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Sustrans
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Sustrans - sustainable transport - is a national charity working on projects to encourage more people to walk and cycle, including reducing motorised forms of transport. Working with local authorities and other organisations they aim to create an environment whereby people are more likely to walk and use bicycles, not only for leisure but also for work and other activities. Sustrans' flagship is the National Cycle Network. It was officially opened in June 2000 with 5000 miles of continuous traffic-free routes and traffic calmed and minor roads, running right through urban centres and reaching all parts of the UK. The aim is eventually for the national cycle network to pass within 2 miles of half the population in the UK. The network will carry an estimated 100 million journeys every year, roughly 40% will be for leisure and, importantly, 60% will be for utility trips providing safe links to work, to schools, to friends and family, to shops and stations. About a third of the network will be entirely traffic-free, built along old railway lines, canal towpaths, forestry tracks, riversides and urban spaces, and in many cases these sections will be ideal for wheelchairs and pushchairs as well as for cyclists and pedestrians. The rest will follow existing roads; town roads may be traffic-calmed or incorporate cycle lanes, quiet minor roads will be used for country sections and there will be special crossings over busy roads where needed. The whole network is a partnership between local and central government, rail bodies, national parks and tourist bodies, wildlife and heritage organisations, waterways, heritage and cycling bodies. Many other individual organisations are involved, all supporting the National Cycle Network. One of the most important projects is Sustrans' Safe Routes to Schools, which aims to encourage children to cycle and walk to school by improving street design, calming traffic, creating traffic-free spaces and linking with the National Cycle Network. More on the 'Safe Routes to School' initiative. County councils are now strongly involved in developing and improving bicycle access, as well as involvement in initiatives in reducing car speeds - Slower-speeds-uk. The introduction of Home Zones, a street or group of streets where car users don't have priority over other road users, with cars travelling at little more than walking pace, is another important initiative. Such speed deterrents may now become a reality on many more roads in the UK. As for the UK Cycle Network, in practical terms, many of the real changes lie at the door of local government and we are seeing cycling initiatives, new ideas and lots of paths dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians. It will be a compromise in many cases, but crucially it will need genuine commitment from all involved. Sustrans and the National Cycle Network can be the catalyst, but everyone, including central government and the general public, needs that genuine commitment to make cycling a more intrinsic, attractive and safe way of UK life. Finally, it's worth mentioning that cycling now has a much higher profile than ever before in the UK and more people are cycling for health, leisure, economic and environmental reasons. You can see that Sundays are cycling days for many individuals and families now, and the next step is to try and make cycling part of everyday life at other times too. Certainly we have always been behind other European countries in our cultural view of cycling, but cycling is clearly more popular now than it has ever been (just stand on a section of the C2C route in northern England on a Sunday at any time of the year - including 'mild' January mornings; the Tarka Trail in south-west England - host to over a million cyclists a year; and the thousands of cyclists who descend upon the Camel Trail in Cornwall; to see the evidence). It will be interesting to see just how far cycling can become part of the way of life in the UK over the next 10 - 20 years. Sustrans and local authorities will play a crucial role by continuing to raise the awareness and profile of cycling with advanced stop lines at traffic lights giving cyclists priority, signposting of local and long distance routes, shared pathways with pedestrians, national bike weeks, cycle to work days, all being key to the success of cycle use and the benefits it can offer to us individually and to our environment. |
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 Mileposts are found throughout the UK National Cycle Network |
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