Author name: Steven Edwards

West Sussex received £780,000 from the DfT’s Covid-19 Emergency Active Travel Fund last summer to install seven temporary cycleways. However, the Conservative-controlled council removed the lanes just four months later (LTT 13 Nov 2020). A petition with more than 4,000 signatures had called for the lanes to be removed. 
In a letter, dated 14 June, Heaton-Harris told the council that cycle lanes funded under the Emergency Active Travel Fund were “not allowed to be fully tested and/or optimised” before they were removed.

Sarah Butler
Window cleaners, milk deliverers, beer purveyors, plumbers and DJs are all getting on their bikes as UK government incentives and new infrastructure kick off a two- and three-wheel revolution.
About 2,000 cargo bikes were sold in the UK for commercial use last year, according to the Bicycle Association, and a similar number were sold for use by families and individuals. Sales of the bikes, which can carry heavy or bulky loads, are expected to jump by up to 60% in the UK in the year ahead, according to the association, boosted by various initiatives at local and national level to reduce carbon emissions and congestion.

In his transition plan, Biden aims to “provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options.” The US House of Representatives-passed Moving Forward Act (PDF) promotes a similar ambition to significantly improve transit service across the country.
How effective is transit in American cities today, and how might the federal government facilitate high-quality, zero-emissions transit? A major transit improvement would require a major federal intervention, but it could make public transportation convenient and reliable for people throughout the country, thus reducing emissions, improving access, and increasing social equity.

Funding amounts to local transport authorities outside London from the capability fund. Funds support staffing and resources to draw up infrastructure plans and behaviour change initiatives.

Department for Transport
Funding amounts supplied to local transport authorities outside London through the capability fund.
This revenue grant enables local transport authorities to promote cycling and walking in their areas by:
• the development of infrastructure plans, including drawing up bids for capital funding that are compliant with local transport note (LTN) 1/20

• carrying out behaviour change activities, such as training and promotion

The DfT say local authorities must ‘always’ leave cycling and walking schemes in place long enough to be properly assessed after it was revealed three councils face court action for removing cycle lanes.
Minister of State for Transport, Chris Heaton-Harris said that the government would shortly be issuing guidance to all local transport authorities ‘making it clear’ that school streets, low traffic neighbourhoods, and cycle lanes, should be given time to have an impact.
He said: “The Department will be issuing updated statutory Network Management Duty guidance to all local transport authorities shortly which will make clear that they should always leave cycling and walking schemes in place for long enough for their impacts to be properly assessed.”
The statement came as Cycling UK revealed that three councils are currently facing court action for removing cycle lanes and experimental traffic orders.

UK cultural landmarks such as Stonehenge could be stripped of their coveted world heritage status unless the government curbs “ill-advised development” and protects historic sites for future generations, a Unesco chief has warned.
Dr Mechtild Rössler, the director of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, urged ministers to “do everything” they could to conserve the UK’s treasures after Liverpool became only the third place in nearly 50 years to lose its revered title.
Rössler said developers should be made more aware of the international value of places such as Stonehenge before proposing potentially harmful projects.
She said: “These are the most outstanding places we have on Earth. If we are not capable of protecting these, for me the question is what will be left on this planet?”
The intervention came before Thursday’s high court ruling that the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had acted unlawfully in granting permission for a two-mile tunnel to be be built at Stonehenge.

Bikes are still flying off the shelves in the UK as the latest market data sales figures show 40% growth by value and 25% by volume, year on year, to the end of May 2021 – but increasing motor traffic and supply issues may be holding back further growth. 

For the first time sales figures offer a direct comparison with the bike boom of the UK’s first lockdown in 2020, with sales March-May 2021 up 7% by value and 25% by volume compared with the same period last year.

At one point last year, almost four times as many journeys as usual were being taken by bike, but usage has gone back to normal levels since then.

The charity Sustrans says cyclists need to feel safer and wants more 20mph zones and more effective cycle lanes.
The government said it had “ambitious plans to boost walking and cycling”.
It promised to set out more details soon.
According to official statistics, road journeys taken by cyclists surged during the first lockdown last year, reaching a high point of 3.84 times the normal level on 5 May.

Matthew Weaver
Unesco has confirmed that Stonehenge could be stripped of its world heritage site status, over its concern that a road tunnel, backed by the government, would irreversibly damage an area of “outstanding universal value”.
A report to Unesco’s world heritage committee setting out concerns about the £1.7bn A303 road tunnel was approved unchanged on Thursday. Unless the designs for the two-mile (3.3km) tunnel are extended and changed, the committee recommends placing Stonehenge on Unesco’s list of world heritage in danger next year.
Last month the high court was told that a decision by Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, to approve the tunnel last November was unlawful because it did not properly consider damage that would be done to a string of prehistoric sites and many thousands of ancient artefacts.