What England’s New National Cycling Network Needs to Get Rolling
A plan to add or improve 3,500 miles of bike routes has the support of a dozen local mayors. Still, many hurdles remain before the network becomes truly national.
Cyclists wait in a cycle lane at a junction on Bridge Street in view of the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, on Monday, June 10, 2024.
Photographer: Zula Rabikowska/BloombergFor many families in the UK, raising kids means hours of driving, week in, week out. To and from school, friends, or extracurricular activities, parents and carers can end up as de facto taxi services. In the bike-friendly Netherlands, by contrast, safe networks of cycle routes and low-traffic streets allow many children to transport themselves, unescorted, from age 11. It’s no coincidence Dutch children and adults are among the happiest and healthiest people on the planet.
It should be music to English ears, then, that a dozen of its mayors have committed to piecing together a government-led national walking, wheeling and cycling network. England’s first network put together with full governmental buy-in, it will build upon the extremely piecemeal existing network that, run by a charity, has lacked the consistent funding and official support to achieve its national ambitions.