The Westminster Government has issued a second directive that all cities and towns in the UK must provide more room for people to walk, wheel and cycle in a new initiative called Streets 4 Peeps.
The first scheme, ordered during lockdown, was not fully implemented and there are still funds left over which must be used up before the end of the tax year on 5 April.
The Head of Finance at The City of Edinburgh Council has discovered a large trove of unspent roads budget which will have to be used in the next week on purchasing maroon and white bollards and reinstating segregated cycle lanes in the capital. We understand the bollards will now be purchased at a bargain price, due to earlier lack of demand.
The Streets 4 Peeps programme will begin immediately to ensure that all cycle lanes are widened and resurfaced all over the city, creating nearly 1,000kms of cycle ways. A fleet of road rollers is on standby on Friday morning with workers ready to cover 24 hour shifts in an effort to use up the unspent budget in time.
This aligns with the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP who told the UK’s Transport Committee on 3 February 2021 that the government wants half of all journeys to be either walked or cycled by 2030 to meet the proposals in the government’s decarbonisation proposal and that there is £2 billion set aside for that.
Mr Shapp’s statement accords with the announcement by the Prime Minister in the summer last year of a government plan called Gear Change which “aims to build on the significant increase in the number of people cycling during the pandemic. It sets out a comprehensive, long term vision to increase active travel and embed the benefits of walking and cycling into how we live, work and get around.”
The plan has been welcomed by Lycra Spokane, a member of the Edinburgh Velocity Institution for Liberty (EVIL) , who is determined that all streets in the capital will have cycle lanes. She said: “This is tremendous news. No longer will we be faced with a pie chart of good ideas, but no funds to implement them.”
Archie Curmudgeon who lives in the New Town said: “This is ridiculous. We will have bikes everywhere and soon there will be no room for cars. I have three vehicles, a Jaguar, an Audi and a Defender, which I need to park near my home so that my dogs do not have to walk too far to jump in and be taken to Inverleith Park for their daily exercise. My wife has a Tesla. We are doing our bit for the environment, although she has to go to IKEA to charge it up. We are not anti bike – we just don’t think they belong right here.”
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