Cycling is rising on the political agenda and Labour can win support by developing a clear offer to the electorate ahead of future elections.
Thousands of people attended the recent #space4cycling protest ride outside parliament as more than 100 MPs debated the recent APPG Cycling report inside – the best-attended debate on cycling for years. Labour’s new eight-point plan, announced by Maria Eagle in the debate, provided a positive agenda for the party, based on creating dedicated separated infrastructure for safer routes.
Why is cycling important? First, encouraging more people to cycle is the closest thing to a no-brainer as you can get in transport policy. The streets of our cities are plagued by motor vehicle dominance, leading to congestion, poor air quality and traffic casualties. Encouraging more cycling addresses each of these and helps make transport more efficient and environmentally sustainable as our population grows. Obesity and lack of exercise are major public health problems. Increasing cycling has significant health benefits for the individual that add up to collective benefits for the health service. Even for the majority who don’t cycle, making local transport less based on cars and more focused on sustainable, active modes, including walking too, provides a way to boost high streets and make neighbourhood centres more pleasant.
Second, cyclists are a growing electoral demographic in many cities and a more active and self-conscious one. Cycle traffic entering central London has grown by 210 per cent since 2001 – a legacy of major policy changes like congestion charging and the work that Labour boroughs have done to encourage cycling. 8.6 per cent of the population of Manchester cycle once per month and the Labour council there has ambitious goals to increase this further. The new cyclists are certainly not a homogenous group but are likely to be disproportionately young, aspirational, and urban judging by the places they live. Not necessarily wealthy but often well educated, they are more often based in areas that return Labour MPs and councils, but shouldn’t be taken for granted by any party. The ‘cycling vote’ may be nascent but it is becoming more organised and articulate, and will certainly be significant in London’s mayoral battle in 2016. Labour needs to have a clear and ambitious agenda based on provision of more road space for cycling, slowing down speeding traffic and taking action against the dangerous HGVs that kill cyclists. This can draw on the record of delivery that Labour boroughs already have in London (in stark contrast to the Tory boroughs), the active transport legislation of Labour in Wales, and the ambitions of Labour cities like Manchester and Oxford.
Third, cycling is not just about cycling. The level of support for cycling gives an indication of what kind of party Labour wants to be and what kind of approach it will take on transport. You can’t design a decent cycle network from Whitehall. You need to speak to the cyclists who use the routes and to the people who might try cycling if they didn’t have to mix with all those lorries. You have to know each neighbourhood street by street and junction by junction. This needs to be transport infrastructure done with people, not to people. Fans of top-down multibillion-pound grands projets will find little to excite them here. It should be localist, participative and community-focused, an expression of what national politicians say they want (but often don’t mean), and a challenge to old ways of doing things.
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Phil Jones is cabinet member for sustainability, transport and planning on Camden council. He tweets @PhilJones79
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