Connecting walking and cycling to wider society

In this final chapter we briefly draw together the main themes of the book and link them back to some of the broader issues discussed in Section I. The aim is to demonstrate that creating an environment in which walking and cycling are seen as usual and easy ways of travelling short distances in urban areas is not just an issue relevant to concerns about urban transport, congestion or public health, but that they also have much wider ramifications for society. As demonstrated through the analysis in Section II, these connections operate in myriad different ways. For example, creating an environment in which walking and cycling are taken-for-granted and common means of everyday travel requires changes to urban structure so that goods and services can be accessed without a car; it necessitates changes to housing design so that the storage of bikes and outdoor clothing is unproblematic; it needs adjustments to working practices so that movement on foot or by bike can be fitted easily into everyday routines; it requires the re-design of public space to prioritise cyclists and walkers over motorised transport; and it needs new transport interchanges so that cycling can easily be integrated with travel by public transport. Such changes require quite fundamental shifts in the priorities of governments (both local and national) and in the mind-set of the majority of the population. Although such issues are more frequently discussed publicly than was the case a decade ago, there is little sign of significant change. For instance, a recent Joseph Rowntree report on minimum income standards in Britain, based primarily on what people considered to be necessary for a satisfactory living standard in the twenty-first century, assumed that a car was essential for families with children living in urban areas outside London. This had not been assumed to be the case in the previous survey carried out in 2008 (Davis et al, 2012). The implication is that we remain a very car-dependent society and that public transport, cycling or walking are seen by most people as either unacceptable or impractical methods of travel.