Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will include in his Department's forthcoming Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy a commitment to create new road environment design standards to encourage cycle use among (a) children and young people, (b) women, (c) older people and (d) people with disabilities.

The draft Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy was published on 27 March 2016 for public consultation and we hope to publish the final Strategy shortly. The Department’s guidance in Local Transport Note 2/08: Cycle Infrastructure Design is comprehensive and allows councils to design good, safe schemes that encourages cycling across all demographics. The Department will consider how to refresh this guidance to take account of the new facilities to encourage cycling introduced in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016.

Furthermore, the Department is in the process of drafting an Accessibility Action Plan which seeks to address the barriers faced by disabled people in accessing public transport and the wider public realm. We have also begun the process of inviting proposals for a new programme of work to update our guidance on “Inclusive Mobility”. As part of this project we will also update our guidance on the use of tactile paving surfaces.