told me that, if healthbenefits are captured, “theBCRs for cycling schemes arevery much greater that formany major infrastructureschemes, even using traditionalappraisal methods”. Further-more, not assuming“inexorable rises” in traffic areinevitable will also strengthenthe case, he added.

The other answer is toreduce the role of appraisals.Mike Harris, landscape archi-tect, AECOM, said that inCopenhagen they do not workout the cost/benefit ratios ofschemes. “They plan their net-works based on logic,” Harrisadded. Andrew Gilligan, theLondon mayor’s cycling com-missioner, meanwhile, told methat appraisals have “becomereasons not to do things” andin addition dismissed the needfor further surveys.

The vision for a nationwhere cycling is a mainstreammode of transport seemed self-evident to delegates. But is itself-evident how to implementthis, as the commissioner sug-gests? With a drive forstandardised design as well,what role for the profession?

Asked if there is a role fortransport planners, Gilligansaid: “We still need to modelthe traffic impacts of schemescarefully.” There is more to itthan that, of course. The factthat the cycling commissioneris a journalist speaks of theneed for the ‘softer’ skills ofcommunication and persuasionrequired for implementation.Transport officers and consult-ants have a role in making thatcase too.lee.baker@landor.co.uk

London’s cycling commissioneradmits TfL infrastructure mistakes

End cycling ‘design free-for-all’ says BirminghamBIRMINGHAM CITY Councilhas urged an end to a cycling“design free-for all” in responseto the Get Britain Cycling reportrecommendation for reviseddesign guidance.

Councillor James McKay,Birmingham cabinet member forgreen, safe and smart city, said:“You wouldn’t say ‘design amotorway however you want’.Why do we allow that for cyclinginfrastructure? It goes against thegrain of Government thinking...but they need to get a grip.”

Councillor McKay said hewould “go further” than the GetBritain Cycling recommendationto prevent further funds beingwasted on ineffective cyclinginfrastructure. The report recom-mends that the DfT reviseexisting design guidance to reflect“continental best practice forcycle-friendly design”.

The local council’s call fornational prescription was sup-ported by consultants AECOM.Kate Morris, director, transporta-tion, speaking to LTT at the CycleCity Expo, said: “Conformity ofdesign provides a strong message

to the user on the facilities theycan expect wherever they cycleand provides the benchmark fordevelopers as to the standardsexpected.”

Roger Geffen, campaigns andpolicy director at CTC, also wel-comed McKay’s intervention.“Local authorities themselvesare not crying out to do thingsdifferently everywhere. They aresaying ‘we want some consis-tency please’ on how you designdifferent types of major junc-tions, different types of street.There are templates from whichthey could draw.”

CYCLING

Leeds cycle hub half fulland making a lossTHE CYCLE hub at Leeds rail ismaking a loss, with capacity nohigher than 50% at peak times,according to Evans Cycles,which runs the operation.

Leeds CyclePoint, which canstore 300 bikes, was opened inAugust 2010 with funding fromAbellio. Mark Brown, head ofRide2Work at Evans Cycles,said that the operation had failedto achieve its aim of breakingeven. Speaking at Cycle City, hesaid the hub’s income only just

covered rent and rates paid toAbellio. The hub – which offerscycle parking, hire, mainte-nance, servicing and sales – hastwo full-time members of staff.

A third of customers cyclinginto Leeds were not rail userswhile there had been littledemand for cycle hire, saidBrown.

“Leeds station gets 25 millionpassengers a year – that’s a lotof footfall. But the problem ismost passengers are arrivingrather than leaving.”

CYCLING

Councillor James McKay wantsmore prescription

Andrew Gilligan talks strategy with LTT’s Lee Baker

LEE BAKERComment

CYCLINGby Lee Baker

Tunnel closures legacy sought

A BIRMINGHAM businessdistrict is to use this summer’sclosure of the A38 tunnels toencourage cycling.

Rod Black, associate, ModeTransport, told the Cycle CityExpo that the Colmore BusinessDistrict hopes to get a ten per centreduction in car use during theplanned closure of theQueensway tunnels for theirrefurbishment. The tunnels arebeing closed for six weeks instead

of more protracted night-time andweekend closures to reduce thecost (LTT 9 Nov 12).

The district’s 35,000 employ-ees are being encouraged toexplore alternatives to car travelduring the closures. A websitepromoting alternatives, brum-tunnels.co.uk, is to be launched.

Black said: “The Olympicsshowed what can be achievedby talking to businesses. Wewant a sustainable travel legacyimpact from these closures.”

CYCLING