Phil Goodwin 19 February 2021

Earlier this month the secretary of state for transport announced: “We want 50 per cent of all journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by 2030.” 

This was in response to a question by Labour MP Lillian Greenwood (former chair of the House of Commons transport committee): it was clearly a prepared answer, not an off-the-cuff ramble. It must have been subject to prior discussion both politically and with civil servants. The MP’s All Party Cycling Group has published a film of the interview. It was consistent, though with more detail, with his introduction to the Government’s Decarbonising Transport: Setting the Challenge, where he wrote: “Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network”.