Arguments for Cyclists to vote Yes to the Transport Innovation Fund/Congestion Charge

Cycling is an easy, safe and cheap way to get around. It is particularly good for your health. However in some areas, safer and more convenient cycle routes that everyone can use are essential if we are to encourage more people to cycle. TIF aims to provide additional cycle improvements, which will support ad build on the existing cycle network in Greater Manchester.

GMPTE is still developing the proposals. There will be plenty of opportunity for cyclists and local communities to get involved in location and design.

What is GMPTE  proposing?

The package includes a range of improvements including:

• Over 2,500 cycle parking spaces at rail, Metrolink and major employment areas. Stands and secure lockers will be included;
• 125 miles of safer and more convenient cycle routes. These will include both on and off road routes, supported by safer ways to cross busy roads (such as toucan crossings, subway and bridge improvements)and advanced stop lines to allow cyclists to set off before general traffic;<
• A city cycle centre with staff that provides secure parking, showers and changing facilities, lockers, cycle repairs and information;
• Cycle training and advice on routes and cycle maintenance for children and adults;
• A cycle hire scheme that includes 1,500 bikesavailable on street so that anyone can cycle between a network of hire stations in the city centre and University areas at modest charge – and free for the first half hour

What does it mean for Greater Manchester?

There are a wide range of benefits associated with encouraging more people to cycle more often:

• Congestion will be reduced with more road space available for others
• More people can get to Metrolink, bus and railway stations using cycle lanes
• Cycling is healthy – meaning a better quality of life and health for cyclists

How were the cycle routes chosen?

GMPTE and local Councils got together to look at where:

• people live, work, shop and go to school or college
• there was a good opportunity to get more people cycling
• we would be able to encourage people to cycle instead of paying a congestion charge
• cycling could link with other transport proposals such as an

  improved rail station.

We then designed a network that would meet as many of these objectives as possible. Inevitably finance limits meant that we could not include every good route.

The proposed TIF Cycle route maps for each area within Greater Manchester are on the GM Future Transport web site.

The current cycle routes are outline proposals are subject to local agreement through the planning process and consultation with districts, cycle groups and businesses.

How else will we encourage cycling?

• To get more people cycling, we need to tell them about the options available and give them the information they need to make an informed choice. Some are aimed at everyone, some specifically aimed at young people
• Providing maps and a web site showing cycle routes
• Advice and help for adults about cycling and looking after their bike
• 400,000 households across Greater Manchester will be offered information about cycling, as part of an Individualised Travel Marketing programme
• Many employers will be helped to produce Travel Plans – these usually include encouragement for cycling including stands and lockers, showers, cheaper bikes and clubs for cyclists
• Campaigns to make sure that other road users including bus drivers and motorists are aware of, and drive safely near cyclists
• We will look at local areas in detail to see how cycling can be improved.

Young People

• Children in 90 primary schools across Greater Manchester will be part of the 'Bike It' programme that offers cycle training
• Secondary school children will be offered cycle training too
• Schools, colleges and Universities will be eligible for grants – for instance to provide cycle parking or showers.

Who will be involved?

We already have a lot of expertise, but we will make sure local people and the local cycling community are involved and help us to decide the best routes and solutions

GM TIF – Information Sheet - Regional Centre Cycle Hire

As part of the Travel Behaviour Change programme a cycle hire scheme styled on those operating in Paris and Lyon is proposed. This will provide an attractive alternative mode for short distance journeys in the Regional Centre.

What is a cycle hire scheme?

Users can either pre-register, or use a credit and debit card to hire a bike from on-street stands about 200 to 300 metres apart. Around 1,700 bikes will be provided at 75 locations. Cycles can be taken from one hire station and returned to any other. Key features include:

• Cycles are available 24 hours a day, every day, for any purpose
• Free to use for the first half hour; after half an hour, modest hire charges apply.
• If the bike is not returned, a deposit is collected from the users' credit or debit card.
• Lesser charges apply if a bike is stolen or vandalised
• Hire charges and advertising income on the bikes and hire stations will make the scheme self-financing once it is set up

What does it mean for Greater Manchester?

In the regional centre (Manchester and Salford city centres), the scheme will provide a:

• Quick and efficient way for passengers using buses and trains to get to their destination
• Faster alternative to walking within the regional centre
• Reduce pressure on Metrolink and Metroshuttle capacity in the regional centre
• Raise the profile of cycling and encourage cyclists in other parts of Greater Manchester
• Encourage tourism by making it easier to travel between attractions

What area would it cover?

The main shopping, office and leisure areas in the regional centre, theuniversity areas of Manchester and Salford would be included. A satellite scheme would serve Stockport town centre. The scheme will be designed so that once experience has been gained with these areas, it could be expanded if this can be justified.

How many bikes?

The proposed scheme would have around 1,700 bikes in the regional centre available at any one time. If they are used at the same rate as bikes in comparable schemes, this could mean up to 12,000 additional cycle journeys in the regional centre per day.

What next?

Manchester City Council has led the scheme with the other Greater Manchester Councils and GMPTE. As the scheme develops we will include:

• Suppliers
• Large employers
• Cycle user groups
• Other user groups such as Living Streets and public transport operators
• Businesses and other interests near proposed hire stations

When would it happen?

• Year one – City Centre – open April 2011

  Area bounded by inner ring road and cycle hire locations including the main rail and bus terminals, tourist locations, shopping centres and public buildings.

• Year two - Higher Education Zones - open April 2012

  Zone A – south from the city centre Including Manchester University,

  Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester Royal Infirmary with a

  combined student population of nearly 90,000.

  Zone B – west from the city centre along the A6 corridor covering Salford

  University Campus as far as Salford Crescent Station.

TIF Travel Behaviour Change Scheme

To avoid congestion becoming a constraint on economic growth and quality of life in the City Region, Greater Manchester has developed a TIF package combining congestion charging and significant investment in public

transport. Realising the full potential of this approach will rest on the ability of people living and working in Greater Manchester to adapt their travel behaviour to the new infrastructure and charging environment.

Research in recent years has demonstrated the significant scope for influencing people's daily travel choices though a range of 'soft' measures – often referred to as 'smarter choices' - that provide the necessary information and confidence to enable them to switch to more sustainable travel modes. This approach is generating increasing evidence that with the right support, people are willing and able to make small changes to their day-to-day travel behaviour which, taken together, can produce significant reductions in traffic levels. GMPTE has developed a suite of projects, as part of TIF, called Travel Behaviour Change (TBC), compromising of Smarter Choices and infrastructure improvements measures. This information sheet aims to give you a little more background to the TBC programme.

The objective of the Travel Behaviour Change Programme is:

• To encourage and enable people who are travelling in and around Greater

  Manchester to choose walking, cycling, public transport and other

  sustainable modes more often.

The programme consists of 7 projects; further detail on each is provided below.

1. Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM)

   The objective of the Individualised Travel Marketing project is:

   *"To ensure that individuals most likely to change their mode of travel

   away from single occupancy car have the information, confidence and support

   to allow them to make this change."

   Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM) (also known as Personalised Travel Planning) uses personal dialogue at a household level to identify and meet their individual needs for support, and to motivate people to think about their day-to-day travel choices. ITM recognises that there is often a gap between perceptions of alternative modes of transport and the reality. Due to a lack of information or personal experience, travelling on foot, by bike or by public transport can seem less attractive than it is. As a result most people make trips by car which could be made just as easily by other modes.

   The programme will target between 40-70% of the private residential households between the inner charging cordon and a boundary 1.5km outside the M60 outer charging cordon, and within Metrolink, Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors outside the M60. This equates to approximately 400,000 households.

2. Travel Plans

   The objective of the Travel Plan project is:

   "To ensure that a variety of existing and new developments provide sustainable travel features to encourage and enable people to choose walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing."

   Travel planners will help secure Residential Travel Plans at all new housing developments of 50 or more units areas across Greater Manchester.

   There will be an extension of Workplace Travel Plans, with a focus on all individual workplaces with 250 or more employees (286 sites); a total of 25 major employment areas (e.g. business parks / industrial estates); 18 hospital sites; and around 10 Small Business Travel Networks. In addition to site-specific travel plan advice, support will include grants for cycle parking and/or small-scale access improvements.

   Sustainable Travel to Education Programmes across Greater Manchester consisting of:

   • Consolidation of, and support for travel plans at over 330 schools
   • 'Bike It' support for 90 primary schools
   • Extension of travel plans to up to 29 major FE/HE sites
   • Cycle parking and/or small-scale access improvements at many education sites.
3. Car Sharing & Car Clubs

   The objective of the Car Sharing project is to:

   "To provide an alternative to owning or running a car, by providing easily accessible short term use or sharing when a car is necessary for a journey".

   The car sharing project comprises two separate strands:
   • Promotion of car share schemes, with a focus on sites covered by Workplace Travel Plans or Sustainable Travel to Education Programmes
   • Provision of Car Clubs (subject to a commercial business case) across GM, including major new housing developments.
4. Cycle Infrastructure

   The objective of the Cycling Infrastructure project is:

   "To provide safe, connected cycle routes that are accessible and available for anyone who would like to use them."

   This project aims to provide a high quality, continuous route network, concentrating on radial, cordon crossing routes into the regional centre supported by secure parking provision at destinations within the cordon and at rail and Metrolink stations. This project will provide more than 2,500 extra cycle parking spaces at 250 new locations, as well as 125 miles of safer and more convenient cycle routes.

   This will be complimented with a large-scale cycle hire scheme in the Regional Centre, modelled on successful schemes currently operating in comparable European cities.

   It is also intended that detailed reviews of local cycling provision will be undertaken for all district and town centres within a buffer zone around the M60 in order to identify further works required to underpin the Travel Behavioural Change package.

5. Cycle Hire Scheme

   The objective of the Cycle Hire project is:

   "To provide an attractive alternative mode for short distance journeys in

   the Regional Centre"

   * A Cycle Hire Scheme would involve the delivery of a scheme for short term cycle hire based on users either pre-registering, or using a credit/debit card or GM smartcard to hire a bike from an on-street stand. There would be around 1,700 cycles in the system, at around 75 locations.

   A cycle hire scheme could make a significant contribution by providing a:

   • Quick and efficient onward method of transport for passengers using buses and trains
   • Faster alternative to walking within the regional centre
   • Reduce pressure on limited Metrolink capacity in the regional centre
   • Reduce the need to interchange or to add extra capacity, for instance to Metroshuttle
   • Establish cycling as a high profile part of the transport mix in the regional centre to encourage cyclists in other parts of Greater Manchester
   • Improve the image of cycling generally in the conurbation
   • Encourage tourism
6. Pedestrian Infrastructure

   The objective of the Pedestrian Infrastructure project is:

   "To assess, through walking reviews and street audits, the improvements needed to the pedestrian environment for it to be an attractive alternative to the car for short journeys."

   The TBC package includes a rolling programme of walking reviews, focusing on the areas around neighbourhood centres and public transport interchanges, and a smaller number of community street audits for town/district centres within the zones defined for the ITM programme. TIF will also pay for a proportion of infrastructure requirements identified by the audit process. The project will also involve setting up standards and training to ensure consistency of quality.

   Walking has a critical role in achieving the objectives of the GM's overall TIF package. There are several key reasons for this:

   • In terms of behavioural change, the shift from car to walking is relatively simple, especially for short local trips. Furthermore a relatively small increase in the share of trips made on foot (currently 22% across GM) will result in a significant reduction in car trips
   • Walking is an essential component of most public transport journeys (as well as many car journeys), so providing for safer journeys on foot will help new Metrolink and bus services achieve their full potential
   • In addition to tackling congestion, successful programmes to increase the share of trips made on foot will bring a wide range of social, health and environmental benefits. In areas with relatively low car ownership, promotion of walking is particularly important in ensuring social inclusion
7. Communications and Marketing

   The objective of the Communications and Marketing project is:

   "To increase the awareness of the target audience about sustainable transport options through effective communication, promotions and marketing"

   Communications & Marketing would involve the development of materials to promote sustainable travel. This project will involve a number of complementary strands including:
   • Travel awareness campaign
   • The production of local area maps showing walking, cycling and public transport information
   • Contributions to existing projects on borough cycle maps and the cycleGM website
   • Awareness raising seminars
   • Various general materials for use in the Individualised Travel Marketing project
   • Greater Manchester wide travel plan accreditation and awards scheme

Abolition of hospital parking charges threatens sustainable travel planning

Is anyone else dismayed by the unholy alliance of the Nursing Standard, Nursing Times and the health unions calling for the end to NHS car parking charges? Fired with indignation, I sent the following (yet to be published) letter to the Nursing Times:

Was free parking really a founding principle of the NHS (NT Features, 30 September, p20)? I do not expect my employer to pay my bus fare, maintain my bike or provide a large slab of tarmac to park my car. A car parking space is a perk not a right. Anyway, there is no such thing as a free car park - all have running costs. Hospital charges should be retained but banded according to ability to pay, with surplus revenue invested in greener more sustainable modes of travel like car sharing, new bus routes and bike sheds.

Some NHS Trusts like Addenbrookes Hospital and Bristol PCT have invested in sophisticated travel plans that encourage staff to adopt more active healthy means of getting to work. The abolition of car parking charges would undermine these efforts. It also runs contrary to RCN backing for the Take Action on Active Travel manifesto and the UNISON policy for Greening the Workplace. It is no coincidence that London does not feature in your campaign article. NHS staff in the capital benefit from an integrated efficient public transport network funded by a congestion charge. The NT and health unions should demand similar schemes be introduced across the UK, starting with Greater Manchester where such a proposal has the unanimous support of the local Directors of Public Health. They recognise the abolition of hospital car parking charges will only increase congestion, damage public health and lengthen the carbon footprint of the NHS.

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