Cycling likely to suffer in government spending review

I'm sure we could have a whip-round and help replace the tenner budget they've spent over the last couple of years. 

clearly the cycling funding provided under previous flavours of goverment was such a nirvana of free money,Id clear completely forgotten all about it ever happening.

look the government spends next to the square root of nothing on cycling, you could take away the whole budget and it wouldnt even begin to dent the 20billion they need to find, and actually not increasing spending but maintaining the existing low levels isnt a cut !!!

so that isnt really the message the DfT spokesperson is attempting to get out, the message is the road/rail infrastructure building,which alot of MPs had put in their election literature because building roads/railways actually wins more votes than building cycling lanes, is likely to be safe.

and building roads/railways,however annoyingly expensive it is isnt anti environment, its not done because goverments hate the countryside, or have been brainwashed and want to concrete it all over, it provides a measurable economic boost,because you employ hundreds of thousands of people across thousands of companies in the whole delivery chain of the construction, all of who get paid so have money to spend in hundreds of thousands of other places and it becomes a virtuos circle.

think how much money has literally been poured into Crossrail, and how many people work on it, and thats just 1 project.

I have my "not surprised" face on.

The people are getting what they voted for.

I am surprised by just how extreamly right wing this Tory govement are being -  there is no pretense at fair govenment of the country, just wall to wall  greed, blantant short term thinking and openly lining their own pockets as fast as they can. But what I really don't understand is why people voted for this (???) Yes, I know Labour are crap, but at least they are not evil.

To be fair I'm as left wing as they come but underfunding cycling infrastructure is not exclusively a Tory trait. Sadly we are just low down the pecking order.

As a cyclist you can actually ride on these new roads as well ........... unless they are motorways.

If this and he previous Government had not dropped the fuel tax accelerator there would be plenty of money for cycling, not to mention the lots for the NHS etc. Also, why should the road "upgrading" be protected? It is there to accomodate - or to be more precise, actually generate - additional motor traffic.

Shower of cnuts!

I hope this isn't true, but it seems likely given what else we know about this government.

I tended to think that cycling was the one policy area where the Conservatives were capable of enlightened and progressive policy. They're busy destroying the renewable energy sector, lobbying against more stringent emissions tests for vehicles, and damaging or destroying the BBC. If they remove cycling funding as well, I will despair.

I tend to think that road.cc is not the right place for political comment, but on this occasion I'll make an exception. Osborne and rest are Barbarians.

I actually hate the Tories. Its one thing after another with these smug arrogant twats. Just give us a few crumbs eh Dave and George, instead of taking all the time, what with stealth taxes, benefits cuts, selling everything off, why not give a little something back? Self serving arseholes.

It might seem that as a cyclist I would expect more, but so many people are doing it now, and so many want to but won't because they're scared of the roads. Just help us out a little bit eh and the savings regarding money, health, the environment are quite obviously huge.

Government wants to double the number of people cycling by waving a magic wand and scattering pixie dust, not by actually- err - spending money. Meanwhile, road schemes for roads dedicated to motor traffic continue to have money thrown at them. Why am I not surprised...

Just pathetic.

Not surprised really. It's always too little too late with every government we've had regardless of alignment. This is nothing more than lip service, always will be. Has any government ever truly delivered on their promises and intentions? No. They are all a bunch of corrupt parasites in it for themselves and their own fat pockets who play the game of politics but don't actually achieve anything for those they represent. Rant over. Ride time.

is this a surprise, another case of talk the talk and fail to follow through. The car is still king, that the UK government was lobbying against the tightening of emissions says a lot.