Barriers to investing in cycling: Stakeholder views from England

Abstract

Background Planners and politicians in many countries seek to increase the proportion of trips made by cycling. However, this is often challenging. In England, a national target to double cycling by 2025 is likely to be missed: between 2001 and 2011 the proportion of commutes made by cycling barely grew. One important contributory factor is continued low investment in cycling infrastructure, by comparison to European leaders. Methods This paper examines barriers to cycling investment, considering that these need to be better understood to understand failures to increase cycling level. It is based on qualitative data from an online survey of over 400 stakeholders, alongside seven in-depth interviews. Results Many respondents reported that change continues to be blocked by chronic barriers including a lack of funding and leadership. Participants provided insights into how challenges develop along the life of a scheme. In authorities with little consideration given to cycling provision, media and public opposition were not reported as a major issue. However, where planning and implementation have begun, this can change quickly; although examples were given of schemes successfully proceeding, despite this. The research points to a growing gap between authorities that have overcome key challenges, and those that have not.

Barriers to Implementing Pro-Cycling Policies: A Case Study of Hamburg

“…Since the economy department and the transport department are in the same ministry, it is possible that the interests are shifted more toward the development of the economy (H1). The lack of political support was in line with existing studies on cycling and general sustainable mobility [42,61]. Politicians welcome the term "sustainable" in planning concepts; however, it is hard for practitioners to realize it in planning practice [39,40].…”

“…Resource Problems in acquiring an adequate amount of financial and physical resources in time Not enough investments [42] Institutional and political Problems in the cooperation between organizations and conflicts among different policies Lack of leadership and political will [42] Social and cultural Problems in public acceptability of the measures…”

“…Cycling has been marginalized in many cities' modernized transport planning [43,44]. Several studies in the UK have examined the barriers to pro-cycling policy adoption and implementation and have highlighted the lack of funding and leadership [42,45,46]. Moreover, many European cities have a compact urban structure and scarce street space, in particular in inner city areas.…”

“…To identify the barriers, experiences could be learned from general sustainable mobility studies. The barrier framework of Banister, as described above, is suitable for analyzing a wide range of sustainable mobility policies' implementation [41,42,48]. Since cycling is a typical approach towards sustainable mobility, this research employed this framework to explore the barriers to pro-cycling policy implementation in Hamburg.…”

“…Case studies in England underlined the barrier of a lack of funding [42,45]. This barrier is of less importance in the Hamburg case.…”