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Boardman named Active Travel England commissioner

Our chair takes on the role in an interim capacity and will oversee the appointment of the body's first chief executive and management team.

22nd January 2022

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Our chair Chris Boardman will lead the government’s cycling and walking executive agency after he was confirmed as the interim commissioner of the newly formed Active Travel England.

First announced in 2020, as part of the government’s £2 billion Gear Change plan for a cycling and walking revolution, Active Travel England (ATE) launched today.

It will be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget – awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality.

Having already delivered the first phase of Manchester’s cycling and walking public transport system, The Bee Network, Chris will now be closely involved in the recruitment of the ATE chief executive and management team.

“The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving,” said the Barcelona 1992 Olympic gold medallist – who’s been appointed on an interim basis while the Department for Transport conduct a full and open competition for the permanent role.

“Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.  

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars. I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies. 

“This will be a legacy we will proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.” 

ATE’s remit will see them be a statutory consultee on major planning applications, to ensure the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclists.

This will be a legacy we will proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.

The body, which will be based in York from this summer, will improve and inspect schemes, as well as inspect and publish reports on highway authorities for their performance on active travel, while identifying particularly dangerous failings in their infrastructure.

In addition to this, it will also help councils to create ambitious schemes that will help enable active travel, as well as training staff and spreading good practice in design, implementation and public engagement.

And news of the body’s formation pleased our chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth.

“The creation of Active Travel England is hugely welcome news as part of the government and Sport England’s continued work to help more people get cycling and walking,” he said.

“A critical part our Uniting the Movement strategy is the creation of safe spaces for activity, which is fundamental to helping people to make moving and exercise part of their everyday lives.  

“Active Travel England’s role as a statutory consultee on major planning applications will ensure developments to local communities consider the needs of residents and their ability to choose cycling or walking as viable and safe travel choices.

“It means active travel can become a way of life for communities all over the country, providing a vital boost to health, wellbeing and the environment.

“It’s also great news that Chris Boardman will be at helm of Active Travel England as interim commissioner alongside his role as Sport England Chair.

“His impact as Greater Manchester’s Transport Commissioner can serve as a model for a better-balanced transport network throughout the nation.

“And as a rightly respected expert in this area, Chris is both well placed and hugely committed to helping both Sport England and Active Travel England deliver on ambitions to make cycling and walking the go to option for shorter journeys.”

Also announced today is a further £5.5m of funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes.

The money is being split between a £300,000 top up to the e-cargo bike scheme, £3m to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations and £2.2m to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ programmes.

These prescription programmes are currently in the form of feasibility studies as the government looks to embed active travel into our established system of social prescribing.

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Chris Boardman appointed as interim commissioner of Active Travel England

British cycling policy adviser chris boardman has today been named as the first national commissioner of the government’s new cycling and walking body, active travel england..

Active Travel England will be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality. 

It will also begin to inspect highway authorities for their performance on active travel and identify particularly dangerous failings in their highways for cyclists and pedestrians, and will help local authorities by training staff and spreading good practice in design, implementation and public engagement. The body will be a statutory consultee on major planning applications to ensure that the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclists.   

Having campaigned on behalf of British Cycling members for better and safer spaces to cycle as our Policy Adviser since 2012, in 2017 he was appointed as Greater Manchester’s first Cycling and Walking Commissioner, leading on the development of the 1,800 mile Bee Network. In 2021, he was named as the Chair of Sport England.

Through his role with British Cycling Chris has been instrumental in driving the case for active travel up the political agenda, and rallying support behind vital changes in areas including dangerous junctions and updating the Highway Code.

Responding to his appointment, Boardman said:

“The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving. Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars. I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.

“This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

British Cycling Chair, Frank Slevin, added:

“For more than a decade Chris has been a tireless advocate for active travel and has played a vital role in the progress made over recent years in bringing the case out of the shadows and into the very heart of Government.

“I know that Chris will approach this interim position with the same rigour, focus and determination for which he is so renowned, and those traits will be more valuable than ever before as the Government embarks upon implementing its transformational Gear Change vision.

“I’m incredibly proud that British Cycling has been able to support Chris throughout that time, and his journey should act as a reminder of the power of elite sport, and the voice of our members, in driving real societal change.”

You can support our campaigning efforts by joining British Cycling as a member from just £26. Find out more here .

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Chris Boardman becomes the first commissioner of Active Travel England

Former cyclist will head up the new cycling and walking body, which is responsible for £5.5 million investment in active travel schemes

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Chris Boardman has been chosen as the first national commissioner for Active Travel England, the government’s new cycling and walking body.

The former Hour Record holder is to be in interim charge of the organisation, which launches today. It will be responsible for improving the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality.  

Boardman said that active travel can help in every situation. "Pick a crisis. We can help you with all of them. Health, climate crisis, pollution, segregation, levelling up. Pick one, and here's the evidence that says this is the right way to go."

Active Travel England will be building on the government's strategy for active travel, Gear Change , which was released last year. In that report, Boris Johnson, the prime minister, wrote: "This document aims to kick off the most radical change to our cities since the arrival of mass motoring."

>>> Cycling groups welcome proposals to introduce road pricing to London

In 2020 Johnson officially launched the “cycling and walking revolution” with a  £2 billion investment  to be spent on thousands of miles of cycle lanes, cycling lessons for children and adults and plans to strengthen the Highway Code to protect cyclists and pedestrians.

On Saturday, £5.5 million in extra investment in cycling and walking has been announced, which includes a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes. 

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Boardman will be involved in the set up of the new body, including the recruitment of the chief executive and management team, while the Department for Transport conducts a search for a permanent commissioner.

In a press release, the former Olympian said: "The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving. Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise."

Speaking to Cycling Weekly , Boardman argued that the government's strategy was "a work of art". He continued: "It's so logical, it's so integrated with all other forms of transport. And it means when you're doing, and getting funding for, buses or city developments, you must incorporate active travel. That's fantastic stuff. 

"Setting up a new agency, an arms-length body is a big deal. It takes a bit of time, and at last it's on the way. The point of me coming in as interim is to just get that going, because there are lot of commitments and spending that need to happen before the agency even exists."

Active Travel England is to approve and inspect schemes, and will help local authorities, training staff and spreading good practice in design, implementation and public engagement. It is also to be a statutory consultee on major planning applications to ensure that the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclist.

Boardman said: "We will set up our ability to act as a statutory consultee on all planning for anything over 150 houses. Anything that's built in the future must have active travel in it. It is amazing. I have been doing this for a very long time, and we've gone way past unprecedented. I think it's the biggest investment since the 1940s, which is sensational."

He also said that we need to "break the stereotype of what a cyclist is". 

"It's just people, doing normal things, in normal clothes, when they have a genuine attractive choice to not use a car," Boardman explained. "When you put it like that, people are with you. People don't want to have to give their kids a lift to school every day. 

"Hundreds of hours sat in a car, and you don't need to, and the only reason you do it is you don't feel safe enough to let them go under their own steam. Everybody is with you, if you make sure you use common knowledge."

Statistics from the Department for Transport show that while 45.7% more people were cycling in 2020 than 2019, the highest level since the 1960s, in 2019 people were using their cars for over 278 billion miles.

Boardman said: "There are 20 billion extra miles being driven around than there were just ten years ago. It's not sustainable, and it has taken away the right to do anything other than drive, and that's what we've got to unpick. 

"Things like social prescribing, that's really progressive policy. People aren't going to do it if they don't have safe space. It all comes together once you've made the safe space."

To move to his new position, he is stepping down as transport commissioner for Greater Manchester.

"I've changed my relationship with Manchester but it's still there," Boardman explained. "I effectively went on a very intensive four-year course and I'm incredibly grateful to Andy Burnham for that experience, and then I finished it off with a six-month masters by being transport commissioner. 

"I wouldn't be in a position to be able to get into this without my time in Manchester. This transcends politics, it's stuff we have to do."

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Adam is Cycling Weekly ’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling on tarmac, he's happy. Before joining Cycling Weekly he spent two years writing for Procycling, where he interviewed riders and wrote about racing. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds. Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.

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Chris boardman heads up active travel england.

In a move welcomed by cycling organisations, Chris Boardman has been appointed the national commissioner for the government’s new cycling and walking body, Active Travel England.

Active Travel England was promised in the Department for Transport’s cycling and walking strategy, Gear Change back in 2020.

The new funding body and inspectorate is expected to be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality. 

With much of the burden on local authorities now to start delivering on the government’s ambition to make cycling the normal choice for shorter journeys in England, Active Travel England’s launch is timely, says Cycling UK’s chief executive, Sarah Mitchell.

“We welcome an Active Travel England that will both support and enforce local authorities' improvements to cycling and walking in their areas, and get best value for money,” said Sarah.

Cycling UK sees the potential of Active Travel England as a force for good. The charity believes it will enable local authorities not just to see the opportunities encouraging more cycling and walking will bring, but also help spread best practice in both urban and rural areas.

Key to all this is the appointment of Chris Boardman as interim commissioner, former gold medal winner Olympian and Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester.

“The creation of this body brings real opportunities as does Chris Boardman's leadership,” said Sarah. “As we’ve seen both on the track and in Manchester, we know he always rises to the challenge and Cycling UK looks forward to working with him over the months to come.”

As we’ve seen both on the track and in Manchester, we know he [Chris Boardman] always rises to the challenge and Cycling UK looks forward to working with him over the months to come Cycling UK's chief executive, Sarah Mitchell

Boardman's role will initially see him be closely involved in the full stand-up of Active Travel England, including the recruitment of the chief executive and management team. He has been appointed on an interim basis, while the Department for Transport conducts a full and open competition for the permanent commissioner role.   

Active travel commissioner for England Chris Boardman said:   

“The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving. Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars. I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.

“This will be a legacy we will proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

In addition to the Department for Transport’s announcement about the launch of Active Travel England, £5.5 million has been allocated for local cycling and walking schemes including £300k for e-cargo bike schemes; a further £3 million has been allocated for cycle parking at 23 train stations and dedicated cycle routes to five.

The government has also allocated part of a £2.2 million pot to 30 local authorities to carry out feasibility studies into creating “cycling and walking on prescription schemes”, which was promised in the Conservative Party manifesto in 2019. Cycling UK’s Cycle for Health scheme in West Yorkshire Combined Authority has already shown how successful these schemes can be.

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Chris Boardman to lead new active travel agency

Olympic cycling gold medallist Chris Boardman is to lead a new Government agency tasked with improving cycling and walking infrastructure in England

The Department for Transport announced that Mr Boardman has been appointed interim commissioner of Active Travel England (ATE), which launches on Saturday.

ATE is responsible for managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding to projects that improve health and air quality.

This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations

Chris Boardman

It will approve and inspect active travel schemes, and identify failings in highways which are dangerous for vulnerable road users.

The new body will also help spread good practice in design, implementation and public engagement in relation to new infrastructure.

The agency will be headquartered in York from the summer.

Meanwhile, the Government announced £5.5 million of investment in cycling and walking schemes.

This includes: – £3 million to boost cycling infrastructure around railway stations. – £2.2 million to explore active travel being prescribed on the NHS. – £300,000 for electric cargo bike initiatives.

Mr Boardman, who delivered the first phase of Greater Manchester’s active travel system known as the Bee Network, said the positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are “clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving”.

He continued: “Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars.”

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He added: “This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

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Chris Boardman heads newly-launched government body Active Travel England

Chris Boardman has been appointed interim commissioner of a new governmental body, Active Travel England, which has been tasked with implementing the Gear Change strategy, among other things.

The former world and Olympic champion cyclist turned cycling and walking campaigner says there is an opportunity to create “a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations,” and that “it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

The creation of the government agency, which will be based in York from this summer, was announced in the Gear Change: a bold new vision for walking and cycling strategy published by the Department for Transport in July 2020.

Launching Active Travel England today, the DfT said that it “will be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality.”

The new entity “will also begin to inspect, and publish reports on, highway authorities for their performance on active travel and identify particularly dangerous failings in their highways for cyclists and pedestrians.

“As well as approving and inspecting schemes,” it will also “help local authorities, training staff and spreading good practice in design, implementation and public engagement. It will be a statutory consultee on major planning applications to ensure that the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclists.” 

Boardman, who has taken on the role of interim commissioner on a temporary, pro bono basis, will be “closely involved” in setting up Active Travel England, including recruiting its chief executive and management team.

The DfT says that it will be conducting a “a full and open competition for the permanent commissioner role.”

Boardman said: “The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving.

“Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.” 

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars,” he continued.

“I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.

“This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations,” Boardman added. “It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

During his racing career Boardman, now aged 53, won Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992 and world championships on the road and track, as well as wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

In retirement, besides heading research and development ant British Cycling, building his own successful bike brand that he sold to Halfords in 2014 for £20 million and his role as a TV pundit, Boardman became increasingly active in campaigning for cycling safety for everyday riders.

His common sense, articulate approach won him many supporters among cycling campaigners, and when the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group – now the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) – recommended in its 2013 Get Britain Cycling report that the government appoint a national cycling champion for England, Boardman was seen by many as the obvious candidate should such a role be created.

> Minister for cycling hints at cycling champion appointment, Chris Boardman wants “significant powers”

Ruth Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth and co-chair of the APPGCW, said of today’s news:  “The launch of Active Travel England, with Chris Boardman as the interim commissioner, is a fantastic step in the right direction for increasing levels of cycling and walking. 

“Having one body responsible for increasing standards of infrastructure, with statutory powers, will help meet the government's ambitious target of half of urban journeys being walked or cycled by 2030. 

“We look forward to working with Chris and the whole Active Travel England team so that everyone can enjoy the reduced congestion, better air quality and improved public health that comes with higher levels of cycling and walking,” she added.

Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Trudy Harrison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DfT with responsibility for active travel, said: “Cycling and walking is not only beneficial for our health and the environment, but can also be great fun and is a brilliant way to connect communities. 

“This funding is about giving people across the country the opportunity to different forms of travel, as well as supporting local businesses with the transition to greener transport.”

She added: “I’m very much looking forward to working with our new active travel commissioner to improve standards for everyone.”   

During the past five years Boardman, whose mother Carol was killed when she was knocked off her bike by a van driver in 2016 , has been developing Greater Manchester’s Bee Network of active travel routes in his role as the city-region’s active travel commissioner and more recently its transport commissioner.

The DfT says that he will be giving up that role to focus on his task at Active Travel England, although he will retain the position of chair to Sport England to which he was appointed in June last year.

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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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38 comments.

Let's hope he doesn't have his hands tied like most of the others in jobs like this, a figure head to make things look kosher!

To be honest having Yorkshire as the base, and no disrespect to yorkshire or the people that live there, it is the wrong place for the HQ! I may be biased as I live in North Northumberland, but it would be a better base to start with given how rundown our PRoW's and cycle paths are. One only has to watch TV or read any of the publications, Yorkshire has a fantastic PRoW/cycling path network that is well publicised, Northumberland however is a totally different story! We may get the tour of Britain come through specific locations, but check the media, very little footage and no publicity! Plus whilst Northumberland County Council pushes getting out and about on foot or cycle, they do very little in the heart of the county to aid this. Go to the larger towns in the south of the county and there are many new footpaths and cycleways, the county council have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions, providing safer places to cycle or walk!

Head north of Morpeth and try to walk any of the multitude of PRoW's (supposedly) looked after by NCC, you'll find then either overgrown and/or practicably unpassable! If you can find them, the majority have missing waymarks and/or fingerposts, they may be marked on the definitive map the county hold, but it's difficult to find them on the ground! Cycling routes are much the same, only NCR68 is well posted, byways and bridleways may be part of the PRow network, but we're allowed to ride them on bikes, but again try finding them, and if you do you'll probably find you'll be walking and not riding due to their condition!

Our esteemed county councilors, present and previous are not interested in hearing about it, nor is our current MP. As with many Cycling UK members, I filled in the forms and letters supplied by Cycling UK, and sent to our councillors and MP's to hopefully persuade them to attend meeting for additional funding aimed at increasing the support for walking and cycling networks! From my experience, and having spoken to many others that filled in those forms, the replies received were generic prewritten and meaningless, not one councilor or MP replied with any comment on the topic of the letters/forms, they did thank us for taking the time to organise events and clubs for walking or cycling, something that was never even mentioned!

So St Chris needs to be on guard and fully aware he is likely to be shortly banging his head against a very thick brick wall! I wish him all the luck. 

As individuals up here in the north of the county we walk and ride where we can, pleading with the council to insist farmers/landowners abide by the law and maintain the PRoW's on their land, sadly the council's PRoW department has it hands tied by a lack of funds and resources thanks to central government, and who runs this new unit! We'll continue to do our best to keep ways open, but our scope is limited by age (we're all over 60) and manpower (some won't go against the council). Recently we've had more luck getting things done through the Rural Payments Agency, they distribute and control payments made to landowners/farmers for keeping the PRoW network on their land open, they can withhold and apply fines if they do not comply. The councils can do this too, but politically they won't, in case they loose support to their parties from those same landowners/farmers.

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I'm going to choose to be optimisitic about this as St Boardman is pretty smart and is unlikely to be involved with something that is just empty policies. If he's on-board with it, then he must think that results are possible.

Quote: Chris Boardman has been appointed interim commissioner

Quote: of a new governmental body, Active Travel England, which has been tasked with implementing the Gear Change strategy, among other things.

Hmm... doubts appear.  Shouldn't this all be the remit of the Department for Transport?  If we want cycling and walking to be considered as ... transport?  And integrated into our existing systems? Because the government has said we need less internal combustion engines and less cars in general, yes?

Maybe not to start with - like a supertanker the DfT will take a lot of time and effort to redirect!

Quote: the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Oh - they're sidelining him.  He's been put in charge of paperclips.

Maybe that's unfair, this is a new thing after all. So let's see where the actual money in the last budget is going . Lots to read through and I'm not sure if some of this is "recycled" e.g. a new promise of already-allocated funds, but:

£24 billion between 2020-21 and 2024-25 in strategic roads, delivering upgrades such as the A66 Trans-Pennine. £8 billion for repairs £35 billion of rail investment

But but £5.7 billion declared for "sustainable transport" in certain city regions!  Which when you check is mostly trains(!) and buses(!) although there is a *mention* of cyclists and pedestrians. I can't find a separate figure for them though. (The earlier reported "2 billion for active trave"l has been analysed elsewhere [ road.cc , cyclist mag , sustrans ]).

Compare: cost of freezing fuel duty 2011-2020 is estimated at a £50 billion loss of revenue .

So what's Gear Change done / spent in its first year then?

From the report here - over the course of 2020/21 the Government has provided £220 million to local authorities (Active Travel Fund - this was a Covid initiative ), £100 million to Transport for London, £20 million of revenue funding to local authorities (Access Fund) £20 million to the Fix Your Bike voucher scheme, £13 million BikeAbility, £2 million to Cycling UK , £2 million to Living Streets.

Not nothing although the £220 million was something of a covid windfall. I make that 377 million. It's not clear whether this is representative of what the regular spend will be like. Taking that whole figure it's about 6% of the anual "investment" declared for road building (not including repairs) in the budget. In Scotland the decision was that 10% of the overall transport budget was the baseline spend for active travel which would make the UK's efforts look even smaller. Might be worth comparing how much the Dutch spend on this [ 2010 , 2018 ].

chrisonatrike wrote: Quote: the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Maybe that's unfair

I think it might be. I'm not saying he won't be asked to do it on a shoestring, but I'm not sure this £5.5m has any relevance to what the ATE budget, or overall spending on active travel, will be. It appears to be a separate announcement that's just been thrown out at the same time as his appointment.

I know - this £5.5 million is something different.  My point is that with every "active travel - it's great!  We get it!" announcement comes either no money at all, or a sum which puts the real "priority" of this into focus (e.g. not important at all).

See also comment from Prosper0 RE: Cycling England. I remember watching the head of Cycling UK pointing out to some further "enquiry" last year that it's been 25 years since all that and here we are, back at the same point.

So - we'll see. Hopefully Manchester's loss will be the UK's gain.

Absolutely - if we go on past records it's hard to be anything other than pessimistic. But then that's always going to be the case until it isn't, so...

Swings and roundabouts. The return of Cycling England!  Will this organisation also be saddled with a laughable budget and direction? Reformation of an independent new body will also allow the DfT to scapegoat, remove the issue of cycling away from central government and to wash its hands as inevitably every national cycling target fails.

Let's be honest here. 

One positive is that ATE will have powers with respect to large planning applications.

In North Yorkshire, any cycling infra at new developments is token, abysmal, and useless. The council has started mentioning LTN 1/20, but completely ignoring what it actually says.

It needs a body like ATE to force them to change, otherwise they never will.

"responsible for driving up the standards of cycling" An unfortunate turn of phrase!

my only reservation with appointing Chris B in the role, and maybe this is why its only interim for the moment, is that he ends up spreading himself too thinly across all of his work & progress slows, and this is going to be a tough job.

making change in Manchester or even London is relatively easy, and I know people will say but what about Kensington or whatever, trust me its still easier even with those councils undermining things all the time, than pushing the same kind of stuff out into the regions where theres been no cycling revolution, most regional councils are still firmly welded to motor vehicles, not active travel.

Even those that hint they might just get it, like the East Suffolk cycling and walking strategy had over 200 recommended changes for active travel, but covering a tiny fraction of their area, and the majority of which Chris B would laugh at as outdated not meeting any national standard & about as much use as a chocolate teapot. But they are the only council in Suffolk who have produced anything, Babergh, Mid Suffolk, West Suffolk, Ipswich arent doing anything, and most of the changes Suffolk county council (yeah local government gets complicated) installed as part of the emergency active travel funding are slowly being unwound for fear of upsetting the motorists.

And thats one county, multiply that kind of stuff as Im sure its no different elsewhere, by the 47 other counties in England and you get a feel for the kind of job he has on his hands.

what we really need is 48 mini Chris Bs able to push the kind of change through at the local level, because just having the 1 at the national level, I think the messages will be too diluted by the time they hit the ground.

we shall see, Im generally always pessimistic in my outlook, but I wish him all the success & support in it as I think he will need it.

BOARDMAN FOR PRESIDENT!!!

EddyBerckx wrote: BOARDMAN FOR PRESIDENT!!!

He's honest, personable, intelligent and talks sense, he wouldn't stand a chance.

I remember chatting to Chris at the end of a stage of the PruTour at Blackpool. Earlier on in the stage they had gone over the Nick 'O Pendle and on the descent Chris had T Boned a sheep which had been spooked by the helicopter. Even though he was cut and bruised, and about to go to hospital for checks, Chris was happy to chat to me and pose for a photograph. A truly fantastic down to earth guy.

The hate filled, institutionally anti cyclist guardian has a bit by Chris 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/22/walking-cycling-sa...

Unfortunately not behind a paywall...

And of course, best of luck Chris.

Harrison and the DfT have shown some real ambition in appointing Boardman. They know he's going to hold them to a high standard so must have confidence in delivering.

The DfT have done some great work on active travel recently, hopefully this will be a continuation of that.

Excellent news! If anyone can prise people from cars, it's going to be St Boardman. I hope he gets the permanent role.

Hopefully he will be able to get local planners to adopt a consistent and effective definition of what constitutes good cycling infrastructure and then start to build it.

Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time? Nothing better to do. He's done a lot more than you have. What have you done for cycling in your lifetime?

biker phil wrote: Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time?

Seems an undeservedly generous description.

biker phil wrote: Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time? Nothing better to do. He's done a lot more than you have. What have you done for cycling in your lifetime?

The double Garage is responsible for an outbreak of politeness and courtesy on the roads apparently, although maybe not so much on the forums...

Hey garridge why don't you just fuck off you complete waste of space.

It remains to be seen how effective ATE will be, but with St CB in charge, it has a chance.

In an incredible break with tradition, the BBC mentioned this on R4 news this morning!  Maybe they'll even mention cycling and walking as much as 1% as they mention electric cars.

Exactly, he has done well at Manchester helping with and promoting the bee network of joined up cycling infrastructure. Whilst a metro conurbation is smaller then the country, he might at least be able to put in place joined up thinking nationally which several of us have lamented the lack of previously. 

Still, at least someone to stand up against the anal openings who promote tabards and lying videos of legal cycling. 

Action on the ground in Greater Manchester has been notably slim pickings though. Some of that is because he's got no real teeth so getting all the GM councils to actually do anything is difficult. They can just ignore the bee network plan if they want to. Andy Burnham has no teeth either. Bolton or Rochdale can just ignore them.

I hope ATE have greater powers than Chris has had at GM otherwise ATE will get nothing done but from the looks of it the "interim" role is just to set it up and recruit a full commisioner and team.

"Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes"

£5.5 million is surely a typo as it would take £5.5 billion to actually start to get people using active travel as their default option. £5.5 million wouldn't even pay for a politician's wallpaper.

Unless the government wants active travel to fail......

Such cynicism! Come on now, £5.5M would buy almost 300 yards of motorway, or one five-thousandth of a failed track and trace system, how can you accuse them of a lack of commitment? 

Also apparently not 'new funding' - just reannounced funding.

Yeah, I saw this and thought it must be a typo, as £5.5 million wouldn't go far at all.

geomannie 531 wrote: "Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes" £5.5 million is surely a typo as it would take £5.5 billion to actually start to get people using active travel as their default option. £5.5 million wouldn't even pay for a politician's wallpaper. Unless the government wants active travel to fail......

^ This. I read the Guardian article this morning and the item came up on the Today programme whilst I was preparing breakfast, so I drew my wife's attention to it. She said "that's good", I then pointed out the level of funding which she hadn't picked up on.

It's great to have CB in this role. I only hope he can do something get the required funding. 5.5 billion would be a start.

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That's down to the people elected to run your local authority then!

Careless driving. Didn't even amount to dangerous....

Please stop putting words in all caps. This isn't the Daily Mail.

Rosie Holt (Tory MP) has tweeted "It was today I learned that immigrants are CLOGGING UP THE ROADS #bbcdebate" Finally, it's not cyclists!

I don't have huge arms, but I don't have cyclist arms, so maybe ten to thirty seconds? I've never tried....

Apparently Ribble have sourced & sent a bunch of replacement bikes to them

This appears to be a reprint of a review I read some months ago. Wot, no fresh content?

...you shall have an extra like for that!

That Dekker is a bit of a character though. Thijs Zonneveld had some interesting things to say about him a while back.

Did you bother reading the comments below, hence my post.

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It's amazing what you discover just pedalling along...

Early Years

I am married to Sally-Anne Boardman and have six children, two dogs and a cat. We have lived on the Wirral peninsula for nearly 30 years.

Trained as a carpenter, nobody outside of the sport of cycling would have known who I was until 1992, when I took Great Britain's opening Gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics astride the infamous Lotus bike. It was Britain's first cycling Gold medal in 72 years. The iconic image of the Lotus machine and pointy helmet made my name synonymous with cutting edge technology. It was a fascination I would come back to later in the journey.

Image curtesy of Phil O'Conner

Professional Cycling

I started my Professional cycling career in late 1993. Over the following 8yrs I held the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France on three separate occasions, took three World titles on track and road and broke several world records. Follow link below for breakdown of my results in Professional Cycling.

Whilst a Professional athlete I also served as a Board Member of the then UK Sports Council and was part of the launch of Lottery Funding for Sport. A moment that changed the Nation's sporting status to this day.

Secret Squirrel Club

I helped set up and lead the R&D branch of the Great Britain Olympic Cycling team. Over the next few years, the squad dominated the international scene, becoming the most successful British sporting team of all time. This small R&D group came to be known as the "Secret Squirrel Club" and played a significant part in creating that unprecedented sporting prosperity.

Boardman Bikes

During the same period, along with Sarah Mooney and Alan Ingarfield, I co-founded Boardman Bikes. Our focus on high quality at affordable prices helped us become the most respected and fastest growing British Bike Brand in decades.

Cycling Advocacy

I have been involved in Cycling Advocacy, largely through my role as Policy Advisor to British Cycling for more than a decade, an activity that led to my becoming Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester.

During my 4 years in post, I helped the Regions Leaders create a 1,800 mile cycling and walking network plan, a 1.5 billion pound project that will take ten-year to deliver. The methods and guidance we created have since been mirrored nationally.

In my final year working for the regional Mayor Andy Burnham, I became Transport Commissioner, responsible for the delivery of a fully integrated, London-Style transport network. Known as the Bee Network, the plan is now well into delivery and when complete it will ensure the people who live, work and play in the region, will have a viable and attractive alternative to using cars.

Sport England

As Chair of Sport England, I oversee an organisation that administers approximately 200 million pounds of funding to enable everyone in the country to access sport and be physically active. Our innovative strategy involves working in and with communities to empower them to make the changes needed in their neighbourhoods.

Active Travel England

Perhaps the biggest challenge I have ever faced though, is to lead a whole new organisation, Active Travel England. As Cycling and Walking Commissioner, I am charged with setting up this organisation and overseeing the administration of a 2 billion Pound budget. It will raise the standards of active travel infrastructure, and ensure that every large development in the country enables people to live without cars if they choose.

So far, it’s been quite a ride and my unwavering companion throughout has been the bicycle, a wonderful and simple device that reduces carbon, improves safety and gives health. It has the power to change a world if we create an environment where people feel able to trundle to shops, schools and workplaces under their own steam. My enduring mission is to help make that happen.

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Walking and cycling must be made safe in England. Here’s our plan to do just that

My mother was killed by a driver while I was campaigning for safer cycling. Now I’ve helped create a national travel strategy

A little over a decade ago my daughter Aggie asked me a question that changed the path of my working life. She asked: “Can we ride to the park?” It wasn’t her question that altered everything, it was my answer – which was: “No.”

We live in a typical northern seaside town, and the park in question was – I know because I measured it later – 549 metres away, a distance that takes a little over one minute to ride. I, an ex-Olympic cyclist, didn’t feel I could keep my daughter safe on our roads for one minute. And that felt very wrong. It wasn’t what I wanted for her, and it wasn’t the place I wanted to live. So I decided to do something about it.

It quickly became clear that advocating for cycling wasn’t hard. I could pick almost any topic in the news and more cycling made it better: health, climate, cost of transport, levelling up – the list goes on. Cycling was an easy cause to love.

It was a terrible irony then, that in 2016, while I was campaigning for safer cycling, my mother, Carol, was killed by a driver while out on a ride. The devastating experience galvanised my desire to ensure that anyone getting around on foot or by bike could be confident of doing so safely.

In 2017 a phone call from the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, gave me the opportunity to do just that and I became his cycling and walking commissioner . He and the region’s leaders had seen that active travel was the logical foundation for a sustainable, healthy transport system – as it is in towns and cities across the world. Over the course of the next four years, we planned a 1,800-mile network for the city region, not for “cyclists” but to enable people, doing everyday things in normal clothes, to do so without cars if they chose.

Mark from Stretford’s story is exactly what this is all about. As it does for millions of people, his day began by bundling his two boys into the back of the car and driving them less than a mile to the school, a stressful round trip at rush hour that could easily take half an hour even without having to find a parking space. Two round trips every day. A total of 190 hours – more than a week – of his and his sons’ lives spent in a car every year.

Then, as part of a local active neighbourhood, his council put in some planters and he realised he could now get to the kids’ school on quiet streets via a local park and avoid the morning melee. Mark now walks to school with his kids, who ride or scoot, every day. The trip takes just 10 minutes and it’s better than stress-free; it’s actually enjoyable with a bit of daily exercise thrown in for good measure.

Seeing what making safe space could do was incredible, so I was delighted when the national government produced its “Gear Change” strategy for England, setting out a clear roadmap to give everyone in the country the same choice as Mark. New national standards to make sure all cycling infrastructure is safe, an inspectorate to ensure councils adhere to the guidelines and training provision so local authorities could start doing this as a matter of course, were all part of the plan.

When the transport secretary asked me to help set up Active Travel England , the new executive agency that will be charged with delivering this vision, it was the most natural choice in the world to accept.

The body is exactly what is needed to give people the option to travel actively, to feel able to leave the car at home more often and help children get to school under their own steam. And to make sure this becomes an embedded part of our transport futures, it will act as a statutory consultee for all major developments, meaning developers will have to make high-quality provision for those who want to walk, wheel or ride.

We will give people the choice to enjoy rather than endure journeys and to kick off their day fresh and invigorated, not frustrated and irritated.

That’s the future Mark has now for himself and his two boys and it’s the one I want to help make for Aggie. I intend to make sure that when she has a family, she’ll be able to say “Yes” when they ask if they can ride to the park.

Chris Boardman is the interim commissioner of Active Travel England

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Active Travel England

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£101 million investment to boost cycling and walking nationwide

23 March 2024 — News story

Newly funded projects will provide even more people, especially in rural and deprived areas, the choice to travel by walking, wheeling or cycling.

£60 million government investment to transform the school run for 2 million children

29 September 2023 — News story

More children will have access to walk to school and cycle training programmes over the next 2 years, giving them better road skills.

Active Travel England to be consulted on all large planning applications

1 June 2023 — News story

As a statutory consultee, Active Travel England will help planning authorities implement good walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure.

Millions of people to benefit from £200 million to improve walking and cycling routes

19 May 2023 — News story

Funding will ease congestion across cities, transform the school run and provide a boost to high street businesses.

Active travel now accounts for 20% of all minutes of activity taken by adults in England

20 April 2023 — News story

More people than ever are regularly walking or cycling rather than using the car due to increases in the cost of living.

Alan Turing Institute partnership brings data expertise to nationwide walking and cycling schemes

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The collaboration will support Active Travel England and councils to offer schemes that benefit residents.

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We're working together with Active Travel England

18 Mar 2024

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We support the Government’s ambition that 50% of all trips in towns and cities will be on foot or by bike by 2030. We're also committed to reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads.

That's why we've signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Active Travel England to formalise stronger collaborative working between both our organisations.

Olympic legend and Active Travel England ambassador Chris Boardman MBE and our Chief Executive Nick Harris jointly signed the MOU.

This represents a mutual pledge to promote the benefits of active travel and a healthier future for all.

Chris Boardman was appointed National Active Travel Commissioner for Active Travel England in 2022. He's a former professional cyclist, participating in the Tour de France and winning a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in 1992.

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The signing followed a meeting with Roads Minister Guy Opperman MP to promote closer working between the two organisations.

Chris Boardman has worked in a variety of safer walking and cycling advocacy roles including being appointed in 2017 as Transport for Greater Manchester’s Transport Commissioner. He works as a pundit and commentator on BBC and ITV and has a large social media presence with 195k followers on Twitter, 17k followers on Linked In, and 12.7k on Instagram. Chris said:

"It’s so important that our roads are safe and accessible to everyone, which means making sure schemes consider every journey, including for everyone walking, wheeling and cycling.

“Active Travel England is teaming up with National Highways to make sure people can enjoy safe and pleasant journeys to work, school or the shops under their own steam. In turn they will reap the health benefits, save money and make more sustainable travel choices – it’s win-win for everyone."

National Highways Chief Executive Nick Harris said:

“We are very pleased to be working more closely with Active Travel England. We have a track record of investing in active travel provision, but we want to encourage earlier consideration when developing road schemes.

“National Highways is developing ‘an approach to active travel’ which will set our role, vision and priorities for active travel during the next roads period. This MOU signing is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate our commitment to active travel.”  

How we'll work together

Through our Designated Funds programme, we've already invested £70m in active travel schemes to improve safety, enable more active journeys and improve customer experience on the road network. We're set to invest a further £22m before the end of the second road period (2020-2025).

We'll work with Active Travel England to deliver joined-up national and regional active travel. We'll be sharing designs and ensuring maximum value from active travel investment

In May 2024, we'll host our first director-level meeting with Active Travel England to oversee a programme of active travel collaboration. Themes for discussion include:

• strategic direction and priorities
• scheme development
• engagement.

One of the first things both our organisation will be doing is a pilot in the Tyne area, covering A1, A19 and A194 (M). The pilot will investigate how active travel investment across our roads network could enable more walking and cycling for local trips to access to:

Find out more

Our Active travel pages explain more about the schemes we've delivered and out partnerships