BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

MOST COUNCILS ENCOURAGE PAVEMENT PARKING. Pavement parking is being ‘encouraged’ by half of local councils, according to research by the BBC. Just over half of 164 local authorities who responded to a Freedom of Information request confirmed they installed parking spaces on pavements. In part, the situation has been driven by ever larger vehicles, and more and more car ownership. While the government gave local authorities new powers this year to tackle pavement, each local authority will need to act in their area. Birmingham councillor Harris Khaliq pointed out councils are still awaiting guidance on using the new powers.

POLICE END ‘BOGUS’ E-BIKE SPEED TEST. It’s welcome news that West Midlands Police (WMP) promises to use different methods of testing e-bikes, and to drop charges against a rider whose road legal Tern HSD was seized and destroyed by the force. WMP admitted it got it wrong in April, when it tested the Tern by lifting the rear wheel and cranking the pedals - leading to excessively high speed readings. The force is offering full compensation to the owners, promising to learn its lessons. In London, the Met Police has deployed ‘rolling road’ type equipment to test illegal e-bikes, seizing a ‘record number’ in an operation last week. While forces don’t necessarily need high-tech equipment, hopefully good practice will start to spread, and soon.

WHAT IS A LEGAL VS ILLEGAL E-BIKE. Do you know someone who’s concerned about e-bike fires, or who read the rather misleading stories about £110m ‘e-bike collision’ payouts - both things actually attributable to e-motorbikes and sub-standard illegal products? You could do worse than to share this video with them. In it, YouTuber Evan Erdinger explains why fires and dangerous rider behaviour are being wrongly attributed to e-bikes, when they actually relate to illegal products. He also underlines how the UK is currently failing to effectively police the issue.

WE CAN (ALMOST) ALL AGREE ON SAFE STREETS. The world has voted to nearly halve road deaths by 2030. That is, aside from one major hold out: the USA. At a UN general assembly meeting US representative Dan Negrea complained the motion was both a symbolic gesture, and one linked with ‘top-down environmental restrictions on freedom and mobility’. It’s like the 15-minute city conspiracy theory on a macro scale. Still, this stance is consistent with the current administration’s position on road safety and, as Forbes journalist Christine Ro suggests, the UN Declaration is a crucial step forward - if the world’s nations invest in solutions.

US’ CYCLING CULTURE WAR. It follows that the US Department of Transportation (DOT) is not keen on cycling, entangling it with another of the administration’s pet peeves. Since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pledged to end support for “DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) bike lanes” two weeks ago, federal staff have apparently been asked to find, and in some cases take down, website references to bikes and bike lanes. A cranky DOT quote pointed out 80% of Americans use cars to get to work, adding a focus on cars is “a common sense approach despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.” Tin hats all round.

HERE’S ME TALKING UK CULTURE WARS TO US PODCAST. I was pleased to speak with Doug Gordon from The War on Cars podcast - it’s currently their Patreon bonus episode (do support their good work) and will be on general release later this year. A preview is available on their website. We discussed the #BikeIsBest campaign, UK culture works and my time as Cycling and Walking Commissioner in the West Midlands.

OTHER HEADLINES

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS. Access barriers are often installed with good intentions - to prevent antisocial use of traffic-free spaces by people with off-road motorbikes, say. However, they end up excluding legitimate users, sometimes those who most benefit from those traffic-free spaces. That means those using non-standard cycles, some of them people with disabilities who can’t lift or manoeuvre their cycles through awkward spaces. In Cardiff, south Wales, a long-running battle to remove such barriers has finally succeeded, opening up a riverside path to a more diverse set of users. Small change, big impact.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Cycling UK has produced a short video clip of what went wrong when West Midlands Police officers mistakenly seized a legal e-bike, believing it to be an illegal vehicle. Source:

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Cyclists’ Defence Fund. The Cyclists’ Defence Fund turns 25 this year. Cycling UK’s legal support body, CDF has been stood down from the West Midlands E-bike case, following a police apology, but it’s done plenty of valuable work in its quarter century, including landmark cases like this, and is worth knowing about.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LEGAL CHALLENGE OVER POLICE DESTRUCTION OF TERN BIKE. The Cyclists’ Defence Fund (CDF) and Cycling UK have taken on the case of the rider and bike shop whose hired Tern HSD e-bike was seized, before being destroyed. West Midlands Police stopped Matin Zandi on Birmingham New Street in April and confiscated the bike, issuing him with a fixed penalty notice for not riding with insurance. However, the way the road-legal e-bike was tested - lifting the rear wheel off the ground and cranking the pedals - doesn’t demonstrate how fast a motor propels a bike. The CDF’s Duncan Dollimore wants clearer guidance for police on tackling the growing problem of illegal e-motorbikes, easily confused by the untrained eye with a safe, legal e-bike.

LONG-TERM FUNDING KLAXON. Long-term funding has long been the holy grail for active travel - without it, it’s impossible to plan and deliver large-scale projects and walking and cycling networks. So, it’s good news that Active Travel England has announced four years of walking, wheeling and cycling money for local and mayoral authorities for the first time. This should help with planning and building routes, while offering better value for taxpayers as projects aren’t stopping and starting each year. It’s brilliant to see my old patch, the West Midlands Combined Authority, receive an impressive £36m over four years - the most of any region. Oxfordshire has doubled its allocation in this round, having improved its capability rating (see word of the week).

GLOBAL ROAD DEATHS FALL BY 21% Road traffic danger kills 1.16m people per year - and remains the biggest killer of children and young adults globally. If it were a pandemic, there would be a global emergency response. Incredibly, this figure represents a substantial reduction since 2011, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), despite more than a billion vehicles being added to the world’s roads in that time. The WHO says this is not enough, however, and a UN target seeks to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Tackling the causes of collisions, like speeding, drunk and drug driving and distracted driving, and improving conditions in low- and middle-income countries where 90% of road deaths happen, are among the solutions.

WAYMO’S NYC DRIVERS KEEP SPEEDING. An investigation by NYC Streetsblog tracked traffic violation tickets issued to autonomous vehicle (AV) taxi firm Waymo. After city officials revoked the company’s driverless license in April, journalists found five Waymo vehicles were ticketed for being driven over the speed limit, plus two bus lane violations. As journalist Gersh Kuntzman wryly put it, “Waymo is constantly claiming that its autonomously driven taxis are safer than human drivers — and the company is certainly right … at least when one compares an AV Waymo taxi to the company’s own drivers.”

HOW PARIS TRANSFORMED 300 SCHOOL STREETS. Paris’ journey towards a child-friendly city should be an inspiration for cities around the world. Between 2020 and 2026 an incredible 300 school streets were created, with trees, seating and play space. The transformation started in the pandemic when social distancing outside schools became challenging at pick-up and drop-off time. Trial street closures were the first step. This interview with one of Paris’ urban planners, Priscilla Benedetti, says key to success were things like having a clear political mandate, trialling ideas and upscaling successes, listening to citizens, mapping children’ s journeys and understanding traffic movements. This wasn’t a political ‘fait accompli’, she says, flexibility and adaptability to local needs were crucial.

OTHER HEADLINES

NYC AIMS TO SLASH CYCLE LANE DELIVERY TIMES. Cycle lanes could be delivered 33% faster in New York City if a proposed removal of red tape goes ahead. A commission led by Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to streamline the consultation process for bike lanes which, at present, adds months of delay. Legal challenges following backlash to the rapid Mike Bloomberg-era cycle lane delivery, circa 2009, means city officials must consult with a range of agencies for any street redesign, including bike lanes over 1,000 feet or three blocks. The commission cites safety as a driving force behind the proposed changes, which will be voted upon in November.

INTERESTING GRAPH(IC) OF THE WEEK: This image shows how Paris delivers streets as learning spaces. The school street artwork on the light-coloured paving represents the solar system. Source: Priscilla Benedetti/ City of Paris. From: https://cities4children.org/blog/how-paris-transformed-300-school-streets/

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Capability ratings. These are rankings of local authorities in England based on their ability to create schemes that will support walking and cycling. Ratings go from 0 to 4, decided by councils’ local leadership, plans and delivery record. Their ratings help determine the funding they will receive. Read more: https://www.activetravelengland.gov.uk/resources/capability-ratings

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

E-BIKE TRUST MARK LAUNCHES. E-bike Positive has become a trust mark for electric bikes, as research shows 84% of the public can’t differentiate between safe, legal models and illegal e-motorbikes. Launched this week, brands covering 80% of reputable e-bikes sold in the UK are now registered as E-bike Positive suppliers, along with hundreds of shops nationwide. Both shops and brands must commit to the highest product and safety standards. Akin to the Red Tractor food standards mark, the Trust Mark will help reassure consumers they are buying safe, legal products from reputable suppliers.

BAD NEWS FOR E-BIKES ON TRAINS. Meanwhile, MerseyRail has unfortunately followed Transport for London by banning e-cycles on its services. Mark Sutton at Cycling Electric points out some curiosities surrounding this decision: the ban appears to be based on assumptions - dare we say misinformation - rather than fact.

THROWING SHADE. Recent research by a coalition of environmental and horticultural groups urged the British government to significantly increase tree cover and green spaces in urban areas. Green infrastructure, they say, is crucial to mitigating the growing threat of heatwaves in UK cities. Current tree shade is unevenly distributed in urban areas, favouring the wealthier neighbourhoods. This inequality starts early in life, where children in private schools enjoy 41% more tree cover than in state schools. The problem needs tackling urgently, not least to level up children’s access to cooling shade - but a new ‘future homes standard’ excludes schools, hospitals and care homes, and only about a quarter of English councils currently use recognised tools to increase green infrastructure in new developments.

HELPING RURAL COMMUNITIES CYCLE TOO. Rural communities are connected by some of the most dangerous roads in the country, per mile travelled. Cycling and walking are hardly attractive when there’s high traffic speeds and no pavements. New guidance from Active Travel England seeks to help solve the problem by giving rural authorities a suite of tools to deliver active travel routes outside the urban context. The new rural design guide suggests three types of route: those by busy roads, routes using quiet lanes, and those off-road. It takes readers through everything from understanding the kinds of trips taken in rural communities, to developing schemes, designing them and even introducing enjoyable features like play areas, seating and cycle parking. In a nation that’s mostly rural by land mass, it’s an essential bit of kit for local authorities.

STILL RAILING AGAINST 20MPH. There was a predictable hue and cry against the suggestion in new rural design guidance that speed limits on roads shared between walkers, wheelers, cyclists and drivers might be reduced to 20mph, for safety. Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden commented such interventions were ‘nonsensical’, claiming Wales’ speed limit reductions were ‘a disaster’. In fact casualties on 20 and 30mph roads dropped by more than a quarter in the first year, while adding around two minutes to typical journeys. Given speed is one of the biggest contributors to serious and fatal collisions, arguing against it seems increasingly perverse. What’s more, communities are often demanding slower speeds themselves.

OTHER HEADLINES

CYCLING FOR WOMEN’S FREEDOM. Despite patchy growth in cycling in the UK, women are still under-represented in cycling figures. National Travel Survey data finds men make almost three times as many cycling trips as women, cycling four times as far - and the reasons are plain: the roads just don’t feel safe enough. Whether that’s danger from drivers or from potential attackers hidden beside unlit paths, these fears keep women from feeling safe to travel by bike. A recent protest ride around central London, attended by around 300 riders, sought to remind people the problem is far from resolved. Protected cycle lanes, providing routes through busier areas as well as through parks, and tackling poor behaviour on the roads are key.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: E-bike Positive retailers are out there - over 600 at last count - and growing in number. If your local shop hasn’t registered yet, and they deal with e-bikes, give them a friendly nudge. Source: https://ebikepositive.co.uk/pages/retailer

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK: EAPC. The legal term for an e-bike; an electrically assisted pedal cycle. If the rider isn’t pedalling, in almost all cases, it’s not an EAPC. There’s a helpful flow-chart to help distinguish a legal from illegal machin, below. Your local police force may even find it helpful: link.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

HOT DAMN, THAT’S A HELLISH BIKE LANE. Friend of the newsletter Laura Laker has been investigating a terrible cycle route on the verge of a dual carriageway near Brighton. The road is owned by National Highways and Laker, along with campaigner Chris Todd, went to take a look at it. This atrociously bad cycling and walking path, and others like it, needs tackling with urgency. Todd points the finger at National Highways - but the piece acknowledges that others may end up footing the bill. Either way, placing vulnerable road users within a metre or two of a 70mph dual carriageway seems astonishingly dangerous.

HOT BIKES, STICKY FINGERS. Bike thefts are an ever-present issue in modern-day Britain and, in some places, they are only getting worse. Road.cc has scoured Reddit threads for terrible tales of thieves’ antics, and the apparent inability of police to get the problem under control. One horror story involves a man watching from his window in the dead of night as thieves angle-grind his gold standard lock and make off with his bike. Another reported the theft of 15 bikes from a keypad-controlled storage area. Cycle theft is notoriously a low-risk, high-value crime and few are ever returned to their owners. The London Cycling Campaign is calling for concerted action on this scourge.

POLICE CRUSH ROAD-LEGAL E-BIKE. The issue of misinformation around what is and what isn’t a legal e-bike is creating ever-bigger problems for the industry. The latest example of this is West Midlands Police allegedly crushing a legal e-bike seized in Birmingham, having mistaken it for an e-motorcycle. The Tern HSD e-bike in question was purchased by Birmingham Bike Foundry with Birmingham City Council funding as part of a try-before-you-buy scheme aimed at helping people choose alternatives to driving. As the shop representative put it, though, “why would people want to hire an e-bike if they are going to be harassed by the police for it?” Education of police officers is clearly needed, to remove a very serious barrier to people buying, hiring and using legal e-cycles. The folks at the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT) have handily just launched a one-day training course for Police on this very issue.

INDUSTRY STILL BETTING ON E-BIKES. Analysis of market research data by Cycling Industry News suggests e-bikes are still seen as the biggest growth area. However, a comparison with 2021 shows a steep drop-off in their industry-estimated potential. When asked “Which demographic do you believe holds the greatest opportunity to grow cycling in the near term?” in 2021 72% of dealers answered “those drawn in by electric assistance”. By 2026 that figure had dropped to 55%. ‘Sports cyclists and existing enthusiasts’ and ‘Over 50s’ had taken up much of the slack. Relying on existing customers to spend more money each year isn’t much of a long-term strategy; a lower confidence in e-bikes, along with logistics business, new cyclists and young people is something to address, urgently.

WALTHAM FOREST STILL BETTING ON CARGO BIKES. Retailers’ confidence in cargo cycle growth may be understandable. In the past year or so we’ve seen the closure of delivery firm Zedify and cargo bike manufacturer, EAV. However, in Waltham Forest, former staff of Zedify have started a workers’ co-op and signed a two-year contract with Waltham Forest Council to deliver services like cycle hangar fob keys to new users - plus work for private companies. Distancing themselves from gig economy companies, they are paying riders the London Living Wage and aiming for a high standard of rider training and behaviour.

OTHER HEADLINES

DRESSING FOR THE WEATHER. Momentum Magazine, which is based in New York where summers can be brutally hot, has gathered some tips for heatwave-appropriate cycle clothing. And because it’s New York, style is definitely part of the equation. From dresses to natural fibres, and loose fabrics - to which colours won’t show sweat - there’s one or two handy tips in this short piece, and a couple of stylish New Yorkers to boot. For a more technical approach to the question that’s being typed into search engines with regularity at the moment, Cycling UK has some practical advice.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Cycling Industry News’ analysis of where dealers see cycling growth coming from. Source: https://cyclingindustry.news/cin-market-data-stats-show-increasing-industry-focus-on-enthusiasts/

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

E-motorcycle. Calling them illegal e-bikes is one way of describing the illegally modified, high-speed machines on the street, but there’s still a lot of confusion around. The legally correct term is really e-motorcycle.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

SCHOOL STREETS = COOL STREETS. Research from Paris earlier this year found school streets, which often become rues jardin, aka garden streets are, on average, 5C cooler than neighbouring streets. In many cases, trees and shrubs shade the space and reduce the hard surfaces that can warm up in direct sunlight, while cooling (i.e. lighter shaded) pavement better reflects the sun’s heat. Thermal imagery and in-person visits assessed all of Paris’ 272 school streets and found one school street was 12C cooler than its neighbour. It’s something other cities might think about.

WHY I’M RAGING AGAINST MACHINES. Tech companies have a track record of promising shiny solutions to urban problems that don’t work (see my last Substack post). We saw this with Uber, whose empty, circulating taxis drive up the congestion the company promised to help reduce - and with Elon Musk’s Superloop, an expensive way to build an extra traffic lane underground, which is still underperforming. Now, delivery robots and autonomous taxis threaten to do the same thing on our pavements and roads. This week, pedestrian charity Living Streets wrote a letter calling for Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, to proceed with caution on any plans to legalise these delivery robots, amid signs they are about to get the green light - our pavements are congested enough as it is.

CYCLING > CARS IN CITY OF LONDON. In the Square Mile, the number of cycles has overtaken the number of cars for the first time*, growing by 57% since 2022. There are now four times as many dockless e-bikes, and 60% more personal cycles in that time - and cycles are now 56% of all traffic in rush hour. Meanwhile, motor vehicle use has steadily declined, including buses and taxis. City of London data (see graph of the week) clearly shows inflection points when motor vehicle use dropped notably, including the global recession in 2008, the congestion charge zone and cycle superhighways opening, and the Covid pandemic. Paris achieved this feat back in 2024, as a recent Momentum article reminds us. *presumably also during the 1950s cycling boom.

CUTTING CARS CUTS CRIME. We’ve all experienced the hostility of congested streets: the noise, the speed, the air pollution - and the sense we’d rather be elsewhere. Well, busier streets become less safe in other ways, too. A new study from the University of Leeds found perceptions of crime - and crime itself - rise with heavy traffic in a neighbourhood, and that reducing traffic can also reduce vandalism, burglary and violence. Using ‘robust, longitudinal data’, researchers say they are confident about the causal relationship between the two - with potential explanations being that neighbours on busy streets talk to one another less, and therefore trust each other less, as well as feeling less ownership of shared spaces.

POOR-VALUE ROADS SCRAPPED? A series of high-cost road projects that are known to be poor value for money could be scrapped to help plug a gap in defence spending. On the £700m-value list are two legacy schemes from the previous government, the A46 Newark bypass and A38 Derby junctions, which Labour was expected to cancel last year. The government will consult on scrapping them, and possibly more. Government departments will also be asked to contribute 1p for every £1 of their capital budgets.

OTHER HEADLINES

HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE TO REMAIN CAR-FREE. That’s the conclusion of a council report estimating the cost of repairs to the elderly structure at an eye-watering £300m. The report will be considered by the council next week but, it says, “there is no financial option available that would allow its full restoration.” Instead, ‘phased repair’ will prioritise the most urgent structural issues, while keeping the bridge open to cycling, walking and wheeling, reports the Evening Standard. The Times highlights that, according to Telraam counter data, around 12,000 people are walking and cycling on the bridge, so it’s not closed, is it?

Source: Telraam

ACTIVE TRAVEL ENGLAND NEEDS YOU! Could you be the next CEO of Active Travel England? After Danny Williams’ departure, following four successful years of service, the body delivering walking, wheeling and cycling programmes in England is looking for a new leader. With active travel at an exciting inflection point, as ATE starts to deliver on the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3) and billions of pounds of active travel programmes, it’s set to be a demanding, but rewarding role.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

Cycles up, cars down: Cycling now outnumbers driving in the City of London. Source: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Services-Environment/City-Streets-2025-Summary-Report.pdf

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Collective efficacy. A group’s shared belief in its ability to organise and execute something to achieve a common goal. In neighbourhoods this might involve coming together to look out for one another and the shared streetspace, and to trust one another to do so. From this week’s study on traffic and crime, by Leeds Uni.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

Technology has always promised to revolutionise cities. But, when it comes to transport, the solutions experts agree on are typically solutions we’ve had since the mid to late-1800s. If you want to reduce emissions, improve efficiency and decrease congestion, then you need trains, trams, buses, and metro systems - not to forget walking and cycling. These are the proven methods for carrying large numbers of people, both efficiently and sustainably.

The motor car is, of course, also an impactful innovation when used in the right context. It is possibly the clearest example of a lobby being able to convince cities they should adopt a future of an individualistic private transport system that was neither technically possible nor desirable.

Cars proceeded to destroy cities. In many cases, literally. My home city of Coventry was famously bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War II, destroying much of its medieval core. But the planners had already decided to do it anyway - to make way for the motor car - and were even quoted as saying that it helped them accelerate the process. As former West Midlands Cycling & Walking Commissioner, I can speak with experience: it is taking a lot of time and a lot of money to put things right as cities realise the private car experiment has not worked.

I am not anti-technology; an electric bicycle has transformed my daily transport and I hope for the day when satellite internet makes its way to train travel, significantly improving productivity. Some technological improvements are welcomed, but they have to be implemented on top of sturdy foundations.

A helpful question to ask is: What problem are we trying to solve? A second question might be: What are the benefits and disbenefits?

With technology, we always seem to forget to talk about the latter. New tech blindsides us and somehow manages to sidestep even the most basic of scrutiny.

Two current big moves in transport, which have captured the imagination of the Government but in my view have significant disbenefits, are so-called “robotaxis” and pavement delivery robots. These follow a trend of trying to individualise transport, which, because of space constraints, makes no sense in cities, unless your only motive is profit.

We will discuss the disbenefits of these devices later and the impact they will have on an urban transport system. But first, we should look at what recent history tells us about whether improvements in this era of “individualistic incrementalism” have lived up to their promises.

We have a good example in Uber. Its promise to cities was that they would help reduce congestion. To the surprise of almost no-one who understands transport in cities, they did not. In San Francisco, ride-hailing vehicles were the single biggest contributor to congestion growth between 2010 and 2016, outweighing population growth, employment growth and road network changes combined. Vehicle hours of delay rose 62% with ride-hailing present, versus a modelled 22% in a counterfactual with no ride-hailing vehicles. In other words, they roughly tripled the growth in delay. Roughly 40% of ride-hail miles are driven with no passenger, between fares. 2020 analysis found a typical ride-hail trip generates about 69% more climate pollution than the trip it displaces, precisely because of these empty miles plus mode shift away from transit and active travel.

In London, private hire driver licences jumped from around 67,000 in 2013 to nearly 118,000 at their 2017 peak, and number is close to 109,000 today.

I am not particularly shocked that a tech company that stood to make maximum profit from flooding a market and individualising transport in cities, were not quite honest about the disbenefits.

Politicians, in particular, seem particularly susceptible to believing the promises of big tech. From 2016–17, Elon Musk pitched The Boring Company as a way to “solve” soul-destroying traffic. The original concept was autonomous electric “skates” running at up to 150 mph carrying 8 to 16 people, and the Vegas Loop is still marketed at an eventual 90,000 passengers per hour.

The reality? The only operational system is the Las Vegas Loop: human-driven Teslas, maximum four passengers, running through tunnels at around 35mph. Peak measured throughput on the original Convention Center loop was about 1,355 passengers per hour in 2021, against a contractual 4,400 the company was meant to hit, and a headline pitch of tens of thousands.

It cannot work for that awkward efficiency reason again: a single lane of cars moves on the order of 1,000 to 2,000 people per hour whether that lane is on the surface, elevated or bored through rock. A metro line on a single track moves 20,000 to 40,000-plus. But this hasn’t stopped politicians from believing the hype (aided by millions of pounds of lobbying dollars) and letting him build the thing.

Not all politicians are buying the arguments from the tech bros, though. Zohran Mamdani declined to renew the licence for Waymo in New York. Sadiq Khan’s TfL may do the same and refuse to licence robotaxi firms Waymo and Wayve in London, citing concerns about congestion and job losses. Congestion, as we saw with Uber in London, is a significant disbenefit that risks undermining public transport and active travel use. Even Elon Musk has said this quiet part out loud. In 2022, he tweeted: “Self-driving car[s] will amplify traffic to insane levels, as you won’t feel the pain of driving yourself.”

Supporters of Robotaxis have a strong card to play, and it deserves to be taken seriously: safety. The pitch is that a computer cannot drink, cannot text, and cannot lose its temper, and on the industry’s own numbers, that bears out. Waymo says its vehicles are involved in thirteen times fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers across more than 170 million miles, and CNN’s review of the 1,200 collisions the company reported to American regulators found it was rarely at fault.

If the only question were whether a robotaxi is safer per mile than the average tired or distracted human, the honest answer will probably be yes.

But that is where the scrutiny usually stops, and it is precisely the wrong place to stop, especially if you care about sustainable transport in cities. The current data is the industry’s own homework; there is no requirement to report near misses, so the close calls never make it into the figures the companies are so keen to quote. CNN assembled them by hand from complaint lines, police reports and social media: a wheelchair user nearly side-swiped, a Waymo stopping a foot short of a schoolchild after ignoring a crossing guard, a father who had to push his son out of the road. None of that shows up in a collision statistic, and a former adviser to America’s road safety regulator summed up the direction of travel bluntly. As these cars gain market share in more cities, he said, we see more and more problems.

Then there is the promise the whole thing rests on, that machines obey the rules. But, demonstrably, they do not.

Active travel advocates inclined to support driverless car companies may be interested in a case from San Francisco, where Waymos are said to pull into cycle lanes to drop off passengers. There is now a lawsuit from a cyclist left with brain and spinal injuries after being doored by one. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says the company told safe-streets advocates that avoiding bike lanes was “too high a bar”, because customers want to be dropped off in them. Closer to home, a Wayve prototype ran a red light on Parliament Square while carrying the firm’s own chief executive to collect his OBE, a clip he then shared online to praise its “impressive drive without intervention”.

Robotaxis may improve the lives of some disabled people but they could also make things more difficult for other disabled people. Lobbying materials would like you to think their impact will only be positive. But given that disabled people are not a homogeneous group, this needs to be carefully scrutinised. A video from San Francisco shows a Waymo vehicle blocking side road zebra crossings as a result of being programmed to be more aggressive so other humans yield, letting them join the queuing traffic.

The lessons of technology’s overpromises should be learned. Unfortunately, self-driving cars look like they will be accepted onto UK roads, despite the issues. But there’s still a type of tech I feel that we can still stop: pavement delivery robots.

So apply the two questions one last time. What problem are we actually solving? Not a transport one. Zero-carbon last-mile delivery is already possible with bicycles and e-bikes, but the issue for tech companies is that it requires human labour.

Now the people with the least room to give it up are penalised: wheelchair users, those with sight loss, older people, anyone pushing a pram on a pavement, sharing limited space with robots. These are the disbenefits we’ve been failing to talk about.

This is why I have worked on a campaign “Pavement Overload” with the charity for everyday walking, Living Streets, where I am a Trustee.

If you’ve read this far, you’ll know not to trust big tech companies. But, in case you still need convincing, these machines are already trundling along British pavements with no law that actually permits them to be there. One of the big players, Starship Technologies, told The Grocer that “the Highways Act 1835 - which does not allow carriages to operate on pavements - creates uncertainty that could hinder investment.”

According to The Grocer, Starship have promised to build 10,000 robots in the UK if the government acts to clarify new legislation. The Government appears to be more concerned with a risk to inward investment than to pedestrians, so is planning a new Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle category to regulate micromobility vehicles, including pavement robots, when Parliamentary time allows. Lord Hendy confirmed in answer to a written question from Lord Berkeley that “the Government recognises the current legal framework does not provide the certainty businesses need to invest.”

A lack of regulation hasn’t seemed to stop the companies responsible for the robots, which doesn’t bode well if you want to believe they will be additive to our communities. Starship Technologies and their rivals appear to be operating the same “act now, beg for forgiveness later” modus operandi as many other tech companies that exploit gaps in regulation. An FOI request from Bristol City Council, where Delivers.ai robots operate in partnership with Just Eat, is doing so without any permissions whatsoever: “There has been no approval process to permit delivery robots to be operated in Bristol. We are not involved in a pilot scheme, no licences, permits or agreements have been issued, no risk assessments have been undertaken, and no conditions or restrictions have been placed on operators.” A report in the BBC highlights the issue with robots narrowly missing a Councillor’s dog.

Pavements are some of the last spaces technically still dedicated to people (when not filled with badly parked cars and wheelie bins) and this is worth protecting. We know what we need to do to fix our problems in urban transport and they definitely involve more walking, more cycling and more public transport. The privatisation of public space, in many forms, has left us poorer as a society over time.

Then there’s the small issue that these robots aren’t even very useful. Many videos online show them needing human intervention, to have buttons pressed for them, or to be helped up kerbs. Some users online report that they’re slower than human delivery riders. All this, at the expense of vulnerable pedestrians, for what?

I believe that Britain’s pavements should not be for sale, and unlike the driverless car or the robotaxi, this is a fight we can probably still win before it becomes entrenched. If you think the footway belongs to people rather than private interests, add your voice and tell the Government: our pavements are not for sale.

Tell your MP and support the campaign at pavementoverload.com.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

HEATWAVE A heat dome is once again over Europe, bringing prolonged high temperatures through the night. With every heatwave the cries seem to grow louder - that acres of unshaded tarmac is a trend we need to reverse, with tree planting among other things. We also need to cut carbon and, with domestic transport responsible for 28% of the UK’s CO2 emissions, cycling is one low-carbon solution. The heat is making cycling more challenging for now - from everyday journeys people are being recommended to do at cooler times, to the ultra-distance, as Lael Wilcox was forced to abandon her round the world cycling record attempt. For some, though, cycling is still the best option - as Wheels for Wellbeing’s Kate Ball points out.

BATTERY SWAPPING FOR DELIVERY RIDERS Battery fires from low-quality e-bikes that don’t meet legal safety standards are a concern for gig economy riders worldwide. One solution is fire-proof charging facilities, as seen in New York and Amsterdam. Now, Berlin has two such charging cabinets, which riders can use to charge their batteries. The cabinets are compatible with ‘nearly all e-bike batteries’ - so long it fits in the cabinet. They save riders carrying spares, and there’s plans to expand the network to 10 locations. Launched with Zoomo, the batteries inside are monitored as they are charging, via BatteryIQ.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH SUVS? Nearly two thirds of British driving license holders don’t understand that SUVs pose a greater danger to pedestrians and cyclists than smaller cars. That’s according to new YouGov polling of 1,838 British driving license holders. Even after being told the facts, just 3.6% of those who intend to buy or lease an SUV say they would change their minds. The work was commissioned by AdFree Cities with Professor Ian Walker at Swansea University. Walker underlines the folly of accepting this trend, unchecked - pedestrians and cyclists have 44 per cent greater odds of being killed when struck by an SUV driver than someone in a smaller car. Researchers recommend weight-based taxation, to improve the appeal of smaller cars.

WHY LONG-TERM FUNDING IS KEY It’s hard to deliver much on a yearly funding basis. With active travel, councils struggle to deliver ambitious schemes if they don’t know how much money they’ll get in subsequent years. Glasgow made good progress on cycling and walking routes - including some impressive bridges. However, reversal of multi-year funding by Transport Scotland in favour of single-year allocations, the scaling back of cycle route delivery ambitions from 270km by 2032, to just 54.4km. Glasgow City Council will focus on connecting existing routes for now. Where did the money go, you might ask? To potholes, is the answer.

LONDON AIR POLLUTION DEATHS DROP BY 40% The predicted number of deaths linked to toxic air has fallen by 40% in the last five years, according to new data. While the research doesn’t isolate the impact of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone, London mayor, Sadiq Khan, says the zone was crucial in cleaning up the city’s air. The estimated premature deaths attributable to air pollution has fallen from a range of 6,400-8,00 in 2019 to between 3,800 and 5,100 in 2024. The research, commissioned by the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, also found harmful fine particulates fell by 28% in this time.

OTHER HEADLINES

OXFORDSHIRE DEBATES PAVEMENT PARKING BAN Pavement parking may be banned by Oxfordshire County Council, pending a debate next week. The government recently gave strategic or upper tier authorities powers to ban pavement parking if they choose - rather than going for a national ban. Despite widespread public support for a ban, this compromise places the onus on local councils to act, and deliver. In Oxfordshire this decision is even more fractured, and if the motion is successful, each pavement will be examined on a case-by-case basis. While it’s a positive step forward for Oxfordshire, this will be a hugely resource-heavy and time-consuming process.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: This arresting graphic shows just how much space is given over to the parking or control of private vehicles in one London borough (as of 2022) - and how little for more equitable purposes. Extrapolated nationally, that’s a lot of potential for better. Source.

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Kerbside strategy: In Lambeth, south London, 94% of the kerb space is used for car parking. The borough’s groundbreaking kerbside strategy looks at that huge space - 579,000 linear metres of it - and proposes a fairer distribution of that space for things like trees, crossings, cycle parking and seating.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

CWIS3 - THIS TIME THERE’S TARGETS. The long-awaited third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3), launched last week, is better than its consultation suggested, with measurable targets for walking and cycling stages, and a commitment to map a genuine national network by 2030. This refresh is badly needed, following the failure of CWIS2: 1.0 billion cycling stages were made in 2024 against a target of 1.6 billion by 2025, while cycling among 17-29 year-olds actually fell. Walking missed its target too, with under-16s walking less. CWIS3’s focus on young people is welcome, as is the return of the HS2 Cycleway. Concerns remain around the £4.5bn headline, a projected investment over five years, not ring-fenced money. Its success will all come down to whether delivery matches the rhetoric.

CYCLING: NOT JUST FOR THE LEFT. It has always puzzled me that politicians on the right, who want a smaller state and less regulation, seem to want more bureaucracy and rules for cycling. Journalist Lewis Page has articulated just that in his latest Telegraph column. If regulating things is ‘left-wing’ and working hard, taking risks and succeeding is ‘right wing’ - his definitions - then, he argues, cyclists are on the right, and those who want to slap them with mandatory helmets and registration plates are on the left. You can argue the toss, but it just goes to show cycling can and should appeal to both ends of the political spectrum as a Good Thing.

THE SCEPTIC’S CONVERSION. A lovely Times feature this week sees columnist Janice Turner go from Lime-hater to devotee. Her south London corner is a “transport black hole” with no Tube, sclerotic buses and no Boris bikes, and the dockless e-bike is the only scheme that ever reached her. The piece is a useful reminder that shared e-bikes do real work where public transport doesn’t, and that they reach people conventional cycling hasn’t, including older riders and women who haven’t felt safe on a bike before. Turner is honest about the friction too, of course.

VELO-CITY 2026. The world’s annual cycling conference was in Rimini, Italy, this year, and I’ve been there talking about Pluralistic Ignorance, and hearing from leaders from around the world, from activists to politicians. It’s a city that has transformed to make it more friendly for people cycling and walking and it gets my thumbs up. These before and after pictures on LinkedIn from Urban Cycling Institute CEO Meredith Gaser really show the change.

BUILDING CYCLING CONFIDENCE IN ADULTHOOD. A ‘lost generation’ of adults lacks the confidence and skills to cycle, according to the Bikebility Trust. In a poll of 2,000 people, it found 25% were more confident after cycle training, and 18% were more able to ride in traffic. However, access to training in adulthood remains ‘extremely limited’ and, the Trust argues, needs expanding. Cycle routes - physical infrastructure - are key, but so is giving people the ability to use them. The Bikeability Trust celebrated its 18th birthday last week, and its CEO Emily Cherry was given an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours, for services to active travel for children. Congratulations!

HOW WAS BIKE WEEK FOR YOU? Penny Farthing-based record-breakers at the London nocturne. Stories celebrating cycling’s transformational power in people’s lives. Bike Week is a chance to recognise how cycling can bring people together, improve our health, help us enjoy life and explore our surroundings. As Chris Boardman reminds us this week in Active Travel England’s delivery plan, Worth Every Step, it also helps save money, if people can cycle instead of owning a second (or third) car.

OTHER HEADLINES

GREEN CYCLE ROUTES. Our latest Streets Ahead episode features Laura Laker in Cardiff, talking to a councillor, a council officer, a (now) Welsh Assembly Member and a campaigner about how cycle routes are being integrated with things like rain gardens. Wales is a world-leader on so many pieces of legislation, from its Active Travel Act to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and rules requiring sustainable drainage, or SuDS, to be installed wherever there’s a new development impacting rainfall over 100m2. The outcome is an increasingly green city, in which nature is beginning to return.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: A graph I showed at Velo City:

Most people agree Britain would be better if more people cycled, but we overestimate other people’s opposition and underestimate their support. This phenomenon, known as pluralistic ignorance (see word of the week), means politicians too often fail to deliver cycle routes, imagining - incorrectly - people don’t want them.

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE. The phenomenon where people mistakenly believe that most people hold a different opinion than their own. In active travel, as with some clean energy policies, this means politicians also overestimate opposition to such schemes, and underestimate support, even if they support measures themselves.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

INDUCED DEMAND STILL TRUE. “The core problem established… over 30 years ago still exists: building extra road capacity to solve congestion from increasing traffic is likely to induce extra road traffic, which receives benefits itself but causes additional delays and environmental costs to others.” That’s the one sentence summary of a new ‘think piece’ on the phenomenon of induced demand. The author, Phil Goodwin, highlights this phenomenon also exists for other transport modes. Build it and they will come is still true - and the “it” shapes our cities and lives.

E-MICROMOBILITY FOR THE SUBURBS. Cargo bike trials in three English city suburbs, along with national and local surveys, has assessed the potential for household use of e-micromobility (see word of the week) in more car-dependent places, including towns and rural areas. More than half of e-cargo bike miles ridden replaced car miles, research found. More than half of people in England would like to try an e-bike, e-cargo bike or e-scooter, while 11% already owned one. Stopping people doing so were concerns around road safety, cost and where to store the vehicles. Financing, try-before-you-buy and, of course, improving safe routes, would help.

54% OF WAYMO MILES DRIVEN ‘EMPTY’. A little over half of all miles (54%) travelled by driverless Waymo taxis in California carried a passenger. That’s according to data from the first thousand days of the service’s operation, since August 2023. With ‘robotaxis’ coming to cities around the world, we should be asking: what are these vehicles adding to the transport mix, and do the benefits outweigh the disbenefits? This analysis, published in Transport Findings, used data submitted to Californian officials, underlining the importance of such data in cities’ ability to assess these services’ impact on congestion - rather than simply being beguiled by the tech.

PUTTING PEDESTRIANS FIRST. Decades of policies, good intentions and, frankly, thousands of deaths, have failed to result in action to protect pedestrians. In two-pages, the well-respected Transport for Quality of Life sets out where we are with the walking realm, and how we get to where we keep saying we want to be, i.e. putting pedestrians first. It sets out seven actions, from reducing speed limits and banning pavement parking, to upping the frequency of pedestrian crossings. Calling putting pedestrians first ‘radical’ would be laughable, were it not for our long history of inaction.

NEW YORK FIRE DEPT (FDNY) SUPPORTS BIKE LANES. Emergency services can be weaponised against cycling infrastructure, with claims they block vehicle access when it’s most needed. In New York, individual firehouses and spokespeople have grumbled about them in the past. Now, however, the city’s fire commissioner, Lillian Bonsignore, is on record supporting bike lanes. While manoeuvring around them can be an issue, he said, “it’s our mission – our core mission, to save lives – and we appreciate the fact that bike lanes put people in a safer place and they save lives.” Emergency vehicles have even been filmed using them to get around the city’s notorious traffic jams (a good argument to build bike lanes nice and wide).

OTHER HEADLINES

JANETTE SADIK-KHAN BACK IN NYC TRANSIT ROLE? NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has nominated former transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan for the city’s transport board. If confirmed by the city senate she will, along with Melanie Hartzog, work on bringing affordable transport to more New Yorkers. JSK’s book, Streetfight, describes her time delivering pop-up pedestrian plazas and bike lanes across the city in 2008 - almost two decades ago. It’s what inspired me to be more involved in advocacy and ultimately, take the role as West Midlands Cycling & Waking Commissioner. If you haven’t read it, it’s an amazing account of some quite pioneering work that cities like Paris have mimicked since, with great success.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Streets should be about moving people, not just cars, and this graphic is a re-hashing of an old classic, showing just how efficient, or inefficient, different modes are. Carrying 200 people in private vehicles uses 1030m of road space (1.5 people in 133 cars), vs 27.6m for pedestrians. Of course, this simulation is not in the real world, and I’m not convinced the drivers and cyclists would necessarily be going at the same pace, but it’s a fun exercise. You can watch the video to find out who crosses the line first, here:

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

E- Micromobility. An urbanist term encompassing electrified transport modes like e-cycles, e-cargo cycles and e-scooters. Differentiated from e-mobility, of course, by size.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

DELIVERY ROBOTS - MORE PAVEMENT MISERY? Delivery robots are yet another thing vying for our already narrow and contested pavements. According to 2020 research 70% of UK pavements are less than 3m wide, and 34% - just over a third, are sub-2m. Given these bots are 55-70cm wide, it will be challenging for wheelchair users, blind or partially sighted people, or someone with a pushchair to pass or, in some cases, access a drop kerb. This means being forced into the road, or being unable to proceed at all. Delivery bots exist in a legislative grey area - under the 1835 Highways Act, ‘carriages’ can’t operate on pavements - and the government hasn’t yet clarified the bots’ status. It seems delivery companies have found a new way to inflict more misery on us, and we are doing very little about it.

TALK SHOW EXTREMISM. Last week, journalist Laura Laker appeared on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s right-wing show, Talk. Ostensibly there to discuss Cambridge’s cycling street, it was pretty clear from the start JHB was hostile to the concept, saying cyclists and pedestrians already had too much priority on the streets. What happened from there was a classic ‘Gish Gallop’ (see word of the week) from JHB, in which she fired half-truths and hyperbole, presumably to confuse her guest. When Laker gamely refused to be interrupted, JHB turned off her microphone. Hardly edifying television.

THAT CYCLE STREET. It seems sensible to protect the most vulnerable road users - not least when there’s a lot of them - so it’s welcome that Cambridge has just opened England’s first Cycle Street. Common in the Netherlands, and indeed in cities like Berlin, the idea of a cycle street is to make it a bit more comfortable to cycle and walk by asking drivers not to try and overtake them, while removing parking and narrowing the carriageway to make it safer. On Adams Road in Cambridge, there are already 3000 cycle trips during peak times (not per day, as reported elsewhere), in a city where 45% of people cycle at least once a week. That hasn’t stopped some parts of the media (see above) losing their composure over the changes.

LONDON ROAD DEATHS FALL TO NEAR-RECORD LOW. London just recorded the second lowest death toll on its roads, which were down 13% in 2025 vs 2024, according to provisional figures. Transport for London says 96 people were killed last year, compared with 110 in 2024. It’s still an awful toll for a transport system. Serious injuries, unfortunately, have risen in that time, from 3,597 to 3,900. There are clear trends: 81% of those killed or seriously injured were walking, cycling or on a motorcycle, while speeding and dangerous driving were key factors in collisions. London’s Vision Zero Action Plan aims to address these known trends via things like wider 20mph speed limits, junction improvements, camera enforcement of driving offences and expansion of the city’s cycle network.

SPEED LIMITS ON BIKE LANES? Amsterdam, like the UK, has a growing problem of illegal e-bikes on streets. Its solution is, contrary to recommendations by cycling organisations, to trial a suggested speed limit on its cycle lanes. This speed limit won’t be enforced, so it begs the question, what’s the point? Suggestions we follow suit in the UK are made without apparent irony: while we need to crack down on illegal ebikes here, too, pointing the finger at cycling more broadly would be a mistake, given the benefits. We’d surely be better off tackling speeding drivers, who are contributing to significant proportions of the deaths and serious injuries on our roads each year.

OTHER HEADLINES

CYCLING = OIL SHOCK RESILIENCE. The Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of clearing, and in April the European Cyclists’ Federation set out ten measures to boost cycling and improve nations’ resilience, beyond doubling down on fossil fuel subsidies. Immediate solutions include temporary cycle lanes, lower urban speed limits, targeted financial incentives for bicycles, e-cycles and repairs, car-free days, and cycle tourism promotion. Longer-term ‘structural’ reforms include familiar things like reallocating 10% of transport budgets to active travel, developing coherent cycle networks, bike-to-school programmes and bike leasing schemes.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: This may be the second oil shock in four years, but as this Bloomberg piece by clean energy businessman, Michael Liebreich, points out, it’s part of a much longer-term trend. Reducing reliance on fossil fuels would seem a good long-term solution. Source: https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/liebreich-the-great-clean-energy-acceleration-2-0/

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Gish Gallop. A tactic used to overwhelm a debating opponent by presenting a barrage of arguments, regardless of their accuracy, at a speed that makes it impossible for that opponent to address them in time. It’s sometimes used to undermine the audience’s opinion of the target opponent - but it can backfire.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

TRAFFIC WORSENS URBAN HEAT. With Europe baking in an early heatwave, thoughts return to how we design and manage our urban realm. The positive impact of tree planting, and planted areas more generally, are well-known. This Conversation article sets out the lesser-known impact of moving traffic on the ‘urban heat island effect’ (see word of the week). Waste energy from cars’ exhaust pipes is expelled as heat, increasing the surrounding temperature by 0.25c to 0.4c. This sounds small but every fraction of a degree can contribute to discomfort, illness and worse - and it’s worth considering when planning cities.

BIKE LANES CAN MAKE IT BETTER. One great thing about repurposing street space for walking and cycling is the way that space can suddenly perform multiple functions. Cardiff is among the cities doing just that - incorporating planting and ecosystem revitalisation alongside its new bike lanes. In a city that’s known for high rainfall - and which is not exempt from heatwaves either, extra shade and absorbent surfaces, not just hard tarmac, is standing the city in good stead for extreme weather events - and helping wildlife. This is led by Welsh legislation requiring water management is built into hardscaping. The local otters seem to approve.

HELSINKI’S YEAR WITHOUT A ROAD DEATH. The Finnish capital just achieved a year without a single registered road death, reports Politico. Although it’s one of Europe’s smallest capital cities, with fewer than 690,000 residents, it follows Oslo in achieving the feat - showing it is possible elsewhere. Traffic engineers cite speed limit reductions, with policing and speed camera enforcement, as key. Relevant to this week’s theme, tree planting has helped narrow the roads, forcing drivers to go slower and more cautiously. New cycling and walking infrastructure and public transport have helped reduce driving in the city, too.

PAVEMENTS FOR HEALTHY AGEING. Portugal’s famous cobbled pavements, popular with tourists, hide a deadly problem. Significant numbers of those who died from pneumonia had fallen on the street in their recent history, research has found. Those falls led to periods of inactivity which worsened mobility and lung health, leaving older people vulnerable to pneumonia infections. Cities looking to enable healthy ageing can and should look to their pavements, and tackle slippery, uneven surfaces with urgency.

SAFER RURAL ROADS. Minor rural roads are some of the most dangerous places to walk and cycle, thanks to a combination of high traffic speeds and a lack of pavements. To try and tackle the problem, and encourage more walking and cycling, Oxfordshire County Council will trial filtering some of its rural roads to through traffic. Designated roads will be fitted with gates and bollards, and lower speed limits - typically 20mph. The council is in the process of identifying lanes where there’s local demand to reclaim the space back from rat-running drivers to walking, cycling and horse riding.

OTHER HEADLINES

OXFORD STREET CHALLENGE DROPPED. It seems Oxford Street will be pedestrianised from this summer as Westminster City Council’s new Conservative council has dropped its promise of a judicial review. Challenging Sadiq Khan’s plans to remove bus and taxi traffic from the street - private cars are already banned - was in the incumbents’ manifesto, and was repeated after elections. The reason, as reported by Dave Hill, seems to be that it was too late to launch the review. Undeterred, the mayor reiterated his commitment to improving ‘Britain’s High Street’ in a walking and wheeling action plan, launched today.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

From Australian transport guy, Russell King, is this handy graphic outlining why transport solutions aren’t as simple as they might at first seem. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7463355471651840000/

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Urban heat island effect. Concrete and tarmac retain heat from the sun, a heat that builds in summer, creating an island effect around cities. The effect can be reduced by replacing those hard surfaces with trees and plants, which actively cool the surrounding air.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LEEDS MEANS CYCLING. Leeds’ cycle network has grown by 113 miles in the past decade, according to the City Council. Dawson’s Corner, near Pudsey, is a huge junction currently being expanded to include cycle lanes - and more lanes for motor vehicles. Inevitably the BBC’s vox pops reveal mixed impressions of the cycle network so far, but progress is undeniable. You can see and plan journeys on Leeds’ routes here, some of which are protected lanes on main roads, and others use measures like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

FLOATING BUS STOPS ARE GO. Bus stop bypasses (BSB) are where a cycle route passes behind a bus stop, and passengers cross the lane at stops. While essential for safe cycle networks - without them cyclists must share road space with bus drivers - they need to be accessible. Concerns around the impact on blind and partially sighted people’s access has inspired a pause on their rollout and new national guidance this year. Now, City of London officials have concluded their planned BSBs meet the necessary standards - meaning work on a protected route linking Aldgate and Blackfriars can restart.

MAKING ACTIVE PLACES. Making Active Places is Active Travel England’s flagship placemaking and active travel conference - and tickets are now available. Held in Manchester city center on 22-23 September, the event will bring together the voices shaping the sector from the UK and internationally. Professionals can expect to take home clear learning and guidance to deploy in their roles, as well as exploring some inspiring local regeneration projects. You can find out more, and purchase tickets, here.

BEST CITIES FOR CYCLE BREAKS. When we make space for safe walking and cycling, we make places people want to be in. A great bellwether of this is where we choose to go on holiday. It’s no coincidence some of the most popular tourist cities, from major destinations like Paris, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Barcelona, to smaller cities like Ghent, Antwerp and Nice, have invested heavily in quality public realm that’s enjoyable to spend time in. Here’s one list of cycling destination cities, from Momentum Mag.

IMPROVING CAR ALTERNATIVES ISN’T ENOUGH. Providing alternatives is essential to cut short car trips, but there’s more to the story. I.e., new rail lines tend to attract customers from other public transport, rather than cars. The Transport Leader newsletter describes each mode’s baseline ‘desirability line’ - which cars often win on perceived convenience, speed, safety and comfort. While being creatures of habit (and making some decisions based on outdated information), we can still change. In terms of ‘carrots’ to shift perceptions, you’ve things like personalised travel planning, marketing, free trial periods and employer travel schemes. ‘Sticks’ to reduce the desirability of driving include parking and congestion charges, and things like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

OTHER HEADLINES

ARNIE SAYS RIDE TO WORK. Talking of great marketing, Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been a bodybuilder, an action hero and a politician in his time but he also happens to know the best way of getting to work. Ride your bike, he says, instead of using the car. As well as being great for the places we live, you’ll probably look and feel good for doing it. It’s hard to argue with the message, or the messenger.

NOT JUST REFORM. It’s not just Reform you need to worry about when it comes to cycle lanes following the local elections. It appears some Labour politicians are still more worried about Reform’s view on cycle lanes than actually trying to deliver proven measures. Here’s the new Labour Cabinet Member for Transport in Rochdale.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

On desirability lines, and congestion charging as a way to manage them, along with quality public transport (and walking and cycling routes). Hint: spending public money to subsidise fuel duty for all isn’t the way to give people affordable transport choices, long-term. Source: https://transportlc.org/posts/why-good-alternatives-still-can-t-get-people-out-of-their-cars

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Desire Lines. In architecture and transport, this term refers to unplanned, visible footpaths created over time by pedestrians or animals. These lines represent the shortest or most efficient route between an origin and a destination, revealing how people naturally prefer to navigate a space, which often bypasses the officially paved sidewalks.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

ONE CHANGE AT RISK. There is plenty I could worry about following last week’s local elections, but let’s look at pavement parking. Despite a clear preference from the public - 62% want to ban it, according to a recent YouGov poll - the government compromised. New powers to tackle pavement parking are available to some local authorities - but their use is optional. It would have taken bold leadership to use these powers when council majorities were the norm; this feels less likely now. London is showing where this goes already: Westminster’s new Tory administration has pledged to fight Labour mayor Sadiq Khan on pedestrianising Oxford Street. With mayoralties reliant on consensus from their constituent councils to deliver change, this could hint at things to come; I only hope I’m wrong.

DELAYING TACTICS. Low traffic neighbourhood opposition can weaponise the impact on low-income or disabled residents with claims of displacing traffic onto main roads or making vehicle access harder. While such concerns are valid and should be heard and mitigated, they can amount to delaying tactics. A new study formulates common delaying tactics, including redirecting responsibility onto individuals, i.e. cyclists can take care of themselves; emphasising the downsides; pushing for easier solutions, like electric vehicle rollout; and surrendering, i.e. claiming people won’t or can’t change their behaviour. It’s useful to have a framework, to help sift out genuine concerns from potential hidden agendas.

THE SLOW LANE. The Guardian’s latest series examines the impact of car dependency on cities, notably in the US. Their stories of Americans living without cars, and the challenges they face in linking badly-connected public transport with walking and cycling trips, is particularly eye-opening. It shows what happens with decades of underinvestment in both modes, and how it makes residents’ lives harder. With oil prices pushing up the already-high cost of motoring in an already acute cost-of-living crisis, the problem is more stark than ever.

MEANWHILE, IN EUROPE. Across the EU, ever-larger SUVs have been allowed to proliferate. These heavier vehicles, with their tall bonnets, cause greater harm to other road users, while worsening pollution and damaging the streets themselves. As car bloat continues apace, European cities are starting to push back - including Paris’ weight-based parking charges, while London considers something similar. One estimate puts the potential revenue of a proportionate UK tax on larger private vehicles at £2bn. However, with the ongoing energy crisis, it’s energy experts ringing the alarm on the waste of resources these oversized cars represent.

DOES VIENNA NEED MORE STICK? Vienna has an excellent public transport system, with a network of regular, well-organised trams, trains and buses - and yet a quarter of trips are still made by private car. This piece examines whether, like many European cities, the carrot approach, i.e. giving people tempting and effective options, has reached its limit. At some point, cities need to start disincentivising car travel for short journeys, and as the car displaced other means of transport in the last century, so the reverse is needed now.

OTHER HEADLINES

A 1980S RESPONSE FOR A 1790S BRIDGE. Traffic lights can be a blessing and a curse. While clearly useful in many situations, they can also give drivers the false impression that they can rush through with little regard to others. Residents near the historic Clachan bridge on Scotland’s Argyll coast are concerned this will be their fate - and that new lights will risk pedestrians enjoying the view from the scenic humpbacked bridge. The local authority has begun work, saying the lights are needed for safety, but locals feel differently. 1500 people have signed a petition against the plans, and it’s made national news.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Dave Walker’s cycling cartoons illustrate brilliantly things we look at every day but somehow fail to see. This is a classic, from his latest newsletter - it’s well worth subscribing.

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

No overall control. A lot of local authorities will be grappling with this problem - and how to deliver all manner of changes when their constituent members might be from across the political spectrum. How that will play out is to be seen, but we could expect to see a lot of delays to anything vaguely controversial, which sadly in 2026, still includes most cycling schemes.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LOWERING THE BAR? Are driverless vehicles being allowed to ignore safe driving standards, including stopping in cycle lanes? In the USA at least, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting this might be the case. Advocates in San Francisco say they are routinely pulling into bike lanes, which Waymo denies. One cyclist is suing Waymo for driving into a bike lane to drop off a passenger, who then doored them. While this is new technology, fixing errors that risk safety should surely be a priority.

NYC PAUSES WAYMO TRIAL. In the meantime, New York City has not renewed tech company Waymo’s license to trial the vehicles, which expired at the beginning of April. The city’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, underlined that his city government was “committed to delivering for the workers that keep the city running…” including its taxi drivers. This is perhaps a jab at tech companies Uber and Lyft, which have in the past used loopholes to avoid paying its drivers the minimum wage.

WAYMO DRIVER PLOUGHS INTO CRIME SCENE. In another malfunction, a Waymo taxi was filmed driving straight through police tape at a crime scene in north London, late last month. The vehicle was apparently in manual mode at the time, i.e. a driver should have been in full control. The driver reversed out of the cordon after ‘a brief interaction’ with police officers, according to Waymo, who claimed had it been in autonomous mode it wouldn’t have happened. Which you can choose to believe or not. The robotaxis are set to be rolled out in London in September.

CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO STREETS. Our latest Streets Ahead episode features childhood advocates Tim Gill and Alice Ferguson, and their battle cry for children’s access to streets. After decades of warm words on improving childhood mobility close to home, too little has been done, they say. Their new report underlines that the dominance of motor traffic, and the risks it poses has eroded the ability for children to access their neighbourhoods. The stark implications for child health and wellbeing are well-known. What will end this century-long pandemic, as Gill puts it - and why haven’t we acted on the clear evidence of harm?

CAN THE US EMBRACE PUBLIC TRANSPORT? Cycling and public transport should go together like toast and butter. It’s no coincidence the world’s most cyclable places also prioritise public transport: see Paris, London, Helsinki, Ghent. In the US, a recent report found that it would take $4.6tn to bring the nation’s bus and rail services up to world-class levels. Aside from a few exceptions, new developments tend not to include non-car transport options. With global urban populations booming, and recent oil price shocks underlining the fragility of car-dependent urban planning, resilient multi-modal transport systems are essential.

OTHER HEADLINES

WHAT OF BIRMINGHAM’S ROAD SAFETY CONSENSUS? Why did Birmingham’s politicians recently disagree on the need for slower traffic speeds? 20mph has been a local Labour policy goal since 2012. The city administration declared a road safety emergency last year, after 80% of casualties were recorded on roads with a 30mph limit. As recently as 2024, the council asked the Department of Transport for permission to apply cost-saving signage for a default 20mph on residential streets. As I mentioned last week, that all changed at a recent hustings, when politicians failed to back 20mph. The evidence is clear: 20mph saves lives, cuts insurance premiums, helps boost walking and cycling, and people support it. Somehow that’s all been forgotten with local elections looming.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Again, for those at the back: how 20mph reduced road casualties in Wales, vs England and Scotland. Source: https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/what-impact-has-20mph-had-on-road-safety-in-wales/

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Balancing the needs of all users? Mark Philpotts, aka Ranty Highwayman, says this phrase sends shivers down his spine, as it usually means motor vehicle movements are prioritised. I agree. What we need instead, he argues, are minimum levels of service for those at the top of the transport hierarchy, i.e., walking and cycling - with parking for private vehicles considered last.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

CAR DEPENDENCY: MAPPED. People can access opportunities when they are close, and easy to get to. And while globally, car-centric design has improved access for some, it has bred car dependency - negatively impacting communities, particularly those on the lowest incomes. A study of travel times in European and American cities concludes that, for most, the car is still the quickest way of getting around. Only in Paris and Zurich is it easier to get around by public transport than by car. In Australia, meanwhile, the similar ‘Vampire index’ underscores the cost of car-centric neighbourhoods for residents as fuel prices remain high. Making walking, cycling and public transport more favourable takes strategic planning, it says.

SPEAKING OF PROXIMITY. A new paper by the father of the 15-minute city, Prof. Carlos Morenos, talks about the power of proximity in a new way. What he calls ‘proxilience’ is a hybrid of proximity and resilience, the idea that by having daily needs within a reasonable distance in cities, those cities are more resilient. This can be achieved by using buildings as multi-purpose shared - and flexible - space, allowing for adaptation over time. By having our needs within easy reach, of course, we can reduce the environmental impact of cities, improving their economies and the experience of living within them.

THE REAL URBAN CONSPIRACY? 15-minute cities don’t trap people in their homes - they make walking and cycling a realistic option. This Streetsblog piece argues that the real trap is car-dependency. The ‘hyperproximity’ pledge of Paris’ new mayor, who wants a 15-minute city, it says, mirrors how cities were originally planned: services accessible within walking distance. Today’s cities too often have hour-long commutes stuck in traffic. The piece thankfully stops short of claiming this is a coordinated attack on our freedoms, but it does underline that we pay for this model in our health and climate - and that plenty of money is being made in the car and roadbuilding sectors as a result.

CYCLING AND AGE. Just a thoroughly enjoyable piece written by cycling journalist Nick Christian, celebrating - and defending - the popularity of cycling among those of a certain age. While our performance may decline in other sports, he argues, with cycling it’s possible to remain fairly competitive far later in life. Not that cycling needs to be competitive of course - but it also means you can enjoy it and keep riding fairly long distances, should you wish, well into older age.

AHEAD OF THE KERB? ‘Current parking policy in Scotland imposes avoidable costs on public health, the environment and housing affordability, while reinforcing patterns of car dependency’. That’s the assertion of a new report, Beyond the Kerb. Written by active and public transport campaign group, Transform Scotland, it asserts that the harm of parking Scotland’s 2.6 million cars can be reversed - not least that caused by the growth in SUVs. With one in four Scots having no access to a car there’s a case to be made. It highlights best-practice solutions, including Scotland’s pavement parking ban, Lambeth’s kerbside strategy in London, parking charges by size and weight in Europe, and Nottingham’s workplace parking levy.

OTHER HEADLINES

NO COURAGE FOR BRUM 20MPH. It was disappointing this week to see the lack of political will now in Birmingham for safer streets. Only one candidate (after quite a pause) backed 20mph limits on residential streets. This is perplexing because it’s been Birmingham Labour policy since 2012, data shows 20mph has cut serious injuries by 8-17% and the city declared a road safety emergency. You can’t tackle road danger without tackling speed in residential areas - and 20mph is popular with residents.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: The balance of car-dependency in European and American cities. Blue means it’s easier to get around by public transport, red is by car, and white is neutral. Key public transport corridors are clearly visible in Milan, Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, etc., but otherwise cars win out. Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.01019

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Car dependency index. The extent to which residents in a given area are dependent on cars. This is a useful metric as it makes it possible to map places that are better or worse for non-car transport options - and hopefully allow for targeted solutions.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, speciali

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

WALKING AND CYCLING REPLACE CAR TRIPS. As fuel prices rise, so does active travel, but women could be left behind, according to research by Cycling UK. In a YouGov survey of more than 2000 adults, almost 30% of drivers are walking or cycling more - and 15% more are considering it. However, more women than men are considering cutting back on leisure activities or trips to green space. Most stark is the fact 7% of women had bought a new bike in response to fuel prices vs 13% of men. Cycling UK says financial support to buy bikes, as well as safer roads and tax incentives are needed to correct this inequality.

HOW TO GET RIDING AGAIN. This thoughtful piece - one of a growing number to help people get back on a bike as fuel costs rise - tackles motivational issues and the kinds of thoughts that might deter someone from getting on a bike. Tips include cycling part of the journey, rather than all the way; storing the bike somewhere accessible at home; and forgetting preconceptions of what a ‘proper cyclist’ might be. It also suggests online maintenance videos to help keep maintenance costs down. The links relate to Australia but the template is a good one.

LONDON’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL STREET? If a brief video about the history of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods sounds like your bag, well, you’re in luck. The title is grabby but, luckily, the content is also good. Its presenter, Evan Edinger, looks at the recent Tower Hamlets LTN court battle through a wider lens. He pans back as far as the 1970s where nearby De Beauvoir town in Hackney was similarly ‘filtered’ to through running traffic after drivers hit a lollipop lady and a child, sparking protests. As with today’s measures, collisions dropped dramatically. Improvements, however, aren’t a guarantee of a scheme’s safety. Today’s communities sometimes have to fight for change, just like those in the 1970s. Worth a watch.

A TALE OF FOUR CITIES. Research looked at cycling in London, Berlin, Paris and New York, pre and post-Pandemic. All four cities initiated COVID-era cycling infrastructure, and have continued expanding cycle networks since. All four differ in density, climate and makeup and car-ownership status of residents. As a result, their cycling outcomes differ. Cycling rates rose most dramatically in Berlin over the period, with Paris second - and while safety improved in Paris and Berlin, post-pandemic, in New York and London it stagnated. The report authors note cycling improvements haven’t been felt evenly, with inequalities on access persisting - and there’s gaps in the networks. There’s also the risk of political shifts that reverse support for active travel, as in Berlin where speed limit reductions have been reversed, post-pandemic.

SPEEDING = FINES. It may seem obvious in the road safety community, but more drivers speeding would tend to mean more drivers being penalised for speeding. It’s worth pointing out, though, that countering the ‘cash cow drivers’ narrative often surrounding speed limit enforcement. The BBC’s Holly Hamilton has done just that, via FOI data obtained by IAM RoadSmart around speeding-related penalty points. This data suggests people are breaking speed limits more regularly, while camera technology has improved detection.

OTHER HEADLINES

NOTTINGHAM’S NEW BRIDGE OPENS SOON. A new walking and cycling bridge connecting Trent Basin and Lady Bay in Nottingham will open to the public on 2 June. Bridges are crucial for local active journeys, saving people potentially miles of detours, and hills. As mentioned in November (#188), the bridge will connect a regenerating Trent Basin area, with its new homes and schools, and the Lady Bay/West Bridgford area with their sports facilities, including Trent Bridge cricket ground. Local people, including cycle campaigners, Pedals, have been asking for the bridge for the past 12 years, apparently. The new bridge will connect to local cycle networks and the NCN.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Cycling growth in four major cities, pre- and post-Covid. Those who invest in routes reap the cycling rewards. Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/15568318.2026.2649315?needAccess=true

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Stopping distances. Slower speeds reduce the kinetic energy of a vehicle, in a collision, increasing survival rates. However, they also reduce stopping distances, reducing the likelihood of collision in the first place. At 30mph, it takes around 11m longer for a driver to stop - around three car lengths - than at 20mph.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

CYCLING BACK IN THE HEADLINES. Australia is one of the most car-dependent nations on Planet Earth. In this Guardian Australia piece, readers are reminded of the power of their bicycles to ditch the car, save them money and bring the joy back to everyday journeys. Alan Vaarwerk offers some helpful tips on bringing a bicycle back into service - as well as how to find routes, build confidence and even meet other riders in your area. Latest calculations are, an e-bike is 140 times cheaper per mile than a petrol or diesel car.

AND IN COUNCILLORS’ INBOXES? Local people should not be the ones delivering safe cycling and walking routes - after all, it wouldn’t happen for road or rail infrastructure - but this is the situation we find ourselves in. My podcast co-host, Laura Laker, has produced a helpful campaigners’ toolkit, sharing some of the expertise of successful rural campaign groups. She also reveals that landowners are holding up around 300 miles of community-driven path campaigns, and 117 miles of council paths, preventing delivery of safe alternatives to driving.

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR. I’m pleased to say that my agency Fusion has been appointed by Active Travel England to support the delivery of their Making Active Places Conference, which will take place on 22nd and 23rd September in Manchester. This is exactly the kind of work that sits at the heart of what we do as the Agency For Movers.

Bringing together the people shaping how our towns and cities move, the conference is an opportunity to turn ambition into action — and to make active travel a practical, everyday reality. Fusion will lead conference management, delegate experience and commercial partnerships. If your organisation is interested in exhibiting at the conference or sponsorship opportunities, do get in touch.

CYCLING AS A STRATEGIC TOURISM SECTOR. The European Cyclists’ Federation has seen cycle tourism included as a strategic sector in Europe’s Sustainable Tourism Strategy. This means the iconic Eurovelo routes are recognised - along with the need to improve and enhance them for local communities, sustainable travel and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Plus, of course, boosting cycle tourism numbers. Leisure is the biggest reason for making a journey here in the UK, too - above commuting - and cycle tourism is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. With the cost of flights increasing we might be wise to promote cycle tourism too.

WALKING AND CYCLING AS FRIENDS. Tensions between pedestrians and cyclists are not inherent to walking and cycling, but the product of street design. That’s what the author of a brand-new report: Cycling and the Relationship With Pedestrians, has said. With the bulk of streetspace allocated to motor vehicles, Alan Raposo says, everyone else is forced to share the remaining space, often on pavements. Even if physical conflict happens rarely, this setup undermines public perceptions of cyclists, who are seen as risks to pedestrians in shared space. The solution is to treat active travel - both walking and cycling - as proper transport, and not an afterthought. And keep pavements for pedestrians, ideally.

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED RAILWAY. Work is underway on a new HS2 walking and cycling bridge in Warwickshire. Local connections and crossings in and around railway lines and roads are essential if communities are to have decent transport choices - so it’s great to see this being delivered in and around the HS2 line. A new bridge at Cambridge’s Waterbeach development officially opens next month, too - crossing the busy A10, traffic-free. The easier, and better connected a community is by walking and cycling networks, the more likely people are to use them.

OTHER HEADLINES

STORYTELLING AS A TOOL. Cycling can change lives - from improving health, to saving money, to making everyday trips more enjoyable, there are almost as many stories as there are bicycles. For a bit of inspiration, and knowing the power of storytelling to make change, the social media account, American Fietser, has asked people for their stories. From saving money to finding a community, to joyful school runs, to mental and physical health benefits, it’s all there.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: A diverse transport system is a resilient one. While there are pockets of good cycling, walking and public transport investment, elsewhere there’s little escaping car dependency, and with it the impact of fuel prices. The recent Better Connected transport strategy should help more people take public transport, but the promised change is urgently needed. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ywpv1d4geo

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Connectivity. A bit of a buzzword, as the UK government starts to try to knit together means of non-car transport. It even launched ‘connectivity metrics’ last year. This describes how easy it is for someone to reach employment, services and social engagements - and includes walking, cycling and public transport - not just driving.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

It also empowers local leaders to deliver - see the Peak District’s ‘Mini Switzerland’ public transport connection project. Meanwhile, there are valid questions around how we tackle drivers who kill, and the thinking underlying light sentencing.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

GOOD NEWS FOR WALKING. The Government has confirmed in its new “Better Connected” strategy that it will enable new simplified zebra crossings. These ‘side road zebras’ look like their more common relatives, only without the expensive flashing Belisha Beacons. Campaigners have, for years, advocated for this change. Motor traffic danger - much of it very short car trips - stops children travelling independently, and road crossings are a key danger point. By enforcing the priority already given in the Highway Code to pedestrians crossing side roads, with a simple zebra, walking and wheeling become a viable option for more people.

DRIVING UP CONGESTION? Deep in the Government’s new integrated transport strategy is a truth at odds with the rhetoric you hear in the media: driving a car has gotten cheaper in real terms, while public transport has gotten more expensive. The Government is also clear that this will mean more traffic and more congestion. Since 2006 train fares have increased by 32%, buses by 11% (from a pre-pandemic peak of 18%), while motoring costs have dropped by 4%. In less than a decade, the government predicts, road traffic will expand by 10%.

LTNs ARE POPULAR ACTUALLY. LTNs became a culture-war battleground but the evidence now is that people rather like them, says Times columnist Emma Duncan. LTNs have followed a now-familiar trajectory: from “Nazi experiments” and “climate lockdown” conspiracy theories to… actually quite popular bits of street design. Using Oxford as the case study, the piece cuts through the noise to show what’s really happened: traffic inside neighbourhoods falls sharply, it doesn’t meaningfully flood boundary roads, and the predicted collapse of local businesses never quite materialises. What does happen is quieter streets, safer walking and cycling, and kids playing out again. LTNs have been a useful reminder that if you let culture wars or endless consultation dictate transport policy, you’ll never change anything at all.

ALARM OVER DRIVING STANDARDS. Professor Sally Kyd is a leading expert in driving offences and sentencing. In this Guardian piece she underlines the fundamental flaws in the current system that allows killer drivers to walk away with short sentences and limited driving bans. Even when a driver creates multiple risks (driving under the influence while speeding and using a mobile phone, for example), their behaviour can be classed as ‘careless’, not ‘dangerous’, with lower maximum penalties. Kyd argues the concept fundamental to these offences, of a ‘competent and careful driver’, has no shared meaning, while the standard of driving appears to be falling - thanks in no small part to roads policing cuts. Add to that distracting in-car digital screens, and you’re asking for trouble, she says. Kyd argues to redefine driving offences, re-invest in roads policing and to reframe speed cameras and enforcement as life-saving measures, rather than inconveniences for drivers.

SELF-DRIVING SURGE. If you’re looking to cut congestion, then ushering in vehicles that are, by their nature, constantly circulating on the roads, is a bad idea. CityLab’s David Zipper has warnings, in the face of America’s Autonomous Vehicle (AV) boom (also on the cards here - taxi licensing laws permitting). As Waymo’s and Zoox’s vehicles fill San Francisco streets, trends are emerging. People are willing to pay more to sit in one, i.e., they prefer it; they also mind less if congestion worsens - they aren’t driving. AVs also tempt people from public transport, walking and cycling - replacing them with single-occupancy cars. Last week saw traffic jams in China when 100 AVs malfunctioned en masse. Zipper advocates for road pricing to help prevent this gridlocked future - before it manifests.

OTHER HEADLINES

HOW LONG IS AN ACTIVE SCHOOL TRIP? Research, encompassing data from almost half a million children globally, has established how far children will travel by cycling or walking. Across a number of studies, researchers identified mean walking trips of 1km (14 minutes), and mean cycling journeys of 2.7km (13 minutes). This is useful because it helps establish school journeys that are achievable by active means, and can potentially switch from driving. Of course, distances will differ, family to family, and between contexts (climate, culture, infrastructure) but it’s a useful benchmark.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Claims there’s a war on drivers fall flat when we remember just how much driving costs all of us. We all subsidise this mode of travel with fuel duty freezes among other things, which is why costs haven’t increased where other transport modes have, and our absolute reliance on cars does more harm than good in congestion, health and the economy. It also leaves us vulnerable to fuel price shocks. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-connected-a-strategy-for-integrated-transport

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

“Dangerous” or “Careless” driving? By law, the distinction between careless and dangerous driving is driving that falls either ‘below’, or ‘far below’ the standard of ‘a competent and careful driver’. What competent and careful means, as Prof. Sally Kyd points out this week, is wide open to interpretation and needs clarifying - not least because our ‘motornormativity’ means we accept much riskier behaviour when we are behind the wheel.

Correction: Last week’s deliberate (ahem) April 1 mistake was of an order of magnitude. The London Cycling Campaign’s eagle-eyed Tom Bogdanowicz correctly pointed out that Paris has 1,500 new kilometres of cycle lane since Anne Hidalgo’s inauguration, not 15,000km.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

CASH FOR CYCLING. Building safe routes is essential, but so is helping people use them. Not everyone has the confidence, knowhow or equipment to get on a bike, so community and school cycling programmes are key to unlocking the potential of cycling. That’s why a £100m boost for the Bikeability Trust, Cycling UK’s Big Bike Revival, and Living Streets’ Walk to School Outreach programme, and Modeshift’s STARS programme, among others in England, is a good thing. This multi-year funding will help give the certainty to plan ahead and deliver more, to help more people.

TIME TO EMBRACE GREEN TRANSPORT? With the US and Israel’s war on Iran ongoing, and fuel prices jackknifing wildly, providing alternatives to fossil-fuel based transport seems sensible. Australia is one of the world’s most car-dependent nations, and in its big cities most trips are still driven. Two thirds of Aussies want to cycle more, but access to public transport and safe cycling routes are patchy. Since fuel prices have spiked, however, more people are trying these options. To help, two states have made public transport free and others are reducing its costs. The federal government meanwhile, is doubling down on a clearly volatile resource, by halving fuel duty - while New South Wales sees public transport subsidy a waste of taxpayers’ money. They might all do well to build more cycle routes.

NATIONAL GREENWAY ROUTES FOR AMERICA? A bill to expand federal funding for a national network of greenways is being proposed in the States. If enacted it would kickstart a competitive grant programme to improve or build safe, wheelchair accessible greenway paths across the US. These would be of national or regional significance, while reducing the need for cars by connecting communities with each other, with public transport services and with recreational opportunities. It’s a bold move by nominating Democratic House Representative LaMonica McIver. It reminds me of calls made last year for national network planning in England’s CWIS3 strategy.

CHAPEAU, ANNE HIDALGO. Anne Hidalgo achieved an astonishing amount in her 12 years as Paris’ mayor. Facing down misogyny and outrage over her plans to cut car traffic and reclaim the streets for people and nature, she held firm on her course. Now, the Left Bank of the Seine, once an urban freeway, is a city beach. 15,000km of cycle tracks line the streets, pushing cycle traffic volumes above that of cars, and helping halve the city’s air pollution, with the help of national and EU policies. Paris streets, once lined with parked cars, are now green traffic-free oases, giving residents, not least children, places to breathe and enjoy the outdoors. This interview celebrates one remarkable leader’s achievements, as she steps down.

PARIS’ LOVE OF CYCLING CONTINUES. Happily, Paris’ newly-elected mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, pledges to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps. Cycling around the city with supporters straight after winning the votes was a good sign. Gregoire, Hidalgo’s former deputy, has pledged to continue her work. On the shopping list is completing the citywide cycle network, transforming the ring highway into a boulevard, introducing 1,000 new pedestrian streets, and 300 hectares of parkland. He’s even pledging to end the use of chauffeur-driven cars by Paris officials.

OTHER HEADLINES

CAN ROAD DANGER BE ELIMINATED? Vision Zero is the target to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries. In London that target date is 2041, which isn’t long away given how far there is still to go. In the latest episode of Streets Ahead, Laura and I talked with London’s walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, about this ambition and the challenges the city will face in meeting it. We explore falling casualty rates, the city’s growing network of cycle routes, the role of 20mph, the question marks over Waymo’s ‘safer’ driverless cars and some forthcoming political headwinds.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

A picture, this time. The cheapest petrol is the petrol you don’t use.

As fuel prices rise once again, it could be a good time to consider switching to an e-bike, as these ads at pumps in Bristol suggested. (Campaign by my agency Fusion for Specialized from a few years back)

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Simplified Zebras: a zebra crossing without Belisha Beacons. They’re pretty undefined because there isn’t the guidance surrounding them, but the principle is that they are on side roads where speeds are slow and they reinforce the pedestrian priority afforded in the Highway Code changes. The Government is being urged to permit them in England, following Wales’ example. Perhaps they will, soon.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

SAFER STREET DESIGN. Almost nine in ten women have felt unsafe walking at night, according to new research - and seven in ten have altered their walking route after dark, as a result. These are shocking statistics behind which are real people whose access to the streets, and opportunities, is being hampered. This week, to tackle the problem, the government launched council guidance on active travel route solutions, like improved lighting and visibility, CCTV and ‘natural surveillance’ (see word of the week). They’ll be holding workshops across the UK to help those working in transport to help tackle the problem.

…BUT NOT FOR CYCLING. As the London Cycling Campaign points out, there’s no mention of cycling. While traffic-free routes are scary on foot or pedalling, the solutions differ: a walker may choose a pavement alongside a busy road at night, whereas a cyclist will then potentially face traffic danger. As LCC points out, crime rates in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are lower, and there’s potentially better ‘natural surveillance’ because people are on foot or cycling themselves, not rushing past in vehicles. The LCC’s Women’s Network has researched and reported on some of the issues, here. Hopefully the forthcoming workshops will tackle this issue.

INTEGRATE! Like other National Parks, the New Forest is hitting the limits of a transport system designed around the car. Visitor traffic, with a growing population, causes congestion, air pollution and road danger. A summit to explore the problems, and their solutions, was clear: integrate transport so people can travel car-free. People want to walk, wheel and cycle, but they need safe routes, including to bus and rail stations. Ebikes can boost the numbers of cycleable trips, but they need secure parking. Roads can be made safe by ‘filtering’ through traffic, speed limits reduced and cycleways built. Even in a National Park most journeys are short, and the car isn’t the best tool for the job - but it takes joined-up thinking to change behaviours.

NEW LIME BIKES DROP. Lime Bikes are incredibly well used, carrying countless riders in cities around the world daily. Popular as they are, however, the bikes can be heavy and cumbersome, and have given rise to what healthcare professionals have termed ‘Lime Bike leg’ - a particular kind of lower limb break. A new design has now seen that chunky down tube lowered, and fitted with smaller wheels, giving the bike a lower centre of gravity. Also lower is the basket, and there’s even a ‘modular rear rack’, which can be adapted for things like child seats. Walk Ride GM’s Harry Gray approves, for one.

CHANGING LANES. A personal tragedy sparked a community pushback - and an upcoming film details their struggle. When a teacher was killed in a hit-and-run collision in Brooklyn, a grassroots movement pushed to reduce a four-lane highway to two lanes, adding a cycle lane. Featuring music legend, David Byrne, and former transportation commissioner of New York City, Janette Sadik-Khan, the movie is aired in Los Angeles next month, and via Bicycle Film Festivals - hopefully in the UK. It takes a micro look at a widespread problem: how communities can help tackle road safety, despite loud opposition from vested interests.

OTHER HEADLINES

MONEY TO QUIT DRIVING. Young drivers in Malta are being offered an eye-watering €25,000 to quit driving, in a bid to cut car traffic on the Mediterranean island. Those under 30 who have held a driving license, and lived in Malta, for a number of years, will receive €5,000 installments for handing in their license, and for each year they abstain from driving. Malta’s roads are the second most congested in the world, with car ownership growing to ‘epidemic levels’: 20% of households have more than three cars. With little apparent political appetite to limit the harm by taxing drivers, this €25m giveaway seems to be the next best thing.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

The US and Israel’s war in the Middle East is devastating for people living in the region. It’s also hiking fuel prices globally. This in turn impacts travel choices, as seen on this graph, below. As Bloomberg journalist David Zipper put it, Trump may dislike green transport, but his actions are ‘a giant tailwind’ for cycling. Ultimately, when driving becomes more expensive, we do less of it. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856424001940

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Natural surveillance. Designing spaces, including cycling and walking routes, so they are naturally overlooked by windows and other passersby, with good lighting at night. The idea is to increase the risk of wrongdoers being detected, creating a sense of security for users, particularly for women.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.