Chris Boardman to head up new UK active transportation agency

The British government has announced the appointment of former professional cyclist Chris Boardman to head up the new Active Travel England (ATE) executive agency as interim national commissioner.

The UK capital of London is one of the most congested on the planet. Its air pollution got so bad recently that residents were asked to stay inside. It is no surprise then, that the country’s federal government has active transportation on its collective brain. And it’s about time.

The new agency is mandated to create safer streets  for cycling and walking to boost air quality and help improve the health and wellbeing of the nation.

“The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving,” said Boardman. “Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.”

Boardman was most recently the city of Manchester’s Transport Commissioner. The 53-year-old former racing cyclist won a gold medal for Britain in the 1992 Summer Olympics.

From the description, it sounds like the agency will have some teeth including looking after a tidy budget for funding projects that meet the UK’s new national standards set out in 2020. It will also be charged with following through on the projects to make sure they are done correctly within the stipulated time.

ATE will also begin to inspect, and publish reports on, highway authorities for their performance on active travel, and identify particularly dangerous failings in their highways for cyclists and pedestrians.  

Another seemingly big part of the agency’s mandate will be ensuring major planning applications give due consideration to pedestrians and cyclists.
“We’ll have the engineering capacity to say, ‘Let’s have a look at the design and we’ll help you,’” Boardman told the Guardian. “But we’ll also have the power to say: ‘It’s not good enough.’”

The new agency comes fully stocked with a new £5.5 million investment in cycling and walking schemes, including £300,000 top-up to e-cargo bike schemes and £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations and to explore active travel on prescription.

“This funding is about giving people across the country the opportunity to try different forms of travel, as well as supporting local businesses with the transition to greener transport,” said Active Travel Minister Trudy Harrison. “I’m very much looking forward to working with our new active travel commissioner to improve standards for everyone.”

He will now lead the ATE team in its work to raise the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure, in line with the principles set out in Gear Change: a bold new vision for walking and cycling.  

“This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations,” said Boardman. “It’s time to make it a reality – it’s time for a quiet revolution.”