Cycling: Infrastructure

Lord Davies of Oldham Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Oldham]

My Lords, following on from the previous question, is the Minister not concerned that the accident rate for cyclists is increasing alarmingly, especially in London? Cyclists have a particular problem in coping with large roundabouts where there are no regulated lanes. Several of the deaths have occurred at such roundabouts. Why do the Government not take up the programme that the Times has launched, “Cities fit for cycling”, in which it says that in order to get dedicated cycle lanes and improve our safety record we need £100 million a year spent on cycling?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that we are paying close attention to the Times campaign for the very reasons that the noble Lord points out. This is of course a Question about the Highways Agency, which has a range of local network management schemes to make improvements where cycle routes cross the strategic route network or there are segregation problems.