HL Deb 11 March 1993 vol 543 cc63-4WA
Lord Marlesford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the total budget of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory in each of the last three years and the next three years and whether they will give details of any research projects undertaken or planned during this period at the laboratory devoted to the interests of the 15 million bicyclists in Britain.

The Minister of State, Department of Transport (The Earl of Caithness)

The total budget of the Transport Research Laboratory has been £32.6 million in 1990–91, £35.2 million in 1991–92 and £38.2 million in 1992–93. The TRL became a Government Executive Agency in April 1992, and over the next few years its research programme will be subject increasingly to competition from alternative suppliers. It is projected that its likely revenues over the next three years will be £34.3 million in 1993–94, £33.0 million in 1994–95 and £32.6 million in 1995–96.

In the past three years, TRL has spent a total of £519,000 on research related to cycling, with an expenditure in the current year of £92,000. The research has examined the provision, design and use of cycle routes in a number of towns—Exeter, Kempston (Beds), Nottingham, Stockton, Canterbury, Cambridge and Southampton. It has also developed advanced stop-lines for cyclists at traffic signals, and the use of these has been found to be beneficial to cyclists at the five sites monitored. Duel crossings for cyclists and pedestrians have also been developed at signal-controlled crossings, in the Toucan equivalent of the familiar Pelican crossing. Permitting cycling in pedestrianised areas is also being studied, as is the general road safety risk of cycling.

However, it is also the case that in addition to the projects listed above, which are specific to cycling, the more general work to TRL in connection with road safety, traffic management and highway design includes consideration of cyclists amongst other road users. This is, for example, especially true of work to improve safety education among children, where guidance to safe cycling is important, and to research to make cars less injurious to both pedestrians and cyclists with whom they may collide.