Just 30% of respondents from seven cities say it is safe to cycle where they live, and many believe protected lanes would help

The vast majority of UK city dwellers would support their taxes being spent on building cycle lanes, believing their city would be a better place to live and work if more people swapped their cars for bicycles, according to a study.



Sustrans, the cycling and walking advocacy group, found that although just 6% of people commute to work by bike, 75% would like to see more money spent on cycling infrastructure and 78% support building more protected bike lanes, even if this could mean less space for other road traffic.

The charity surveyed more than 1,000 people in each of seven UK cities: Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Greater Manchester. Almost three-quarters of respondents said cycle safety needed to be improved in their city, with just 30% saying it was safe to ride a bike where they lived. Even fewer, 21%, thought it was safe for children to cycle.

Research shows that segregated bike lanes encourage more people to saddle up. Last year Transport for London reported a 50% increase in the number of cyclists using some roads where a protected cycle superhighway had been built. On Blackfriars Bridge, one of the busiest Thames crossings, cyclists now account for 70% of all traffic.

In Manchester, cycling increased by 86% along Wilmslow Road, in the university district, after a £7.5m segregated bike lane was built.

Cycling levels in the UK peaked in 1949, when 15bn miles were travelled by bike, equivalent to 37% of all journeys, according to Xavier Brice, Sustrans chief executive. “People riding bikes played a crucial role in our past and will play an important role in our future,” Brice said. “Cycling will shape how we get about in our towns and cities. It’s good for our health, for air quality, for the local economy, and for making our streets more liveable.

“Critically, bikes are up to five times more efficient at moving people than cars. Cities are space limited, populations are increasing and too many cars cause traffic jams. Bikes will rise again.”

Chris Boardman, the cycling and walking commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “At present, traffic congestion costs Greater Manchester £1.3bn per year, with nearly a third of people travelling less than 1km by car during the morning peak. Getting more people out of cars and on to bikes is a clear and practical way in which we can address the issue.”

Brice said progress had been made in recent years. In five of the seven cities surveyed, many streets have a 20mph speed limit and 28% of residents live within 125 metres of a cycle route. Despite the small percentage of regular cyclists, bicycles still take up to 111,564 cars off the roads each day across the seven cities, with a total of 123m trips made by bike in the cities each year.

The survey showed people want more investment in safe, dedicated space for cycling in a network that gets them from door to door on everyday trips such as for work, education or shopping, said Brice. He urged national and local governments to work together “to invest and deliver segregated space for bikes and unlock the potential for cycling in every UK city.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oxford Road, Manchester. Photograph: Alamy

A dark tunnel and a busy bus lane: my Manchester cycle commute

When the former Olympic champion Chris Boardman became Greater Manchester’s inaugural cycling commissioner this year, he gave an interview to the Guardian admitting he now avoided cycling on UK streets, seeking out off-road routes instead.

He was tired of the aggression, the exhaustion that comes from carrying out dozens of risk assessments even on a short trip – will that car door open? How likely is that van to cut across me to turn left? It was an admission that struck a chord with many cyclists in the region and beyond, all too many of whom have the scars to show bikes are not winning the battle for UK roads.

The Sustrans survey found that just 5% of Greater Manchester residents usually cycle to and from work, and 27% believe cycle safety is good. It found 54% would like to start riding a bike or to ride their bike more, and 65% would find protected roadside cycle lanes a real encouragement to do so.

I recently moved out of central Manchester to a suburb of Stockport and now have a 10-mile commute to the Guardian’s Deansgate office. Driving is a no-no unless I leave the house by 6.15am, and the trains serving my route have an alarming propensity to be late, full and to smell of wet dog.

So sometimes I cycle, using as many designated cycle routes as possible. Whoever plans these networks needs a good shake. The signposted cycle route through Reddish Vale, a park on the Manchester side of the M60 orbital motorway, diverts riders either down a load of steps or through an unlit tunnel. Another section forces cyclists to share a very busy bus lane.

Things improve a little in town, where the £7.5m Wilmslow Road cycleway, a segregated lane, transports bikers from Didsbury in the south all the way down the Curry Mile and to the universities on Oxford Road. But even that is not for the faint-hearted, with cars constantly cutting across to turn left and pedestrians stepping out without looking.