Vélocity 2025 - A cycling plan for 2025 and beyond... Greater Manchester bids for £20 million

Our new network for cycling across Greater
Manchester will connect all 2.7 million
residents with high-quality cycling routes,
segregated wherever possible, that will
connect across the city region in a wellsigned
and easy to use European-style network.

Today (30th April) was the deadline for all the cities bidding for the Cycling City Ambition Grant funding. 

The Velocity 2025 programme outlines the targets - which include:

"The outcome of our Vélocity 2025 programme – our target – is to secure at least a 300% increase in the levels of cycling across Greater Manchester by 2025.

We want to see the proportion of trips by bicycle increase to 10% over the next 12 years, which we believe is achievable alongside additional Government funding. We aim to double, and double again the proportion of trips made by bicycle, whether that’s commuting, utility or recreational cycling, through an unprecedented, long range  programme of investment in cycling infrastructure for the city. 

The vision we set out for Vélocity 2025 supports the targets in the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group ‘Get Britain Cycling’. The CCAG funding, supported by local funding, will help us,
by 2015:

• Deliver 56km of largely segregated cycle route across Greater Manchester 
• Generate 26,800 new cycle trips per day on these routes 
• Improve the health and wellbeing to the value of £7.3m per year
• Provide business financial savings by reducing absenteeism of 1,000 days per year 
• Remove 1.7m traffic kms per year from Greater Manchester’s roads reducing congestion and accidents.

The Velocity  video is available below:



The bid document explains that: "Greater Manchester is bidding for the funding needed to deliver a generational shift in levels of cycling across the city region. The catalyst we seek is £20 million and if we are successful, this grant will unlock up to ten times that amount over the next decade or so as the city region delivers a remarkable strategic programme of change.
 
Central government funding will be matched by £10 million from Greater Manchester partners by 2015.  The Cycle City Ambition Grant (CCAG) will deliver £10 per capita investment per year for two years across the core of the city region (one million residents). 

Greater Manchester will then seek to commit future funding, through public and private sector sources, for a further ten years (giving a consistent twelve year programme) and across the rest of Greater Manchester (a further 1.7 million residents).

In total our Vélocity 2025 programme would see between £150 and £200 million invested on a range of cycling infrastructure, interventions and culture shift of which £20 million will be from the Cycle City Ambition Grant, £20 million from the LSTF and the remainder from a range of local and national, public and private sources through to 2025."

The Greater Manchester bid is supported by Love Your Bike and other Greater Manchester cyclign groups.  You can show your support (assuming you do) on the Love Your Bike petition on Change.org.