At the end of a week in which the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warned that “the UK is heading in the wrong direction” after official figures showed a 7.3 per cent drop in cycling kilometers traveled and a 2.2 per cent increase percent in car journeys between 2022 and 2023, a newly available document shows that the Department for Transport knew it was not investing enough in active travel to achieve its targets.
The ‘Insights from investment modelling’ have been made available on the government website. The report, initially released in 2019, aims to understand how much additional investment would be needed to achieve the initial targets of the 2025 ‘Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy’.
It took four years and a Supreme Court challenge @TransportActio2 to make this document public!
Today @transportgovuk finally published models showing that it knew all along that it was not investing enough in active travel. 🧵 1/ pic.twitter.com/0yScLaJ2qa
— Rafe Smyth (@safemyth) May 24, 2024
The document explains that the models suggest that “some £5 billion to £8 billion of further investment across the economy (not just using central government funds) is needed to reach the cycle target of 1.6 billion cycle phases ”.
In the summer of 2022, the Department for Transport said it would invest £3.78 billion in active travel programs by 2025 as part of its renewed cycling and walking investment strategy. In March the following year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt cut the budget for active travel programs, a much-criticized move that the Walking & Cycling Alliance called a “step backwards” and would make it “impossible” to achieve Net Zero and active travel. goals.
> Cycling and walking targets ‘in tatters’: damning report finds government will almost certainly fail on active travel targets in England
Transport Action Network (TAN) is challenging the cuts in the High Court, and hours before Judge Jay’s decision to allow the challenge, lawyers acting for the ministry were forced to make public slides highlighting how the cuts will impact sustainable travel in the most cases would ‘destroy’. from England’s local transport authorities outside London.
And the latest document to be unveiled, the aforementioned ‘Insights from investment modelling’, also shows that the Department for Transport was aware that ‘the benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) for the central cycling scenarios were between 2.0 and 3 ,1, which implies a high value. For money”.
“Packages of interventions in areas with high intrinsic cycling potential have BCRs of more than 5. The value for money of investment in walking to school is expected to be at least high,” the government was told.
The report also states that the required investment could be lower, around £3.4 billion and £5.4 billion, if “investment in cycling is combined with strong traffic restrictions”, such as parking restrictions.
“In two ‘higher cost’ scenarios where all investment is in infrastructure (without accompanying revenue investment in behavior change interventions to maximize uptake of new infrastructure) the additional investment to reach 1.6 billion phases is in excess of £10 billion,” said the report. continued.
The government’s attitude to active investment in the travel industry has been extensively criticized in recent times, with the IPPR last month condemning the ‘shocking lack of progress’, while Cycling UK has also warned of ‘chronic underfunding’.
In September, the cycling organization blamed the ‘depressing’ decline in cycling on government cuts to the active travel budget.
The ongoing legal challenge has also led to documents being obtained showing how a ‘crazy conspiracy theory’, which misrepresented the urban planning concept of the 15-minute city, led to the government cutting funding for active travel and promised to review measures aimed at curbing the 15-minute city. use of private motor vehicles.
Instead, much of the government’s message was about ending the so-called war on motorists. Rishi Sunak unveiled a ‘Plan for Motorists’ at the Conservative Party conference last autumn, an approach expected to emerge again in the run-up to the general election. elections on July 4.
Six of Britain’s leading active travel groups, including the CEOs of Cycling UK, British Cycling, Bikeability Trust, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans, responded to the ‘Plan for Motorists’ by warning that the Prime Minister would give citizens ‘their choice deny’. , health and freedom”.