Cycling can grow at international rates in UK even where car dependence high, it is claimed

Investing £14-£17 per person in cycling for between three and five years resulted in a seven per cent annual growth in cycling trips comparable to that achieved internationally, cycling charity Sustrans said.

Sustrans said while findings from a study it led into the Cycling Demonstration Town (CDT) and Cycling City and Towns (CCT) Programme projects in 18 towns and cities revealed some variation in the growth of trips, overall it showed increasing cycling in UK urban areas “is very much possible”. From automatic count data, there was an increase of between six per cent and 59% for the six CDTs and between nine per cent and 62% for the 12 CCTs.

Across all the places in the programmes, which took place in 2008 to 2011, the annual expenditure was £17 per head of population for 5.5 years for the CDTs and £14 for just under three years for the CCTs. Towns with a range of characteristics and baseline levels of cycling were able to deliver increases in cycling trips with large, long-term investment focused on encouraging more cycling for ‘everyday’ urban trips, Sustrans said of the study, which it conducted in partnership with Transport for Quality of Life, Cavill Associates and the University of the West of England.

The investment was 70% capital funding for the CCT and 80% for the CCT. Sustrans said the results appeared to be replicable. “The similarity of the scale of effect in the CCT and CDT programmes gives us confidence that a similar effect might be expected if a comparable investment programme took place in similar areas. The result were achieved despite “improvements being limited by political expediency” and the fact the programmes were “of short duration,” the charity said.

But the study showed an impressive impact in all places involved, it had not identified a clear pattern of which factors determine the extent of impact, although “obvious factors that differed between the towns included the nature and extent of delivery, including the capital and revenue split; the groups that were targeted and the profile and extent and support for projects introduced; and baseline levels of cycling and car dependence.