The Department for Transport (DfT) has today announced a competition seeking proposals that would encourage more people to make journeys by bicycle and/or on foot.
The text below is an abridged version of the announcement extracted from the www.gov.uk website. To read the complete announcement visit
This competition seeks proposals for innovations that encourage more people to make journeys by bicycle and/or on foot.
The government’s vision is for cycling and walking to become the natural choice for shorter journeys. The draft cycling and walking investment strategy sets out the Department for Transport’s (DfT) ambitions for increasing the number of journeys and journey stages made on foot or by bicycle.
To meet these aims, DfT intends to focus on:
- better safety: safety and safety perceptions have been cited as the biggest barriers for people wanting to take up cycling and walking
- better mobility: to make cycling and walking normal, easy and enjoyable, we need better links and networks to key destinations
- better streets: well-designed and accessible streets can encourage people to walk or cycle more as part of their daily routine
This is an open competition run as a Small Research Business Initiative (SBRI). DfT is looking to fund a portfolio of projects that propose innovative means of tackling the barriers to walking and cycling, leading to more journey stages being made by bicycle or on foot.
Key areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
Cycling
- making it easier for people to cycle to work
- improving the image of cycling so that more of people feel it is an activity they can incorporate into their daily routines
- improving road safety and helping people, particularly teenagers and women, feel safer. This follows that once children leave school there is a significant drop in the number who cycle, and women make less than half the number of trips by bicycle than men
- making it easier to undertake journeys that include both cycling and travelling by rail
Walking
- increasing walking among target groups, including those aged between 30 and 49, and over 60
- improving actual and perceived road safety for pedestrians through safer crossings, increased personal safety and design of objects and equipment installed on streets (street furniture)
- using open source data to encourage walking as part of a longer trip involving public transport
The benefits of increasing rates of cycling and walking are substantial. For people, it means cheaper travel and better health. For businesses, it means increased productivity (with, for example, regular cyclists taking one less sick day per year than non-cyclists) and increased footfall. And for society as a whole it means lower congestion, better air quality, and more vibrant, attractive places and communities.
Cycling’s contribution to the UK economy is around £3 billion. Existing measures to increase cycling and walking include:
- cycle training
- cycle hire schemes
- cycle parking
- cycle sharing
- safety innovations
- journey planning tools
- initiatives that encourage people to cycle or walk to work/school
- electric bikes
- various Walking Cities programmes
