Walk or cycle to work, says the Government

[yellowbrickwhorl]

I'm just deciding whether to walk or cycle the 25 miles to and from work each day. Which would be preferable, do you think?

I would if I didn't work cross county in a very rural area with little or no public transport.

@NOTANUM it's not just a London issue, I commute across Hampshire, if people stop using the train the roads will be a nightmare. Whenever there's a train strike the M3 is awful. Children get buses to school all over the country, I've actually got no idea how to get my kids to school if they can't use the bus.

Are they not recommending drive as well then? I normal go on public transport but I suppose I could drive if I had to.

It might be socially unacceptable but in the real world people will use their cars.

The government might think their pie in the sky scheme for everyone to get on their bikes will work,it won't,because they haven't got a bloody clue how the real world works.

It does sound like advice from someone who has never left London.

45 miles for me. I'd better set off now!

It is a step in the right direction (geddit?) but to be honest, for vast swathes of the country outside cities and towns, it isn't feasible. Avoiding the use of public transport round here is pretty easy. There isn't all that much of it. As for walking or cycling to work - well some of you might be happy to walk or cycle along pot-holed winding country lanes with no street lights or paths and then mosey onto a socking great dual carriageway with artics thundering past, but it's not for me.

The technology exists for people to nominate cycling blackspots online and where there is enough demand , temporary cones /barrriers /signs could be used to separate lanes or change priorities.

The other thing I've thought is where are people going to leave all these millions of bikes while they are working? Not every work place has anywhere people can securely lock their bikes up?

Will the streets be full of bikes secured to lamp posts and railings?

What is it about some people that as soon as a policy is announced they absolutely rush to say “well it wouldn’t suit me and my circumstances so it’s a pointless waste of time”.

Because most of us live in the real world and not Boris bike world.

I'm far more scared of my kids cycling to school than of them catching coronavirus (well, they've had it already so I suppose I would say that) The roads are bloody terrifying here. That really isn't safe!

But a lot of people do live in Boris bike world, take the tube on autopilot, and perhaps with a little encouragement and investment in a safe route, could perhaps start walking or cycling a couple of days a week.

Not everyone lives in the middle of nowhere, miles away from work, or has childcare issues to juggle.

At this stage - I think it would be better to give companies an incentive to keep office-based staff working from home at least part of the week. especially in London.

This would be good for many reasons. Buses and trains would be less crowded and could be there for people who need them because they can't work from home (and kids going to school etc..)

Companies allowing their staff to work from home - at least part of the week - is a habit which needs to stick. It's better for the environment; it is better for people's health and wellbeing. If it cuts traffic down by 20-30%, making the roads quieter, the knock on effect is that people who are able to, might be more inclined to walk and cycle to work when they have to be in work - thus cutting down even more on traffic and being better for the environment and people's health. If people don't have any commute on some days of the week, they are more inclined to take the time or effort to walk and cycle on the days they do have to go to the office.

If the government misses this opportunity to cement some of these changes they are unlikely to come around again.

Average commute time in uk is one hour. I am guessing that's not mostly people pogoing to work.

It's not just about London though is it? There is life outside London. Not that you would know it on MN.

I'm far more scared of my kids cycling to school than of them catching coronavirus Absolutely! Dh used to cycle to the station - but I insisted he stopped - the drivers take crazy risks around cyclists.
Kids walk to school (just over a mile)...they'd like me to drive them but have you seen how teenagers wander aimlessly across the road with their headphones in going to and from school? - no way am I driving around that situation it's just an accident waiting to happen.

www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/wiki/cycling-is-not-practical-for-the-transportation-or-commuting-needs-of-most-people this puts it well.

Also over 80% of UK population live in urban areas, a substantial proportion of those will havd a short journey to work.

It's a step in the right direction at least. Unless people are going to be strung up by their toes and whipped for using their cars, there is absolutely no downside at all to encouraging more walking and cycling: better for health, for tackling air pollution, for obesity, for road deaths. It's all good. If people don't want to, fine, but those that do should be encouraged. This! On separate note - I wish we had a like button!

Completely agree that working from home is a far better option to encourage. We hate cyclists in the UK, by the time infrastructure and attitudes have improved to make it safe, we'll have long achieved herd immunity.
How about nice little self driving taxis pootling about everywhere? I quite fancy that future.

I think it's a sensible message and hopefully we will start to see a change in people's mindsets. Over the years we've moved away from everyone living near their workplace to commutes up to 90 minutes being considered normal. There's a thread in Secondary Education at the moment where plenty of people think it's ok for a child to travel nearly an hour to school. I really hope that one positive that comes out of the lockdown is people realising the benefits of spending less time on travel. It's no bad thing for people to try to attune their thinking back to "I should be able to get to where I want to go by walking/cycling".

Obviously if you live a long way away from your workplace then you can't instantly change to walking/cycling there, but perhaps it's something that should be thought about in the future when you are changing jobs/moving houses.

I'm shielding but 25 miles each way - if work would pay me to walk 50 miles a day and literally do zero work id do it!

If they extended that bike renting thing (Boris Bikes as was) to my neck of the woods I would use them instead of a bus . However my part of SE London appears not to exist to the Mayor of London as I could not tell you where the nearest place I could pick one up from would be .
Certainly not SE12 though I know that.

They wouldn't be contemplating an hour's commute to school RedskyAtnight if there was an equally good one on their doorstep. It's the reality for literally thousands of children.
So let's sort out education whilst we're at it.

They wouldn't be contemplating an hour's commute to school RedskyAtnight if there was an equally good one on their doorstep. It's the reality for literally thousands of children.

Or if the good school on their doorstep wasn’t reserved for kids who pray the right way. Agree education needs sorting.