A few years ago the Department For Transport announced £600 million investment for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, the LSTF.
The biggest funding source for local transport authorities for Sustainable Transport is the LSTF, the fund was designed to pay for projects from 2011 to 2015, there are 96 projects across England. What did the Department for Transport hope to achieve with this? They set out their vision for ideas in this helpful illustration. The suggestions for cycle infrastructure don’t give me any confidence that the LSTF will have much of an impact on cycling.
Not so great… we have:
- Advanced stop lines for cyclists at junctions (I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to encourage cyclists to undertake a queue of traffic before a left turn but I know that they are popular)
- No cycle routes on main roads (why!? they ARE needed there)
- Cycle routes in 20mph zones (why!? they ARE NOT needed there)
- Bus lanes for mixing buses and cyclists (not much fun)
- Covered cycle parking (I like this idea)
We’ve got a long way to go If this is an accurate representation of the DfTs vision for the future of sustainable travel. For the largest ever funding in sustainable transport (£1 billion including local contributions) there seems to be no vision, just more of the same old ideas.
Maybe I’m wrong… Am I? Is the LSTF funding going towards any projects that will really encourage sustainable travel in any meaningful way?
1 reply on “UK Investment In Local Sustainable Transport – The vision (or lack of!)”
[…] The LSTF is often hailed as the solution and the biggest investment for years in cycling, this may be true but is only part of the truth, many LSTF schemes only have a small cycling strand with many very loosely related local pet projects included (especially in South Yorkshire… watch this space!) […]