Sustrans' Roddy Crockett on the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane

Think back to the May bank holiday weekend last year. Chances are you might have been out on a bike.

We were in the middle of the first Covid lockdown, and levels of cycling across the UK peaked - up 384 per cent on normal levels. It was the same weekend that Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, stood at the lectern in Downing Street during the daily Covid briefing and announced the Emergency Active Travel Fund - money allocated to councils across England to quickly implement new routes for walking and cycling.

The aim was clear: quickly provide road space to maintain this increase in cycling, to reduce pressure on public transport, help key workers get to work, and enable people to get their daily dose of exercise.

But fast forward a few more weeks and, as soon as lockdown restrictions eased, car traffic returned quickly. Almost as quickly, cycling levels began to fall. The great summer of cycling ended before the summer holidays began.

What does this show us? That when the cars weren’t there people felt comfortable cycling on the roads like never before. And there’s good evidence to back this up. We know that safety is people’s biggest concern when thinking about starting to cycle. It’s not the weather, or the hills, or the distance.

Why we need protected cycle lanes

A study by Dr. Rachel Aldred at the University of Westminster showed that if you give people more space and remove the threat of motor traffic, they feel more comfortable cycling.

The study showed that most adults who already cycle are happy to put themselves at risk by cycling on a busy road. But they wouldn’t want their 8 year old cycling in that environment.

Understanding this is crucial to enabling more people to cycle who currently don’t because they’re put off by the intimidating road environment.

Understandably, the level of comfort people feel increases when you provide a really high quality, kerb-separated cycle lane. With this sort of lane in place, not only does the person already cycling feel more comfortable, but the majority would be happy for their 8 year old to be in that environment too.

In Paris, people new to cycling account for almost six in ten users of pop-up cycle lanes introduced during 2020. It’s clear that if safety is improved, people will cycle.

Public support for cycle lanes

What’s more, of the 17,000 adults we surveyed from 12 UK cities during our Bike Life project in 2019, only 28 per cent thought cycling safety in their city is good. This dropped to 17 per cent for the safety of children cycling in their city.

There is strong evidence to demonstrate that the public support the kinds of measures taken on Old Shoreham Road, as well as overestimating the amount of opposition. 68 per cent of Bike Life respondents support building separated cycle tracks - even if this means less room for other road traffic. This is supported by research by Cycling UK in the autumn of 2020, which found that when asked, more than half of the UK supported new cycle lanes, to encourage people to cycle more, while only a fifth opposed them, and a tenth strongly opposed them.

A more efficient use of space

The inconvenient truth is that cars are the least space-efficient way of moving people and goods around.

A three metre wide lane for cars can typically move between 700 and 1,100 people per hour in a private motor vehicle. This increases to 2,000 to 3,000 people per hour in a two-way protected bike lane.

London has been building segregated Cycle Superhighways since 2015. Initial research into the efficiency of these routes suggests that at peak times, the new cycling infrastructure moves an average of 46 per cent of people along the route at key congested locations, despite occupying only 30% of the road space. The important point here is that we need to count people, not boxes - because often we find that more people are able to move through a space with a cycle lane, than without.

READ MORE>> Cycling UK could take legal action after Shoreham lane scrapped

Change is difficult, but that doesn’t make it wrong

The evidence shows that people support these measures regardless of what the headlines say. We need to ensure that a vocal minority does not have the power to veto changes that will have wide reaching benefits for our city.

Change is always difficult. Time and time again we see headlines that warn of chaos and doom if change happens. But experience shows us that opposition is temporary as people adapt and appreciate the advantages. With a few amendments to the route, I firmly believe there will be many new cyclists enjoying a safer journey to school, work or the park that is greener, healthier and cheaper.