Letter: Drivers also Benefit from Improved Cycle Infrastructure

Published on: 1 Nov, 2024
Updated on: 1 Nov, 2024

London Road, Burpham. Image Google

From Sam Peters

Former Green Party candidate in local elections

In response to: Only One in Ten of Us Are Potential Cyclists

Pulling a random number out of a biased hat isn’t how we design infrastructure.

Survey after survey has found the vast majority of people – up to 85 per cent – support improving walking and cycling infrastructure even if it takes up road space, with most saying they’re more likely to walk or cycle if it’s made safe to do so.

Huge boosts in walking and cycling are invariably seen in practice across the UK and worldwide whenever the infrastructure is built.

Improving active travel infrastructure isn’t just for the benefit of non-drivers – it’s the number one way to reduce traffic and congestion, make roads safer, and cut air pollution too which, in response to one of the comments, is actually worse inside vehicles stuck in traffic. Cycling by comparison exposes people to the least pollution, with walking in the middle, due to cyclists being able to more quickly cut through traffic caused by vehicles.

Guildford is unique in many ways, but not in the way its transport networks work or respond to changes. If we make walking, wheeling and cycling safer and more accessible, more people will do so, reducing traffic on the roads in turn. This has been shown time and time and time again in the UK, across Europe and worldwide. Guildford is no different in this regard.

To leave the key transport corridor between the town centre and an entire quarter of the town’s outskirts highly dangerous and unpleasant for anything but drivers is absurd, particularly given the already enormous congestion it causes.

This route is used by thousands of commuters and has around 4,000 schoolchildren at schools along or just off it. If even just 10 per cent of those thousands became able to walk or cycle, the benefits would be felt by all – perhaps even by drivers the most.