LITTLE WHITE LINES Why slopping down paint and calling it a cycle lane is emblematic of our government's half-hearted efforts at infrastructure

In an open letter sent to transport secretary Chris Grayling, Britain’s six regional cycling and walking commissioners, Chris Boardman (Greater Manchester) and Dame Sarah Storey (Sheffield) among them, said that painted cycle lanes have wasted millions of taxpayer’s cash and are merely a gesture that do little to keep cyclists safe.

While these opinions are not particularly new, a timely reminder is welcome given our politicians’ short memories. In March, shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald argued that, after a series of costly blunders in the Ministry of Justice and Transport during Grayling’s tenure, the “country couldn’t afford [him]”. Value for money, he isn’t.

Anybody who’s ever slung a leg over a bike can attest to how rotten cycle lanes can be in Britain. This state of affairs was immortalised all the way back in 2007 in the book Crap Cycle Lanes by David Whelan and its 2016 blockbuster sequel Crapper Cycle Lanes: Misguided, Misplaced and Moronic Marvels. Lanes that end barely after they’ve begun, lanes that allow cars to be parked on them, lanes leading you directly into road furniture. Cycle lanes complicate the line you take and, as research has shown, give both cyclist and motorist a false sense of the cyclist’s safety. Bike lanes without segregation is merely lip service. A box to tick once the provision for the car has been met.

This was a part of the detail of a wider missive from the commissioners, which included five policy ‘asks’ of the government. These are: to commit to long-term devolved funding; a political commitment to minimum quality levels; to enable the local retention of fixed penalty notices to fund road danger reduction measures; to enable us to innovate by keeping road traffic regulations under review; and that transport investment decisions should account for the true cost of car use to society.

Aside from a bid to rid our roads of cycle lanes that look as if they’ve been sketched by a three-year-old, the most significant of the five asks is the final one. They argue that when making decisions on investment in our road network, not enough focus is put into the negative cost of making car use easier (air pollution, an unfit population), nor are the benefits of cycling to the nation’s health fully considered.

It’s certainly bold stuff and we’re incredibly lucky to have someone as passionate and persuasive as Chris Boardman at the helm. “If national government were to adopt these asks we’d be on a winning streak and could truly transform Britain’s towns and cities...” says Boardman. “We need to make decisions based on evidence and we’ve got evidence that this is the right thing to do for our society. It’s not a quick win – it’s a 10- to 20-year evolution – but we can’t afford not to do this and we simply cannot go on as we are. This is a no-brainer.”

Cycle lanes give both the cyclist and motorist a false sense of the cyclist’s safety