Ineffective and insufficient central government measures for cyclists
The Riksdag wishes to improve conditions for cyclists. However, measures taken by the Government and the responsible agencies to achieve the Riksdag’s objectives have not been effective and developments are headed in the wrong direction.
The Swedish National Audit Office has examined the work of the Government, the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Transport Agency on the Riksdag’s objectives to improve conditions for cyclists.
The overall conclusion is that the initiatives have not been effective. For example, many routes between urban areas – where cycling could be a competitive means of transport – lack a safe and attractive cycling option. The central government has implemented some initiatives, but in general, few measures have significantly contributed to attractive and safe cycling.
“A complex combination of poor accessibility and other factors means that the work of the Government and the responsible agencies does not live up to the Riksdag’s expectations,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
The audit findings include the following:
- Cycling infrastructure lacks accessibility between and within urban areas, and in many places cycle paths are not connected. The central government is accountable, much more frequently than municipalities, for inadequacies in cycle paths.
- The Government and the Swedish Transport Administration have not prioritised major cycling measures in the national transport infrastructure plan. Cycling measures that have been prioritised by regions are not being implemented as planned, and the Swedish Transport Administration has used only half of the earmarked funds.
- A number of national road projects have, fully or partly, removed previously available cycling routes.
- The Swedish Transport Administration’s interpretation of the Road Act – which prevents the construction of new cycling infrastructure in key locations – appears to be too narrow. The Government has not taken steps to clarify matters.
- The Swedish Transport Administration does not have a comprehensive understanding of where accessibility is inadequate and there is no tool for cost-benefit analysis that would allow comparisons and selections of investments where the greatest benefit would be generated.
- The Government’s and the Swedish Transport Agency’s regulatory development efforts have been passive and based on inadequate impact assessments. In several cases, the Swedish Transport Agency has made decisions without a sufficient basis in research and experience.
“In practice, these shortcomings have led to disjointed cycling infrastructure, a lack of growth in the proportion of cyclists and an unnecessary number of seriously injured cyclists due to poor road safety,” says Johannes Österström, project leader for the audit.
Recommendations in brief
The Swedish National Audit Office’s recommendations to the Government include the following:
- submit proposals to enable building detached national cycle paths to a greater extent than today
- investigate national principles or requirements for where basic accessibility for cyclists should be maintained so that clearer national priorities for coherent cycling infrastructure can be made
- investigate how the central government planning and implementation process for small or medium-sized infrastructure measures can be streamlined to ensure that planned cycling measures are actually implemented.
Our recommendations to the Swedish Transport Administration include:
- identifying and removing obstacles in internal governance on cycling infrastructure that is of an adequate standard and appealing to use
- developing analytics tools for cost-benefit analyses of cycling measures.
The Swedish Transport Agency is recommended to:
- develop impact assessments based on empirical results such as evaluations or research.