Sunday, 9 February 2025
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No plans for number plates or insurance for cyclists, confirms DfT

Despite extremely mixed messages remaining in the press, it has been confirmed in a PoliticsHome column by the co-Chair to the All Party Parliamentary Cycling and Walking Group that number plates and compulsory insurance will “not be getting onto our bikes any time soon.”

Selaine Saxby, the Conservative MP for North Devon, penned the column after seeking assurances from both Transport Minister Grant Shapps and the Department for Transport that such ideas were not in progress. Grant Shapps has himself backtracked on the earlier comments, although this has not widely been flagged in the press since.

Selaine said that, far from legislative measures likely to harm cycling, building active transport into lifestyles should instead be encouraged.

“Cycling has seen massive growth in the capital and urban centres around the country as a cost-effective commute, delivering health benefits simultaneously and in my mind should therefore be widely encouraged and supported. Indeed, this week has seen the announcement that GPs will be prescribing active travel for its health benefits. However, as with everything in life there is always a minority who are unable to follow the rules,” wrote the MP on The House Live blog.

There is balance in the blog, which calls on all road users to obey the rules of the road and, for those relatively few cyclists capable of consistently topping 20mph on a bike, to use “high tech gadgets to ensure they drop below the speed limit.” Alongside this, Selaine adds “someone needs to explain to the tourists now back on Westminster Bridge what the new cycling lane is for.”

Insurance, it’s written, should be a personal choice and one that the MP expects to become a more natural choice as people switch to cheaper and cleaner transport.

How then to solve the issue of keeping vulnerable road users and motorists out of each other’s way as much as is possible?

The MP outlines that “creating dedicated areas for different road users” is the method shown to have the greatest success at alleviating conflicts, adding the caveat that “not every road is going to be able to accommodate this safely and road space in many town and city centres is at a premium.”

As it stands, Active Travel England is taking self-assessment submissions from local authorities across England as it prepares to begin its role in dividing up budgets for ambitious projects to protect cyclists and walkers and encourage a gradual shift in transport habits over shorter distances. The funding available is described as “constrained” and will be prioritised for those able to demonstrate plans adhering to national design guidelines.

Saxby concludes her column by confirming “The upside of the confusion created by the comments from the Transport Secretary is we appear to have some certainty now that number plates will not be getting onto our bikes any time soon!”