With the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently calling for councils to do more to encourage bicycle-hire schemes, car-free events and better cycle-route signalling and maps – Cyclo thought it time to get some political viewpoints on board. We spoke to Labour’s Maria Eagle Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and vocal advocate for cyclists’ needs. In part 1 of our Q&A (more next month…) we talk Times Cities Fit for Living and look at some of the lessons to be learned from our European neighbours.
Cyclo: Are you a cyclist yourself?
Maria Eagle: I’m not, but since taking on this role I have made it one of my priorities to put cycling at the heart of our plans for transport policy if we manage to win the next election.
Cyclo: Where did your work on this begin?
Maria Eagle: We started to make a difference in government through annual funding of £80million a year to Cycling England, the establishment of Cycling Towns & Cities with dedicated funding to promote cycling, support for Bikeability schemes in schools, funding for improved facilities for cyclists at stations and the cycle to work tax scheme. However, we should have done more and I am determined that a future Labour government makes a real difference for cyclists, not least in supporting the dedicated separated cycleway infrastructure that is common in countries like the Netherlands and Denmark where they have achieved a greater shift to cycling.
Cyclo: How involved have you been with the Times Cities Fit for Cycling campaign?
Maria Eagle: Labour has supported The Times Cities Fit for Cycling campaign from the start and called on the Government to implement the eight-point campaign manifesto in full. I visited Wapping to see where the journalist Mary Bowers suffered such appalling injuries, inspiring her colleagues to launch the campaign.
See the eight-point campaign manifesto here.
Cyclo: Using that as a starting point, where did that lead you?
Maria Eagle: Since then, as a result of the campaign, I hosted a Cycling Summit at Westminster along with my colleague Ben Bradshaw MP (who is a cyclist and used to Chair the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group). We heard directly from cycling groups and organisations about what needs to change to increase cycling and improve safety. My colleague Ian Austin MP now co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group and is leading efforts to raise awareness in parliament and with the government.
Cyclo: It’s an excellent campaign of course, but limited in its appeal (partly, it could be argued, because of readership demographic) – what options do you think there are for widening the campaign and bringing it to a larger audience?
Maria Eagle: The Times’ campaign has actually been far more successful that just raising awareness amongst its own readers. It’s to the paper’s credit that they have put so much time and energy into ensuring politicians of all parties are aware of the campaign and commit to its manifesto. The Editor has come to Westminster and engaged directly with MPs and the campaign has secured some real successes already. I’d urge all cycling organizations and groups to press their own local MPs and councils to set out what they are doing to improve facilities for cycling and cut the deaths and injuries which are tragically on the increase.
Cyclo: In his ‘TED talk’ (see here) Mikael Colville-Andersen points to the fact that the 2010 list of most ‘livable cities’ has a top 8 (Munich, Copenhagen, Zurich, Tokyo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Paris, Vienna), which all have more than respectable levels of cyclists. There are surely lessons to be learned from each of these places. How do you feel about the idea of a global (or at the least European) think-tank for the sharing of knowledge, research and initiatives?
Maria Eagle: There is a considerable amount we can learn from other countries on increasing levels of cycling. As part of our review of our policies, I travelled to the Netherlands and my colleague Lilian Greenwood MP (who is Shadow Local Transport Minister) travelled to Denmark and Sweden to see for ourselves what they have achieved. To see thirty or forty cyclists dominating the road waiting at a set of traffic lights is such a contrast from much of our own road network, and they have clearly prioritized investment in dedicated separated cycle infrastructure in a way that we haven’t.
Cyclo: And there are wider transport issues there too?
Maria Eagle: Yes, I was also struck how they run local transport in a way that better enables cyclists to access public transport. By giving local transport authorities greater powers over rail as well as bus services, along with responsibility for local stations, they manage to better join up different modes. Stations, and even bus stops, have cycle parking facilities (often secure and staffed, with repair and hire services at larger stations). I’d like to see us role that model out here.
Cyclo: You have called for future road and transport schemes to be subjected to a ‘Cycling Safety Assessment’ – what basic criteria would such an assessment cover? Would (any) government be best placed to establish the criteria or would you propose looking to external cycling organisations for guidance?
Maria Eagle: I think that is something I’d like to sit down and work through with cyclists and cycling organizations. It’s difficult to get into that level of detail until we manage to get into the Department for Transport if we win the next election. I will expect the civil servants to listen carefully to what cyclists have to say to ensure that the assessments that I have proposed genuinely do lead to improvements for cyclists when roads and other transport schemes are devised.
For more on this subject see:
Maria Eagle MP: Speech during parliamentary debate on Cycling (February 2012) here.
Maria Eagle MP: Speech to Labour Party conference (October 2012) here.
Lilian Greenwood MP: Speech during parliamentary debate on Cycling Safety (November 2012) here.
Read Part 2 of our Q&A with Maria Eagle MP here.
