Rescuing Britain’s forgotten 1930s protected cycleways
Focus of work
500 miles of Dutch-inspired cycle tracks and footways were funded by the UK’s Ministry of Transport between 1934 and 1944. This project used the history of 101 of these tracks to empower local authorities to bid for UKGOV funds to renovate the best of them.
Impact
Research on the 1930s network of Dutch-inspired cycleways across the UK is being promoted to local authorities to help them win Department for Transport (DfT) renovation bids. In 2022, Leicester City Council used this research to win a £2 million DfT grant to renovate a period cycle track on a strategic road.
Since then, this exciting research has been published on a new website, BritishCycleTracks.com.
The project has also:
Linked up speaking opportunities to promote the website to cycling planning officers at UK councils
Featured in Cycling Industry News, Daily Mail, Local Transport Today, Cycling Weekly, and the BBC
Other grantees
Better Buses North East
Developing a network of local and national campaigning organisations to build the case for bus franchising in the North East.
Climate Leadership Academy: Accelerating workplace parking levy
Helping local authorities learn how to develop and potentially introduce a workplace parking levy (WPL) to improve air quality and fund better public transport.
Putting children and families’ travel at the heart of new developments
A project bringing together children and developers to explore how new developments can enable children and young people to travel sustainably, actively and independently.
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