Department for Transport written question – answered at on 6 November 2014.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of passenger journeys in the UK were made by bicycle in each of the last five years; and what share of his Department's spending related to cycling in that time period.
The table below shows the percentage of all trips made by bicycle between 2009 and 2013:
Average number of trips (trip rates) by main mode: England, to 2013 | |||||
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
Bicycle | 16 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 14 |
All modes | 974 | 961 | 950 | 950 | 923 |
Cycling mode share % | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 |
Soure: NTS, Last updated: 29 July 2014
During the five financial years 2010/11 to 2014/15, departmental spending on cycling is detailed in the table below:
Financial years 2010/11 - 2014/15 | Direct funding £224 million | |
£million | ||
Cycling Englad | 63.0 | |
Cycling Cities & National Parks Fund | 94.0 | |
Links to Schools & Linking Communities | 28.5 | |
Cycle Safety Fund | 35.0 | |
Cycle Rail | 14.5 | |
Highways Agency | 4.8 | |
Local Sustainable Transport Fund - Bikeability | 46.8 | |
Local Sustainable Transport Fund - other cycling | 151.0 | |
Total | 437.6 |
The £438 million on cycling spend represents 0.71% of the total departmental spend for those years.
Yes7 people think so
No1 person thinks not
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Annotations
Andrew Reeves-Hall
Posted on 27 Nov 2014 10:38 pm (Report this annotation)
£437.6m over 5 years for 64.1m people equals about £1.37 per person per year on average.
On 27 November, Nick Clegg, the deputy PM, announced a further £214m funding for cycling over the next 3 years.
The government press release said that that brings the total to £588m but I figure £437.6m + £214m = £651.6m!
Taking the higher value, and spreading it over its lifetime of 8 years for 64.1m people equals about £1.27 per person.
Funding per person is going down, without even taking into consideration an expanding population!
Compare that figure of £1.27 to:
- The Get Britain Cycling inquiry recommendation no.1 which asks for £10, rising to £20, per person per year; and,
- Campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists demand no.4 for sufficient funding to build infrastructure as it is now in The Netherlands, that is, £15bn over the next 5 years, or about £46.80 per person per year.
Andrew Reeves-Hall
Posted on 27 Nov 2014 10:55 pm (Report this annotation)
If £437.6m is 0.71% of the departmental budget over 5 years then the total budget was about £61,633m (that is £61.6bn).
Research by Lovelace and Woodcock says that the NHS would benefit from savings of £25 billion over the next three and a half decades as people cycle more, as the Get Britain Cycling recommended. [1][2]
Research by Aldred says that having Danish levels of cycling in the UK would save the NHS £17bn within 20 years.[3]
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[1]
http://robinlovelace.net/publications/health-benefits-cyclin...
[2]
http://getbritaincycling.org/the-recommendations/recommendat...
[3]
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/bc_files/campai...