Cycle and walking 'must be norm' for short journeys: NICE !

You're safer on the bicycle than on the sofa

The BBC and other media have been reporting the highlights of the recently published report from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The NICE report, snappily entitled "Walking and cycling: local measures to promote walking and cycling as forms of travel or recreation"and the accompanying press release are calling on local authorities to implement "town-wide programmes to promote cycling for both transport and recreational purposes."

The report argues that cycling and walking should "be the norm for all short journeys" - trips that could be done in 15 or 20 minutes on foot or by bicycle.

NICE supports this approach because action is needed to combat the "silent epidemic" of inactivity posing a risk to the health of people in England. The advisory body is calling on all local authorities to do more to make walking and cycling an easier option in local communities

The NICE press release quotes the Local Transport Minister Norman Baker saying that: 

“I welcome NICE's guidance on walking and cycling and its recognition that encouraging more people to travel actively is a great way to improve public health. From April, the responsibility for public health will return to local authorities and we want transport, planning and health professionals to work together to help people change the way they travel." and that

“We want to see more people walking and cycling and this new guidance will play a valuable role in making sure that the funding we are providing translates into local measures that help more people to get more active.”


It is great to see the public health agencies publicly supporting cycling and walking... but so far the Coalition Government has yet to tell local authorities and Public Health departments what budgets and resources they will have from 1st April 2013.  Public Health Manchester is already funding the Freewheeling adult cycle training in Manchester but we haven't seen much activity from the rest of the GM public health authorities.

The poster above is from a Copenhagen public health campaign launched in 2010 and the headline reads "You're safer on the bicycle than on the sofa".  The associated website states that: "With these posters Public Health Copenhagen hopes to place focus on the fact that there are very good reasons to ride a bicycle each day and we would like to highlight that Copenhageners already cycle 1.2 million km each day."

There are a whole host of reasons why cycling levels are higher in Copenhagen (and other European cities) - including coherent and continues cycle routes (including segregated cycle facilities) and long-term (and imaginative) planning (subjects of previous blog post and no doubt future ones as well!).  But one of the key issues is funding - not just for cycling but also for other related issues such as road safety.

On the same day as the NICE report was published, the MEN ran an article 'Driven down: Number of Greater Manchester traffic police falls as road deaths soar' detailing how "Greater Manchester Police has lost more than a third of its traffic officers in the last eight years. Figures obtained by the M.E.N. show that GMP has just 310 traffic officers – 159 fewer than the 469 it had in 2004. The cuts have come as deaths on our roads have soared."  On 22nd November the Local Government Association warned that "thousands of miles of Britain's roads could be strewn with potholes within months without reform of how Government funds maintenance." The LGA stated that:

"The Department for Transport is reducing the Highways Maintenance Budget it gives councils by £442 million over the four years of the Comprehensive Spending Review. By 2014/15 councils will get £164 million a year less than in 2010/11, a 19 per cent drop. This is on top of the 28 per cent cut in core funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government, money which councils use to support road repairs and which is being increasingly consumed by spiralling adult social care costs. The Public Accounts Committee warned Government earlier this year that cuts to road maintenance funding risk being counterproductive."

Whilst, it is fine for Government Ministers and local council leaders to exhort people to cycle and walk more - people are unlikely to make these choices if they do not perceive the local roads to be safe, or have nowhere to store or securely park their bicycles at home, work or where they shop etc etc.  Creating a welcoming and encouraging cycling environment and culture takes time, planning, resources and funding. Not just the classic English stop-start and piecemeal funding - but consistent, coherent and long-term funding.

Working out exactly how much Greater Manchester spends on cycling (and walking) is not an exact science with each council including different definitions of cycling related projects. Also, since 1st April 2011, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) have strategic responsibility for cycling at the GM level. TfGM have been awarded £5 million from the Local Sustainable Transport Funds for the Commuter Cycling project and another £35+ million LSTF funding for a broader sustainable transport project (most of which is not specifically cycling related). This funding is spread over a 4 year period and runs out in 2015.  Also, some of the cycling expenditure that would have been provided from local councils is now included in the TfGM cycling-related programmes.

It is estimated that Copenhagen has spent £40 per person each year on measures to encourage cycling. In comparison, most English cities spend about £1-2 per person. To match Copenhagen, Greater Manchester would be investing around £100m per year to support cycling. We have a long way to go to catch up but it can be done. What is needed is clear political leadership. 

[Correction.  According to Niels Torslov, Traffic Director for Copenhagen, in a presentation to the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, Copenhagen spends £18 per person on cycling.  Therefore the equivalent figure for Greater Manchester would be £45 million per year.]



For example, Edinburgh Council has decided that from 2012/13,  5% of its transport capital and revenue budgets will be invested in cycling infrastructure and projects. This figure will be quite apart from additional ‘external’ funding, which may also be quite substantial. The budget decision also agrees to raise the 5% figure by 1% annually (presumably during the 2012-16 period of the budget statement).

We need the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to start looking at how cycling will be supported after the Greater Manchester LSTF programme funding runs out in 2015.  If Edinburgh can do it - why not Manchester ?