On your bikes!
IT’S ESSENTIAL TO RETAIN THE BOOST IN CITY CYCLISTS AS WE LEAVE LOCKDOWN
ANTJE Timmermann is part of the new movement behind a 22 per cent boost in Greater Manchester’s cycling numbers.
The mum-of-two, who doesn’t own a car, bought a bike when the COVID-19 lockdown began and has started cycling in Manchester for the first time in her eight years living here.
Before the pandemic she had a monthly bus pass but she no longer feels comfortable using public transport.
Antje, 36, who runs a German language school, has been cycling for shopping, errands, and to take exercise with her kids, aged four and five.
She is from Chemnitz in German – a twin city to Manchester thanks to their shared industrial past – but with an extensive network of cycle lanes, which meant Antje cycled daily when she lived there.
Back to Manchester, and she admits she doesn’t yet know if she will keep cycling after lockdown – and that’s the challenge for Greater Manchester’s leaders as they ponder how to prevent a mass return to cars as lockdown eases but public transport potentially becomes a less attractive proposition.
As reported by the M.E.N, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is investing £5m in an ‘emergency plan’ to help enable cycling and walking while social distancing.
Part of a campaign dubbed Safe Streets Save Lives, measures will include pavement extensions, oneway streets, removing through traffic on roads and adding cycle lanes.
They are looking to extend a loan scheme which has already provided 472 bikes to NHS workers.
Although a bike hire scheme to replace Mobike is not a possibility this year, an extension to the cycle-to-work scheme could also be on the horizon.
But it remains to be seen if it’s enough to keep Antje, who lives in Blackley, on her bike.
She said: “I would hope I’d carry on but it does depend on traffic development. I’m hesitant of going into the city centre but maybe I could use side roads.”
So it’s clear that Chris Boardman, charged with spearheading Greater Manchester’s cycling plans, has to contend with major safety concerns.
Pre-pandemic, he was already making progress with the £1.5bn Bee Network project to populate the region with cycle lanes and make two wheels safe for family travel. Then came lockdown.
With our wings clipped by strict orders to avoid all necessary travel and bus timetables slashed, traffic plummeted by 60 per cent, public transport use by 90pc.
But there’s been a cycling boom – with 1,004,000 bike journeys made in the week ending April 26. That’s up 22pc on the same week last year.
Mr Boardman said: “We knew going into this that a third of Greater Manchester households don’t have access to a car and our average journey length is less than 5km, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to us really that people have turned to cycling and walking to make essential journeys – particularly key workers who tend to be lower paid.”
Property manager Lucy Bennett, 26, who bought a bike in lockdown for her daily commute to her job, has a designated cycle route which runs from her home in Didsbury to her office in Fallowfield.
She said: “I was getting the bus before but lockdown encouraged me to buy a bike. The buses were reduced, the one I usually get was cancelled and I had to get another, which was really crowded.
“The cycle route starts at Palatine Road and goes along Wilmslow Road.
“I’ve got my own designated lane so I can come out of my flat and go to work. I’m lucky – not everyone has that.”
Greater Manchester is behind the curve when it comes to mass cycling.
In Copenhagen, admittedly a shining example, around 62pc of commutes are by bike, compared to pre-lockdown levels of around 2pc here (that modal share has more than doubled to 5pc during lockdown).
Pre-lockdown, there were a number of clean air plans in place, including charging zones for highpolluting vehicles and more minor schemes like car shares.
But Mr Burnham has already said that many ideas will have to be reassessed in this new unprecedented landscape.
How remains to be seen – but Nick Hubble, from campaign group Walk Ride Greater Manchester, is passionate that we don’t go ‘back to the bad old days’ when it comes to travel.
He said: “Seeing families cycling together on our roads is unprecedented. We need to do everything we can to maintain those gains and make sure people don’t get back in their cars to drive the shortest of journeys.”