On 12 February (2025) we announced almost £300 million of funding for walking, wheeling and cycling schemes in 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026. This will deliver 300 miles of brand new pavements and cycle routes to enable 30 million more journeys by walking and cycling every year. It will lead to 43,000 less sick days a year to ease pressure on the NHS.
The second phase of the Spending Review is now underway and the government will set out its spending plans for future years, including funding for walking, wheeling and cycling later in the spring.
I am today informing Parliament of my intention to publish a third cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS3) following the conclusion of the Spending Review. This will allow us to say more on the long-term funding for active travel, as required by the 2015 Infrastructure Act. The government will consult on CWIS3, with relevant stakeholders, ahead of its publication.
Intimidating behaviour from drivers, poor infrastructure and fears over safety are deterring more women in the UK from cycling compared with men, research has found, while bike sales continue to fall after the “Covid boom”.
The barriers to cycling have widened between men and women “across every measure in the past seven years”, according to research by Cycling UK, a charitable membership organisation.
A survey commissioned by the organisation found experiences of intimidating behaviour, such as drivers overtaking too closely and other threatening incidents, decreased by 5 percentage points for men, but remained consistent for women
More than half of women (58%) reported that their cycle journeys were limited by safety concerns and a lack of suitable infrastructure, while 36% of women also pointed to roads not feeling safe enough to cycle and a lack of dedicated cycle routes (23%) as significant barriers to cycling.
“This highlights the unique challenges women [cyclists] face, and a real need for safer streets and well-lit routes designed with the experiences of women in mind,” the report said.
The group said the importance of infrastructure and investment “cannot be overstated”, and is calling for the government to ramp up long-term investment in active travel, so it accounts for 10% of travel budgets.
Simon Irons, the data and insights director at the Bicycle Association, said tackling safety was key to encouraging cycling at all levels. “The number one barrier to cycling is consistently feeling safe on the road,” he said.
“Covid gave us safe roads and it is estimated brought 1 million extra cyclists out, which resulted in a 50% surge in largely leisure-related bike sales and a massive spike in cycling levels.”
This dipped again when cars returned, with many leisure cyclists deterred. “As the roads returned to normal, the new leisure cyclists disappeared and the industry has been dealing with the subsequent dip in sales and heavy overstocks since.”
The association’s latest annual market data service report, which covers 70% of the UK cycling market, says 2024 saw a “further decline”, with the total volume sales in 2024 “at a new low point”.
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