The Department for Transport (DfT) “does not yet know” if local authority projects like cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods “have been of good enough quality” The rollout of schemes like low-traffic neighbourhoods may have actually discouraged cyclists and walkers in some neighbourhoods because of their "patchy" delivery, a new has report found.
The public spending watchdog told The Independent that “too often” it found local authorities had not followed national guidance in their active travel interventions and only implemented “cosmetic changes”, which “could have discouraged cycling and walking”.
The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) – which concludes the government is on track to miss its targets to increase these types of travel in England – cites the speed at which cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods were delivered during the pandemic as leading to some “poor value schemes” and “potential adverse impacts on active travel”.
The Department for Transport (DfT) “does not yet know” if local authority projects like cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods “have been of good enough quality”, with ministers still knowing “too little about what has been achieved”, said the watchdog – although it concluded “it is unlikely that DfT’s objectives for increased active travel by 2025 will be achieved”.
The government’s objectives include doubling the number of journeys made by cycling from 0.8 billion in 2013 to 1.6 billion in 2025. It also wants to increase the percentage of short journeys in towns and cities that are walked or cycled from 41% in 2018/19 to […]
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