United Kingdom/England: Transport for Greater Manchester makes a business case for its ambitious cycling plan
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in north-western England with a population of 2.7 million. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) oversees transport and travel across the county.
TfGM set out ambitious plans for cycling in its document “Vélocity 2025. A cycling plan for 2025 and beyond”. It presents the following vision: “Our Velocity 2025 vision is for a healthy, safe, sustainable city region where people want to live and work. To meet this vision, we are proposing a programme of investment that, within a generation, will make cycling a mainstream, everyday, aspirational form of transport for all, regardless of age or ability.”
TfGM intends to invest between £150 million and £200 million (or between €168 million and €224 million) in cycling by 2025. This is based on a series of strategic and largely segregated cycleways that reach into the heart of the city. The cycleways will connect to other off-road routes, and be supported by a programme of education, training and promotion to create a true culture of cycling.
TfGM applied for a £20 million (or €22.4 million) grant from the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport, and used WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) as part of its business case. It calculated the value of reduced mortality due to increased physical activity through new cycle trips resulting from the major investment. These calculations included estimates of average cycle distances and were added to wider monetized benefits, feeding into a calculation of the benefit–cost ratio.
The table below shows the calculations, with health benefits amounting to £7.3 million (or €7.8 million) per year.
Forecast impacts of increased cycling in Greater Manchester | |
|---|---|
| Number of new cyclists per day | 26 800 |
| Percentage of change in cycling trips | Over 300% |
| Percentage of change in cycling speed | 16% |
| Percentage of additional cyclists that would have travelled by car | 18% |
| Car kilometres removed from the road per year | 1 680 000 |
| Carbon emissions avoided (in tonnes) per year | 228 |
| Health benefits per year | £7 300 000 |
| Absenteeism benefits per year | £198 000 |
The bid to the Department for Transport was successful, and TfGM received £20 million (or €22.4 million), matched by £10 million (or €11.2 million) of local funding. It used the funds for a number of improvements for cycling, including:
- 60 km of largely segregated bicycle lanes built since 2013;
- free adult bike training sessions for around 9000 people;
- projects with 11 schools and colleges to promote cycling to pupils and staff; and
- the opening of 16 cycle hubs across the city region.
As TfGM’s head of innovation said, the health benefits “were a bit abstract in the past, and now we can really put some sort of figure to it and monetize it. Without the HEAT tool we would not be able to do this.”
TfGM will continue to use HEAT, including for the upcoming evaluation of its proposed citywide bike hire scheme.
