Another note from Tolley in Docherty and Shaw, discussing the failure of the National Cycling Strategy — which was left to be implemented by local authorities — to deliver the national targets for growth in cycling:
More optimistic — and realistic — is the assertion in 2007 by Cycling England that there could still be 'a net increase in cycling levels in England of at least 20% by 2012' given current investment levels.
They cite this Cycling England document.
So if cycling really is "booming" — and our graph of per capita annual distance cycled goes only as far as 2010 so far, so we'll see — who can take the credit for that? Cycling England, who for the first time ensured that money was spent wisely on cycling, or Norman Baker and Mike Penning, whose government scrapped it, to return to the local authority method of implementation?