Chris Boardman report - Made to Move

[PH]

When he was appointed in the summer, Chris Boardman was tasked by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to produce a report on how to deliver a step change in the numbers of people walking and cycling in the city region.

The report ‘Made to Move’, has been delivered to leaders on Friday, December 15, 2017 at a meeting of Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and features ambitious targets to improve cycling and walking rates in a bid to improve air quality as part of the Mayor’s green city agenda, as well as tackling congestion and improving public health and wellbeing.

This report was published last week and can be downloaded from the link below. I've just skimmed through it, but have had the pleasure of hearing CB explain most of the content. Well worth a read IMO
https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk ... ing_report

[PRL]

Thanks. On interesting read. Presumably in Manchester the Mayor controls all the roads ? London is bedevilled by a split between the Mayor and local Boroughs that makes planning almost impossible.
"we need to invest £1.5 billion to put cycle routes on every main corridor" sounds good but there is still the London split between
"wide segregated cycle lanes on main roads, offering quick journeys across Greater Manchester, local cycling routes through communities, and green routes that encourage slow cycling through residential streets."
The problem is that realistically you aren't going to get parallel routes so they all have to accommodate slow and fast cycling.

[RickH]

Thanks. On interesting read. Presumably in Manchester the Mayor controls all the roads ? London is bedevilled by a split between the Mayor and local Boroughs that makes planning almost impossible.
"we need to invest £1.5 billion to put cycle routes on every main corridor" sounds good but there is still the London split between
"wide segregated cycle lanes on main roads, offering quick journeys across Greater Manchester, local cycling routes through communities, and green routes that encourage slow cycling through residential streets."
The problem is that realistically you aren't going to get parallel routes so they all have to accommodate slow and fast cycling.

The leaders of the 10 Borough Councils agreed to the proposal unanimously at the meeting in December so it looks like it has got some traction. I'm sure it won't be without problems getting things implemented.

The Greater Manchester Mayor "... is responsible for the transport budget our region receives from Government, as well as the future of bus services in Greater Manchester" (link). What that means in practice we'll have to see.

I think there need to be a distinction between definitions of "quick journeys". Journeys without delays for cyclists, & therefore quick compared to going by car, is not necessarily the same thing as journeys for quick cyclists (although there will be overlap between the two).

A lot of cyclists can get along & generally keep moving much more easily than a lot of cars. From my experience a slightly extreme example is "Ride the Lights", when the Blackpool Illuminations route gets turned over to thousands of people on bikes (the numbers in the pictures of this blog page look fairly typical - I was trying to find actual numbers but couldn't quickly do so) doing as much or as little as they want. There are people doing lots of different speeds - from families with small children to "club" types weaving along much faster than most - for several hours & very little untoward happens.

[MikeF]

Nice to see the cost of doing nothing taken into consideration.
Since Sadiq Khan has been mayor does anyone know if anything happened about cycling and walking facilities in London apart from proposing to ban cycling along Oxford Street? Has anything been constructed that wasn't a Boris initiative? There's been little in the news.