CW carries a comment on this story. Like Wildy and the rest of our combined and extended families - CTC welcomes this as a bosoost to focus on training for safe cycling.
However, this cost is not ONE year's worth - but spread over three years
- which rather brings us back full circle to Wildy's initial criticism that £15m is not really that much cash and soon swallowed in admin and other sundries. Like the booster for schools, NHS and even the police and fire services - this cash will be swallowed without trace into the red tape costs
Not being a kill joy - but sticking my neck out yet again and openly questioning whether this initiative will receive the full £15m or whether 75% will be swallowed in unneccessary red tape
CW stated that the sum should provide training for 100,000 children. Fine.. but if you work on secondary schools having a role of between 800 and 1200 children and all their many feeder primaries having roles of of around 300 /500 each - this does not give training to all children. Added to that - as I previously pointed out - there's the cost of training the trainers
£15m for traiing over three years and £15 m on cyclel paths then is not going to stretch that far. Nor will it buy cycle paths to every school
OK - so the government has doubled its original spend over the next three years. As CW points out - it's still far below that spent by rest of Europe.
Even if you add in the £32m spent collectively by the local authorities. By the way - despite these negative comments - if any adult wishes to try commuting by bike and is worried about training and required skills - then do check out if any training is offered for free by your borough council and get your council tax money's worth!
Admittedly not all offer FREE courses but some do.. and Sheffield, Darlington (and the other "beacon towns") and I believe Manchester, Salford, Sefton and Liverpool itself all offer free cycling training to adults. Do check local government websites to see if anything is offered for you.
To browsers and lurkers in particular
Do not misunderstand or let any prejudice get in the way of fair opinion. Most of us here want and applaud an initiatve which instils the ethos of road user safety in our young from an early age - and the earlier the better
We also want people to embrace cycling and enjoy the experience.
However, we have to accept that cycling is not everyone's "cup of tea", that some live byond reasonable commute and that some just do not have the stamina anyway for a variety of reasons. We also have to accept that huge numbers commuting will inevitably mean a tightening of rules in the name of health and safety. This does not mean wearing helmets - but abiding by the same rules that drivers abide by. It could also mean that cycling speed limits could be set
and that cyclists wil be facing the same sort of fines and penalties as drivers should cycling numbers escalate to current car use numbers.
I think I am trying to say that we view cycling with rose tinted specs because, London apart, provinces see fewer cyclists commuting . London colleagues have tightened rules because of volume, In line with increased volumes - we will have to enforce rules to keep things safe.
Hopefully
with - cough - discretion
No one disputes the cash is a boost - but if you really look deeply into it..
nowhere near enough and much more sensible investment is required before we even touch finger tips with mainland Europe on this
We also have to allow for choice and accept that all may not want to cycle nor even have the health to do so for any number of reasons and we must always keep this in mind.
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