England’s Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman says it’s vital we make it “easy” for people to travel in a more active way.
“If we can’t look out of a car window and see active travel and think ‘I could do that’ then it’s pointless,” he told the Transport Technology Forum conference in Liverpool, as he talked about the importance of making it safe to walk and cycle.
He pointed to the normality of children cycling to school on their own in Amsterdam, which is only 408 miles from where the Conference is taking place, but that we do not think we can do it here, although there is no reason why we shouldn’t.
“Because cars are great, we use them for too much stuff,” he said. “We need examples in this country too. 30% of journeys are made by bike in Cambridge, but people just think, ‘oh that’s Cambridge,'” he added. “We have the examples and it’s my job to communicate them.”
He added that the Department for Transport is a “vehicle for culture change” and good people are wrestling with well-established processes and make them innovative. “I hope Active Travel England can help because it gives a way to travel different”.
He had a message to people who don’t like riding bikes – “If you look at all the options we have to change things, bikes are the least sh*t option,” he said. “Buses and bikes are the only way we can change things in the next eight years.”
(Picture – TTF)
(Picture – TTF)
