Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 8.1
Share of investment in cycle transport infrastructure upgrade for 8 cities in England
(
Original data source: Press release - Government shifts cycling up a gear
(DfT
2013b
))
It is only recently that major investment in cycling infrastructure is supported
by politicians through an investment of about £94 million of public money into
cycling in England with the aim of undertaken transport network upgrades to
help cyclists at 14 locations on trunk road networks along with identified national
parks (Walker
2013a
; Siddique
2013
). Although the funds have been announced,
knowing where to invest in a practical sense is key to getting better value for the
money. This became necessary because it was found out that major roads pose as
obstacles to journeys by bike (Siddique
2013
). The eight cities mentioned to benefit
from the huge investment were Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Norwich,
Birmingham, Bristol, and Cambridge. The shares of investment of the public funds
for the cities are shown in Fig.
8.1
.
Additionally, £17 million investment funds are
to cover national parks: South Downs (£3.8), New Forest (£3.6 m), Peak District
(£5 m), and Dartmoor (£4.4) (Westcott
2013
). Although policy shift to investment
is positive, more is needed as the declared investment still does not match other
EU countries such as the Netherlands where they fund about £24 per person per
year (Peck
2013
). With the entire funding for investment in cycling combined in
the UK, the budget per person per year is estimated to be about £18 (DfT
2013c
),
a shortfall of £6 compared to Netherlands. Despite the effort and commitment by
the UK government in improving cycling, not everyone agrees that the government
is doing enough. Walker (
2013b
) argues that the government is not doing enough
for the realization of UK becoming one of the
cycling nations
in Europe. The
basis of argument is that the long awaited DfT response to the
Get Britain Cycling
inquiry
recommendations was far below expectation and seems not to offer any hope
by linking responses to already existing nationwide projects (Walker
2013b
;DfT
2013c
; Goodwin
2013
). Moreover, the MP for Newcastle Central, Chi Onwurah, has
also argued for better national leadership and backing for cyclists around Newcastle
upon Tyne (the study area) during a recently held (Get Britain Cycling) debate in
parliament (Pearson
2013
). This political campaign suggests that there is more to be
done than just a well-formulated local plan as in the Tyne and Wear region, where
strategic policies are in place to address the improvement of on- and off-road cycle
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