Boosting cycling and walking

The government has announced a £338 million package to boost cycling and walking across the country, making active travel safer and easier for everyone as we build back greener.

  • Over the past year, millions of people have recognised the benefits of cycling and walking to stay fit and travel to work – and we are determined to keep that trend going.
     
  • That is why the government is investing £338 million to deliver more high-quality cycle lanes and schemes to promote walking, so we can encourage more people to make sustainable choices; and this Autumn, we will update the Highway Code to strengthen the safety of cyclists and pedestrians.
     
  • Kickstarting a summer of cycling and walking, by helping more people make sustainable travel choices, will also help build back greener and cleaner as we emerge from the pandemic.

Comments

Jim said…
I know quite a few keen cyclists, my brother is one of them. I often ask why they are always on the roads, there are cycle tracks for a lot of the journeys.
The reply comes back that they are not fit for purpose. Its not just he tree roots that tear up the tarmac on the tracks, but its the number of people who walk dogs and dont pick up ofter them.
I remember at Mirehouse there was always broken glass on there too, though that does not apply to most areas of them.

The dog walkers not picking up though is a real problem, though the tracks are a great place for responsible owners to walk dogs away from the traffic. Perhaps some track wardens or similar would be useful, also they could report where the track is damaged.
4:20 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Valid point.

I'm on a lot of calls about cyclways and footpaths in West Cumbria and whether we can add to or improve them. I will make sure to feed that point in.
12:02 pm
Anonymous said…
Until cycleways are made easier to ride on than the roads then who in there right mind is going to take a longer, far more inconvenient route than a direct one. You only have to look at the sad effort the Council has just put in north of Allonby. As for footpaths Cumbria councils refuse to look after and protect the ones we already have so any claims of improving and creating more is mere propaganda.
9:42 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
I certainly would not want to suggest that the present Labour & Lib/Dem administration of Cumbria County council manges all the cycleways in the area perfectly or that there is no propaganda involved. As per my reply to Jim we do need to look after some of the existing ones better and I am feeding that back.

Some of the cycleways most in need of attention are run by Sustrans and I am asking county officers to feed that back to them too.

However, both the government and CCC have money allocated in their budgets for new/improved cycleway and walking schemes.

Last year Copeland local committee put in a bid for some of that money which was not supported at county hall. There are consulations going on at the moment, and if you have a view about places where we could do with more footpaths and cycleways, or improve the ones we have now, I would encourage you to feed your views into them.
1:37 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten years ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by th...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more