#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.16
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 16 | Wednesday, June 1st 2022 | View in browser
Hello and welcome to June and your weekly dose of why #BikeIsBest. This week, we've launched a new campaign film in support of #PrideMonth2022 - have a look below.
IN SUPPORT OF PRIDE
#BikeIsBest continues to work with communities to normalise cycling for all. In our latest campaign video - part of the We Can, You Can series - we've worked with partners Pride Out to produce a new video in support of Pride Month and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Watch now
OH, AND IT’S WORLD BICYCLE DAY ON FRIDAY
This is a special week, because it’s World Bicycle Day on Friday. There’ll be talk of cycling, there’ll be people doing cycling, and it’s another way to bring cycling up the agenda and celebrate its role in making the world a better place. There’s also a Queen’s Jubilee of course and you may be enjoying both this week, possibly simultaneously. Now, to some news.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
CYCLING AND WALKING CAN SAVE OUR PLANET
C40 Cities’ Executive Director, Mark Watts, declared the single most important way mayors can tackle climate change is to reallocate road space from cars to people walking, wheeling and cycling. C40 Cities is a global network of city leaders uniting to tackle climate change and inequality. Watts brands car dependency ‘fundamentally unequal’, from transport poverty to health and collisions and says cycling and walking can help solve both problems
AND THE PUBLIC AGREES
Three-quarters of adults worldwide (86%) consider cycling important in cutting carbon emissions, according to an Ipsos survey - the kicker being more than half also say cycling in their area is too dangerous. It’s a message we hear again and again: infrastructure matters, and because of that, while 30% of Dutch adults cycle for work and education, just 5% of Brits do.
INCLUDING BRITS
As last week’s Walking and Cycling Index told us, it’s worth a reminder there’s widespread support for this stuff in Britain, too, with 65% of adults in favour of protected cycle tracks, 51% with school streets (timed traffic closures outside schools at pick-up and drop-off) and 79% with 20-minute neighbourhoods, where people can meet most of their daily needs within a 20-minute walk of home.
AND POSSIBLY KIWIS
New Zealand, like the UK, has a way to go to embrace active travel, but this week influential daily newspaper, the Wellington-based Dominion Post, began a series looking into what a greener future for city transport would look like. Its editor, Anna Fifield, says: “I’m never going to ride a horse to work, you might never bike to the supermarket or take the train to Waikanae. But wouldn’t it be great if everyone who wanted to shift modes could?”
… AND THAT’S WHY WE HAVE WORLD BICYCLE DAY
3rd June is World Bicycle Day, celebrating the physical, mental, environmental and social benefits of the bicycle. The UN encourages us to advance cycling as “a means of fostering sustainable development, strengthening education, including physical education, for children and young people, promoting health, preventing disease, promoting tolerance, mutual understanding and respect and facilitating social inclusion and a culture of peace”. Well said.
OTHER HEADLINES
COUNTRYFILE DEFILES CYCLING
On a less positive note, media organisations, their journalists and broadcasters make a lot of editorial choices in their coverage. This week Countryfile opted for whataboutery covering the death of Tony Satterthwaite, who was killed while cycling, when a speeding driver spun out of control in a high-performance Porsche. The programme disgracefully segued within minutes from an interview with Tony’s widow to "let's face it, cyclists can be full of themselves". There’s no excuse for this language, and we wouldn't do it for anything else where people die through no fault of their own.
INTERESTING GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK
This graph shows the relationship between perceived safety and cycling levels. Simply put: the safer people feel the more they cycle.
Source
ACTIVE TRAVEL PHRASE OF THE WEEK; FALSE BALANCE
A media trend where an issue is presented as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than evidence supports. The quest to ‘show both sides’, where one is a discredited or fringe opinion, can lead publishers or broadcasters to present skewed evidence and arguments, or omit evidence that discredits one side.
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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