Letter to party leaders and candidates for the forthcoming Worcester City Council elections

Open letter to Worcester Political Parties 2024 from Bike WorcesterThe Worcester City Council elections will be contested in the coming months, so I wanted to take this opportunity to write to the local parties to offer policy suggestions on increasing rates of active travel in the city. You may be in the process of reviewing your local party manifestos, so my aim is to offer practical and low-cost suggestions that can be included in your proposals to the public.I am happy to meet with your parties, councillors, or candidates to discuss the suggestions, how they could be implemented, and the potential benefits, at your convenience. In addition, if you would like to experience travelling around the city by bike, to see the benefits and challenges, or would like to see our volunteer sessions first hand, please contact us.We can make bikes available if required for those who don’t currently have access to one, and would welcome your attendance on our Bike Buses, where you can see the transformative effects of choosing a bike for short journeys has on the community, even for those with short legs. Alternatively, we are happy to extend an invitation to a post Bike Bus coffee, which happens most Fridays after the morning school run is completed.Enabling and encouraging active travel has the potential to transform communities across the UK, and remains a prominent area of policy and discussion at all levels of politics and in the media. The benefits are broad, and the cost of implementing policies to enable and encourage more active travel are relatively cheap.Generating modal shift from private cars to walking and cycling for short urban journeys benefits everyone, and creates healthier, happier and safer communities, and at the same time reduces pollution, noise, congestion and carbon emissions.Bike Worcester is a growing community of people who use bikes as a mode of transport to travel around the city. In the last 12 months our team of volunteers has undertaken many activities to enable and encourage more people to choose active travel, including:

• Set-up and supporting Bike Buses travelling to city primary schools
• Operating a bike recycling scheme in conjunction with Crowngate Shopping Centre
• Surveying and mapping over 120 metal barriers on cycleways in the city
• Reviewing and mapping all No Cycling TROs in the city
• Working closely with West Mercia Police to submit and map close passes and illegal driving
• Reviewing County Council traffic survey and speed data
• Organising Kidical Mass bike rides in the city

Detailed below is a list of policy ideas related to active travel; please give the suggestions some consideration, and include them, or reference to them, in your manifestos as you see fit.Council (City and County)

• Clearly state it is Council policy to aim for the target of 50% of journeys to be by walking or cycling by 2030, in line with central Government targets
• Communicate the benefits of active travel (health, air quality, carbon emissions, reduce congestion, reduce noise, improve road safety, cheaper)
• Aim to make Worcester known as a walking and cycling city
• Assess where Worcester currently is, and make plans as to how we increase the rates of walking and cycling to hit the target
• Communicate that walking and cycling for short urban journeys are the preferred method of transport – this is the choice we want people to make
• Create Council Member Champion position with responsibility for Active Travel, spanning transport, health, economy, environment, education
• Worcester City Council has adopted the SHIFT scheme to incentivise active travel for employees and members; review performance and make improvements, and share success with local business to further incentivise active travel amongst the business community
• Create active travel taskforce of stakeholders to discuss and implement change
• Put benefits of active travel front and centre in discussions regarding local transport
• Measurement of active travel levels (counters, regular surveys, schools)
• Set targets for improvement (SMART)
• Lead by example – councillors visibly choosing active travel
• Communicate desire to create modal shift (council meetings, press releases, social media, campaigns)
• Communicate encouragement and reward for modal shift
• Promotion of positive choice from all parties (Council and Councillors)
• Incentives for individuals / businesses for modal shift
• Use of Strava Metro data
• Implement School Streets on a trial basis; if successful, make permanent
• Modal filters – reflect on the number of modal filters already in place in Worcester, and their success; identify additional potential modal filters
• Genuine engagement and consultation with informed stakeholders (local advocacy groups)

Infrastructure

• Dedicated annual budget as part of Highways for changes to benefit cycling
• Acknowledgement that current infrastructure and network is poor; identify improvements
• Create through routes across Worcester town centre (North to South, East to West); remove TRO for cycling in pedestrianised areas
• Review all city barriers, and start redesign / removal
• Review all TROs re. cycling down alleys / modal filters – share with care where appropriate
• Communicate desire for public engagement as to how to improve the public realm
• Provide open system for collection and collation of improvement ideas in public realm, made visible to the public, including how suggestions are progressing
• Attempt to make visible changes (even if low cost or small) to demonstrate intention to improve
• LCWIP targeted to increase journeys made by bike
• Review one-way streets and consider contra flow for bikes

Schools and education

• Support implementation of Bike Buses in all Worcester schools
• Implementation of School Street trials
• Survey of current travel choice
• Update travel plans to schools
• Undertake project to identify barriers to active travel, problems and improvements
• Schools encouraged to sign up to active travel schemes

West Mercia Police

• Adopt Vision Zero (zero Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) Road Traffic Collisions (RTC))
• Communicate desire to protect vulnerable road users
• Greater visibility of police on bikes
• Communication of Operation Snap statistics
• Education of motorists regarding requirement for protection of vulnerable road users
• Education of motorists regarding illegal behaviour

I look forward to working together with you and to continue to improve the city with regard to active travel, and all the additional benefits this brings to everyone who lives, works and visits our city.Dan BrothwellChair Bike WorcesterSHIFT Scheme