Systematic Exploitation of your Rural Assets - SUSTRANS

John Grimshaw, described by the BBC as ‘the antidote to Jeremy Clarkson’, said he was a little apprehensive to stand before a room of rural organisations since, in his experience, rural people often disliked cyclists! John has inspired thousands of people to make the National Cycle Network a reality. He has motivated funders, officials, his own staff and volunteers.

SUSTRANS is a charity which has been set up to change transport policy to make it sustainable in the UK. John covered three areas: the making of the national cycle network, climate change, and the challenges and opportunities for rural communities.

SUSTRANS, surprisingly, has become a landowner (although a modest one) as a result of its activities, and looks after its 4000 long and narrow "acres". 232 million journeys are made on the network in the UK (these statistics are provided by automatic counters on the paths). This figure, however, is still only 25% of the journeys made by rail - so there is still a lot of work to do.

SUSTRANS began in the late 70s because of the dire situation for cycling in the UK at the time, whereas other countries, such as Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden were way ahead of the UK (and largely remain so). SUSTRANS' first project transformed the Bristol to Bath cycling route and only four years after its construction, two million trips were being made each year on this particular cycle path. SUSTRANS then changed its focus of attention to towns in the South West. For example, the Bath to Devizes canal project now has 20 times more users than it originally began with. SUSTRANS have found that if they build their cycle trails to a high quality the cyclists will stick to the paths and not damage the adjacent environment.

An increasing number of projects has brought an increasing workforce (around 900 people at one point) employed from government training schemes. This increased capacity for carrying out projects brought many more multi-user routes into operation which permitted maximum usage (for example, parallel horse, cyclist and pedestrian trails). Local authorities then began to realise that cyclists were good for business, not only for the indirect beneficial impact on green tourism initiatives but also for the amount of local food they could consume en route!

SUSTRANS' £42 Million bid to the Millennium Commission (the figure 42 was based on the answer to the meaning of life to be found in Douglas Adams', 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy') met with success. This funding led to partnership working with local 

authorities and agencies which enabled 5,000 miles of infrastructure route being constructed by June 2000. The initiative was extremely successful and achieved three times its original target in terms of the number of routes constructed.

SUSTRANS took over the overall coordination and development of the National Cycle Network (NCN) which nowadays includes 500 miles of green ways and 1,100 bridges and structures. These are often purchased for a token £1 because of their poor condition and the cost of maintainance. A third of their annual budget is spent on maintenance.

There are also some 2,500 voluntary rangers who micro manage their local networks and ensure good signposting. A local sense of ownership has been developed by working with school on cycle to school projects and bringing in local artists, such as sculpteurs and and mosaic artists to work with the local communities to construct benches and milestone markers. On some of these, individual have been able to contribute their own particular patch of mosaic. This greater sense of local ownership has ensured local paths and benches are looked after rather than succumbing to vandalism.

John Grimshaw's overall messages on behalf of SUSTRANS is that we should all remember that pedestrians and cyclists are important and that the National Cycle Network is the largest environmental intervention in the UK promoting public health.

Reducing long-distance travel by making nearer places more attractive. John said this should mean in the future, "Sherwood rather than the Trossachs" or "Snowden rather than the Himalayas."

This year’s conference venue, Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest, has endeavoured to support the ideas of SUSTRANS by including a bike with every delegate package.

You are invited to comment on this article and your personal experiences in the saddle...did you meet the people in this photograph taken outside The Venue?

The presentation from this session is available on the ruralnet|2006 conference area of ruralnet|online.

Delegates will need your ruralnet|online login details and password. If you have forgotten or mislaid them, email support@ruralnet.org.uk or call 0845 130 5480.

If you did not attend the conference but would like to access presentations and more from this year's conference visit www.ruralnet.org.uk/join.htm for your free 14-day trial of ruralnet|online.

Comments

[Mark Firth - Yorkshire Forward]

Dear all 
Thanks for a good event, informative and entertaining.  Congratulations to all involved.

I have looked at the reports on the website - a couple of comments

The coverage of John Grimshaw's presentation missed a couple of things that particularly struck me -

•The negative correlation between cycling and walking to school and work and obesity across European countries

•Bold and provocative suggestions on increasing targets for the reduction of CO2 gases and how this might be done.

Mark Firth

[Malcolm Lawrence]

The supply of cycles for our use to go around the Centre Park was brilliant. Being of very Senior years with a long time lapse of using a cycle, I would have very much liked the use of some Adult Stabalisers to use.

Once again a magnifisent Conference, with the standard of care and assistance from Ruralnet Staff well above and beyond the call of duty. Many thanks to you all

Malcolm

[Malcolm Lawrence]

I would again make the recomendation I made at the Sustrans presentation. Catch the First National Bus Service or the National Rail Service to Penzance and Hire a Bicycle to ride around Mounts Bay, one the Four most beatifull Bays in the World. No being caught in any Traffic Hold-ups Speelling??)
This is Gods own Country