So we're being told to reduce car journeys by five miles a week, obviously we are being encouraged to do this with frequent, clean, cheap subsidised public transport and the removal of VAT on bikes.

I think most of us already agree that our extensive network of cycle paths would be hard to improve on.

How long do you think it will be until our enlightened local governments start to provide these for us on our commutes?

The way forward (maybe)

Probably the day after I buy a bloody new bike!

Well for a start, all dual carrigeways in towns with 30mph speeds could be re-lined,not realigned with a cycle lane down the side,and the other lanes narrowed,more combined bus and cycle lanes,

Vat cancelled on all bike related stuff,

more space on trains for bikes,secure bike lockers in towns aand bus and railway stations.

Long distance coaches to carry bikes,

Don't see the need to take VAT off bikes myself. Nice, it would be, but pointless. Subsidise the rail companies MORE? No thanks. Re-nationalise them and stop running them for profit, sinking the rest back into improvements.

Can we have everything else that's ever been mentioned on Copenhagenize as well please?

Thanks

do you really think little handrails and footrests will encourage people to cycle? I'm sure there must be something better on that site to encourage cycling.

The £50bn a year in fuel taxes gifted to the Treasury is incentive enough to ensure that public transport isn't made too cheap.

I agree, bikes should be VAT exempt and rail season ticket fares should at the very least be treated as Salary Sacrifice and be PAYE and NIC exempt.

probably give you the earth if you paid cycle path tax.

coffeking, ECML /GNER/NATIONAL EXPRESS, OR whatever they are called now are in fact privatised,and run by the state,and soon there will be more

You mean nationalised if they're run by the state?

do you really think little handrails and footrests will encourage people to cycle?

No I don't really think it would encourage people to ride, it was more a point of how positive Copenhagen's attitude is to cyclist. They have put that in for no other reason than to make stopping a little bit more comfortable while waiting for the lights to change.

It's an idea only a cyclist could have.

I reckon the Government should offer a cycle incentive, maybe they could do through your employer so you can get it tax free.

Ok, with you now, I think there are more fundamental things that need to take place in the uk first though, but yeah I agree an example of a forward thinking country rather than an example of the way forward. Bike racks on the front of every bus would be a really good thing in my opinion.

I reckon the Government should offer a cycle incentive, maybe they could do through your employer so you can get it tax free.

That's a brilliant idea! What they would also need to do is make it a legal requirement to offer it, so that if two or three keen cyclist in the company ask for the scheme it doesn't get dismissed out of hand as "Too difficult organise"

More secure bike parking would help too…

More homeworking and hotdesk centres. Job done. No need to subsidise peoples hobbies.

my commute to work(6 miles 'burbs into the city) isn't really that bad.

i would ride my bike more often if there was somewhere secure tolock my bike.

a lot of places i travel – have no bike facilities at all, or they are very poor. i would like to see all places, hotels, conference, venues, shops etc. etc offer at least somewhere decent to lock up a bike.

That's a brilliant idea! What they would also need to do is make it a legal requirement to offer it

Nah! I work in the public sector so no need to worry about that.

You want bike-friendly municipal infrastructure? Go to Seattle and get on a bus. Double bike rack on every single bus. I'm sure someone will say "why get the bus when you can just ride?" but it's damn useful if you need to get a few dozen blocks up the freeway.

bikes work fine as they are IMO.
what needs improving first, is making the "public services" work.

take the train companies, bus companies… and post office back from thier various owners.

i wouldnt even offer to buy them, just take them. if they cant play with thier toy properly, they cant play with it at all.

not run them for profit, pour all profit back into the respective companies, to make them run more efficiently, so that prices can drop, and all the systems interact seemelessly (see dutch transport for a good example)

bike wise, i would want a bike carrige on all trains.
not a "bit of the train that can hold 2 bikes"
a whole carrige, roll on roll off, proper bike racks, and CCTV.
and places for grubby MTBers to sit!

The main issue is that the cost of travel is going to continue increasing, especially now that transport is set to suffer from spending cuts while we all pay off the interest on money we borrowed to give to a wunch of bankers.

Like it or not, the government is spending more on rail travel than it did in the 1980s during the days of nationalisation.

The best option is to nationalise it, accept that the public will have to pay to subsidize the transport infrastructure. It's the European/Japanese model and seems to work over there, I can't quite fathom why it's such a disaster when attempted here.

Have a trawl through the BBC radio website and find a Radio 4 programme broadcast last night – The De-railing of Integrated Transport. Very interesting and, in part, insightful of the efforts that Labour genuinely tried to achieve early on and the ways it failed.