Cycling Grants Assessment.pdf

The Department for Transport allocated £94m for capital expenditure on cycling and walking infrastructure through the Cycle City Ambition Grant and the Cycling in National Parks Grant. Eight cities received £77m and four National Parks received £17m, with local contributions totaling nearly £150m.

Key Findings:

The successful bids were evaluated based on five elements: strategic, economic, financial, management, and commercial cases.
The economic cases included estimates of benefits such as health benefits, reduced car use, and journey ambience.
The Department used WebTAG unit A5-1 to monetize the estimated impacts and calculate cost-benefit ratios.
The overall results show that the schemes are expected to deliver significant benefits, including:
+ Health benefits: increased physical activity and reduced absenteeism.
+ Reduced car use: environmental, decongestion, and indirect taxation benefits.
+ Journey ambience: improved air quality and reduced noise pollution.

Cities:

The eight cities that received funding are: Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, and Oxford.
The total funding allocated to cities is £77m.
The schemes are expected to deliver a range of benefits, including health benefits, reduced car use, and improved journey ambience.

National Parks:

The four National Parks that received funding are: Dartmoor, New Forest, Peak District, and South Downs.
The total funding allocated to National Parks is £17m.
The schemes are expected to deliver benefits such as increased cycling, improved infrastructure, and support for sustainable tourism.

Assumptions and Limitations:

The assessment was based on the information provided by bidders and may not reflect the full range of benefits and costs associated with the schemes.
The use of proportionality and the scheme impacts pro-forma helped to minimize the burden on bidders, but may have resulted in some benefits being underestimated.
* The Department used WebTAG unit A5-1 to monetize the estimated impacts, but the results may be subject to some uncertainty and variability.