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A group of organisations representing a range of disparate interests, from active travel and road safety to motoring and business, has urged the government to protect a £4 billion funding pot for ‘levelling up’ cycling, walking and wheeling across the UK, and dealing with the cost-of-living crisis.
The group’s letter – addressed to the Secretary of State for Transport, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and signed by members of the Walking and Cycling Alliance, the AA, the road safety group Brake, the countryside charity CPRE, the Road Safety Foundation, the Urban Transport Group, and the Federation of Small Businesses – emphasised active travel’s key economic and societal role, and called on the government to protect the budget set out in this year’s Cycling and Walking Strategy.
The letter echoes Cycling UK’s recent call for people to write to their MP to ask them to protect active travel funding from widely expected cuts in expenditure across government departments, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer (whoever that may be by next week) presents the Budget on 31 October.
> Write to your MP to help save active travel funding, urges Cycling UK
While many active travel advocates are worried that money set aside for cycling and walking could be at risk from the new Budget (though, given the current turmoil in British politics, it’s hard to tell which way the wind will blow), Sustrans’ latest Walking and Cycling Index has estimated that active travel generated £36.5 billion for the UK economy in 2021 (based on 17 urban areas surveyed in the report).
Sustrans said that this figure was based on the direct economic benefits of cycling and walking, as well as reducing the cost of traffic congestion and running a car, improved health (and thus a reduced burden on the NHS), and fewer sick days at work. The report also found that people who walk to the high street spend up to 40 percent more in shops than those who drive.
“It’s clear that active forms of travel, such as walking and cycling, bring in billions of pounds of economic benefit,” says Sustrans’ CEO Xavier Brice.
“Plus, as people are hit by the cost-of-living crisis, affordable ways of getting around are critical. People must have the opportunity to make the active travel choice instead of expensive car use, to boost people’s spending power for the benefit of the economy and our hopes of growth.”
> Drivers should welcome cycle lanes, says AA president
The AA’s president Edmund King, who last week argued that drivers should welcome cycle lanes as they encourage people to use their bikes for everyday journeys, thus reducing congestion, added: “Every driver is a pedestrian and most cyclists are drivers, therefore it is in everyone’s interest to level up walking and cycling infrastructure. By creating new routes, as well as investing in existing paths and footways, we can create a safer, greener transport network that benefits all road users.
“Maintaining the £4bn budget for these projects will also help drivers save money on fuel or electricity. When we ask AA members what mobility modes they would consider to replace one or more car journeys per week, the top answer was bicycle (47 percent), followed by eBikes (41 percent).”
Brice concluded: “It is high time we to stopped pitting motoring against walking, wheeling and cycling and instead realise the benefits that long-term Government investment for active travel can have for economic growth and to support people on low incomes through the cost of living crisis.”
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