The island has many ’brilliant assets’ for ’active travel’ - walking or cycling rather than driving - according to a former Olympic champion.

Chris Boardman visited the island earlier this week to educate government and business leaders on active travel and received an audience of more than 80 people at his breakfast talk on Tuesday.

Mr Boardman, who is now the transport commissioner for Greater Manchester, is leading a £1.5 billion, 10-year programme in the north west of England which aims to ensure people in the city region have an alternative to using cars to travel.

He was joined by Brian Deegan, one of the UK’s leading street design engineers.

The gold medallist has praised the Isle of Man for its many opportunities to encourage active travel.

He said: ’You’ve got some massive opportunities here - you haven’t saturated your streets with cars yet, you have control of the whole bus network which you can crank up and make it more attractive, more frequent, easier and cheaper to use, so you’ve got some brilliant assets here.

’In terms of congestion, pollution and health and when you consider the majority of those journeys are less than two kilometres then that’s a little bit embarrassing but also quite exciting.

’Just look at how little you would have to change to make a difference to all those massive issues that we face.’

When asked about potential changes that could be made, Mr Boardman recommended the island increase its options when it comes to travel.

He added: ’I think you need to start by giving people what they need to get out of the car, bike lanes in particular.

’People assume they’re for cyclists but they’re not. They’re for drivers because it’s the drivers that have got to choose to change their behaviour if we’re going to get any kind of change.

’’They need to see something out of the window that’s at least as attractive and easy as what [they’re] doing now or why would [they] get out?

’You focus on giving people an alternative, don’t encourage them to not drive.’

At the talk to business leaders, Mr Boardman recalled that the reason he started working towards increased active travel was when his young daughter asked to cycle to a nearby park in West Kirby about six years ago and he wasn’t comfortable with taking her on busy roads.

The island recently gained a cycling development officer, a new role under Isle of Man Cycling Association in conjunction with Isle of Man Sport. In introducing the guest speakers, former professional road cyclist Rob Holden said: ’Active travel can help some of the biggest challenges we currently face in the island including physical and mental health, climate mitigation, road harm reduction, congestion and equality.

’Doing nothing about giving people safe, efficient and attractive transport options other than driving doesn’t mean things stay the same.

’Traffic volumes have increased 20 to 30 percent every decade for the last 30 years.

’As an island we are estimated to spend approximately £21 million each year from public funds on diseases caused by inactivity and over £25 million a year from the impact of road traffic incidents.’