Bradstone welcomes Active Travel England’s ambition to deliver 5,000 new walking, wheeling, and cycling routes through the Worth Every Step plan - but ambition alone won’t build them.
Real collaboration between communities, local authorities, and manufacturers will be what separates delivery from delay.
The WES delivery plan was announced by the Department for Transport in June, and aims to deliver on the new cycling and walking investment strategy set out by the government. £4.5 billion of funding is being made available under the initiative, with the ambition to have more than half of short journeys in towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2035.
The news has been widely seen as a positive step forward, and now Jo Roberts, an expert in active travel schemes at Bradstone and head of product management at Holcim UK, urges for better collaboration and a common shared language, to ensure these new routes can encourage more active travel.
Jo said: “The funding being made available from the government is an encouraging sign of our national commitment to active travel. Better and more routes will support improved health, environmental and economic outcomes.
“But funding alone is not enough. The focus now has to be on making sure schemes are as joined-up as they can be, so they are safe and will be adopted by local communities. Consistent design approaches that follow the LTN 1/20 guidance, along with collaboration between local authorities, route planners, designers, manufacturers, and the public will be critical to this.”
Jo points out that manufacturers of products and solutions that form active travel schemes will have a vital role to play from an expertise perspective, and should be involved from the outset, rather than just at purchasing stage.
“Quite often, manufacturers are only consulted when it’s already too late – drawings have been submitted, routes have been designed, and projects are already some way down the road.
“However, our role goes much deeper than supply. As manufacturers, the part we play is marrying up the vision, budget, and project timeframe, to the products and solutions available, and we can share best practice between schemes. Local authorities need access to technical expertise and guidance, that can help them understand how routes will be used, what can be done to accelerate delivery, and the subtle nuances in design that can make or break the scheme itself.”
To highlight this, Jo points toward the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where Birmingham City Council and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) expanded cycling infrastructure and promoted active travel to venues. “To ensure the cycle lanes would be safe, and also constructed in time, Bradstone’s Segregation Cycle Units in 500mm were chosen for their speed of installation,” said Jo. “Bradstone’s experts were also heavily involved in advising on the scheme’s design, to ensure they would be as safe as possible for cyclists.”
To support local authorities, architects and urban landscaping designers and professionals, Bradstone offer a CPD in active travel and how to follow the LTN 1/20 guidance, available as an in-person session or online through a webinar. To book onto a CPD course, visit https://www.bradstone.com/commercial/cpd
