City administrations across Europe and beyond have made real progress in planning and providing for cycling in their cities. Support both for cycling measures and this book has come from the European Commission. Their support has been most valuable, but this was not the start of their involvement. In 1999, the then European Environment Commissioner, Ritt Bjerregard wrote the following foreword to their publication ‘Cycling: The way ahead for towns and cities’:
The potential of bicycle and pedestrian travel in the city has been underestimated in past decades and, as a result, there has been some deterioration of facilities and public space availability for these road users. However, in recent years the value of these transport modes has gained recognition and is being prioritised much more highly in cities’ mobility policies.
Electric bikes proved to be very efficient in dense urban areas where most delivery rounds are short. In many ways they perform better than motorised vehicles, saving money and increasing efficiency.
The Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor is one of the fastest-growing, most productive, most innovative places in the UK. It could become Britain’s Silicon Valley. But it could also stagnate, strangled by unaffordable housing and inadequate transport.
Report shows that 'strong' Mini Holland' interventions generate more walking and more cycling, and don't identifiably increase traffic in surrounding areas, suggesting that providing good infra drives genuine growth in active travel.
This paper analyses Active People Survey data (collected 2011/12 to 2015/16) on 789,196 English adults, providing new information on how a range of socio-demographic factors are associated with utility and leisure cycling. Substantial inequalities are found in relation to gender, age, disability, and ethnicity for both types of cycling. For gender and age, and perhaps for disability in relation to recreational cycling, inequalities are moderated by local cycling prevalence such that English authorities with more cycling see less inequality.
Urban utility cycling is being promoted widely due to various health, social, economic and environmental benefits. This study seeks to identify and rank which munic- ipal-level policies and other factors are most influential in increasing cycling as a means of everyday transport and improving the real and perceived cycling safety in car-oriented urban centres. This is achieved by identifying the key factors thought to influence cycle use and by establishing a hierarchy of effectiveness of municipal cycling policies.
Public bodies in England who wish to fund cycling infrastructure need to present a business case that justifies the investment. The idea of spending money to encourage people to cycle wasn’t central to public policy in the UK until quite recently. We therefore make the case for investment in cycling using an approach that evolved from the appraisal of more traditional transport projects, like highway improvements or new railway stations.
This chapter explores relationships between stakeholders, politics, and the media in relation to transport and urban planning, within the context of the need to move towards more sustainable mobility systems. It addresses these themes by discussing a case study of cycling in London, where the recent policy context has been shaped both by media and by cycling advocates. The chosen case study allows some broader conclusions to be drawn about social change and the prospects of moving to more sustainable transport systems. These relate to:
