Intro
The spring conference of the Cycle Campaign Network, the Cycle Touring Club and the London Cycling Campaign - hosted by LCC and Transport for London (TfL).
Saturday 10 May 2003. The Conference Centre, Church House, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, London SW1. 9am – 4.30pm.
(these notes are intended to be an accurate reflection of what was said on the day rather than a tight precis).
Venue: posh, traditional and of course very churchey with staffed cloakroom, efficient coffee etc breaks, good salmon buffet lunch…and specially organised parking right outside for 70 bikes. And more parking in the nearby underground carpark. Very handsome 1937 building by Herbert Baker and Alexander Scott. The main horseshoe shaped auditorium for the 380 people there is where the Church of England synod meets….hence the voting lobbies labelled Laity Ayes/Noes and Clergy Ayes/Nos.
General organisation….very smooth using LCC staff and volunteers. There were useful stalls by Sustrans, CTC, LCC, Friends of Herne Hill velodrome and others.
The conference
Crispin Truman, Chair of LCC welcomed all and thanked Transport for London (TfL) as co-hosts. There were 3 reasons for the conference:
• cycling is the solution
• there are new partnerships at work that today will highlight
• this is a really good time to involve users too
And there were three very good reasons to be here today:
• to learn something new about cycling
• to share experiences
• because you love cycling
He then introduced:
Rose Ades, Head of the TfL’s Cycling Centre for Excellence
She said she was ex LCC and Bikerail and was going to talk about barriers to cycling, why London is different, the Cycle Action Plan, London Cycle Network+ (LCN+), and making it all happen. But don’t forget that Mayor Ken Livingstone is speaking later, so I mustn’t steal his thunder.
London is different: there’s a lot of institutions to deal with, and it’s a huge city with traffic problems. There’s the Mayor and the Greater London Authority (GLA), TfL, CCE, 33 boroughs, 6 increasingly important sub-regional partnerships, one lead cycling borough (Camden), and now 8 TfL-funded travel planning coordinators. It’s sometimes not that clear what CCE is part of. Its job is to develop and deliver programmes with the other planning bodies. That’s where the voluntary sector and LCC come in. They must be involved in the planning etc processes otherwise CCE has no accreditation.
It seems that people generally find 7 reasons not to cycle:
• the perceived danger
• the sheer effort involved
• the weather
• poor street environment
• theft
• lack of information about routes and how easy it is really
• lack of bike skills
And then there’s the street cred bit: will my friends laugh at me. And where do I park my bike anyway?
CCE are asking people what they need and find that:
38% on non-cyclists worry their friends will laugh.
65% see too many problems in taking up cycling.
67% of Londoners generally want more bike lanes.
73% of Londoners wanted to see car-traffic reduced.
29% of Londoners had bike parking at work.
25% of non-cyclists would cycle if conditions were right.
Younger people particularly wanted better bike parking - at their schools, colleges.
Cycling is increasingly steadily in central London.
Cyclists are mostly affluent.
The CCE Cycle Action Plan is coming from 4 key areas, has 10 main objects and some 50 actions.
4 key areas:
• Mayor’s Transport Strategy
• The Task Force Review
• Tfl’s us Plan
• Research and evidence
The objects include:
• improving the infrastructure
• better route maintenance
• better policing of road traffic
• public transport links
• benefits from other programmes, like Congestion Charging
• much improved marketing of cycling
The infrastructure:
LCN+ was about providing high demand routes with improved bike access, improved safety, bike priority at junctions. It’s about providing much better routes where they are needed.
Parking too: CCE are supporting innovative schemes that will be amongst the best in Europe.
It’s about marketing and promotion too. Beginners especially need a lot of information before they are happy about trying cycling.
The marketing must include both bike promotion and increasing the status of cycling. It includes improving the accessibility of cycling and working to improve mutual respect between road-users. CCE are, for example, encouraging the police to use bikes more and become role models. The more bikes are seen to be used, the more they’ll be used.
Much better links must be made between cycling and public transport modes, and much better travel information all round is needed. TfL is working on a London journey planner.
Cyclists will get shared- benefit from other schemes too: bus priority networks and lanes, town-centre traffic calming and exclusion, Congestion Charging.
We must all work to break the culture of increasing car use, and the school run.
LCN+ is
• being planned by TfL, the boroughs, cycle groups and pedestrians too.
• where implementation is most needed.
• it will be fast, safe, comfortable, and sustained and maintained.
• it will be designed to new standards to guide bikes through zones of conflict. (Slide of the newish Park Lane crossing from Hyde Park).
• there will be separated stretches, queue jump arrangements, and raised tables for better visibility
• to be complete by 2009
• for £200m
The guiding principles are
• a clear focus to clear barriers to cycling
• best practice and social inclusion
• excellent project management
• better engagement of users in the planning process
• ensure a base for right first time results
National TfL Performance Indicators now include local cycle use. We’re looking to increase cycling by 80% over 10 years. The aim was to treble cycling. Why haven’t we? CCE wasted some time in the new GLA etc set up. But now we’re into Best Practice and social inclusion and a 3 year planning cycle. Social inclusion is a crucial key: transport inequalities are seen as major opponents to improving equalities and social inclusion. But how do we tackle such inequalities? But looking at the needs of the individual and helping with them.
And there’s huge talk about partnerships. A minefield. Collaboration is a much better term but it smacks of collusion with the enemy. It’s about jointly working on a common project. CCE are happy to be the enemy if it’s about collaboration, and are certainly collaborating with TfL to get cycling taking off. www.tfl.org.uk
Christian Woolmar (National Cycling Strategy Board): Can we reach the national targets?
I’m on the National Cycling Strategy Board, and arrived here in a cab straight from a plane from Germany (mostly good-natured boos from the audience).
An act of faith is needed…we know how important cycling is as a mode of transport, but how do we get that across to everyone in the Department of Transport and elsewhere. John Spellar is a very supportive minister.
There’s been much progress in the last year:
• the Cycling Development Team started 9 months ago and is working with local authorities and separating good practice from inactivity.
• there’s been much work on the Marketing Strategy. How to boost cycling?
• meetings with the Strategic Rail Authority are backing better bike/rail use generally.
But we need to be very realistic about that target that sought to quadruple cycling nationally by 2012.
In Strasbourg, and in Europe generally, transport is seen to be an integral part of the planning infrastructure. Look at the very different approach in Groenign in Holland….50% cycle in that town. How did they get to that figure? By making a firm political commitment to cycling 30 years ago. The town had to decide between a new ring-road and more cars, or more cycling. Compare that with the new bike facilities in Nottingham. Rubbish! Money is not the key thing and it’s not enough simply to talk cycle-friendly. Cycle-positive is what’s needed. But England has made a lot of progress over the last 20 years, cycling is usually encouraged and most see that cycling must be part of the solution.
But Government generally is not won over to this win-win situation even though the British Medical Association is. Cyclists live longer but there’s too much emphasis on the dangers of cycling. There’s a worrying DTP helmet campaign starting soon, aimed at 14 year old boys! And are bells really the answer? Many cyclists are wrong to argue for totally segregated facilities. They won’t happen. And most commuting cyclists really don’t need showers once the are fit enough. We need to make cycling more routine – an integrated part of what you do daily. People want to cycle. Cycling is now part of national transport policy. For cyclists to pretend they’re treated like the Taliban is just not helpful. You groaned when I said I’d flown and cabbed it here. Cycling is not the only means of transport.
So just what are the barriers to progress?
• it’s a huge task. Even enlightened Vienna has only seen an 80% increase in cycling in 10 years.
• there are institutional barriers: hostile Councils like Westminster.
• Too many good words, not enough action
• the perceived danger puts many off
• and just where are all these extra cyclists to meet the targets?
In Germany little old ladies seem to cycle everywhere. Young people and returnees are the new cyclists.
Many people have a bad perception of cyclists. Many do jump red lights, ride recklessly on pavements and have no lights. Many poor cyclists are pre-driving teens. And they make pariahs of the rest of us.
So:
• behave better. Don’t ride on busy pavements, don’t jump lights unless it really is obviously safer
• aim for the unachievable
As David Steel once almost said "go back to your areas and prepare to take over the world!".
Questions:
Mark Strong, English Regional Development Team: I’m getting confused about all these targets and I’m still aiming to quadruple cycling. Why is London only talking about trebling cycling?
Tom Bogdanowicz, LCC Campaigns Manager: how much has cycling increased in London after Congestion Charging?
John Monk, Cheltenham Cyclists: much of today’s discussion has been about non-users? What about users?
Rose Ades: it’s not for me to set targets. It’s a political issue. If targets get in the way, that’s a pity. It’s up to cyclists to get tougher implementing strategies. Our intention is to get cycling levels as high as possible. There are practical challenges about making targets realistic. Cycling levels are the sole Government Performance Indicator and setting unobtainables will work against us. Designs must be right…where are the barriers?
Christian Woolmar: there’s a real target dichotomy. Targets are inspirational but if targets get in the way, that’s a pity. It’s all about detail, there’s some latent demand and its necessarily a slow process. Do we set over-ambitious targets or be realistic.
Mike Armstrong, Croydon: cyclists have a bad image. We need more enforcement of road rules for all vehicles, including bikes.
Paul Davies, Ealing Cycling Officer: London targets seem to have slid from quadrupling or trebling to an 80% increase. That’s a low target. There’s been lots of innovation in Ealing, for example, but not much increase. It’s partly marketing..other forms of transport are being very highly sold, especially cars and motor-bikes and public transport.
Shaleen Duncan, London Cycle Messengers Association: road dangers are caused by other drivers. Increased deterrence and increased awareness of cyclists rights are needed.
Rose Ades: the TfL view is that people need to get round London more easily. The main threat to cyclists is motor vehicles. Segregation of lanes is not going to be possible or desirable everywhere. It will be as necessary and as appropriate. LCN+ will be fast, comfortable and safe. Conflicts will be managed and traffic slowed down. Hat’s what cycle infrastructure is about. We can’t direct. We create the right conditions for sharing the city.
Christian Woolmar: red lights need a bike phase. The perception that cyclists are law breakers is patently unfair, but damaging nevertheless.
Crispin Truman: closing the session: and it’s about social inclusion too. The LCC now has an effective 5 year strategy. Look round, a hall full of like minded people…….
COFFEE
Crispin Truman: Ken’s running a bit late. So I’ll make some announcements. There are 3 fine rides tomorrow. Sign up at reception. Any comments so far from the floor?
Barry Mason, Southwark Cyclists: I urge you al to do one practical thing today. Herne Hill Velodrome is a huge asset to cycling. Join the Friends today. There’s a stall here with all the information you need.
John Vidal, CTC: Look to Holland, integrated planning and transport policies.
Southampton person: it’s a cultural thing, it’s not so much about facilities.
Debbie, Chair of the All Abilities Cycling Group: there needs to be more information about terrain for less able cyclists, and access too.
Theresa Thomas, health journalist: how do we educate kids away from cars?
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London: Cycling in the Capital
I’m lucky today, two conferences one after the other, just across the road. I walked here. (Cheers). I’m delighted to be here. You’ll want to hear about Congestion Charging. Since it came in, cycling is up 16% in the zone, motor-traffic is 17% down. I want to double the size of the zone by expanding it westwards. That’ll increase cycling even more. When I was elected a couple of years ago, there were 4.3m bus journeys a day in London. There were 4.8m in January and 5.1m now. Since I was first elected as Councillor in 1971, Congestion Charging is the only thing I’ve done that’s turned out better than I expected. On that 17 February morning when Congestion Charging came in, I got to the CCTV control centre at the crack of dawn, but decided that that was like waiting for election results…..what’s going to happen will happen. So I went to my office in City Hall and looked out to Tower Bridge…there was no gridlock…there was no traffic to be seen…..Oh my God…I’ve overdone I thought…..But of course we haven’t. Life in central London has got much more pleasant. T’s a success…and remaining traffic has speeded up, and it’s harder to cross the road! There are issues of pedestrian and bike safety and we’re back to Victorian speeds, a real improvement and we’ve knocked down the silly arguments about people being wedded to their cars. We’d argued beforehand about whether £5 was enough. I was tempted to ask for more, but it’s about right for now.
But I’m going to double the size of the zone. Milan will follow us. Derek Turner from TfL is now working to bring Congestion Charging to many other world cities, and the GLA will earn fees from those projects. Many European cities invested in public transport when we didn’t. The USA just keep building roads so tend not to need charging. Developing countries need Congestion Charging, they’re getting gridlock and pollution. Congestion Charging will have a real impact on slowing global warming. Less NO2, less particulates, most Londoners think it’s a great improvement. We’ll add the area round Heathrow too. The air quality improvement has been tasteable out there in the streets. When I was a kid there were 500,000 bike commuters, now there are 100,000. And the decline has stopped. Motor traffic was squeezing cars out. There’s been a drastic shift the other way. Road space has been freed up and the quality of life and health for inner Londoners has improved.
But we’re addressing other inequalities too. We’re here in Westminster in the richest part of Europe. Surrounded by 2m of the poorest people in Britain. Half of inner London kids live below the poverty line. Half of those families have no car. We need to get them bikes, they depend on public transport, they need better walking and cycling provision. Buses are improving, we’re now back to 1965 levels on bus transport. We need to give people the confidence to cycle, to get to a critical mass of cycling.
What are we doing?
The object is to remove barriers to cycling, and those who are against it.
4 key areas:
• infrastructure
• marketing and promotion
• public transport links
• shared benefits from bus improvements, Congestion Charging and so on
LCN+ will provide 900k of high demand routes. There’s lots of planning, design and maintenance involved and we’ll need to drag the poor boroughs up to standard.
In 7 years we’ll spend £100m. We started 18 months ago and by 2008/9 will be spending £29m a year. When we started we simply didn’t have the people. For 15 years after the Greater London Council was abolished, cycling simply wasn’t on London’s agenda. Now, each year TfL will allocate boroughs money. TfL is at last getting control of borough spends and is taking a very tight grip across the range of borough transport spending. We’ll accept no more diversion of funds, boroughs will only be paid after the work has been done…and you won’t be able to tempt me into naming the worst boroughs like Westminster.
We’ll deal with the London town-centres next. Car use in outer London is still growing. We need to attract people out of their cars. Cycle parking is essential. Boroughs spent £0.5m on that last year. It must be down to each school. I want to pay for good bike parking in every school in London. The school run is not a good idea. Congestion Charging has reduced motor traffic by the amount on the school run. It’s crazy. Parents drive Isabella and Algernon to school because they’re frightened they’ll get run over otherwise. But it’s much more dangerous in a car…we must improve public transport links too but bikes on the tube will always be problematic…..you wouldn’t want to take your bike into a sauna anyway…..the rust…
My dear friends at the Evening Standard are very cross about the huge improvements happening at Vauxhall Cross, and Shoreditch, and Trafalgar Square and elsewhere. Developers are realising that if they don’t plan in bikes they won’t get planning permission. The 66 floor tower planned at London Bridge, and the new nearly finished Swiss Re building will all have hundred of bike spaces, Swiss Re will have 500.
We’re taking new marketing initiatives too and are trying to get the Tour de France to come to London.
We’ve produced 2m London Cycle Guides and 50% of those with them say they cycle more often. Surrey County Council and others are bringing out their similar maps. The new free Rough Guide to Cycling in London was produced with us too. We’ve allocated £0.4m for beginner training this year.
As I said earlier by 2008/9 we’ll be spending £29m a year on LCN+ and will have transformed London cycling in a decade. Cycling is a major transport mode for London. I’m determined to give cycling a full chance to flourish.
(Applause)
Questions
Hugh Bolton, LCC: Congestion Charging has reduced the growth of traffic and improved air quality, thanks for that. But powered two wheelers are exempt from the charge. Can it be extended to cover them?
Rick Andrew, TfL has reduced targets and now sees LCN+ as being suitable for 16 year-olds rather than 12 year-olds.
Alastair Hanton, Southwark Cyclists: collaboration with the voluntary sector is essential, the marvellous new maps show what can be done. What is the future for voluntary working?
Oliver Shick: there’s been some excellent cycle-parking work. What about public transport access?
Ken Livingstone: motorised two-wheelers….I’ve told my Congestion Charging team to start photographing MTW’s rear number plates as soon as possible. At the moment the cameras only take front number plates and we’re seeing lots of dangerous driving by MTWs but can’t trace the drivers. But even getting some car drivers onto MTWs has been a plus.
Standards: there’s been too much talk and not enough action. And a lot of undeliverable pipe dreams. We’ve now been planning for 28 months. And been short of staff. We’ve reduced standards where it’s been impossible to reach them. And I ask my cycling adviser, Mark Watts.
Collaboration? I’m reminded of Roy Wellensky in the then Rhodesia talking of collaboration with black Africa to the north in terms of horse and rider. And I know who planned to be the rider. We need skills fed in. LCC input must be obtained. We’ve reduced car-parking in new developments and the new draft London plan has had no serious and sustained objections. It will go through. The old central thrust for car space has gone. New car parking will be minimal. There’ll be higher density housing round public transport zones. Look at new Ilford and central living, there’s no need now to travel into London to get smashed.
Questions:
Dave, Redbridge: there are 33 boroughs, TfL, GLA, numerous other bodies….how do we get one cycling policy for London?
Jenny Jones, Green GLA member and self-confessed nag: London speeds are rising because of Congestion Charging. Speed is a barrier to pedestrians and cyclists, especially new ones. 20mph should be the norm.
Ken Livingstone: I agree, in 90% of London streets and around schools, the limit should be 20mph. Government needs to agree too to get this in. A 20 mph limit would reduce child casualties by 70%. We need to sell this new limit by stressing that it would save children’s lives, not just cyclists.
And yes, there are too many bodies in London. Look at Tony Travers forthcoming book on London government. We’re being stiffled by unelected quangos. TfL will start whipping unresponsive Boroughs but realise, for example, that New York has 7 times London’s budget. The Mayor there runs the police, the trains, much much more than I do. After the break up of the USSR, they gave the Mayor of Moscow almost total responsibility for running that city. He gets 80% approval from the people there. That system works!!!
Crispin Truman: Is all of TfL working to help cycling?
Ken Livingstone: We’ve quickly merging bodies who hated one other into one. Street Management is merging with TfL and they’re merging with Surface Transport. GLA needs world class management. Congestion Charging was a big step forward that’s working. We’ve also cracked the buses.
We’re getting there!
(Applause. He leaves).
……………………………………………..
Anna Trafford, LCC
Two Million London Cycle Guides: the impact
So what’s been achieved:
• 2m maps sent out in one year
• map users say they cycle more
• it’s a great looking product
We launched the maps in April 2002 with the press and Ken on a bike. It wasn’t the first try:
• London has had many types of bike route map over the years
• LCC published its first in 1991: On Your Bike had limited coverage
• Some LCC local groups published their own using local knowledge
• LCC produced another in 1998, only covering a third of London
The 2002 London Cycle Guides are the product of a groundbreaking partnership between LCC and TfL that opened up new possibilities:
• great product research about what is needed
• pan-London coverage
• very wide distribution
• FREE
We mapped London in a year and sent the maps out to tube stations, surgeries, shops, libraries and elsewhere.
The maps covers twice the originally intended area. It is based on customer research of what was needed out there. We’re finding that it’s making people cycle more. The design and scale of the map was shaped by research. We used focus groups to inform our decisions and they came up with a lot of new ideas…including showing where bike parking is.
Did the maps really make a difference? TfL did 217 phone interviews. LCC emailed 8,466 people who ordered the map from the website….and got 7,400 replies. All were asked the same questions. We’ll do another survey after the summer.
People said they cycled more with the maps: TfL got 40%. LCC got 44%.
39% heard about the maps from newspapers, 12% from tube adverts.
43% of map owners said they now cycled further.
21% heard about the maps by word of mouth and chain email.
4% heard about it from other websites, 4% from TV.
78% told TfL that the maps helped them change routes to avoid busy junctions and to use quieter roads.
58% said no other factor than the maps had made them change their behaviour.
82% told LCC that the maps were either useful or very useful.
TfL got 94% very useful.
There is more to the guides than just the map, but 95% found that the best bit.
Over 50% found the whole publication useful.
Everyone liked the tips and road signs keys, beginners especially.
67% of respondents were male.
Their age varied, women were younger.
25% were beginners or occasional cyclists.
Key learning points?
• users were now on main roads less, they’re finding quieter routes, so be careful where you do cycle counts
• the map has campaigning and publicity benefits
• asking cyclists what they wanted really helped the design
• use the expertise of local groups to plan and update the maps
• the maps bolster cycling – it works
LUNCH
Philip Darnton, Managing Director, Raleigh
The National Cycling Awards 2003
I joined Raleigh in 2000 and didn’t know much about cycling. I retired on 30 April this year and am now President of the Bicycle Association. I feel like I’ve moved form the 19th century to the 16th. I’m now on the National Cycling Strategy Board. It’s our role to:
• bring the UK bike industry together
• check all the opportunities for marketing cycling
It’s now the purpose of the Board under Stephen Norris to propose a series of specific marketing proposals. Industry needs to put money where the future is. Unless the bike industry unloads some money, DtP won’t. And that applies to the Department of Education too. There’s a whole new generation to teach bike skills to. It’s all about schools and skills. We can’t just wait for the infrastructure.
Only 1.75% of primary kids cycle to school.
Only 0.35% of secondary kids do.
At current rates it’ll take 43 years to reach current targets.
10% of all car journeys are less than 1 mile.
65% of all car journeys are less than 5 miles.
If there’s no school bike shed, there’s no cycling to that school.
Yet obesity is on the increase. England has the highest obesity rates in the under 10s than anywhere in Europe. Denmark has the lowest child obesity rates, and the highest child cycling levels. England, surprise, surprise, has the lowest child cycling rates.
New schemes must mix training and better infrastructure.
To reach the targets we must stop playing the rules not the game. The new helmet campaign will just put people off. It’s aimed at 14 year old boys. What a waste of time.
And National Bike Week, Stephen Norris wants to scrap it because it won’t pay.
And the Cycling Community are like proto-Christians. We quite like lions!
There’s no time to fight one another.
And now I’ll ask John Franklin to announce the winners of the National Cycling Awards 2003 organised by the Cycle Campaign Network and the CTC.
(And there’s a series of awards giving out to smiling representatives…).
John Franklin: We’re looking for schemes that have a proven record of getting more people out on bikes. We had 30 entries and the standard was higher than usual: there are 6 awards under different categories.
1. Best Company Travelplan: Glaxo at GSK House, West London. The firm provides parking, changing facilities, mechanics once a week. Every cyclists gets a £1 voucher each day they ride in. There’s crucial senior management buy-in.
2. Training. Most local authorities struggle to provide any bike training at all. Gloucester County Council now has 27 of its 42 schools in a training scheme. Training is on road, in traffic and in school time. It started in 1986 and now specialises in Year 7s, the first year of secondary school. This award fits in very well with next Monday’s Training Standards launch.
3. Area wide cycle parking is rare. So Runnymede Council gets the next prize for providing 770 spaces to 10 schools. There are 500 more on the way. There’s been a very substantial increase in cycling locally. Secure parking is a fundamental.
4. The University of Southampton have heavily supported staff and student parking with soft measures and secure parking and good routes. There’s help with maintenance and insurance too.
5. The new London Cycle Guides must get an award. Born through a fine TfL/LCC partnership, they’ve been very well promoted and distributed. They go, for example, out with student arrival packs and they get sent to health centres and elsewhere.
6. In Kingston-on-Hull they’ve created new bike lanes by removing one lane each way from cars and giving them to bikes. These are direct, busy, main roads. There are no build-outs and plenty of advance stop lines. There much new bike parking and bike route maps.
………………………………..
Gary MacGowan, Transport for London
New initiatives, new solutions: Cycle projects in the capital
This is about:
• projects
• a strategic view
• human powered vehicles
• best practice
We’ve now got Metropolitan Police Cycle Units set up with Home Office backing and TfL seed-funding. They are now active in 16 boroughs, up from only 3 a year back and are monitored by the Transport Operational Control Unit. There are now 200 officers on bikes, 270 by the end of 2003. They work on public order, arrest and surveillance.
There’s the London Ambulance Cycle Response Unit. They cover a square mile of the West End and deal with each patient in 25 minutes, twice as fast as ambulances, and they get to calls much faster too. Ambulances are not needed in 3% of cases. Again, TfL seed money helped start this. We’ll be trailing Heathrow soon.
Couriers: the bike courier industry in London now turns over £45m a year. We’re working closely with the London Bicycle Messenger Association and are helping the upcoming European Cycle Messenger Competitions up at Eastway. We’re working on a special guide for couriers. The LBMA is working on a driver/cyclist leaflet to help increase mutual respect. The LBMA is also working on the positive image of couriers.
Darwin’s Deli has built a growing business on bike deliveries and we’re planning legislation on pedicabs for 2004. That industry is asking to be regulated.
The London Cycle Guides have rightly been mentioned a lot today. They were born from a valuable TfL/LCC partnership. The second edition maps are due out this summer. They’ve become by far the most popular TfL product.
Then there’s the new Rough Guide to Cycling in London by TfL and Trek. 200,000 copies were on the first print run, the Rough Guides biggest ever. It very much compliments the Cycle guide maps.
18,000 people visited the International Cycle Show in 4 days at the Business Design Centre, Islington. It’s on from 24-28 September this year, again with TfL support.
There’s cycle training. Bike Week is about a "Return to Cycling" and is aimed at new and returning cyclists of all ages. In Bike Week TfL will be working with Cycle Training, the London School of Cycling, LCC, London Boroughs and the National Bike Week organisers.
On 25 March 2003 Ken helped launch the All Abilities Cycling Group to encourage cycling amongst people with disabilities. And we’ll publish an all Abilities cycling guide later this year.
The Business Cycle is a partnership between the Central London Partnership and TfL…it’s looking to better bike parking in underground carparks, pool and rental bikes, better bike parking generally.
And TfL give free bike training for all their staff through the London School of Cycling.
And today’s conference is a partnership between CTC, LCC, CCN, TfL.
And more small step forwards..there’s the Rerolling mobile repair service, park keepers and traffic wardens on bikes.
Perhaps most importantly, TfL absolutely recognises the roles of bikes and human powered vehicles in keeping London moving, improving air quality and improving the quality of life for all Londoners.
Roger Geffen, Campaign Manager, CTC
Raising the profile of cycling: the challenge for cycling
Some details about me…I was an LCC activist from 1988-92, I worked with the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, I was a roads protester, I’ve worked in the public and private sector, but now I’m back in cycle campaigning for the CTC’s 125th birthday.
Our slogan is Look Bike, Look Forward.
There have been of lot of national initiatives:
• the 1996 National Cycle Strategy…which saw cycling doubling by 2002, and doubling again by 2012. Not happening.
• the 1996 Road Traffic Reduction Bill, which aimed to cut traffic by 10%. Not enacted.
• the 1998 Traffic White Paper ….gone.
• the 2000 10 year plan for transport…more roads, more traffic.
The current National Cycling Strategy target is "a wee bit heroic" says Michael Faulkner at the Department of Transport. He’s head of local transport policy. The new target looks for a 30-37% increase in cycling over 2000-2012.
CTC is raising the game. Cycling nationally is still in decline. We missed doubling it by 2002. We need to see what people need and campaign and recruit. We need to get more people in. We need to clarify priorities and improve communications all round.
Look Bike, Look Forward. We’re launching a series of 5 events open to all starting on July 12 in London with a morning brain storm and an after discussion meeting. This will help inform the CTC 5 year campaign strategy. And that evening is the legendary Dunwich Dynamo ride!
There’s a range of new and changed priorities around promoting cycle use and road safety. The cycle use targets and the 10 year plan for Transport from that Department. The Department for Transport predicts a 17% growth in traffic kilometres travelled over the 10 years and
50% more rail passenger km
10% more bus passenger km
light rail pkm doubles
bike pkm trebles
The plan was to quadruple cycling between 1996 and 2012. Now to treble it 2000-2012.
For all of history it seems that people have travelled for about one hour a day. For ever. 15% growth in travelling over the next 10 years seems unlikely. Who votes for 15% more travel? It’s all a wee bit heroic.
There seems to be two main lessons:
• a choice: more time stuck in traffic or more people on bikes. Do we want safer streets or the opposite? "Less traffic where people live" asks Lynn Sloman who was Chair of Transport 2000 and who’s now on the National Cycling Strategy Board and the TfL Board too.
• Increase cycle use and promote cycle safety. The new CTC scheme to promote adult and beginner cycle training launches Monday 12 May. But the forthcoming Department for Transport helmet campaign will cut bike use. Their Road Safety sections aim is to reduce casualties by scaring people.
Deterring cycling costs lives. In 2001, 125 cyclists were sadly killed on our roads. 46,250 people died from heart attacks caused by physical inactivity.
In 1998 50% of the UK population was overweight. 1 in 5 are obese. That figure has doubled since 1980.
The health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks by 20:1. (Meyer Hillman).
Ollie Hatch, National Cycling Strategy Board
Lessons from the Continent
(Stand up and stretch who’s from London etc bits).
Or can we learn from them?
I recently heard a Dutchman define "sustainable transport" as "how long can I keep my car?".
It’s not all bad in London compared to over there…..we’ve got Congestion Charging, the second highest petrol prices in the European Union (55% higher than the cheapest), vehicle tax linked to CO2 emissions, a relatively – but still appalling – low level of road deaths, and the National Cycling Strategy.
In France they have 2.25 times more road deaths a year than the UK. 4,500 more than our 3,500!
It’s good for cycling elsewhere too where they have
• population densities high enough to make cycling a viable mode of travel between places
• cohesive cultural networks
• sympathetic fiscal policies
• targeted budgets
• safety and speed in mind
The EU is 80% urban, most live in towns. The UK is 89.5% urban.
In Malmo 29% of journeys are by bike. In Munich, 13% are. Munich spends £1.4m a year on bike provision. London spends £7.3m. San Sebastian has got to 2% cycling from zero a few years ago. In Copenhagen, a third of all trips are by bike. In Dublin its about design quality of the infrastructure. In the Stockholm region they’re now spending £60m of bike routes and infrastructure. Toronto now has 1,000km of bike lanes. Helsinki wants to double its cycle use by 2005. The city feels that the decrease in vehicle accidents has paid for that work.
So it’s a good time for cycling.
Many many UK towns are now planning for cycling for really the first time.
But speed is the crucial factor. In Gratz, the city wide 30kmph zone reduced accidents by 34%.
Cycle use is up and motor accidents are down in London, Vienna, Helsinki…it goes on.
But think hard about continental conditions. Would we in London accept:
• the tight planning controls of Holland?
• Swiss social control?
• Swedish safety consciousness?
• Germany’s regionalism that results in patchy implementation?
We need to adapt what’s best and remember that across the EU car use is up 2.40 times since 1970. The Brussels Transport Commission has shown that cycling in Germany, Netherlands and Sweden is up. UK is 11th in the EU in cycling terms. 75k a year each. We’re better than Greece.
We need to use the Continental experience to note that:
• bike planning is part of the overall planning environment, not a slap-on
• that bike clothing is not off-putting. Urban warrior dress puts people off. On the Continent, cycling attracts all.
• cycling is smart and sexy
• bikes are "ideal for the city". Promote them.
• attitudes are changing
• we should engage with our allies, including the car industry
Boris Johnson MP said memorably that "cyclists and motorists look at each other in mutual incomprehension and mistrust" like gays and straights in the 1950’s. That’s enough to make me vote Conservative…
Cycling must be for all and must be fun if we are to overcome.
James Ryle, Sustrans
Marketing Cycling to the individual - TravelSmart
I’m going to talk about softer ways of increasing cycling.
TravelSmart is about more than just promoting cycling, it’s about attitudinal change in travel behaviour without the need for new infrastructure….through individual marketing.
The 201 National Travel Survey said that a quarter of all car journeys are less than 2 miles. 7% are less than 1 mile. 0% are 5-10 miles. 22% are over 10 miles. 18% are 1-2 miles. 34% are 2-5 miles.
Half of all journeys are for leisure and shopping.
Cycling is 1.5% of trips. More than trains.
Cars are 40% of trips
Passengers are 22.5%
Walking is 26%
Public Transport is 8%
Across the UK population, people average 16 bike trips a year each. To treble cycling, we need to make 48 trips per year each. That’s only about one extra trip a week each.
TravelSmart is about phoning people in their homes about their transport use, and bikes in particular.
If people aren’t interested, we leave them. We can’t waste time arguing.
If they are interested, we motivate them through tailoring them individual travel plans.
If they are already regular cyclists, we reward them.
We focus on the interested and get them support and information. We use existing information resources backed up by home visits and cycle trainers. In Gloucester, TravelSmart reduced car trips by 9%, and produced a 100% increase in cycling. We saved 37 car trips per person year. 3/4s of those went to bike/walking. In Frome we reduced car trips by 6%.
In Western Australia where the scheme was invented car use went down 145, bikes up 61%, walking up by 35% and public transport use up by 17%. Increased passenger revenue paid for the scheme.
TravelSmart has shown that:
• car use can be reduced
• there’s huge potential for more trips by bike/walking
• there’s a big demand for personalised information
• there’s greater choice than people think
• mobility hasn’t changed greatly, but there’s more short trips
• the scheme cost £30-40 per household and is good value for money
• there are considerable exercise and safety benefits
There’s now a new programme starting in Gloucester and Bristol, Nottingham, Sheffield and Northumberland. There’s a new travel option scheme in Kingston-on-Thames. 28,000 people have been given free advice.
These are all pilots. In January 2004 the scheme to date will be evaluated and results disseminated.
We’ve learnt some lessons:
• don’t mention the bike until well into the interview
• talk through alternative trips and modes with lots of real examples
• cycling is not the only solution
• start on the easy stuff
• the bike will sell itself
All this work helps to make people realise that cycling is the normal mode for normal people.
Questions
Debbie Alair, All Abilities group: could bike ride info please mention the terrain and contours to be covered?
Geoff Whittington, LCC: to what extent should we press health benefits?
Richard Evans, Merton: 20mph greatly reduce road deaths
Peter Corkill, Southwark Cyclists: a bike is a capital investment. Can we help?
Phil Hardy: how about helping get bikes on buses?
Anna Trafford, LCC: the new London Cycle Guides don’t have contours. We’re considering how to show hills.
Ollie Hatch: the World Health Organisation has shown that heart disease is the world’s biggest killer. And yes, let’s drop speed limits too.
Roger Geffen: people are increasingly taking up cycling for health reasons. Promoting bikes helps social inclusion too.
Ralph Smyth, City Cyclists: narrow London bus lanes lead up to Advance Stop Lines. Death lanes under 1.5m wide. And use the October 2004 implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act…it outlaws barriers to wheelchairs etc.
Gary McGowan: Advance Stop Lines at every larger junction are being considered. We need to look very carefully at their design.
Crispin Truman…..summing up the day:
Thanks so much for coming today. We’ve heard a lot of consensus about what works.
That cycling benefits all.
That there are links between cycling and health and social inclusion.
That most supporting authorities are at last putting users needs at the front.
It’s amazing that Bike Week in June will see over 170 events in London mostly from LCC Borough groups. Keep up the goo works, and thanks again.
End. Applause. Pub.
BAM
16 May 2003
conf