This week (12 February) Active Travel England (ATE) announced that the government has made available almost £300m in funding for walking, wheeling, and cycling in England.
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The governmental funding will enable the construction of crossings and junctions to make walking, wheeling and cycling easier, safer and better across England.
In total, today’s £291million funding package includes:
£222.5million to local authorities for the development and delivery of local walking, wheeling and cycling schemes, alongside community engagement and training;
£30million to provide Bikeability cycle training to children;
£30million to the Sustrans charity to deliver improvements to the National Cycle Network, a UK-wide network of signed active travel routes;
£8.5million for Cycling UK, Living Streets and Modeshift to deliver walking, wheeling and cycling initiatives in schools and communities.
The full announcement from Active Travel England is available to read here.
CIHT welcomes this funding uplift for active travel. CIHT has previously called for funding for active travel in the CIHT manifesto 'A Transport Network fit for all our Futures’.
CIHT has called for walking, cycling and public transport use to grow in attractiveness and popularity, there must be adequate and consistent funding to reshape the required infrastructure and services.
CIHT has promoted that sustainable transport has many benefits beyond immediate travel, including the positive impact on people’s health and reducing health and social care costs.
This includes:
exercise from active travel
better air quality from replacing car journeys with walking or cycling
economic benefits from relieved congestion
improved public health from enabling people to lead longer, healthier and more independent lives.
CIHT looks forward to working with Active Travel England and the Department for Transport on the delivery of the new active travel infrastructure and ensuring that the nation's transport networks work for all.
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