Sustainable Transport

I have four minutes left, and so I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I try to make some progress. The hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) talked about local transport plans and safe cycle routes to stations. The Government encourage train operating companies to work closely with highways authorities to ensure that that is exactly what happens. I know from my postbag at the Department, as Minister for both cycling and rail, that many cyclists are passionate about the subject and we are working hard to try to integrate such modes of transport. I want to take the opportunity to confirm our overall cycling policy. Let me first establish what that policy is, because that will help to put our bike and rail policy into context. Many people have an interest in cycling whether they cycle now or not. Most of us have cycled at some time—since becoming the Minister with responsibility for cycling, as the hon. Member for Rochdale said, I have been seen on a bike on a number of occasions. I am not sure that I would go quite as far as to say that I am a cyclist, but I have certainly been seen on a bike. As you can see from my badge, Mrs. Humble, I successfully passed my stage 3 Bikeability course a number of weeks ago. I encourage all hon. Members to do so, particularly the hon. Member for Wimbledon—of course, he is not the cycling spokesperson for his party, but perhaps he will encourage his shadow colleagues to take it up. I am more than happy to organise that for him and to arrange for the media coverage. The Government want to encourage people to cycle more, but how do we turn non-cyclists into people who will consider using a bicycle for short journeys? The basic advantages of cycling are clear and have been set out in the debate: convenience, health, cost, the effect on the environment and enjoyment. Put simply, cycling contributes to a better quality of life and, importantly, improves one’s fitness and health while one simply undertakes regular commuting—it involves no expensive fees or trips to the gym. The Government are committed to reversing the decline in the number of cycling trips—40 per cent. of all trips are under 2 miles, and in many cases they could be cycled, particularly in the case of trips to school and work. Good work is being done in London, where Transport for London reports an 83 per cent. increase in the number of cyclists. I want, too, to pay tribute to the Evening Standard campaign. Whatever criticisms the Evening Standard has of TFL, and those issues are worth debating, TFL has done a tremendous amount in the past few years to provide that step change—to use a pedestrian-friendly phrase—to encourage more people to get on their bikes. It is good that we are now in a political environment where a politician can say to people, ““Get on your bikes””, without being lambasted for it. Good work is also being carried out by Hull, York, Bristol and Brighton. Brighton is of course one of our six cycling demonstration towns. If we are to attract people out of their cars and on to two wheels, we have to make cycling as safe, easy and as convenient as possible. That also applies to bike and rail journeys. That is why we have given Cycling England—our delivery and advisory body on cycling—a remit to see how we might better integrate bike and rail journeys. It will report later this year, and I am sure that we all look forward to seeing that report. Some cycle commuters use their bike for only part of their journey to work, combining the bike with public transport, which mostly means a bike and rail journey. Such journeys are important as they allow the bike to be used as part of a longer journey—