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Robert Goodwill (L) and Chris Boardman (R) in Copehagen (copyright Britishcycling.org.uk)Video: UK three decades behind Denmark in cycling provision, admits minister
Cycling minister Robert Goodwill admits that the UK is three decades behind Denmark when it comes to cycling provision – and British Cycling’s policy advisor Chris Boardman is urging the politician to fight for the £10 per head annual spend that campaigners see as the minimum needed to try and help redress the balance.
Mr Goodwill, who is Conservative MP for Scarborough, accepted Boardman’s invitation to accompany him on a trip to Copenhagen last week so he could see for himself the infrastructure put in place there over the past decades.
Levels of cycling in the Danish capital are unheard of in the UK with two thirds of people using a bike to get to and from their place of work or study every single day.
“It was rather a shock to see just how many people were cycling,” said Mr Goodwill, quoted on British Cycling’s website.
“When I say people, I mean just that – ordinary people in ordinary clothes; people of all ages, people with young children, and a lot of women.
“The other thing that struck me was that if all of those people on their bikes had been in cars, the place would have been completely jammed.
- Video: Mesmerising time lapse of Copenhagen's bicycle rush hour
"So I think the motorists understand that having all these people on bikes actually gives them more space to get around. It’s all very impressive.
“Here, we’ve seen vast numbers of people on bikes, very good provisions on the roads and a lot of innovative ideas that I’m sure we’ll be taking back with us,” continued the minister, who last week said he did not support cycle helmets being made compulsory.
- Cyclists should be free to choose whether to wear helmet, says transport minister
“This has happened over a long period of time. The problem we have in Britain is that we should have started 30 years ago.
That means we need to re-double our efforts to ensure we get what the Prime Minister called a ‘cycling revolution’ in the UK, so we can come here without having to hang our heads in shame a little bit.
“I’ve been blown away by what I’ve seen in Copenhagen, and that’s given me an additional feeling of wanting to re-double our efforts back home to ensure that we can do more for cyclists,” he added.
An important part of that will include drawing up a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, as required under the Infrastructure Act 2015.
That was included in the act following an amendment to the bill successfully tabled before the general election by former Cambridge MP, the Liberal Democrat Dr Julian Huppert, who was also co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group.
- Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy becomes law this week
Boardman, whose visit to Copenhagen earlier this year resulted in British Cycling inviting the minister to join him on a second trip, said he believed Mr Goodwill could lobby colleagues in government to secure that benchmark £10 per head spend.
He said: “Copenhagen is a shining example of what can be achieved with committed investment, not just in infrastructure but in everything required to make cycling and walking a legitimate choice for the people living there.
“Robert Goodwill was able to see how much work is needed to bring British cities up to speed with Copenhagen – this is a big step forward, and I thank him for taking part in the visit. I think he saw the huge benefits of proper investment in cycling and I think more of his colleagues in government should see this for themselves.
“The Minister has said some positive things, but the first real test of this government’s commitment will be the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy they have promised. This needs meaningful funding and I want to see it published before the next Budget.
“Mr Goodwill will have to fight hard in government to deliver the ‘cycling revolution’ promised before the election, but with the Prime Minister’s backing I am confident he can persuade Treasury ministers to release the £10 per head per year that could transform cycling provision in the UK and save us from crises in obesity and pollution that the country can’t afford,” he concluded.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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Apologies - you're quite right! Something about presentation and comprehension...
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But don't forget to correct for altitude.
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37 comments
...and even less use to get 1 million people in to and out of Manchester every day. Cycling is part of a Transport/Commuting strategy, and not as important as some here think.
This is the bit of what he says that car commuters need to understand:
"So I think the motorists understand that having all these people on bikes actually gives them more space to get around. It’s all very impressive.
Build it and they will use it? I think the lesson from the infrastructure of Denmark, the Netherlands, etc is that to get significant numbers of people to the theatre of cycling, you need to drag, entice or price them out of the netflix of driving (or close the netflix down).
I just hope the entire budget doesn't go on urban infrastructure. 80% of my commute is on a national speed limit rural A road. Dig these roads 1 metre wider each way and there's room for everyone and nobody at risk or delayed.
This is an important point - half the cycling deaths are on rural roads because speeds are higher.
The other point which others have suggested is improving driving standards. There needs to be a sustained campaign to improve road user behaviour, (supported by a rational sentencing policy) alongside the long haul to get infrastructure fixed properly.
Another great contribution from Chris Boardman.
I do think that there is a strong leaning amongst transport planners and even many cycle campaigners towards the view (consciously or otherwise) that the bike is a good alternative to walking rather than a realistic alternative to the car/bus/train. This is increasingly resulting in very 'pedestrian' infrastructure which is probably great to pootle a couple of miles to school with your 7 year old but absolutely useless for your 10-15 mile commute.
With all the Goodwill in the world (sorry, couldn't resist) he says:
* It took Denmark a long time to build their infrastructure - wrong. They built it relatively quickly and in the last 10 years or so it has deteriorated.
* He says something along the lines of "with all those cyclists there will be more space for drivers" - shades of game theory? Or perhaps if he can get more plebs cycling it will be easier for him and his chums to still drive? If everyone thought like that nobody will cycle. Actually we must make it better for cyclists not drivers. Otherwise we will just end up with a Stevenage situation.
I don't disagree with you totally but I do understand what he means. I had cause to drive into Birmingham recently and it was really noticeable that it's a city where car use for short journeys is very high. I actually remarked to myself how much my experience as a driver was impacted by the transport choices (and to some degree the standard of driving) of the locals compared to towns and cities where the private car has a lower modal share.
Before anyone spends a penny more we need a wholesale clear out of the traffic planners and replace them with people who know about cycling. Otherwise we'll just end up with more Bedford Turbo Roundabouts and Blackfriars Station redevelopments for the wasted money.
Am I alone in wondering just how long Mr Goodwill is going to be in office with an attitude like that?
Ministers of Transport have a notoriously brief tenure of their position, especially the ones who actually appreciate the real problems of mass car use, and underfunding of the alternatives.
First thing they should spend any money on is re-training the people responsible for planning and designing the roads in the first place.
Most cycle infrastructure in this country can only have been designed by motorists.
It’s good that the minister recognises the scale of the problem and, now that we have a nation-wide Cycling and Walking Strategy, things may start to happen, but they will only happen if councillors ask for them to happen, and that means the likes of you and me have to put pressure on them to do so!
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Infrastructure is all well and good and £10 per head is a step forward but probably isn't anywhere near enough to make a quick and lasting impact.
To me the real problem is the attitude of a large minority of drivers - they're the ones who kill, injure and terrify us. This isn't just hearsay - there is evidence to support this within crash statistics and things like the near miss project. I'm yet to hear a single politician speak out about this.
Nobody has yet started spending this much in the UK. This is a suggested amount, ignored by both government (who want to spend nothing) and local authorities.
National funding has very recently been complely withdrawn. The Cycling and Walking Strategy is obviously an irrelevant document, because the government can choose to just ignore it.
No, no, no.
It's about doing more for everyone aged 8-80 who would like to cycle their everyday journeys but is put off by the lack of safe, protected space for cycling on our current roads. In London alone that accounts for some 3.8 million daily cyclable journeys that would take most people 20 or so minutes to cover on a bike.
Continuing to talk about catering for a group called 'cyclists' only perpetuates the widely-held belief that huge amounts of cash are being handed over to placate a noisy minority of snobs wearing lycra.
I only hope Chris Boardman can beat this kind of tripe out of Goodwill, who like most politicians doesn't appear to be capable of putting much thought into his soundbites.
I disagree; everyone seems to be sitting about waiting for cycling facilities to be built instead of getting on bikes and riding them. What the bloody hell do you all think we've been doing for the last 30 years? If we waited for things to get built there wouldn't be any cycling at all in the UK.
It's a chicken and egg situation; why should any cash strapped local authority throw money at cycling facilities until there is enough evidence that such things will be used?
Riding your bike is the best pressure you can put on.
This is preaching to the converted - all of us on this site are committed cyclists. The people this infrastructure is aimed at are people like Mrs Onion, who is too scared to ride her bike around our patch of Bradford because the roads are too intimidating and because there are no decent cycle paths.
I'm not sitting about waiting - I sort of doubt that anyone on this board is sitting about waiting - we're probably too busy riding. The people some of us are thinking about are all the colleagues and friends who would like to cycle, but are terrified by the perceived dangers of cycling in traffic, or whose partners won't let them cycle because they are terrified etc. They are the people for whom the good cycling facilities should be built. Expecting them to 'just get and ride' is slightly silly and very frustrating.
The words of someone who refuses to accept why people don't cycle. If people find it too dangerous and inconvenient, you can't compel them to ride a bike.
There's plenty of evidence, what do you think CB was doing in Copenhagen? What is it that makes Denmark and the Netherlands different to Britain?
Which came first, culture or design?
I've cycled to work a couple of times in the last month. Every person I've mentioned it to has asked whether it's safe for me to do that. The culture around road use is dire.
Because Cambridge has fabulous cycling infrastructure and much on the way...
We won't get any kind of cycling revolution in this country unless we see sustained* amounts of funding. At the moment there seems to be sporadic investment which builds the occasional cycle route when what we really need is a network of routes that all join up together.
Good words (and good effort as always by Mr Boardman), but words are not enough. What we need is government commitment to funding, but also to minimum standards. There is no point in spending millions if it is on abysmal infrastructure. £29 million has been wasted on the Leeds-Bradford cycle ambition scheme because the design standards are stupidly incompetent.
There are some good examples of wasted cycling money here: https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/560aa240e4b00e76364a22b3
A great example of wasting money is the new segregated cycle lane on Pancras Road leading into Kings Cross, London. This is the half-height kerb style that authorities are looking at adopting where possible .
We waited months for it to be built. Within 2 weeks of opening, the south bound lane was being dug up for installation of broadband or gas pipe or something? Closed for 2 weeks and left a lumpy mess following the "works".
I believe they have had to come back again and resurface it again to make it safe for cycling after the works.
That's not an example of Government wasting money on infrastructure. That's an example of a utility company carrying out poor work.
The local authority has the power to compel them to fix it.
where we live, the utility companies have to provide photographic evidence that they have restored the surface to a decent, smooth condition...
money isn't the whole solution, the real issue is how what money there is gets pissed up the wall on crap.
spending £10pp on crap is less helpful than spending £2 on decent infrastructure. In fact spending loads on crap that doesn't get used is IMO even worse than not spending it in the first place.
Anyway, lets see the Chancellor actually authorise the spending on decent high quality infrastructure.
Aye - there would be cultural change required as well as cash. There is a need to make local councils take cycling seriously and have a policy of actually targeting specific journeys/routes/groups and giving them a bike option. I'm sure the councils could build something quite good if they had sustained funding year on year though.
I truly believe a Tory believes anyone on a bike is a failure.
They don't want to help cyclists, because they don't care about cyclists.
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