Barks wrote:I fully agree that it is journeys of a couple of miles or so that really need the encouragement. ...
In the twilight of the Major govt., (and doesn't time fly) Stephen Norris MP, who was then a transport minister came up with pretty much the same idea but based on journeys of up to five miles. A lot of work was done by various working groups and in due course The National Cycling Strategy was published. It included all manner of action plans and when New Labour came to power in May 1997, they had a ready-made cycling policy ripe for implementation. If it had been fully implemented, I doubt I'd be posting this now. There were various reasons why this was pretty much dead-in-the-water from day one. The overriding killer being a total - complete and utter - lack of political commitment. Various contributory factors such as the stillbirth of Cycle Audit and Review just reinforce my point about the lack of political commitment. (Search words for earlier discussions include Notional (sic) Cycling Strategy.)
There is no greater political commitment now than there was then. eg It's still the case that most provision for cyclists, be it farcilities or something a bit better, is still aimed at regulating cycling rather than enabling it.
And it is correct that the biggest boost to cycling has come from sporting success, but I think it's also fair to suggest that as the motor vehicle increasingly becomes a victim of its own success, that provides reasons to cycle instead.
Here's a link behind a paywall.
https://www.thenbs.com/PublicationIndex ... cId=258653
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Even better, here's a text version, without the silly pictures
http://cycle-works.com/wp-content//pdfs ... rategy.pdf