“YOU give people a 1950s level of car usage and they feel safer, they get on their bicycles, the air quality improves, people are fitter and, yes, happier, because cycling in fun, and I think the city council has see the opportunity that can provide.”
The words of Adam Tranter, Coventry’s Bicycle Mayor, just the second bicycle mayor in the UK and the first in a major British city.
And even as the car owning public gradually increases the volume of traffic on Coventry’s congested streets, Adam’s argument is impossible to dismiss.
A third of its residents do not have access to a car – in a city built around the car.
One in 18 people in Coventry die from pollution-related illnesses, and that haze you see across the city?
Those are PM2.5 particulates, and 98 per cent of roads in Coventry have PM2.5 emissions above World Health Organisation guidelines. Indeed Coventry places towards bottom of the rankings for predicted UK city-wide air pollution concentrations.
Add in the Climate Emergency and the need for change becomes irrefutable.
Adam became Bicycle Mayor in February last 2020, just as the pandemic was hitting.
But even as the lockdown came into force and the virus started to take its terrible toll, the part the humble bicycle could play in the nation’s response was recognised by central government.
Bike shops stayed open, sales soared and people took to two wheels on the UK’s suddenly quiet roads.
And levels have stayed high, offering an opportunity to genuinely build back better.
“The city council didn’t really know what to make of me at first; I’m independent of them and I hope I’m seen as a trusted critical friend, but I got cycling on the agenda and full credit to the council, they really do want to get more people cycling.”
The response has been impressive, work is underway on a bike lane in Coundon Road with plans for another to Binley Business Park and also to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
“Coventry is a compact city, perfect for short trips by bike and these are not your typical painted cycle lanes on the road but segregated active travel lanes giving priority to cyclists,” said Adam.
“Safety is the number one concern and so things have got to be right to get people out of their cars, but if we can show we can provide high quality infrastructure then when the next round of funding comes along we will be well placed.”
He acknowledges that ‘more needs to be done’ and with the Climate Emergency, levels of pollution and the decline in people’s health, it must happen rapidly, but the benefits are considerable.
“Everyone talks about a ‘modal shift’ and people can be quite fatalistic about cars, that we can’t do anything to impede them, but I think that cars are like a gas, they expand to fill the space around them,” he said.
“The bicycle has shown to be a simple solution to some of the world’s most complex problems.
“Studies in London have shown that in pedestrianised areas, people spend more money, while Cycling UK estimate that increasing cycling trips by 50 per cent will save £1.3bn per year in premature death, NHS cost, work sick days, pollution and congestion.”
THE concept of a Bicycle Mayor was pioneered in Amsterdam.
It’s a role designed to co-ordinate between existing cyclists, the community, government, and nonprofits organisations.
Bicycle Mayors are not part of local government, but volunteers recommended by local cycling groups and city stakeholders.
There are over 100 Bicycle Mayors operating around the globe from Madrid to Mumbai, instantly sharing ideas and solutions that accelerate the shift from car-centric to human-centric places.
Birmingham has now followed Coventry in have a Bicycle Mayor, Chris Coyle.
