On Monday I attended the launch of a major new walking and cycling route for inner London. This route will provide a tremendous benefit to spectators travelling to London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games competition venues on foot or by bike through our Active Spectator Programme.
As part of the celebrations for their 60th wedding anniversary, Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh unveiled a new Jubilee Walkway panoramic panel in Parliament Square.  The panel features a raised illustration with Braille and there is also an audio version of the panel, which was designed in consultation with people of all abilities.


The Jubilee Walkway was originally laid down in 1977 as a lasting memorial to the Silver Jubilee of the Queen. It provides a signposted walking route around some of central London’s most important visitor attractions. 

After the unveiling, London 2012 representatives, including Tanni Grey Thompson, director of ODA Transport Hugh Sumner and I attended a reception hosted by the patron of the Jubilee Walkway Trust, the Duke of Gloucester. At the reception, plans for a new route commemorating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Jubilee Greenway, were launched.  The Jubilee Greenway is the proposed big brother of the Jubilee Walkway. At 96km in length, it will circle inner London and link together nine of the London 2012 competition venues.  Further details of the Jubilee Greenway plans.

I look forward to working with the Trust and other partners to develop the Jubilee Greenway, including reviewing how the route links with our venues and ensuring that it is well publicised as part of the package of travel information available to spectators and workforce travelling to the Games. 
The Jubilee Greenway is just one option in an extensive network of walking and cycling routes that will be available and promoted to spectators and workforce. We want to encourage as many people as possible to use active travel (walking and cycling) as part of our wider sustainability and health objectives. Encouraging people to walk and cycle could also have a positive benefit in relieving pressure on parts of the tube and rail network during the Games. 
We are investing more than £10m into upgrading walking and cycling routes into venues, including the provision of adequate and secure cycle parking at venues and good quality signage systems.  We are also developing an Active Spectator Programme with a variety of specific measures to encourage people to get walking and cycling on the build up to, and during the London 2012 Games. 
So the message is clear: get out your walking shoes, dust off that old bike in your shed and get active for 2012!