#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.75
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 75 | Friday 4th August 2023 | View in browser
Hello and welcome to the week in active travel, where there’s never a dull moment.
As Chris Boardman reminds us this week, cycling is still up 7.4% on pre-pandemic levels, as more people make the choice to travel in a cheap, healthy and fun way.
IT’S SILLY SEASON ALL WEEK
August is typically the time of year news gets a bit silly, and I’m sure this year is no different. But fear not, we have a sensible dose of news for you, right here. So set your pedals, because here we go.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
SCALE OF SPEEDING REVEALED
At the start of National Road Victim month, RoadPeace has gathered connected vehicle data on speeding in the UK and has ranked the best and worst police areas for compliance. North Yorkshire and Northamptonshire saw the least speeding, while former Grampian and Strathclyde areas in Scotland saw the most - with more than 12% of drivers exceeding the speed limit.
HIGHWAYS TO…?
Journalist Laura Laker has done some digging for the Guardian and found National Highways hasn’t been delivering the cycle infrastructure it set out to. This is disappointing given the scale of funding involved - and potentially wasted - on shared use pavements, thanks to the trunk road body’s apparent use of a loophole.
STREETS AHEAD TALKS ROADS
Wales’ deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, spoke to Streets Ahead this week about plans to build no new roads unless those roads help create a mode shift to walking, cycling and/or public transport. He also talks about Wales’ upcoming default 20mph speed limit, which will come into force on September 17th, and gives some summer book recommendations.
POLICE LEGEND RETIRES
Mark Hodson, who was part of the West Midlands’ policing duo that brought us close pass operations, among many other effective policing tactics, has announced he is retiring. He rightly credits his colleague, the other half of the original duo, Steve Hudson, for their substantial impact on road safety - but deserves a great deal of credit too.
ROAD PRICING INCOMING?
BBC journalist Faisal Islam brings up the sticky topic of road pricing. As the Treasury loses Vehicle Excise Duty, aka car tax, as more drivers switch to electric, they’ll need something to plug the gap. Road user pricing is an oft-mooted option - some feel it’s inevitable - though the government has no current plans to use it. There is a Transport Committee report on it though, that is supportive of the measure.
OTHER HEADLINES
BIKE IS STILL BEST
One of the Bike Is Best campaigns I’m most proud of is ‘The Best Tool for the Job’ - outlining why, for 60% of our journeys that are less than five miles, that tool is the bicycle. We just need to create the right conditions for people to feel safe using it - and that’s what many leaders up and down the country are doing right now.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:
EVERYTHING’S GOING UP. While riding a bike has stayed cheap over the years (aside from bicycle prices themselves), public transport, particularly bus and coach fares, have grown. A recent correction, thanks in part to short-term fare freezes, has helped the latter, but it’s uncertain how long it’ll last. In a cost of living crisis, affordable transport has never been more crucial. Source
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Contributory factors. Collisions are caused by a number of things, known in policing parlance as contributory factors. With excess speed being a significant one, on the first day of national road victim month, RoadPeace is focusing on preventing it, to save people the heartache of death and injury caused by road collisions.
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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