Good cop, bad cop
Why cycling is so vital in the climate fight
As I write this, COP27 is kicking off in Egypt, with world leaders meeting to discuss measures to limit global heating to 1.5˚C, a target we are currently set to miss, with potentially devastating consequences. Cycling has a crucial role to play. It’s no understatement to say it hasn’t yet reached its full potential here in the UK, though. Our terrifying summer heatwave, and extreme weather events around the world that continue to devastate lives and livelihoods, have shown us how important it is to tackle the climate crisis yesterday.
Transport is our largest single carbon emitter, the latest Government figures putting it at 24% of our total CO2 output, 91% of which comes from road transport, half of which again is from cars and taxis.
For many of the trips we take, the car is not the best travel choice – it’s expensive, inefficient and often stressful – but thanks to decades of car-centric transport planning, it’s often not only the easiest but the only choice. Around 59% of our day-to-day journeys are less than five miles – a distance cycled in around 30 minutes. These sub-five mile trips generate 19% of our cars’ carbon emissions, in part because there simply aren’t decent cycle routes where we need them.
When politicians talk about investment in infrastructure that supports growth, a problematic enough concept on a finite planet, often they ignore the fact road building offers desperately poor returns – sometimes barely earning our money back. Meanwhile, the car trips roads generate increase air pollution and congestion and make cycling and walking harder. Active travel, meanwhile, offers fabulous investment returns. The head of Active Travel England, Chris Boardman, recently estimated for its current £2bn active travel fund, England will reap £12bn on things like better health, air quality and decongestion – a whopping six to one return.
Not only do we overlook cycling in favour of even more car provision despite their respective benefits, when Government cash flow is tight, as it is now, cycling and walking funds – not road building – are among the first things under threat.
Concerned about the loss of that £2bn fund amid an increasingly pressing economic environment, in October the Walking and Cycling Alliance, a group of active-travel charities such as Cycling UK and Sustrans, as well as the AA, the Federation of Small Businesses and more, made an “urgent call” to Government to ring fence active travel funds. A report released at the same time by Sustrans calculated cycling and walking was worth £36.5bn to the economy in 2021 alone. In its “six reasons why we need cycle lanes” document, Cycling UK adds people-friendly infrastructure such as bike lanes can boost retail sales by 30%, cut shop vacancies, move six to 10 times as many people as a traffic lane while, along with widened pavements and low-traffic neighbourhoods, return up to £13 per £1 investment and, of course, dramatically increase cycling and walking levels.
It takes leadership to make it happen. Happily, in the latest merry-go-round of politician job switcheroos, MP Jesse Norman returned to the post of cycling minister. Since his last stint in the job, Norman spent two years as a Treasury minister – in the very department often cited as a barrier to active-travel spending. This could well spell good news for cycling. Norman was one of our better cycling ministers, along with the recently shuffled Trudy Harrison, and is someone who cares about active travel. Here’s hoping his former Treasury boss, and new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, listens.
Meanwhile, Chris Boardman and his colleagues have been building an advisory board of high-profile and influential individuals from various backgrounds, including chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty and, more controversially, those in the fossil fuel sectors. The plan is to form a coalition of support across the many interests and departments cycling touches. If relationships are crucial, that’s especially true in politics.
Despite their popularity, cycling and walking still need all the allies they can get. That could include you. An email to your local MP in support of active travel investment in your area and further afield never goes amiss. Arguably we need this investment now more than ever.