£2bn package to put walking and cycling at heart of cities

GRANT Shapps has revealed a huge government travel scheme in a bid to encourage alternative transport use after coronavirus lockdown is eased.

The UK’s transport secretary announced a £2bn investment, urging travellers to ditch cars and public transport for cycling and walking.

Speaking at Saturday’s daily Downing Street press briefing, Mr Shapps said: “I am announcing a £2 billion package to put cycling and walking at the heart of our transport policy.

“To set up how we will deliver this, we will bring forward a national cycling plan, for publication in early June.

“This will be in line with the statutory cycle and walking investment strategy to double cycling and increase walking by 2025.

“The first stage, worth £250m, is a series of swift emergency inventions to make cycling and walking safer.”

He added other measures will include pop-up bike lanes and wider pavements as well as cycle and bus-only streets.

It comes as Mr Shapps revealed that even if the UK transport network was running at full capacity, the two-metre social distancing rule would mean only one in 10 passengers could travel.

He added: “Even with public transport recovering to full service, once you take into account the two-metre social distancing rule there will only be effective capacity for one in 10 passengers.”

Getting Britain moving again while not overcrowding the transport network would require many people to think about how and when they travel, he said.

“With public transport capacity severely restricted, more cars could be drawn to the roads of our towns and cities and they would quickly become gridlocked.”

But he added: “Yet this is a problem which presents a health opportunity too.

“An opportunity to make lasting changes that could not only make us fitter but also better off both mentally and physically in the long run.”

He said many people had taken up cycling and walking during the lockdown, saying in some places there has been a 70 per cent rise in the number of people on bikes for exercise or travel.

He said: “While it’s crucial that we stay at home, when the country does get back to work we need to ask those people to carry on cycling or walking, and for them to be joined by many others as well.”

He said that better air quality has been one of the few benefits of the current crisis.

In a bid to preserve the cleaner air, he said he would be fasttracking trials of e-scooters, so that a programme originally set for next year will be brought forward to next month.

The trial will be extended from four local authorities to ‘every region in the country who wants them in a bid to get e-scooter rental schemes up and running in cities as fast as possible’.

He confirmed the government will help assess safety benefits and the impact on public spaces.

Mr Shapps also announced an additional £10m support package for car-charging points on the streets, in light of the growing popularity of electric vehicles and in an effort to ‘keep this quiet, clean car revolution going’.

And while the Transport Secretary said the car will continue to play a vital role in travel, he also revealed plans to use this period of lower traffic volumes to fix potholes on roads.