Londoners Urged To Dust Off ‘dormant’ Bikes

Londoners Urged To Dust Off ‘dormant’ Bikes – BikeRadar

To further develop cycling in the capital, the Mayor and TfL are investing a further £55 million in cycling this year – up from £36m last year. The money is being invested in cycle routes, cycle parking facilities, a bike hire scheme to make cycling accessible to all, education, adult and child cycle training, and cycling events.

Boris Johnson, encouraged Londoners to dust off their dormant bikes as he launched the capital's 'Summer of Cycling

WTF? That is fantastic. And this is in crappy ol’ London not Sport Billy New Zealand. Here in NZ we get a massive 1% of the total transport budget for the entire country.

<strong>New Zealand transport strategy takes baby steps</strong>

This week the Minister of Transport, Annette King announced that the NZ Transport Strategy’s (NZTS) combined target for walking and cycling is 30% of all trips in urban areas by 2040, almost double the present figure. To help meet this target, the budget for walking and cycling will more than double over the next ten years.

But CAN is questioning the government’s targets and timetable for change.

‘The government needs to increase walking and cycling much faster than at present if it is to achieve a more sustainable transport system within decades,’ says McKernon. ‘Baby steps are simply not enough.’

CAN has developed a 9-Point Plan outlining immediate steps towards meeting NZTS targets
There are 1.3 million cyclists in New Zealand. These cyclists alone account for about 5% of all kilometres travelled per year. As noted, dedicated funding for cycling and walking (combined) is about 1% of the total, and will remain so for at least a decade.

Come on, when the hell are the powers that be wake up, smell the exhaust fumes and realise the benefit to everyone in promoting safe cycling throughout the country. Every cyclist on the road means 1 less car. 1 less car means traffic flows just a little better – repeat 1.3 million times and you get the picture.

Let alone the health benefits, etc, etc. Hell if we actually gave our cyclists and athletes safe cycle routes then maybe, just maybe, NZ’ers might be that much stronger on the international sporting stage? Look at how well Spain did in cycling at the Olympics, in fact a lot of the Europeans. Their Governments actively promote cycling (with actions, not wishy washy words as our NZ government and transport departments seem to love to do) – look at the results!!!! Come on you idiots, why dont you go on one of those jaunts you love to do and go check out the excellent cycling programmes, routes, schemes etc over in Europe and bring them back to NZ, and while your at it, why not try and improve upon what others have done rather than reinvent the wheel as you usually do.

WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!