Building on the LSTF’s legacy

The Local Sustainable Transport Fund has set out the framework for high quality walking and cycling provision, but it is vital that political leaders commit to long-term, dedicated funding

A long-term cycling budget of £10 per person per year will allow the rolling out of safe, segregated cycle routes. Photo: J Bewley/Sustrans

A long-term cycling budget of £10 per person per year will allow the rolling out of safe, segregated cycle routes. Photo: J Bewley/Sustrans

Sustainable local travel in England faces a challenge. Policy makers make positive noises about the value of walking and cycling for local journeys but the dedicated funding to support it will hit a brick wall in 2016 with the end of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF).

Over the last four years, the LSTF has begun to revolutionise the way people move around our towns and cities, but letting it end in 2016 will not bring about the cycling revolution that Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants.

The government has now made other funds available, including £114m for the Cycling Ambition Cities Programme for the next three years (in Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Oxford) and £100m over the next years to improve the conditions for cyclists and walkers travelling alongside and crossing the Strategic Road Network. Welcome as this is, it should be seen in the context of £24bn that will be spent on roads over this and the next Parliament.

We know that as more people walk or cycle for their local journeys, public health improves, obesity reduces and roads become safer and less congested. By changing how people travel, we can create places where people want to live, work, shop and do business. But in order to achieve this we need to see a number of significant changes. Leadership must be backed by new legislation and statutory duties to make high quality provision for walking and cycling, as in the pioneering Active Travel (Wales) Bill. Road design guidance for walking and cycling lags behind many other EU countries. This must be addressed to make local provision easier and more consistent.

With our roads modernised for the future, we need to make sure that the next generation is equipped to use them. Cycle training needs to be included as part of the standard school curriculum and wider 20mph areas will help to make roads less hostile for families to get out and about on foot and bike.

A long-term cycling budget of at least £10 per person per year is required, increasing to £20, in line with more advanced EU countries. This is essential to not only bridge the funding gap but build for the future. Decades of transport policy designed to marginalise walking and cycling have left too many people in Britain feeling they have no choice but to use the car.

Looking back over the past four years of the LSTF and the valuable legacy it has left, local policy makers need to reflect on the lessons for the future.

Nationally we need all political parties to build on that legacy by committing to long term, dedicated funding for walking and cycling that can support local decision makers to carry forward the legacy of the LSTF.

Jason Torrance is Director of Policy for Sustrans, which will be offering its insights at Smarter Travel 2015