Merseyside risks being stuck in the 1950s if it doesn’t continue to make strides developing its active travel infrastructure, according to its cycling and walking commissioner.
Simon O’Brien, the commissioner for the Liverpool City Region, said that Liverpool is currently “miles behind” other UK cities which have already taken the steps to develop a modern active travel infrastructure for residents.
Speaking at the City Region’s very first Active Travel Summit’ last week, Mr O’Brien however added that Merseyside has been presented with an “opportunity to play catch up” with a number of successful funding bids secured by the Combined Authority. The latest comes in the form of £12m which will go towards projects in six of the Region’s boroughs, with Mayor Steve Rotheram, when announcing the funding, saying that he wants “to start an active travel revolution” and provide the region’s residents with “a quality alternative to the car.”
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The latest round of funding to help create segregated bike paths, footways and improve junctions follows on from £30m of investment which has already gone towards new walking and cycling infrastructure across the city region. But there remain challenges to ensure the infrastructure that is delivered is done to the right quality - otherwise it won’t receive Government funding, according to O’Brien.
Part of his role over the last year has been to locate the ‘disconnects’ in the region’s cycling and walking infrastructure and consider ways of joining up expensive cycle lane developments with one another - such as those now at The Strand and Regent Road. Regarding the importance of the first ‘summit’ held by the City Region, which also featured talks from Chris Boardman and transport charity Sustrans, Mr O’Brien said it’s essential that bodies across Merseyside “come together across the political spectrum and bring Liverpool city region kicking and screaming into the 21st century.”
He added: “In this whole region, there has been this adage for years that cycling is what they do on the continent. Well I'm sorry, it's also what they do in Newcastle, Manchester, London, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol.
“We're not a little bit behind, we're miles behind. This is the opportunity to play catch up. We need to fill in the gaps [on our network] first and then get involved in debate and consultation. Otherwise the money will disappear again and Liverpool will be stuck in 1958.”
Chris Boardman, Gold Medal winning Olympic cyclist and now head of Active Travel England, noted how the region’s active travel “journey” is now “kicking off”, bolstered by the reliability of Merseyrail for being able to provide “a head start” in offering a sustainable alternative to driving
The Wirral born cyclist added: “From a meeting like today, I want to see a map. I want to see the grand plan for the region. So when you are having issues, you can see that it is context and we actually have something people are proud of - [knowing] what they are doing for our future and our kids’ future.”
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram echoed Mr Boardman’s comments in regards to the environment and using active travel as a means for getting closer to the region’s net carbon goals. Asked if he foresaw any challenges in asking people to ditch cars they may be reliant on in the midst of a cost of living crisis, he said it is not an “either or”.
He told the ECHO: “Active travel is not about making people who are going through a Tory cost of living crisis poorer. This is about giving them a genuine quality option to use a cycle instead of a car.
“Cars still need to be part of the overall transport network. But they're not the solution. We have to find solutions to the problem we're currently facing. The climate emergency is the existential threat to the planet - we want to do our bit.”
