So. What do Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire say about cycling?
“Six ‘big ideas’ have been identified that will drive progress towards the objectives.
1. Enhance travel information to encourage travel behaviour change through customised, real-time information across buses, trains and other modes, and carry out marketing, education and support activities including tailored education and training.
2. Develop and use integrated ticketing and smartcard technology to enable seamless travel across buses, trains and other modes.
3. Invest in low-carbon modes of travel by supporting the development of infrastructure for lowcarbon methods of travel, such as electric trains, ‘Park-and-Ride’, buses, tram-train, trolleybuses, walking and cycling.
4. Create a new approach to buses as part of an integrated transport system by developing a core, high-quality, financially sustainable network of bus services, with better transport planning at a community level. Improve interchange, including the development of transport ‘hubs’.
5. Introduce stronger demand management measures to encourage less car use and ‘lock-in’ the benefits created by people changing to low-carbon modes. Also, working with Planning Authorities to ensure that development is concentrated in sustainable, accessible and safe locations.
6. A new approach to network management to help make journeys for people and goods run more smoothly, ensuring assets such as roads are well maintained and that repair works are planned to minimise disruption. Greater use of technology to respond to incidents in real time and Traffic Light Priority to speed up the flow of buses.”
West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan 2011-2026
“Our shared vision, reflecting that of the LTP, is that by 2026 investment by Leeds City Council, Metro and partners will have transformed transport provision within Leeds, enabling the growing population to travel more easily to more destinations by public transport, walking and cycling; helping to limit the growth in congestion and cutting carbon emissions and air pollution. The roads will be safer, with fewer people being injured, and higher levels of walking and cycling will have resulted in a healthier population.”
“This vision statement is wholly consistent with the LTP3 MyJourney Vision and supports the objectives of the Leeds Vision 2030 which include creating a city where people choose sustainable travel options, and where people can travel on good quality, reliable public transport and have access to walking and cycling routes.”
“Walking and cycling account for a significant number of journeys in Leeds though there is great potential for more journeys to be made in this way. Leeds City Council recognises the wider benefits for the city, such as the related environmental improvements and health benefits. The Council is seeking to increase the level of cycling, in particular for journeys in the peak periods which could replace journeys made by car.”
Leeds Local Implementation Plan and Transport Strategy 2011 to 2026
"5.5.14 It is essential to manage the demand for travel and to encourage people to travel by more sustainable forms of transport than the private car in order to address congestion, accommodate growth and tackle transport’s contribution to climate change.
5.5.15 There are a range of measures available to promote travel choice and influence travel behaviour including making the required investments in the alternative public transport infrastructure, walking and cycling measures, and travel planning measures to enable informed choices to be made. These initiatives can be complemented by measures to ensure the effective management of the transport system, to make the most efficient use of networks and reduce congestion, and through the use of car parking and traffic management policies and pricing measures."
Leeds Core Strategy Local Development Framework Plan 'Preferred Approach'
“I am responding to your email as Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Development who has responsibility for highways and cycling infrastructure in the city. Leeds City Council supports the ‘Please create space for cycling’ campaign and is already actively putting into practice the advocated measures as illustrated below.
Metro working closely with Leeds and Bradford, sought and won government funding for the £31 million City Connect scheme: This provides cyclists with their own protected space on the A64 and A647 between east Leeds and Bradford; Accessibility to Leeds city centre will be enhanced by an “inner tube” route; The scheme includes substantial 20mph areas surrounding the scheme and links through parks, including to schools; City Connect will provide a major upgrade to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal towpath to become an excellent traffic free route for commuting and leisure from the city centre along a green corridor to beyond the city’s boundary.
This major scheme is not the sole change being made in Leeds, but builds on other areas of work being undertaken to improve conditions for cycling:
- There is a programme of mainly radial Core Cycle Network Routes being delivered and designed to standards to encourage people to take up cycling. These routes include paths separated from high volume and speed traffic, pass through parks and green spaces and connect to local schools, shops and housing;
- There is a programme of 20mph areas being delivered (separate from the 20mph areas implemented as part of the City Connect scheme). Where these (or other) schemes involve road closures the normal practice is to exempt cyclists to enhance the ability of cyclists to cycle directly to their destinations;
- There is a large school cycle training programme engaging with over 100 schools annually;
- Many cycle journeys necessarily take place on roads that are not part of specific cycle routes and for this reason the needs of cyclists are taken into account in all highway schemes where road layouts are changed;
- A trial is to be devised to formally allow cycling within a pedestrian area of the city centre;
- Further schemes on the scale of the City Connect scheme are being identified for possible future funding;
- The Council works with local cyclists and organisations through arrangements such as the longstanding Leeds Cycling Consultation Forum and working groups aimed at enhancing conditions for cycling in Leeds."
Councillor Richard Lewis (Executive Member – Transport and the Economy) - response to the Space for Cycling campaign messages from Leeds Cycling Campaign members.
“We are firmly committed to maximising every possible benefit from the city hosting the Tour de France. As we outlined in our legacy vision, we want to put cycling at the heart of the future of Leeds, building on our existing relationships with fantastic partners like British Cycling to bring about significant benefits in a range of areas such as health and wellbeing, transport, leisure, the environment and the economy. That is our long-term aim to do everything we can to encourage and help as many people as possible to get cycling.”
Councillor Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Post