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The Government could do various things. It is all very well having a policy, but you have to have the political will to make the policy work. Cycling is very good for families. A lot of young people today are overweight or even obese, so parents would like to get their children on to bicycles. At the weekends in London—it is a curious thing—in lots of areas the cycle lanes are full of parked cars. This is the fear factor again: why would you take out two small children in a crocodile on your bicycle at the weekend or on a summer’s evening when you must negotiate cars and vans parked in the cycle lanes? I am quite sure that the Minister would tell us that that is all to do with law enforcement and that the law is there to stop that happening. Well, why does that not happen? The cycle lane situation in London is pretty strange and illogical anyway. For example, on Chelsea Bridge, which I frequently go over, bicycles can go one way on the footway on the edge of the bridge, but they cannot go the other way. If you attempt to do so, as I have done from time to time, not only are you likely to be stopped, but you meet angry ladies walking their dogs saying that you ought to know better. That is a disagreeable experience for sensitive parliamentarians.
In the investigations that I carried out before speaking tonight into opinions around the House, particularly those of my colleagues, I thought of two cyclists. My noble friend Lord Taverne is still cycling; I would put him forward as a candidate for one of the best preserved and most athletic Members of your Lordships’ House for his age. He cycles every day and included cycling in his 2005 book—I admit that I have not read it—The March of Unreason, which is available in paperback. There is an examination in it of the benefits to your health set against the dangers of cycling within metropolitan London. Despite all the things that we are saying, it came out in favour of the benefits by a ratio of 10:1. I think that the Government can help us to increase that ratio. The book describes the cycle, rather amusingly, as,
If that whets the appetite of noble Lords who want to find my noble friend Lord Taverne’s book, I daresay that it is in the Library; they will be cheered by what they read.
Various other aspects of cycling that create problems for cyclists have already been mentioned, such as the business of theft, of course. You almost write down your bike because you know that it will be stolen if you are not careful. If you leave a folding bicycle—such as a Brompton, as is owned by the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, and me—outside for two minutes you are at risk, so you carry it into shops with you. You carry it everywhere. People are very understanding about that, although it is often a bit of a squash in a small tobacconist’s where you are looking for the MotorCycle News, which is often what I am doing. But you have to do it, otherwise you run that risk. They are expensive items to replace.
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The success of the French system is amazing. I was in Paris during the rugby cup and saw at close quarters how their pool system, which started in Lyon, works. You pick up a bike on a card system where the first half-hour is free and you pay €7 for each subsequent hour or two hours. It is not cheap, but the bikes are very high quality; I examined them closely. They are now used widely. The system also means that people, visitors and locals, use these bicycles on a regular basis. Some of them are not very experienced and they wander around the roads in a way that would shock experienced cyclists in your Lordships’ House. To motorists it is a salutary lesson: you must give cyclists a wide berth. In any case, there are draconian sanctions in France against cars that are seen to be a menace to cyclists. If you hit a cyclist, you can get your collar felt, to use the vernacular. That does not exist here. There is definitely room for improvement. The contrast with Europe must be looked at; we have many lessons to learn.
The main points for the Government—and I would be interested in the Minister’s remarks when he replies—are that we must alter the law to give more protection to cyclists from vehicles of all kinds if we want to support the Government’s excellent initiative. We must revisit the design of cycle lanes and see whether they are logical. We must improve them where possible. We must deal with the potholes, which the noble Lord, Lord Young, has described; they are an absolute menace and a disgrace. I would not expect to find them in Entebbe or Dar es Salaam. I never rode a bicycle in those places, but many of the roads here are shocking.
Will the Government think of devising a promotion scheme to back up their policy which explains the benefits of cycling clearly and positively, whether in leaflets or posters? It should not cost too much. Will they also stress cyclists’ responsibility for the consideration that they get from other motorists? It is terrifying that any cyclist should go out without lights at night. He is putting at risk not only himself but other people who are driving cars and other vehicles. He may be in a position of facing homicide charges. That is utter selfishness and should be dealt with harshly.
I am over my time but, before I sit down, let me say that nobody has mentioned bells. I do not have one, but now that I have reminded myself I will go out and get one. In London, we ought to encourage cyclists to use a bell, so that they can shift these pedestrians out of the way before you arrive and they abuse you. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for giving me a chance to speak on this subject. I could not get in on a Question the other day; the matter has been remedied.
8.36 pm
Earl Howe: My Lords, it was HG Wells, that great enthusiast for the bicycle, who wrote:
HG Wells felt no need to apologise for his romantic view of two-wheeled transport, a view which may strike us as a little quaint; but he undoubtedly saw in the bicycle something that was noble and optimistic for humanity. Hence another of his observations, which I rather like:
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Like many other noble Lords, I am sure, I am a great one for Utopia but, to get there, reality is the nut we have to crack.
We have heard some of the evidence for the health benefits of cycling. They are impressive. We know that greater physical activity is directly linked to the prevention of a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease and stroke. On heart disease, it would appear that the older the participant, the greater the benefit. So, as the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, rightly said, it is never too late to start.
Eight years ago, a study was published in Denmark involving thousands of cyclists. It showed that even after adjusting for other risk factors, those who did not cycle to work had a 39 per cent higher mortality rate than those who did. A study in Germany five years ago looked at the effect of cycling on breast cancer in pre-menopausal women and found a direct correlation between amounts of cycling activity and lower risk. Those cyclists who commute, say, for a 30-minute journey each way, are fulfilling the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation for daily exercise. You burn calories, you lose weight and you feel better.
There has been a mass of studies about the benefits that would ensue to the nation if more people were to cycle regularly. Cycling England has translated those benefits into money terms. The savings to the NHS and the savings to traffic congestion amount to hundreds of millions. It has done similar calculations on the benefits to the environment. A 20 per cent increase in cycle journeys could mean 54 million fewer car journeys, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35,000 tonnes. That is a worthwhile prize in anyone’s terms. The prize is proving elusive. In the national cycle strategy published in 1996, the previous Conservative Government made a rather bold pledge; to double the number of bicycle trips by the end of 2002 and to quadruple the number of trips by the end of 2012. Not only has this not begun to happen, but in 2005 the Government conceded in their White Paper that it was not going to happen and that the original target could not be achieved. How could they tell? It was easy enough, because the statistics were actually moving backwards.
The frustrating part is that the present Government came to office and did many of the things that they needed to do to give cycling a real boost. They endorsed the previous Government’s strategy, and they put in train some good initiatives at local authority level which, with a bit of a push from Ministers, should have gathered speed. But, somehow, the momentum was lost. That could not be more unfortunate in view of the public health imperative. We have a state of affairs in England, as noble Lords have referred to, in which almost a quarter of the population is obese and where rates of diabetes, to name but one serious medical condition, which has already been mentioned by the noble Viscount, Lord Falkland, look set to reach unparalleled levels over the next 10 years unless people start living healthier lifestyles.
There has been much talk by Ministers of working more closely with local authorities,
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which was in the White Paper. Despite all that, rates of cycling have actually fallen from where they were a decade ago by about a fifth and stand at just 1 per cent of all journeys. The number of 11 to 15 year-olds cycling to school has also gone down very considerably in the past 10 to 12 years. How the Government have allowed that dismal situation to come about is not particularly difficult to diagnose; they took their eye off the ball. They did not manage to hold local authorities properly to account for delivering on the targets. The ball was picked up again in 2005, when Cycling England was created and when Sir Ron Eddington was asked to carry out his transport study, which contained a number of useful conclusions for cycling policy. But even today, progress around the country, with the signal exception of London, has been very limited indeed.
That is not to say that it was ever going to be easy. When my noble friend Lady Chalker was transport Minister in the 1980s, she made the profound observation that the best encouragement that we could give to cycling would be to make it safer. There is no doubt, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, that worries about road safety are a major reason why people do not use their bikes for commuting and other short journeys and why parents will not let their children cycle to school. Although the number of non-fatal casualties has gone down by about a third over the past 10 years, the number of fatalities has been rising since 2003, despite the background of fewer cycle journeys. We are still talking about more than 16,000 cyclists a year being involved in road accidents; but it does not have to be like that. The experience in London over the past few years shows that, with a bit of careful investment, the accident rate can actually come down, even when the amount of cycling goes up; as it has done quite dramatically. Someone writing in the New Yorker magazine described cycling in the city as, “anarchy without malice”. There may well be a bit of anarchy around, but it does not seem to be responsible for much of the road casualty figures.
The other main barrier to progress is perhaps less easy to overcome. There is an inherent problem with cycling; it is not exactly “cool”. It will probably not be seen as cool until we have role models who promote it in a way that resonates with those disadvantaged groups in society who most need to get on their bikes. At the moment it is the relatively affluent and educated sections of society who cycle, and we need to get the message to those at the opposite end of the social spectrum.
Earlier this year Ruth Kelly announced a really welcome boost for cycling in the form of a grant of £140 million to Cycling England over the next three years. That decision gives me cause to hope that, after all, the Government have not entirely given up on the target set by the previous Conservative Government. But money like this needs to be properly targeted if it is to achieve its purpose. How is it likely to be spent, what achievement from it may we hope to see and over what timescale?
Perhaps I could put one or two ideas to the Minister as a small contribution to his deliberations. Cycling England and other bodies all agree that the
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My second proposal is one that the Government could consider encouraging among local authorities. As noble Lords have said, cycling could play a major role in our efforts to reduce traffic congestion, particularly in some of our larger towns and cities. Has the Minister considered copying some of the best practice on the Continent, such as the Vélib initiative in Paris? I understand that there are now more than 700 pick-up and drop-off points where bicycles can be rented free for the first half-hour and for very little thereafter, and then can be dropped off at any of the other points in the city. It is one of the initiatives that my honourable friend Mr Johnson has promised to introduce, should he be elected as Mayor of London, but it is clear that it is an idea that could be rolled out in other cities.
I hope that after a decade of disappointment we will now start to experience the fruits of the Government’s renewed good intentions in a way that HG Wells would have approved of, and that both our environment and the health of the nation will be the joint beneficiaries.
8.46 pm
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, although there have not been many participants in this short debate, it has had some high quality contributions. I congratulate not only the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, who is a keen advocate of cycling, but all those who have taken part. We do not spend enough time talking about issues such as this. That reflects that it has been neglected—not by the Government, I hasten to add, but more generally—to acknowledge and celebrate the merits of cycling in our culture. It is only a generation ago that probably most people cycled to work, to their factory or their office.
I grew up in the flatlands of Essex and cycled every day, and so did those I grew up with. It was part of how you were. Much as we talk now about the contribution that cycling can make to reducing our carbon footprint and tackling the obesity timebomb, my generation did not see it that way at all—we just thought it was a fun thing to do. Acquiring the skills of cycling was part of growing up.
I assure the House and the noble Earl, Lord Howe, that the Government are fully signed up to appreciating and promoting the health and environmental benefits of cycling. Indeed, our support for and funding of Cycling England, which has its own appointed experts in health and environment on its board, in 2005 to assist in formulating programmes to give life further life to a cycling strategy is clear evidence of that. In
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On top of that, as all noble Lords who have contributed to the debate have observed, there is the challenge of the obesity timebomb that the Foresight report highlighted. That has been responded to by the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives cross-government strategy for England. It is clear that cycling can offer a significant contribution to addressing all these challenges and, through government departments working together and recognising our shared objectives, we have already started to deliver on the plans set out in Towards a Sustainable Transport System.
In January this year, we awarded a record £140 million to Cycling England after considering its already notable achievements and upon the evidence in a report by the economic consultants SQW on Valuing the Benefits of Cycling. This provided evidence of a 3:1 benefit, much of which relates to health and the environment. The noble Lord, Lord Young, observed the benefit of that cost-benefit ratio in those terms. The six-fold increase in Cycling England’s budget is further evidence of the Government fully understanding and accepting the case put forward by Cycling England and others interested in promoting greener travel options. As part of a joined-up approach, the Department of Health is contributing £15 million towards cycling, demonstrating its recognition of what cycling can do to improve the health of the nation.
So what are we planning to do with the additional funding? That is the question asked by the noble Earl, Lord Howe. The first aim is to give children an opportunity at an early age to set a blueprint for life. These primarily have to be good health and a recognition of the importance of the environment. With Cycling England, we have pledged to give an additional 500,000 schoolchildren the opportunity to undertake high-standard on-road cycle training, to address some of the issues that the noble Viscount, Lord Falkland, drew attention to, of core practice among cyclists. We have agreed also to provide 250 additional links to schools, connecting 500 schools via traffic-calmed or traffic-free routes, in addition to the 295 links already provided to over 600 schools since 2005. We have also agreed to double the number of “cycling to school champions” to work with around 400 schools, to maximise the benefits of these combined programmes. We are therefore giving the next generation the skills to improve their health and providing improved infrastructure to ease parents’ understandable fears over allowing their children to cycle to school. It will also give children greater independence while at the same time reducing the need to ferry children around by car.
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Cycling England announced in February £47 million to extend the cycling demonstration towns programme, including creating the first large cycling city. Existing demonstration towns such as Darlington, where the numbers of those cycling to school has quadrupled, and Aylesbury, where the number of people saying that they are using a bike as one of their main modes of transport has risen from 3 per cent to 14 per cent, demonstrate to all what local authorities can achieve. This investment will provide around 3 million people with levels of spend on cycling seen only in the very best European cycling cities.
The assessment criteria for the new demonstration areas include the requirement for local authorities to show how their bids contribute to the aims of the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy and to think strategically across all departmental remits, such as environment, transport, education and health, and most importantly to show high-level leadership and commitment. Cycling England, together with the Department of Health, is already working with two primary care trusts in Nottingham and Northamptonshire in the community health improvement programme. By working with staff and those most at risk to poor health, such as the middle-aged and deprived communities, through cycle training and cycle rides they will be able to demonstrate to other care trusts what can be achieved.
Cycling England also published Cycling and Health in 2007 and distributed it to local authorities and primary care trusts. It provides all the evidence in one document, with some practical ideas on how the two can work together. It does not end there. We have given Cycling England a remit and funding to find new solutions to encourage adults and at-risk groups to cycle more, particularly for the journey to work and through leisure.
On the topic of the journey to work, the department published guidance on the cycle to work scheme in 2005 and at the same time negotiated a group consumer credit licence to ease the burden upon business in setting up the scheme. Since then, around 100,000 people have participated.
In addition to our work with Cycling England, our successful initiative Sustainable Travel Towns is entering its final year of a five-year project and has so far seen a 10 per cent reduction in car trips and around a 30 per cent increase in cycling. That is on a target population of more than 180,000 people. The main tool used to achieve that is personalised travel planning, and I would like to point out this is not a “nanny state” intervention on how people should travel, but provides tailored information to enable people to make voluntary alternative travel choices to the car.
A trial in one of the towns, Peterborough, showed that in a three-mile rush-hour trip into the city centre, the cyclist took 15 minutes, had free parking and took some exercise burning off around 200 calories, while the car driver took 22 minutes, had to pay for parking let alone fuel and running costs and of course had no exercise. Providing that kind of tailored information can motivate people to make cycling the preferred option, especially in an urban environment.
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We recognise that we must improve cycling facilities in order to tempt more people to take this option. We are doing precisely that through Cycling England's free advice service to local authorities on the design of cycling facilities and through guidance such as the Manual for Streets, which promotes the highest priority to pedestrians and cyclists in the design of residential streets.
Finally, the Government implemented the local transport plan process in 2000 to give local authorities the opportunity to develop their transport priorities and recognise that we share some, such as reducing congestion and improving air quality. Through that process we have asked local authorities to develop a cycling strategy as it can clearly contribute to improving not only people's health but the environment. Enabling local authorities to recognise their priorities has since been strengthened through the second local transport plans and local area agreements.
In summary, Cycling England's programme and other initiatives such as Sustainable Travel Towns have given insight and inspiration to all local authorities as to what can be achieved in improving health and contributing to a better environment, while the local transport plans and local area agreements provide a framework for them to achieve precisely that.
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