City’s Quality of Living

Various environmentally friendly plans have been unveiled to spend £137.3m on cycling and walking projects in Greater Manchester to make the city one of the world’s most liveable cities. The city is currently ranked 35^th out of 140 cities around the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) annual survey which is higher than London and Liverpool. The rank has jumped 13 places from last year.

To improve the quality of the living in the city, there are a total of 18 projects to be considered by transport bosses. In Levenshulme, pedestrians would be given priority over traffic, as part of proposals inspired by Dutch cities. The first two schemes are to turn Levenshulme into a "mini-Holland" and a bridge linking bus and rail stations in Stockport.

To support these, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) will fund £76.5m of the cost. The projects will form part of the region's Bee Network which aimed at encouraging people to walk and cycle. An additional £57m bridge would allow pedestrians and cyclists to walk or ride between Stockport's transport hubs, while a pathway would be developed between Manchester's Piccadilly and Victoria stations at a cost of £11.6m.

GMCA's share of the funding will come from the Mayor's Challenge Fund, a £160m pot of cash allocated by the Department for Transport for the region for four year starting from 2018. The remainder will come from local authorities and other government grants including the Cycle Cities Ambition Grant.

The proposals, which also include £14.6m of walking and cycling links in Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley and the introduction of a Greater Manchester-wide bike hire scheme, will go before GMCA on 29 March.

These initiatives represent prides and environmental consciousness of the city. For example, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said investing in walking and cycling infrastructure would help the region "compete with some of the world's best and most liveable cities". Chris Boardman, the region's Cycling and Walking Commissioner, said: "We've got lots of very big schemes but the bit that I am most interested is in Leigh." We've got a neighborhood scheme where they have said, 'we want to change our entire estate, put in crossings and slow the traffic and make it a place where a competent 12-year-old can ride around safely and where a parent with a double buggy would want to walk through the streets,’ he added.

In addition, the former Olympic cyclist conceded that Greater Manchester had lagged behind London, the capital, in promoting cycling and walking but said he was confident they could reduce everyday car use on short trips. "If we put in thousands of crossing points around an area where there are a couple of schools we can enable people not to use their cars for those 1 km journeys." Mr Boardman added: "I can almost guarantee that within two years we will be surpassing everybody."

In 2022 with these positive outlooks, Greater Manchester will be one of the greenest and most liveable cities in the country and the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-47657811

22 March 2019