I cycle pretty much every day. That's not always on my road bike in lycra, more often than not it's me pootling around on my pub bike, commuting, going to see friends, or just running quite boring errands. It's when I'm on my trusty single speed, going at 15km/h, that I really see how limited cycling infrastructure is in my home city of Bristol in south west England.
There are cycle lanes that begin and end in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by pedestrians seemingly clueless that there is any segregation at all. The roads force you to contend with fast traffic, and drivers of all sorts of vehicles act like you aren't even there, leaving you to play an elaborate game of 'chicken' with road furniture to avoid being hit.
Now, it obviously varies from place to place across the UK, and I probably don't know how good I've got it - at least Bristol has bike lanes. Some parts of the city are better than others, but it doesn't feel like the once-promised dream future of cycling is just around the corner. There isn't a city in the UK that is suddenly going to become Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Ghent, however much it is said with gusto.
Wednesday's big news in UK cycling was the allocation of £291 million - "almost £300m" - in funding to different active travel projects across England by Active Travel England and the government. There was £222.5 million for local authorities, £30 million to provide Bikeability cycle training to children, £30 million for Sustrans to help out the National Cycle Network, and £8.5 million for Cycling UK, Living Streets and Modeshift to deliver walking, wheeling and cycling initiatives in schools and communities.
Reading the press release, one could be led to think that this was "new" money. But it isn't, it's just the announcement of where previously budgeted funding is going. According to the Department for Transport, this funding will allow for "improvements [that] will help people make 30 million more journeys by bike or foot every year, including more than 20 million new walk-to-school journeys by children and their parents".
We can all agree that this is a good thing, money is being invested in active travel and cycling in England. But this is not going to go anywhere near solving the issues with active travel in our country, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what is actually needed to get people out of cars and onto bikes.
Of course, the soundbites are positive. The minister for local transport, Simon Lightwood, said: "Walking and cycling is an affordable way to get around and is hugely beneficial for both mental and physical health. We’re making sure local authorities can deliver high-quality and easily accessible schemes for everyone."
However, this two-year investment is not enough. The 'junction capacity scheme' which aims to "reduce congestion, [and] smooth traffic flow" at just one junction of the M25 (junction 10) is budgeted at £317 million. That's almost £30 million more than this active travel funding for the entire country, presumably to allow more cars to travel faster along the motorway which circles Greater London. Stepping things up a gear, £1.3 billion is being spent on widening the A12 to A120 in Essex's Chelmsford. These are just two examples of major road projects, all to help drivers, not cyclists or walkers.
I'm a confident cyclist, and yet I often feel unsafe on short trips around my city; what hope is there for the potential riders we want to entice out of their cars? To get more people on bikes, a lot more money is needed for active travel. It will benefit us all, through public health, air quality, helping to fight the climate crisis and making our cities and towns more fun to get around it. A better future is possible, just not like this.
