modalshift.org

Recommendations

Health Authority

The first step should be to lead by example and improve the situation in the NHS:

  • Encourage walking and cycling to work for health authority and NHS staff
  • Pay generous cycle and walking mileage allowances for business travel
  • Provide signage for pedestrian and cycle routes to all NHS sites, and produce clear information on how to reach NHS sites for pedestrians and cyclists
  • Provide lockers, showers, and secure cycle storage at all NHS sites
  • Work with other agencies to reduce transport-related health inequalities
  • Work with local employers to encourage non-car modes of transport
  • Support better collection of data on cycling injuries

Local Authorities - County, City, and Districts

  • Planning priorities should favour walking and cycling over motor transport wherever possible
  • Tackle the policy and implementation barriers inherent in the City/County split
  • Health impact assessment should be an integral part of the transport planning process
  • Greater public involvement in local decisions - including a consideration of the cycling needs of current non-cyclists
  • Work with police and other agencies to reduce traffic speeds and volumes in all areas where traffic has a negative impact on health, the environment and communities
  • Provide more secure cycle parking in busy areas, under cover where possible
  • Provide lockers, showers, secure cycle parking, etc for all local authority staff
  • Continue working towards providing an unbroken network of cycle lanes in the county
  • Work with law enforcement agencies to ensure tougher enforcement of parking regulations where infractions endanger vulnerable road users eg parking in cycle lanes

General issues

  • Improve joint working between local agencies to ensure a fully integrated approach to transport
  • Poor cyclist behaviour should be tackled with a combination of training, enforcement, and imaginative transport planning reducing the potential for conflicts
  • There should be greater police involvement in setting and enforcement of speed limits
  • Bus and taxi driver cyclist awareness training should be encouraged
  • Perform regular monitoring of the effectiveness and health impact of interventions to increase cycling

National

  • Lobby government to shift transport planning from its current car/bus/lorry focus to a much broader consideration of the health and social needs of all members of the population
  • Support a new approach to speed limits nationally - they should be evidence-based with consideration of public health impacts, road safety, social, environmental, and economic factors
  • Develop a greater awareness of the role of transport issues in health inequalities

    Top | Home | Previous | Next