The Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed the £32.9m scheme on Monday (2 January), timing the announcement with the New Year in recognition of the fact that many Brits will be making resolutions to walk or cycle more.
Councils will need to apply for a share of the funding and will need to clarify their plans for ‘capability’ improvements and improving infrastructure. The former refers to training and retaining local members of staff – including engineers, planners and facilitators – to develop and deliver schemes. Staff will be supported to plan, consult, deliver and communicate schemes.
“Developing teams that lead active travel programmes will create more cost-effective and well-targeted projects,” the DfT said in a statement.
The DFT has stated that infrastructure options that could be eligible for funding include walking and cycling infrastructure on high streets, safety zones around schools and roads suitable for pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users.
Safety will be the main focus of all new designs and routes, given that DfT research has concluded that safety concerns are the top deterrent to cycling. These concerns impact women in particular, with eight in ten women polled by the DfT in support of more protected cycle lanes.
Aside from infrastructure, the funding will support cycle training schemes, school walking groups and subsidized bike rental schemes.
“If we want to enable hundreds of thousands more people to walk, wheel and cycle for everyday trips then we need to deliver high-quality schemes that make it feel easy, fun and safe,” said the Government’s National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman.
“Of course, ensuring the right technical skills are in place at a local level is vital but so is engagement. Survey after survey has shown strong community support for making space for active travel but it’s vital that people get strong input into helping to decide what is the right solution for their area.”
Policy: Shifting gear?
The UK Government pledged £2bn to walking and cycling as part of its Covid-19 recovery plans – specifically the Ten-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The Plan also earmarked £3bn for decarbonising and expanding public transport networks.
It has since trialled ‘cycling on prescription’.
Nonetheless, the Government has repeatedly been warned that its plans for decarbonising transport do not place enough of a focus on modal shift – the need to ensure that more journeys are taken using active transport and other zero or low-carbon options. The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) most recent annual progress report to Parliament confirmed that the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, if enacted in full, will likely only bring about half of the emissions reductions needed through to the mid-2030s.
The current cost-of-living crisis may be a reason for the Government to rethink its approach. It is capping bus fares on thousands of routes across England at £2 until the end of March, recognising that costs and Covid-19 concerns have deterred members of the public from bus use in recent years. In launching the new walking and cycling funding, the DfT emphasised Cycling UK research concluding that motorists could save £126 per year by replacing short car journeys with bike rides.
This summer the country’s tourist board launched a new Green Wellness cycling route. A looping cycle trail of nearly 200 miles linking natural spas, it starts in Ljubljana and heads north towards the Austrian border and then south-west towards Croatia, winding through mountains, plains and vineyards. There’s a castle on an island, a beer fountain and miles of wild flowers. The first leg ends in medieval Kamnik, a red-roofed town of castles and monasteries with a view of the mountains, Slovenia’s biggest arboretum (sporting 2m tulips in April) and the Terme Snovik spa in the forested Tuhinj valley.
Resorts along the route are all certified by Slovenia Green, which encourages recycling, renewable energy, arriving car-free, eco-friendly cleaning, locally grown food, natural building materials and so on. The spas offer pools fed by thermal springs, mineral waters to drink and wellness experiences involving salt, saunas, massage and barefoot paths.
Slovenia launched a Green Wellness cycling route this summer, including stretches along the River Savinja
Along the route cyclists can visit the world’s oldest noble vine at Maribor or sip a crystal glass of magnesium-rich water at Rogaška Slatina. Slovenia’s temperate Mediterranean climate means good cycling for most of the year, though April to October is recommended. The Wellness route has several companion trails, including a Green Gourmet cycling route or a three-day Pannonian route through the Pomurje region. The Gourmet trail starts with a train ride on the Bohinj railway under the Julian Alps. A free pass encourages public transport use in the area for those who want to linger.
Sustainable city break in Berlin, Germany
When luggage storage company Bounce recently surveyed sustainable hotels and transport, Berlin emerged as Europe’s most eco-friendly city. According to its analysis, 84% of tourists and residents get around on bike, foot or public transport. And Germany’s summer scheme, offering unlimited travel on local and regional trains for €9, has got even more people out of their cars.
An upcycled caravans in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast. Photograph: Jan Brockhaus
From upcycled caravans to a hammock-strung hotel overlooking the zoo, Berlin is full of cool places to stay
Berlin joined the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in August 2021 and Visit Berlin lists eco hotels, restaurants and sights. They include places like SPRK Deli, which makes everything from surplus food. Klub Kitchen is popular with Mitte’s hipsters, serving up salady bowlfuls of sweet potato, ginger, pumpkin seeds, edamame and other tasty things. From upcycled east German caravans in a former vacuum cleaner factory in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast to the hammock-strung 25 Hours Bikini hotel overlooking the zoo, the city is full of cool places to stay.
To explore Berlin’s wilder corners, buy an all-zone travelcard (€10 a day, including Potsdam with its parks and palaces). Buses 100 and 200 are good sightseeing routes, running from Alexanderplatz to Zoo through leafy Tiergarten. Head into the Grunewald on bus 218 to find Berlin’s best hike, the cliff-top Havelhöhenweg. Follow this six-mile waymarked walk past sandy beaches for wild swimming and leisurely woodland cafes.
YHA Festival of Walking
Those lonely months of strolls during the Covid lockdowns sparked a lot of interest in walking. The UK’s Youth Hostel Association hopes to tap into that with its new Festival of Walking. There will be group walks, routes to download, free tea or coffee for walkers, and 25% off at various youth hostels. There’s a guided Snowdon dark skies challenge – climbing up the mountain by torchlight and down as the sun rises for breakfast in the hostel. Lots of hostels, such as Eskdale in Cumbria and Blaxhall in Suffolk have been pioneering sustainable practices: energy-efficient lighting, solar hot water, and community recycling schemes.
The festival runs from 4 September to 20 October. “We want more walkers to discover our hostels and all they offer,” says YHA chief executive James Blake. “Whether it’s a bed for the night, a day visit for a cuppa, filling up a bottle at a refill station, using a drying room or just grabbing a loo break.”
A guided Snowdon dark skies challenge will feature in the festival
Individuals and groups can log their miles on the festival website to tramp round the world in 46 days. Blake points out that if 5,000 people walk five miles each, together they will have walked around the world. The YHA was set up in 1930 to help foster a “greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside – an aim that feels as fresh and necessary as it did 92 years ago.
Bird watching in Extremadura, Spain
Extremadura is one of Europe’s top birding destinations, with everything from bee-eaters to honey buzzards. The birds of prey are particularly dramatic, with 23 breeding species including 1,200 pairs of black vultures. More common cranes overwinter here than anywhere in Europe. Covering 16,000 square miles, Extremadura is bigger than the Netherlands, with a human population of just over a million and a huge range of habitats.
As most visiting birders get here independently, the Extremadura tourist board set up the world’s first bird tourism club, following the model of wine or whisky routes, to help travellers find information, guides and places to stay. Travel can actually help conserve biodiversity because the bird-watching cash provides a sound economic reason to preserve habitats.
Common crane in Extremadura
More common cranes overwinter here than anywhere in Europe
A magnet for visiting birders since it opened in 2005, the Casa Rural El Recuerdo (three nights from €216 room-only) is a converted farmhouse with an organic olive grove and vegetable garden. The guesthouse generates half its energy from solar panels. Owners Claudia and Martin Kelsey encourage year-round wildlife trips for the large number of migrant birds, plus summer butterfly and dragonfly tours. As a local guide, Martin can take visitors to see species they want to find without having to drive too far, meaning less fuel and more time in the field.
Green Velo, Poland
With more than a thousand miles of linked cycle paths and quieter roads through wild natural landscapes, Poland’s longest fully-signed bicycle trail tours the country’s eastern areas. Five regions, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund, cooperated to create the epic Green Velo trail. Miles of cycle path have been designed to be low-maintenance with no impact on water supplies or vegetation; there are benches, refill points, bike racks and rubbish bins. Accommodation varies from campsites to castles.
The Green Velo trail passes through marshes near the Narew River
The trail meanders through 12 areas or “bike kingdoms”, such as the Świętokrzyski national park, with its huge forests and mountains. In another kingdom, the marshes around the Biebrza and Narew rivers are great for birdwatching and elk spotting, for cycling past gold marsh marigolds and purple Siberian iris. The waymarked Green Velo route circles the edge of protected valleys, with views across the spring-flowering marshes. There are bats, beavers and lots more wildlife along the Narew valley towards Łomża with its convent and cathedral.
Other attractions along the route include the mysterious Krzyżtopór castle near Ujazd, and the city of Kielce, with its palaces and galleries. The Green Velo loops through the centre of Kielce, passing the Kadzielnia Reserve in a limestone quarry; there are concerts here in a natural amphitheatre among fossil-filled rocks.
Home to 171 nationalities, the historic city of Leuven in Belgium has become one of Europe’s most climate-conscious destinations.
Winner of the European Capital of Innovation Award in 2020, the mayor’s office has been investing the €1 million prize money wisely, as it strives to make Leuven carbon neutral by 2050.
“We believe that Leuven is ready to take up an important role and become one of the most green and caring cities of Europe,” says the city’s Mayor Mohamed Ridouani.
We believe that Leuven is ready to take up an important role and become one of the most green and caring cities of Europe. – Mayor of Leuven
So how does this small Belgian city – most famous as the birthplace of Stella Artois – plan to do this?
Leuven 2030: A roadmap to carbon neutrality
Launched in 2013, Leuven2030 is an ambitious roadmap to help the town meet its climate goals.
The movement, which was formed with just 60 founding members, including the historic university – KU Leuven – and the City of Leuven, now has 600 members signed up to its climate pledges.
These include local businesses, civic bodies, citizen scientists and charities, all committed to making the city greener and cleaner for future generations.
The groot begjinhof, LeuvenCanva
“When we were founded, there was a debate about whether we should be Leuven 2030 or Leuven 2050, but we have a very important intermediate milestone, so it matters whether you go slowly towards climate neutrality or fast,” explains Katrien Rycken, Director of Leuven2030.
We want to be in the fast lane and I think we are getting there more and more. We hope to become carbon neutral way before 2050. We’re not a follower city, we’re a frontrunner city. – Katrien Rycken, Director of Leuven2030
“We want to be in the fast lane and I think we are getting there more and more. We hope to become carbon neutral way before 2050. We’re not a follower city, we’re a frontrunner city.”
In order to hit their targets, there’s a 12 step plan in place, with schemes ranging from retrofitting 1,000 homes a year, to investing in solar power and depaving vast swathes of concrete.
Global events are accelerating the retrofitting scheme too, says Ridouani. “People, I think, are more sensitive to this [retrofitting] because of the energy crisis. There’s an openness to see what people can do because they think ‘okay if the city and the government can help me to make this investment, that means that my energy bill will go down.’”
To ensure no one is left behind in the push for more efficient homes, poverty organisations and social housing companies also sit on the board of Leuven2030, guaranteeing everyone has equal access to resources.
How the pandemic has pushed Leuven’s green policies forward
Elected in 2019, Ridouani’s premiership could have been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But far from being a stumbling block, in many ways the global crisis has further accelerated Leuven’s green ambitions.
A cyclist rides in a cycle laneCanva
Covid pushed us to implement a couple of our policies faster, actually. We had in mind to make the entire city centre a bicycle zone, meaning that if you ride a bicycle, a car should always stay behind you. – Mohamed Ridouani, Mayor of Leuven
“It pushed us to implement a couple of our policies faster, actually. We had in mind to make the entire city centre a bicycle zone, meaning that if you ride a bicycle, a car should always stay behind you,” he says.
“We thought, this should be prepared very well, step-by-step, we will need to have a lot of debate, but in fact, because of covid we implemented it overnight.”
And luckily for Ridouani and his team, there was no backlash. “People just accepted it, because there was already that use of public space. So this is one of those examples where a crisis can be a moment where you rethink things and actually push through policies much faster.”
Leuven’s green aspirations have kept the awards flowing it too. The city has been named one of Europe’s best destinations for 2022 by the European Best Destinations (EBD) and EDEN Network.
The EBD dubbed Leuven a ‘Belgian miracle’ and went on to name it the most ‘open-minded destination in Europe’ – ahead of the usual frontrunners Amsterdam and London. While this is partly thanks to the 51,000 students that call Leuven home during their university years, the city also has a history of nurturing original thinkers.
Thomas More’s Utopia had its first print run here back in 1516, while his Humanist peer Erasmus was a professor at the university. Founded in 1425, the institution has been an innovative catalyst in the city ever since.
Leuven is a cycling paradise
Perhaps Leuven’s most successful – and noticeable – green policy though is its car reduction scheme.
As a result, Leuven is a cycler’s paradise. In fact, the metropole is the only city in Belgium where cycling is actually the preferred mode of transit, with public transport coming in second and cars in third.
In order to achieve such a striking statistic, the city implemented a radical mobility plan, as Ridouani explains.
“There was a time when you could cross everywhere with your car and park almost everywhere. So the city hall, the church, the great market. The church was a roundabout and you could park just in front of the city hall and the walls were all black because of the emissions,” he says.
“So over the years we’ve pushed that back and five years ago there was a new mobility plan, a circulation plan which was implemented where in fact we divided the city into pieces like a cake and you cannot go from one piece to another.”
In the four years following its implementation, cycling increased by an astounding 40 per cent. The mayor’s office is now aiming to reduce use by a further 20 per cent and introduce a 30 km speed limit on smaller roads too.
As a result of the mobility plan, the town centre lacks the constant hum of traffic that plagues most cities in Europe, replaced by the tinkle of bicycle bells and the gentle chatter of its diverse student population.
We captured beautiful and very striking stories of children, who, thanks to the circulation plan, were allowed by their parents to go on their own by bike to school. – Katrien Rycken, Director of Leuven2030
“We captured beautiful and very striking stories of children, for example, who thanks to the circulation plan, were allowed by their parents to go on their own by bike to school,” says Rycken.
If you don’t fancy travelling on two wheels, thanks to the lack of cars, walking is also easy here, with most amenities no more than a 15-20 minute stroll away.
The wider region also boasts four cycling loops, taking you out of the centre and into the Flemish Brabant. If you must drive though, there are still ways to do it while maintaining your eco-credentials, as Leuven is the number one car sharing city in Belgium too.
How else is the city going green?
In order to reach its climate targets, Leuven is also investing in solar power and the reuse of raw materials – including concrete.
Leuven2030 is not just blindly imposing policies though, as Rycken explains, all of their work is the result of multi-layered analysis.
“Together with the university we are measuring the heat island effect of the warmer summers due to climate disruption,” she explains.
“We’re joining the layer of the heat island measurements with the layer of where there are green areas in the city already, and then a final layer of where vulnerable inhabitants are,” she says.
“Where are our elderly homes, where are our creches, where are those inhabitants that are more vulnerable to heat.”
This layering method ensures that their policies are precisely targeted, and helps the project reach those most in need of help.
Beyond infrastructure and climate science, the people of Leuven are investing in their green futures too. At Park Abbey, a 13th century heritage site on the edge of the city, a new urban farm is giving locals the chance to invest.
“There you have one example of community supported agriculture,” says Rycken.
“You can buy a share as a citizen and then you go there and get your own vegetables and sustainable meat and milk. It’s a very beautiful example, we have several of them around Leuven.”
Encouraging sustainable, healthy eating and expanding participation in local agriculture is one of the 12 pillars of Leuven2030 and just another example of how this unique city is shaping itself.
“There’s a lot of culture, a lot of heritage and I also believe a lot of future,” says Ridouani, “it’s a really forward-leaning city.”
As people slowly return to work following the government’s announcement on Sunday, employers can encourage staff to embrace sustainable routes into work by launching cycle-to-work schemes, installing on-site facilities such as bike storage and showers, while working with local authorities to encourage better local walking and cycling infrastrucutre.
Business leaders could play a significant role in helping to tackle an expected uptick in road congestion and air pollution as commuters attempt to return to work while following explicit government advice to avoid public transport wherever possible.
In modest changes to the lockdown regime announced yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that construction and manufacturing workers as well as other groups unable to work remotely should return to work from this week. But with the government still fearful of any uptick in the rate of coronavirus transmission, Johnson added that where possible workers should commute by car, foot, or bike in order to maintain social distancing measures critical to fighting spread of the coronavirus.
“We want it to be safe for you to get to work. So, you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited,” Johnson said in pre-recorded address to the nation.
But an embrace of the car as the primary method of socially-distanced transportation for work or to travel to exercise destinations comes comes with its own host of environmental and health considerations. A sharp rise in people shunning public transport in favour of driving to work risks increasing carbon emissions and worsening air pollution – a factor that early research suggests may aggravate the coronavirus death rate – as well as increasing levels of congestion and traffic accident risks, especially as roads will also cater to a surge in the number of cyclists. The AA’s head of road policy Jack Cousens confirmed to BusinessGreen today that the group expects an increase in car, motorcycle, and bicycle usage as workers avoid public transport – a spike he said would prompt more traffic jams.
What is more, environmental and sustainable transport groups contend that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s endorsement of driving on Sunday was somewhat at odds with a historic £2bn emergency fund dedicated to short-term cycling and walking measures and infrastructure unveiled by the Secretary of Transport the day before. Johnson may have stressed that people should cycle and walk if possible, but for many commuters active transport is not yet a viable option.
Rachel White, head of policy at walking and cycling charity Sustrans, told BusinessGreen that the government’s encouragement of motoring to work and other destinations was a “concern” that was “out of kilter with the briefing the day before from the Secretary of State”.
A new £250m “emergency active travel fund” – unveiled by the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in the government’s Saturday coronavirus briefing – is set to deliver pop-up bike lanes, wider pavements, safer junctions and cycle and bus-only corridors in England “within weeks”. The Department for Transport also said that it had fast-tracked statutory guidance that would allow councils to reallocate road space for cyclists and pedestrians, and announced that it had brought forward e-scooter trials planned for 2021 to next month in order to encourage a broader range of greener alternatives to public transport. The proposed investment, described as the largest ever boost for cycling and pedestrians, is the first stage of a £2bn investment commitment to boost active travel across the UK.
“The government is beginning to talk about cycling and walking in the same way that they talk about roads,” enthused White. “Roads often gets a huge funding settlement over five-year period and cycling and walking haven’t seen that long-term funding certainty for a long time.” She commended Shapps for the “ackowledgement that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver lasting transformative change in the way we make short journeys in our towns and cities”.
Meanwhile, the government’s recently-unveiled five-year £27bn road funding programme is facing a legal challenge amid warnings that the scheme will undermine government commitments to tackling air pollution and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Roz Bulleid, interim policy director of Green Alliance, also pointed to the disconnect between the government’s two big bank holiday weekend announcements. “The government’s recent funding pledge indicates that it wants the public to embrace active travel,” she said. “But to make sure this happens, it must be at the heart of messages from the Prime Minister and others, not an afterthought.”
The promised space for walkers and cyclists must be delivered quickly, she argued, in order to convince commuters who are currently considering making the shift to cycling. Furthermore, Bulleid warned “the government should also be careful not to stigmatise public transport at this time: Increasing car use is not a long-term solution and will worsen the health problems associated with air pollution, as well as contributing to climate change”.
It remains to be seen whether the government will continue to promote both driving and cycling in tandem or back up its new funding programme with a longer term effort to curb car use. But in the meantime, businesses can and should take an active approach in encouraging employees to embrace commuting on foot or by bicycle, green groups told BusinessGreen.
Sustrans’ White pointed to three key ways business leaders can encourage employees that can cycle to work to do so. “Provide facilities, work with local authorities – contact them to get road layouts changed – and bring in other organisations to help with behaviour change,” she advised.
Cycle to work schemes, which give employees’ discounts on cycle equipment, are a good starting point for any corporate active transport strategy, White said, as is ensuring that offices are fitted with cyclist-friendly facilities, such as showers and secure on-site cycle parking. Proactive communication with local authorities is key to ensuring that the right cycle and foot infrastructure is in place for employees, she said, adding that groups like Sustrans can encourage employee behaviour change by delivering cycling and bike maintenance workshops, she added.
“All those things together will helpfully create an environment where it’s a natural choice to cycle where possible,” White said. “Not everyone will be able to, but it’s about minimising the turn to driving and preventing in the short-term more people driving than before because they are not taking public transport.”
Meanwhile, Darren Shirley, chief executive at the Campaign for Better Transport, said that “clear communication” between employers and staff on how to manage their commutes to work would be imperative as workplaces reopen over the coming weeks.
“Large employers should engage with their local authorities and transport operators before reopening their workplaces to high numbers of employees so as to ensure that their commuting needs can be managed against the local transport capacity and circumstances,” he said. “They should request that local authorities expand footpaths and cycleways connecting to their offices and sites to make the journey into work safer.” Free bike hire and storage should also be made available, he added, and large employees should also consider contracting socially-distanced bus services.
He also warned the government’s directive for people to avoid public transport carries a risk of causing “immeasurable and permanent damage to the public transport system leaving communities disconnected, and those on lower incomes, or who don’t drive, unable to get to work or access shops and services”. As such he argued that it was vital for the government to develop “a concrete plan for the later stages of recovery on how public transport will be renewed to allow people to continue to get to work safely and sustainably and to ensure there is still a transport industry after the pandemic”.
Commenting on the weekend’s new cycling and walking funding announcement, Nicholas Boyes Smith, executive director of urban housing research institute Create Streets, provided some pointers on what a longer-term strategy might look like for central, city, and local governments looking to break what he described as the “diabolical alliance” between cars and urban design. His suggested measures ranged from more bike lanes and on-street bike storage and the rapid legalisation of e-scooters, to free bike training sessions, cheaper off-peak commuter fares, and on-street trading for shops, restaurants and cafés.
“Good consequences can flow from awful situations,” Smith wrote. “For three generations, a diabolical alliance between cars in town centres and modernist architecture – I call it ‘traffic modernism’ – combined to make our human settlements less pleasant, less prosperous, and less popular. This can now change. And this should be the point of inflexion.”
However, as green groups today noted, such a transformation will only happen if governments, businesses, and commuters proactively pursue it. Alternatively, the coronavirus crisis risks throwing a lifeline to the polluting car-based commuter model that had appeared to be on the retreat.
