How much should be spent on cycling and walking?

[marinyork]

Interesting piece in the Guardian today about Manchester's new cycling and walking commissioner.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...to-boost-cycling-says-olympian-chris-boardman

Greater Manchester should spend £1.5bn to make the region one of the best places in the world to cycle or walk, Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman has said.

Boardman, the first cycling and walking commissioner for Greater Manchester, has made the ambitious demand in his first report to Andy Burnham, the region’s mayor.

He wants to spend the money over the next 10 years to produce more than 700 miles of safe cycle lanes and claims that the investment will result in a return of at least £8.3bn in public benefits. Currently 50% of adults in Greater Manchester are physically inactive, costing the NHS more than £500,000 per week, he says.

From all these mayoral positions created, spending on cycling increasing was not one of the consequences I particularly expected (Boardman probably won't get the money he wants, but it'll still be more than now).

 

[mjr]

£1.5bn over 10 years = £150m/year. Population of Greater Manchester is about 2.8m, so that's about £50 per person per year. Can't fault his ambition. I think Get Britain Cycling recommended £20, Cycle City Ambition Grant recipients had to spend £10 for at least 3 years and the current England average is something under £2. Let's see what he gets.

Estimating £8.3bn benefit on a £1.5bn cost is a benefit:cost ratio of 5.53 which I think was the mean return of the Cycle City Ambition Grant projects, so it might actually be an underestimate if they can consistently follow decent standards, as I think we've seen some pretty fabulous cockups among the CCAG projects, discussed on this site in the past, which must have reduced the benefit.

I'm not surprised by mayors increasing spending on cycling - it's popular (over 70% support in Sustrans BikeLife surveys) and could deliver returns fairly quickly, which few other transport policies do.

 

[Markymark]

An average of £4k a year should be spent on cycling. At least that’s what I managed to convince my wife.....

 

[sheddy]

Same as the Dutch
£10+ per person ?

 

[mjr]

Same as the Dutch
£10+ per person ?

Quite a bit +. Here's the summary in the Get Britain Cycling report, 2013:
"Dutch cities reap massive economic benefits because of a consistently high level
of investment for several decades (now £24 per person per year). Although
London now plans to spend £14, Scotland is up to £4 and other cities are
increasingly following, England outside the capital still spends less than £2
per head; far too low to seriously increase cycling levels. Investment now
would help government realise the full financial potential that cycling can
deliver."

 

[jarlrmai]

Maybe the Dutch can spend a little less cos they already have the fundamentals worked out, it will cost a little more in the UK initially.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

As much as is spent on roads