CTC, the national cycling charity, has launched a new campaign called “Space for Cycling”. You may remember Roger Geffen of CTC briefing us on it at the our Open Meeting in February. Cycle-friendly streets are the life-blood of safe, pleasant and healthy communities. They are good for everybody’s quality of life, whether or not they chose to cycle.
Space for Cycling calls on local councillors to pledge their support for high standards of cycle-friendly planning and design, and the funding needed to deliver this. Cycling needs to become a safe, convenient and enjoyable for people of all ages and backgrounds, for any local journey.
What Space for Cycling means will depend on the location, with different solutions for major and minor roads and junctions, in urban and rural areas alike. In general though, the answers are covered by the the Space for Cycling campaign’s 6 themes:
- Protected space on main roads
- Removing through motor traffic in residential areas
- Lower speed limits
- Cycle-friendly town centres
- Safe routes to school
- Routes through green spaces
Following his supportive comments at Portsmouth Cycle Forum’s open meeting in February the campaign is supported by leader of Portsmouth City Council and Vice-Chair of the Local Government Association Gerald Vernon-Jackson, who said:
“Cycling provides huge benefits for our health and that of our streets and communities. Portsmouth has already done a lot to promote cycling, creating 20mph streets and a growing cycle network. Providing ‘Space for Cycling’ benefits everybody in our society, whether or not they choose to cycle themselves. I would urge cross-party support from councillors throughout the country for this campaign.”
You can contact your councillors and ask them to pledge their support via the campaign website: http://www.space4cycling.org.uk/