Grayling's £1.2bn damp squib

[growingvegetables]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...-billion-plan-to-increase-cycling-and-walking

Summary
- bike parking at railway stations. [Sub text - get the b****rs off the trains]
- bike repair and maintenance courses. [Sub text - cheepo freebie]
- Bikeability cycle training for a further 1.3 million children. [Sub texts - small change; just enough spending to get the little sods on the road briefly, and scare the **** out of them]
- improvements to 200 sections of roads for cyclists. [Sub text - "Use the cycling budget to repair pot holes, resurface large chunks of dilapidated trunk roads, rebuild junctions and refurbish signals ... oh, and slip in a bit of crappily surfaced, stupidly inept, and dangerously substandard "segregation" for those ******* cyclists. Yup - I've ridden the Leeds Cycling Super Highway . Oh, and there's 245.9 thousand miles of road in GB ]
- etc

All to DOUBLE cycling ...... by 2025.

Carlton Reid.

 

[Milkfloat]

Better than a kick in the nuts, marginally.

 

[mjr]

Cyclenation is silent as yet and I suspect it will remain so, with the "haves" like the blessed cities being OK about it (not exactly happy) like http://lcc.org.uk/articles/dft-releases-cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-ps300m-to-spend-in and the "have nots" like us the fens feeling that we're unlikely to see much of the central £300m, let alone the other £900m they expect the LEPs and local highway authorities to contribute. Both LEPs and highway authorities seem like would much rather clueless fritter money away on the hopeless task of building their way out of congestion (aka wearing bigger clothes to diet) while building a few high-profile nice-looking cycling showpieces close to their HQs.

The cycling charities and sports bodies seem to be welcoming it, presumably because a few crumbs are better than continuing to eat shoot:

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/our-response-publication-cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy

http://www.cyclinguk.org/press-rele...welcome-now-hard-work-begins”-says-cycling-uk

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/c...ver-Cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-0

 

[mjr]

Here's a small reminder that there will be big rides this weekend in many places, calling for decent cycling investment: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/big-ride-for-space-for-cycling.217286/