#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.39

#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 39 | Wednesday 9th November 2022 | View in browser

Hello and from one damp person on a bicycle to another, welcome to this week’s #BikeIsBest newsletter.

COP27 IS GO

Cycling was memorably absent from COP26, with many world leaders still believing we can electric car our way out of the crisis, but active travel is slowly climbing up the agenda as a green transport solution here in the UK.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

SAVING LIVES, ONE RIDE AT A TIME

The Times ran this piece on the London Ambulance Service’s cycling paramedics on Monday. The piece notes paramedics in the pioneering Cycle Response Unit (CRU) are each deployed to about seven emergencies a day, including cardiac arrests and traumatic road accidents. Bicycles help them access many locations more quickly, they say. 

AIRPORT BICYCLE CHASE

Climate activists used bicycles to try and halt flights out of Amsterdam Schipol airport over the weekend. Police gave chase on foot and more than 200 protesters were arrested. Greenpeace points out the airport is the Netherlands’ biggest carbon emitter.

PLAIN ROUNDABOUT IMPROVEMENTS

Oxford’s most dangerous junction, the Plain Roundabout, will see further improvements following the death of Ling Felce earlier this year. Around 12,000 cycling trips are made daily through the roundabout, and government-funded tweaks over recent years failed to sufficiently improve safety for cyclists. 

PANORAMA IN THE NAUGHTY CORNER

The latest sigh-inducing documentary hyping driver-cyclist conflict comes from Panorama’s Road Rage: Cars vs Bikes. While it sensibly addressed some worthy issues like close passing and a need for safe infrastructure, headlines like this, pitting one supposed ‘group’ against the other, are unhelpful to say the least. If it’s a fight, it’s a highly unequal one. 

BAD STATS AT IT AGAIN

Linked to the programme, an online survey supposedly revealed one in three drivers wanted cyclists off the roads. Self-selecting polls, whether deliberately polarising or not, aren’t representative, as road.cc points out. The AA’s Edmund King, and Cycling UK’s Duncan Dollimore, appeared on BBC Breakfast last week to warn against stoking tensions on the roads that can endanger people’s lives. 

LONDON’S MOST DANGEROUS BOROUGH

Some stats we should heed. Westminster is the London borough with the most cycling collisions, with campaigners blaming a lack of safe infrastructure, the Evening Standard reports. Police data shows 30 cyclists were involved in collisions so far this year. Road safety shouldn’t be a postcode lottery, but too often it is. 

OTHER HEADLINES

WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE NORTH SEA MAKES

Two BBC journalists reported from their bikes this week, but the two looked very different. One looked ready for a sporting event, the other looked like a person going about her day on a bike. The difference: a few decades of decent transport planning. 

INTERESTING GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK

Six reasons we need cycle lanes, by Cycling UK
Source

ACTIVE TRAVEL PHRASE OF THE WEEK; PERCEIVED SAFETY

With nights well and truly drawing in, women’s safety is rightly on the agenda. What one person considers safe, another can feel very differently about. If we’re to enable walking and cycling, understanding these differences and addressing them is crucial. 

Until next time,

Founder, #BikeIsBest

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