Covid-19 has brought the health of the nation into sharper focus. Before Covid struck the world was engulfed by concerns regarding the environment. A bold government initiative to link all the United Kingdom’s rural villages to towns and cities with dedicated cycle lanes would increase the health of the nation, reduce our reliance on cars and help bring down carbon emissions as well as demonstrating a real commitment to action on climate change not words. A bicycle is far cheaper than a car to run, would reduce obesity and encourage exercise. In the past year, many town centres have lost businesses due to lockdowns and their heartbeat. By creating bike lanes linking villages and town centres, this initiative could help regenerate smaller communities, people could cycle to work and children could cycle to school on their own as it would be safer because they wouldn’t be sharing the road with cars. There would be less congestion in towns and less pollution. The aim would be to become like the Dutch with almost 40% of people listing bicycles as their most frequent mode of transport on any given day, with dedicated cycle lanes and infrastructure, including lighting, traffic lights, kerbs, protected intersections and bicycle parking.
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