Cycle route to a host of benefits

Let’s be ambitious and grasp the Covid-19 opportunity, says Edward Pickering

GETTING around Exeter has been a pleasure in the last few weeks. The air has been fresh and clean, the loudest noise has been bird song and children playing in their gardens, and there’s a feeling of space and calm.

It’s not just a feeling, either. Devon’s carbon emissions are down by a quarter, and there’s been a 50% drop in nitrogen dioxide and particulates.

All it took to create this was one small change by many people: to not drive.

The Covid-19 lockdown has given us a glimpse of a better future. Taking commuting by car out of the equation is by far the biggest contribution to that drop in pollution.

What we have to do now is keep those gains as the economy opens up again.

Devon County Council has pledged to reduce the county’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

This is no small matter – recent studies show that in order to meet the national target of having net zero carbon emissions by 2050, we’d have to continue along exactly the same trajectory as we have been doing since lockdown.

We can do it. In cities, towns and small towns, it would be easy to ditch the car for most journeys, and the benefits of doing so in favour of walking and cycling are at least fivefold.

First, it maintains the social distancing necessary to prevent the further spread of Covid-19.

Second, it will improve the environment in which our children will grow up.

Third, it will make our towns and cities nicer places to be, as they have been these last couple of months.

Fourth, the health benefits save the economy money by reducing the burden on the NHS.

Fifth, it saves money on a personal level – no petrol or parking costs.

For people worried about the impact on local businesses, research by Transport for London showed that cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users spend 40% more in shops than motorists.

But it’s going to take more than us all agreeing that the positives of encouraging cycling and walking far outweigh the negatives and assuming our job is done.

The streets need to be made safer, so that kids can cycle to school without their parents worrying about safety, and the office worker can get from A to B without a second thought. That’s going to take imagination, co-operation and infrastructure.

It’s also essential. Social distancing means that public transport will move fewer people than before, and the traffic jams we used to see around so many of our towns show that the roads don’t have enough capacity for us to all drive.

Even if the same number drive as before, we’re going to miss our carbon reduction obligations. That matters.

As part of the government’s Covid-19 response, The transport minister, Grant Shapps, allocated £250 million for immediate use in creating pop-up cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

The good news is that Devon County Council, as the body that operates our road infrastructure, is eligible for some of this.

London has shown that if we create good infrastructure for getting around on foot and by bike, people will use it.

This will create a virtuous circle of more people leaving their cars at home (or even getting rid of them and therefore saving the financial impact of Vehicle Excise Duty) and increasing the benefits listed above.

But we’ll only get these benefits if the county council is ambitious in leading the way and the citizens of Devon equally ambitious in encouraging the local authority to make a positive change.

Devon is already one of the most pleasant places in the country to live. We should be grasping this opportunity to make it even more so.

■ Edward Pickering is the editor of Procycling magazine and supports the Exeter Cycling Campaign. He lives in Devon.