#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.76
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 76 | Thursday 10th August 2023 | View in browser
Hello and welcome to your all-singing, all-dancing newsletter, where we bike, because it’s the best.
YOU’D BETTER THINK!
Most people want to do the right thing - but don’t always know what that is. Meanwhile, some people carry on doing the wrong thing, regardless. This is why we need both education and enforcement of the rules of the road designed to keep us all safe. Thankfully, in a few places, we’re moving in the right direction on both of these things this week.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
THINK! AGAIN
Good news this week is the government has relaunched its Think! Campaign around last year’s Highway Code changes. Improvements like giving way to pedestrians and cyclists when turning, and clarifying two abreast cycling is OK, can only make a difference if people know about them. This campaign should help - and it does a good job of humanising cyclists, too.
BRISTOL CYCLISTS UNDER SIEGE?
Bristol Cycling Campaign’s annual survey has revealed a shocking level of aggression faced by people just trying to get about by bike. Of 1000 people surveyed, four in five say they have experienced problems with aggressive driving. This is exactly the kind of behaviour that puts people off cycling, and it needs tackling, urgently.
WHEN THE OPPOSITION MAKES THE CASE
Cycling is too dangerous, is one concerned councillor’s reason for opposing…cycle lanes in a housing development. The reason, of course, is actually that some drivers are dangerous, not the cycling. This concern is understandable, and shared by people on both sides of the political fence, not least women, which is why we need to do more, not less, to make cycling feel safe.
OPERATION TRITON
Speaking of which, I’m pleased that police and leaders across the West Midlands are collaborating to tackle the blight of dangerous driving in our communities. Operation Triton will focus on speeding drivers, drug and drink drivers, those using a phone at the wheel and not wearing seatbelts at key locations across the region.
IS THERE ANYTHING DIRTY AIR DOESN’T HARM?
The latest research on the impacts of air pollution concludes it contributes to antibiotic resistance. The reason for the link is unclear but what is obvious is air pollution is one of the greatest threats to human health going. Yet another reason to tackle it, urgently.
OTHER HEADLINES
CAR-FREE GLASGOW?
Glasgow city centre has been made traffic-free for the World Cycling Championships, or at least part of it. Quite neat to look at the map of the extensive car-free area for the ten days of this, the world’s biggest ever cycling event right on our doorstep. Car-free isn’t just for Christmas though, as they say - or it doesn’t have to be, at least.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK
From a 2015 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on the circular economy, it’s striking just how much waste is embedded into motor vehicles, from production to use to storage. Flagged this week, with thanks, by Brent Toderian on social media but the original source is:
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Mobilty. A simple word, but perhaps one that's less loaded than lumping people into categories like 'cyclists' or 'motorists'. Ideally, we simply want to move about, in the easiest and most efficient way. It’s the conditions that let us do that, or not.
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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