June 2013
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Worst week : What now ?

Could this be the worst week ever for cycling and for sustainable transport policy in general?

Scotland’s new RPP2 plan for tackling climate change

Guardian report    The RPP2 document    Parliamentary Statement

pathetically small part of the transport budget spent on infrastructure to improve cycling and walking” … Alison Johnstone MSP

no increased effort in transport, where emissions are as high now as twenty years ago, and with a plan that doesn’t contain a single Scottish policy to reduce emissions from that sector” … Stop Climate Chaos

UK Infrastructure plan

Road.cc report  BikeBiz report   The document – Investing in Britain’s Future

£28,000m for roads;  £42,000m for HS2;  not a single mention of cycling or walking  …  BUT  “reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions is at the heart of Government’s vision for transport” !!

Cycling casualties rising in Scotland …

PoP Guardian blog   The official document

… and in London and the UK

CTC report   Cyclists in the City blog   The official document

The future … could it be better? …

In Scotland the next big opportunities to start turning things round include…

  • The Scottish Budget 2014/15   The Scottish Government will start preparing its draft budget soon, for publication in the autumn.   If you are shocked by the above  write to your MSPs – you have one constituency MSP and 6 or 7 regional-list MSPs.  Don’t be fobbed off with “there’s no money.”  The Scottish Government has announced a £3000m A96 dualling, a £3000m A9 dualling, an unknown sum for a completely new High Speed Edinburgh to Glasgow railway and plans (in NPF3) to expand all Scotland’s major airports.  Meanwhile they invest roughly £20m a year in cycling – equivalent to around 1% of transport spending – lower even than the % of trips to work made by bike!
  • The national cycling proposal in NPF3 which, if amended, and with government financial incentives to councils, could kick-start growing levels of cycle use for everyday journeys in every part of Scotland.   Support our proposal [by 23 July].

 

 

 

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