#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.69
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 69 | Friday, June 23rd 2023 | View in browser
Hello and welcome to this week’s BikeIsBest newsletter, where we try and bring together some of what’s happening - and not happening - on our streets for cycling.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
While change might not happen as fast as we would like, there are pockets of positivity around the UK and this week is dedicated, in part, to some positive stories. With one piece of questionable tubthumping about 15-minute cities.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
LONDON CALLING
London launched its new Cycling Action Plan last week, its blueprint for increasing cycle trips in the capital by a third by 2030, and improving diversity in cycling. More cycleways, more bike parking, and a focus on outer London, where car dependency is higher, are among the plans.
ARE CAR-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS INEQUITABLE?
The New Statesman this week described 15-minute cities ‘a working-class nightmare’ (paywall), pitting a ‘metropolitan overclass’ with ‘mostly suburban, multi-racial working class’ but, as transport researcher Giulio Mattioli points out, Black and Asian households, as well as those on low-incomes, are less likely to own vehicles than white and/or wealthy ones. It’s important to have these conversations, but this wasn’t necessarily the best-informed contribution.
OXFORDSHIRE’S TRAFFIC-FREE LANE
Chilton Road, near Didcot in Oxfordshire, has become a traffic-free walking, wheeling and cycling route thanks to a simple traffic filter. Sustrans say they identified dangerously high levels of motor traffic and trialled a closure during the pandemic. After a public consultation the change was made permanent, and a new signalised crossing of a nearby A-road to reach it. One small step for a lane, a giant leap for lane-kind?
LIVERPOOL MOVES FORWARD FOR CYCLING
Several cycling and walking schemes are due to be completed or decided on in the coming weeks, the Liverpool Echo reports. These include barrier removal on the Liverpool Loop Line, a new cycle training facility at Everton Park where kids can learn to cycle, a report for a funding decision on pop-up active travel schemes, and a consultation on future cycle routes.
STREETS AHEAD TALKS STREETS AHEAD
For a discussion on what the rest of the UK can learn from London, and indeed Birmingham, listen no further than your favourite podcast, Streets Ahead - this time recorded live from the recent London Walking and Cycling conference.
OTHER HEADLINES
FRIDEDAYS BIKE BUS
One of the most joyful things on the internet right now is the sight of children riding and scooting to school in groups, as part of Friday bike buses up and down the country, and around the world. This idea is fast becoming a movement.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:
Percentage of households with cars by income. Source:
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Safe System. This approach to road safety is one that tackles the road and its users in their entirety. The safe system approach usually comprises five parts: safe vehicles, safe roads and roadsides, safe speeds, safe road use and post-crash response. This means we need to tackle everything from behaviour to street design to how we investigate crashes.
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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