UK promotes cycling, walking with lockdown easing

The British government encourages people to cycle and walk more as it plans to loosen the lockdown gradually. /VCG

The British government is encouraging people to cycle or walk to work as much as possible when the country's lockdown is eased.

Though public transport in the UK will be restored after unlocking, people are still required to stick to the two-meter social distancing, which may decrease the public transport capacity in many places to one-tenth of the normal level, said British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps at a press briefing on Saturday.

In order to reduce the burden on public transport as well as congestion on road, Shapps announced at the press briefing a two-billion-pound (about 2.5-billion-U.S.-dollar) package to put cycling and walking "at the heart of" the country's post-coronavirus transportation plan.

He described the plan as a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to change the way people travel.

The package is part of the five-billion-pound (about 6.2-billion-U.S.-dollar) investment in public transport in February, and 250 million pounds (about 310 million U.S. dollars) will be used to improve cycling and walking infrastructure, including building wider sidewalks and cycling-only streets.

The government will also put forward a national cycling plan in June to double cycling and increase walking by 2025, said Shapps.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce the steps and methods to ease the current lockdown measures on Sunday night.