Plans to boost cycling and walking in danger

Research carried out by BikeIsBest claims that government plans to boost levels of walking and cycling in the UK post-coronavirus are under threat from a minority of objectors.

The organisation found that 77 per cent of Britons responding to its YouGov poll would support changes in their local area to encourage more cycling and walking. In fact, 65 per cent of people said they wanted streets redesigned to protect pedestrians and cyclists, 51 per cent would cycle more if this happened, while 33 per cent said they would drive less if street layouts were changed.

Furthermore, 65 per cent of respondents believed children should be able to play in the street without the danger from rat-running traffic, while 66 our cent disagree with the idea that nothing can be done about the general danger from motor vehicles.

However, noting protests against temporary schemes to try and encourage walking and cycling, BikeIsBest says that such opposition is a misrepresentation of public opinion.

The campaign was commissioned by Dr Ian Walker, an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath and a leading researcher on attitudes to cycling, to analyse the polling.

He said: “Perhaps one reason negative voices find it so easy to sway things their way is that people have a tendency to misjudge public levels of support. The survey showed that, while most people think Britain would be a better place if more people cycled, they also guessed that other people were less supportive, and more hostile, to the idea than they were.”

A Guardian analysis this month found six areas – Ealing, Wandsworth, South Gloucestershire, Trafford, Portsmouth and Surrey – where funded cycle routes had been cancelled because of protests.