VEHICLE EXORCISE DUTY

Chris Boardman’s impressive plans for Greater Manchester have provoked a predictably short-sighted response, says Trevor Ward

Igive Bikeability lessons – older readers may remember them as Cycling Proficiency classes – at local primary schools. I start off by asking the kids who roads were originally built for. The answer is always cars.

They are often shocked to learn that people used to ride horses and bikes long before the combustion engine was invented, and that consequently cyclists have as much right to road space as the drivers of motorised vehicles.

I’m always surprised to learn how many of my 10 and 11-yearold students have been told by their parents to ride only on the pavement. These are usually the same parents who have driven them the short distance from home to the school gates.

In the fine northern city of Manchester, an estimated 250 million car journeys of less than a kilometre are made per year. Many of these trips are school runs. In the Netherlands, 50 per cent of children ride their bikes to school every day. In Greater Manchester the figure is less than 2 per cent.

So thank goodness for Chris Boardman. Does Britain realise how lucky it is to have an Olympic gold medallist who has devoted his life to making our roads safer and our air cleaner? As the walking and cycling commissioner for Greater Manchester, he’s unveiled plans for a £500 million network of safe cycling and walking routes that will include 75 miles of segregated cycle lanes.

In an interview with The Guardian he referenced a study that found that 80 per cent of “road users” in New York were pedestrians on the pavement. This had “given engineers the courage to change street design,” he said, adding: “We’ve given way too much priority to the vociferous minority. We’ve wrongly prioritised road space.” Of course, this will horrify most drivers, and probably the parents of the kids at Bikeability. Less road space for their cars? Surely that will mean delays the next time they get in the car to drive the 0.6 miles to drop their kids off at school?

They will trot out the erroneous “road tax” argument, blissfully unaware that the Vehicle Excise Duty is effectively a tax on the amount of pollution their vehicle produces and has nothing to do with the upkeep of the roads. And there’s the crux of the issue. Forget the cyclists versus motorists argument, Boardman’s plans go much deeper than that. He wants to create an environment that is not only safer in terms of how cyclists, drivers and pedestrians interact, but is also better for our health. A recent study by the think tank IPPR North found that dangerous levels of air pollution cost Greater Manchester £1 billion every year and reduces the average life expectancy there by six months.

With a plan like Boardman’s – featuring 1000 miles of safe cycling and walking routes that will generate nothing more toxic than glowing muscles and happy smiles – surely everyone’s a winner, not just cyclists?

Forget the cyclists v motorists argument, Boardman’s plans go much deeper than that