At the Executive Committee meeting earlier this year where the Transport Strategy was approved to go out to consultation a number of public speakers spoke passionately about sustainable transport, particularly the likes of buses and cycling. They argued that with the population of the District and the country as a whole set to continue to increase it was imperative to encourage as far as possible the use of methods of transport other than the car, otherwise we’d find ourselves even more gridlocked than some areas of the District already are. And they were entirely correct to say that.
Don’t get me wrong, no one is expecting everyone to wake up one day and jump on their bike or a bus and for congestion and pollution to be a distant memory, and certainly no one is going to be forced out of their car against their will. Some people due to age or infirmity have little choice but to drive, others travel routes and distances that aren’t served by buses and trains and are impractical to cycle, sometimes people have things that are too heavy or unwieldy to transport in anything but a car, the weather isn’t always suitable for walking or cycling, and some people simply like their cars and will continue to use it regardless. I know that and my colleagues on the Executive Committee know that, and that’s why the Transport Strategy sets fairly modest and attainable targets for sustainable transport.
For the purposes of this article, and for reasons that will soon become apparent, I’m going to concentrate on cycling. At the Executive Committee meeting I mentioned earlier, where members of the public spoke passionately in favour of some of the proposals within the Strategy, a gentleman from the Crab & Winkle Line Trust spoke regarding the virtues of the humble bicycle and in particular the way it has been utilised to such a great extent in the Netherlands. At this point, due to a misadventure unrelated to cycling, I had a plaster cast on my leg and was expecting to be out of action for quite some time, and as such I felt quite safe saying that when all was well again I would visit the Netherlands and take to the cycle lanes. After all, a country where hundreds of thousands if not millions of people cycle to work every day must have something to teach us about how to build sustainable transport infrastructure and encourage people to use it.
A few months later I’m happy to say that my leg is pretty much as good as new and as such I’ve turned my attention to keeping my promise. As luck would have it I’m going to be in the Netherlands, a country I love, on two separate occasions this summer within a fortnight of each other, and as such it seemed only logical to use the week in between to take to the cycle lanes and experience first-hand what makes the Dutch cycle network such an outstanding success. The District Transport Strategy aims for 4% of people to travel to work by bike by 2031, and coincidentally my starting point on this trip will be the university city of Groningen where over 50% of all journeys within the city are by bicycle. From there I will be travelling the 200km journey south west to Amsterdam, all being well using nothing but pedal power.
I don’t have any grossly unrealistic expectations of what can be learned from this trip (which I’m entirely funding myself, in case anyone was wondering), nor do I think that the terrain of Canterbury District can be compared to the flatness of the coastal areas of the Netherlands, but nevertheless I will report back any observations after the Council’s summer recess. If we’re going to increase the percentage of people in our area choosing to cycle to work from 2.7% in 2011 to 4% in 2031 we need the Transport Strategy to be the starting point to providing safe and enjoyable cycling infrastructure both within and between our urban areas, so going and observing the experts can’t be a bad place to start.
Cllr Jeremy Bellamy is the Chairman of North Thanet Conservative Future and Canterbury City Council Executive Committee member for Communications.