For anyone who drives in Derby’s rush hour, or is concerned at the many health issues caused by increasingly sedentary life styles, getting more people to travel by bicycle is one way to alleviate some of the problems associated with both.
But in Derby the cycle network is very disjointed and does not encourage people to start cycling. Many people who want to cycle are too fearful to ride on the road and cycling levels are suppressed as a consequence.
Derby needs a properly designed, integrated, cycle network covering the whole city but Derby’s politicians have been short on action to deliver such a network. Following recent debacles such as a velodrome with no cycle access to link it with Derby’s most popular cycle path just 150m away, and the new £11million London Road rail bridge which was supposed to provide cycle paths to open up that route to more cycling but delivered absolutely nothing at all for cyclists; Derby Cycling Group has been trying to get local politicians to take an active interest in cycle transport.
We have been promoting two national campaigns with local councillors (Space for Cycling) and parliamentary election candidates (Vote Bike) to see what their policies on cycle transport are. We are concerned that now the Velodrome is complete, everyday cycle transport may lose out because politicians may think it’s “job done” for cycling. But cycle sport and cycle transport are two very different things. The candidate’s and party’s responses are very mixed. See our analysis on the linked document below:
Derby Politicians and Cycle Transport
Our Letter to local politicians: April 2015 Letter to political parties
The replies from those who chose to engage with us: