"Please sign The Times’ petition to get behind the Get Britain Cycling recommendations. This will make a real difference to cycling in the UK." That's the message from Sir Chris Hoy, following the publication of the . If you care about the future of cycling in Britain please take some time to read the report, and share it as widely as possible.
Above: British Cycling's Chris Boardman (far left) helps to launch the Get Britain Cycling report with members of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (image: Adam Coffman, APPCG)
British Cycling’s Chris Boardman was at the heart of the action at yesterday’s Get Britain Cycling’s report launch in Parliament. He addressed MPs, assembled stakeholders and media to tell them that the government needs to set quantifiable targets to increase the number of people on bikes” using the same approach that the GB Cycling Team take to winning gold medals.
Boardman was interviewed by national newspapers as well as the BBC and Sky and today appeared on BBC 2’s influential Daily Politics Show to continue to make the case for the report’s recommendations to be implemented.
The report, which makes 18 recommendations to the government on what is needed to get the nation cycling, sets an ambition that at least 10 percent of all journeys should be made by bike by 2025 – a five fold increase on today’s figures.
Speaking in The Times newspaper, British Cycling’s Chris Boardman said:
“The benefits of getting more people to cycle in terms of health and improving the places in which we live are clear. We need to be ambitious and set ourselves quantifiable targets to increase the number of people on bikes. Only then will we have a yardstick against which we can measure our every action and policy. This is how we go about winning gold medals at British Cycling because we know it is the only way to be successful.”
British Cycling has been a key supporter of the Get Britain Cycling inquiry since the first evidence session took place in January. Chris Boardman has given evidence to the inquiry and British Cycling’s Policy Director, Martin Gibbs, has appeared twice. Alongside other cycling organisations like the CTC, British Cycling has helped to draft the report published today and continues to campaign for safer roads for all cyclists. Just last week British Cycling led calls to put cycling in the national curriculum in response to a Department for Education consultation and has also campaigned successfully for a review of the justice system to make it safer for vulnerable road users – a cross government group looking at this issue is now in place.
"To be effective the next steps from the government must be led from the very top. "
British Cycling Policy and Legal Affairs Director Martin Gibbs
The APPCG report also calls for a 20mph speed limit to be imposed in urban areas, that all children should be given the chance to learn the skills of road cycling at primary and secondary school and that government funding on cycling should be at least £10 per head of the population – reallocated from the existing transport budget.
British Cycling’s Director of Policy and Legal Affairs, Martin Gibbs, said:
“This is an excellent report and contains all the policy recommendations that this country needs to turn itself into a true cycling nation in the widest sense.
“To be effective the next steps from the government must be led from the very top. The Prime Minister is a good friend of cycling and cycles himself. With his backing we can apply the focus we used to turn ourselves into a leading cycle sport nation to embed cycling across whole of society so that it becomes a normal everyday choice which appeals to everyone. But for this to happen we need an agreed plan involving many government departments which is driven by the Prime Minister's will to get his country cycling.”
The Times newspaper has today published an e-petition to ask the government to implement all of the report’s recommendations. The e-petition can be signed here.
