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You may not have heard about it as it hasn’t been talked about much in the media, but there is in fact a UK general election on July 4.
Manifestos have been published, pledges have been made, and that includes those in regard to cycling, of course. Some are just loosely related to the pastime, while others could change it materially and significantly.
Cycling UK is urging people to write to their candidates asking them to pledge support for safer cycling & walking spaces for happier, healthier, greener lives.
Although active travel is unlikely to be the only thing on the mind of even the most ardent bike rider, that’s not to say it’s not more than worth getting yourself across the policies of the different parties when it comes to the activity we love.
To help with that, we’ve done it for you, for the three main parties plus the Greens, the SNP, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru. Here’s Cycling Weekly‘s guide to the parties.
Conservatives
Two of the three mentions of cyclists and cycling in the Conservative manifesto relate to the fact that the party will seek to bring back laws to punish cyclists who kill.
“While we back responsible cyclists, we will bring penalties for the rare instances where dangerous cyclists kill or injure into line with those for other road users,” it says.
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It also pledges that, along with safe walking routes to school, there will be “measures to protect pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users”.
There will also be £8.3 billion to fill potholes and resurface roads, it says.
Also relevant is the fact that the Conservatives have carefully positioned themselves as the party of the driver, and intend to introduce a ‘Backing Drivers Bill’ if they are elected.
Labour
Labour’s manifesto has no particular pledges relating only to cyclists. It does say, however, that it would “maintain and renew our road network, to ensure it serves drivers, cyclists and other road users, remains safe, and tackles congestion.”
It also lays out plans to fill “an additional one million potholes across England” each year.
Finally, its manifesto includes plan to help create more integrated local transport systems, saying: “Labour will give mayors the power to create unified and integrated transport systems … and to promote active travel networks“
Liberal Democrats
Of the three main parties, the Liberal Democrat manifesto pledges arguably go the furthest when it comes to promises specific to cyclists.
“By investing in electric vehicles and clean public transport, as well as encouraging walking and cycling,” it says.
As part of this, new cycle routes would be created, with a pledge to: “Transform how people travel by creating new cycling and walking networks with a new nationwide active travel strategy.”
Local councils would also benefit from a larger share of the road budget “to local councils to maintain existing roads, pavements and cycleways, including repairing potholes”, it said.
Green Party
Unsurprisingly, the Green Party goes furthest with its manifesto promises, with active travel at the heart of transport and town planning visions.
It begins by saying that active transport isn’t only great for the environment, it’s great for happiness and health. It then makes three separate pledges, perhaps the most significant of which being to dramatically increase investment in cycle paths and footpaths to £2.5 billion a year.
It also says it will adopt Active Travel England’s objective of 50% of trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030, and a third pledge is “reimagining how we use streets in residential areas to reduce traffic and open them up for community use.”
Plaid Cymru
The Party of Wales, in English, has plenty to say about active travel in its manifesto and is clearly keen to make people less reliant on cars. It supports active travel routes, it says and will match changes in road policy by investing in public transport.
“The need to change the way we travel is abundantly clear…” it says. “We support clear air zones near major centres of population, and traffic calming measures to increase road safety.”
Plaid Cymru also puts makes road safety high on its agenda, pledging to make changes to reduce accidents, including look at driver behaviour.
There will be a review of the blanket 20mph rule, it says, to “ensure it is working successfully across Wales in reducing dangerous driving in urban areas“.
Scottish National Party
There are limited references to policies that might directly benefit cyclists in the SNP’s manifesto, but it does say it will “invest in safer roads” and that “reducing road traffic is vital in cutting emissions“.
“It is vital that we ensure roads are as safe, reliable and resilient as possible,” it says.
Reform UK
There is no mention of cycling or active travel in the Reform UK manifesto, but it does say “net zero is crippling our economy“, so we can kind of guess how they feel about bikes.
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