At the North of England Transport awards held on the 30th November in Leeds, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) picked up three awards.
One of them was for Transport Project of the Year. Refreshingly it was not a motorway scheme, but the CityConnect project. One can assume this is both the superhighways and the canal towpath work.
Now, we in the campaign know that the both the cycle superhighway and canal towpath have their issues. We know that the full routes are not upto Dutch standards. Some may question why we are celebrating anything less than perfection.
I think we should.
From my experince sitting on the CityConnect advisory board, and through speaking to engineers at various events over the last couple of years, one thing is abundantly clear: Designing and implementing cycling infrastrucuture is not glamorous. It's not Crossrail, HS2, or some huge motorway scheme. The only recognition you'd get was from angry motorists and cyclists saying it wasn't good enough.
However, on the 30th Nov at the Royal Armouries, the head of Leeds' Highways Department was on stage winning an award for a cycling project, surrounded by the team that made it happen.
A cycling project won a transport award.
Cycling is transport.
Let's win some more.
Martin
Chair, Leeds Cycling Campaign