#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.33
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 33 | Friday, September 30th 2022 | View in browser
Hello and welcome to Autumn in the world of #BikeIsBest. It’s like summer only with less sun, more rain, lower temperatures and for many of us an impending feeling of doom. Anyway…
BIG CHALLENGES AREN’T GOING AWAY
The world has mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in suitably grand style, and the lying-in-state queue became a symbol of the esteem we held the late monarch in. Meanwhile, following World Car Free Day, Pakistan continues to reel from the combined devastating effects of glacier snowmelt and heavy rainfall, caused by climate change.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
LET’S ALL THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS
We may be facing rocketing costs, a plunging pound, skyrocketing bills and all manner of terrors great and small, but we can still find joy in cycling. Say we still can.
WORLD CAR FREE DAY, AROUND THE WORLD
The day some of us celebrated other means of travel than the car, I was at a former petrol station with Brompton, transformed for the day with parklets and bicycles. A representative survey by the Clean Cities Campaign revealed a whopping 62% of residents of five European cities, including London, want one car-free day per week. Cutting consumption, cleaner streets, enabling active travel; what’s not to love?
LIKE PARKLETS?
Yes. Climate charity, Possible, also launched a parklet toolkit, enabling people to design and campaign for their own parklets, and request councils help make them a reality. It currently costs, on average, 100 times more to reserve a parking space for non-car parking than for car storage, and with all the benefits of green space and seating, you could argue it should be the other way around.
DUKE PLEADS EXCEPTIONAL… HARDSHIP?
The Duke of Norfolk, who organised the Queen’s funeral, lost his licence for six months this week after he ran a red light using his mobile phone in April, following two previous speeding offences that brought him up to maximum licence points. He claimed he needs to drive to organise the coronation and, rather stretching the matter, to ‘save the future of mankind’. Should have thought about that before?
GOING DUTCH
I was in the Netherlands, in Delft and Rotterdam, last week, exploring some of the great cycling routes, including an inter-urban one. Given the right infrastructure, trips of 12km between towns are eminently possible. Less than 50 years ago the Dutch had the same traffic problems we do - and now look at them go!
OXFORDSHIRE TURNAROUND
Oxfordshire Council has announced a major shakeup to how it designs transport plans, including an end to ‘predict and provide’, the outdated idea traffic will continue to grow no matter what you do. Instead, a new ‘decide and provide’ approach puts the road authority behind the wheel, recognising we get the traffic (including cycling and walking) we design for. The council claims it is the first to do this in the UK.
CYCLE LANE ON THE TYNE IS ALL GONE
By contrast, Newcastle cyclists were disappointed this week after the council announced a pop-up lane will be replaced by a widened pavement and bus lane. Campaigner Sally Watson questions council claims that cyclists will 'benefit from using the extended bus lanes to cycle along the high street', adding ‘Because everyone wants their 11 year olds to cycle with buses right?’ Prediction: fewer cycling trips.
OTHER HEADLINES
IT’S ON THE PODCAST
My podcast co-hosts and I chatted about some of the above topics, from that former petrol station, for World Car Free Day, if you fancy a listen.
ENABLING CYCLING
In the West Midlands we’re working hard on safe infrastructure, but we’re also looking to help people tackle other barriers to cycling. We’ve made free bikes available for residents of our 21 most deprived council wards. There are also adapted cycles for long-term loans.
INTERESTING GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK
The famous Fietsprofessor shared this, illustrating technological advances making things more compact - and cars. He quotes German-British statistician, EF Schumacher, saying: “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” He also links to a tweet from climate scientist, David Ho, who points out despite their massive size difference, a 1990s truck and a current one have roughly the same flatbed capacity.
ACTIVE TRAVEL PHRASE OF THE WEEK; EXCEPTIONAL HARDSHIP
The claim that losing a licence (due, of course, to lawbreaking) would constitute an ‘exceptional hardship’ for the driver, often the loss of work, mobility or income.
As Detective Superintendent Andy Cox puts it: “[In my opinion], there are no cases (rare or not) when exceptional hardship should be granted. Put the needs of all road users (and crash victims) above those who have repeatedly broken the law and by their actions increased road danger.”
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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