#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 106

Hello and welcome to #BikeIsBest #106, your weekly perambulation of all things cycling-related.

SAFER STREETS, LONGER ROUTES AND BIKES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT

March is here, folks, and with it comes exciting cycle route news, calls for safer streets for women and tentative trials to carry cycles on trams in Manchester. Grab your takeaway mug, put a hot beverage in it, and follow us. 

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

24-MILE CYCLEWAY ALONG HS2. Last week, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and I backed a  24-mile cycle route between Birmingham and Kenilworth and Coventry, alongside HS2. Street wrote to HS2 Ltd calling for haul and access roads alongside the rail line to be left intact for a future cycleway and the Mayor called the route a ‘no-brainer’ for health, net zero and growth in the region.

EBIKE POWER BOOST? The government proposes two changes to e-bike legislation, firstly to increase power output from 250w to 500w, and secondly to allow ‘twist and go’ throttle assistance up to 15.5mph. I’m not convinced there’s a clear need for this measure, and with a number of consultations awaiting government response, like pavement parking, it would be preferable if those were the focus first. That said, a larger power output could well aid e-cargo cycles (and their carrying loads) and a throttle could help disabled people using adapted cycles; but as widespread changes, the whole thing needs treating with some caution.

BIKES ON TRAMS TRIAL. Cycles will be allowed on Manchester’s trams in a trial that started this week. The ‘guided pilot’ will see volunteers travelling on off-peak services, under test conditions. This includes carriage of ‘adapted cycles used as mobility aids, scooters and a broader range of mobility scooters’, but the public won’t be able to take their own cycles on board yet. Dame Sarah Storey, the region’s active travel commissioner, welcomes the trial and says a report on the trial will be published in the summer.

PROTEST FOR SAFER CYCLING FOR WOMEN. Hundreds of people cycled around London on Sunday calling for safer streets for women. Ride organisers told the BBC women are ‘put off cycling by a lack of safe routes, dangerous driving and harassment’. The London Cycling Campaign’s Women’s Network organised the event along with Joyriders and Londra Bisiklet Klubu, a Turkish/Kurdish cycling club. The message may be serious but the ride itself was a moving party, complete with music bikes.

LONDON CYCLING GROWS, AND GROWS…London’s cycling growth - up 20% on pre-pandemic levels - is thanks in part to long-standing investment in safe routes. This CityLab piece by Laura Laker looks at where the capital is now for cycling, where it’s going and what the barriers are to getting more people on bikes. With almost half of Londoners already cycling, or saying they want to, Laker makes the case it’s no longer a niche pursuit.

OTHER HEADLINES

WOMEN IN THE CYCLING INDUSTRY… Cycling Industries Europe is running a webinar on 13 March https://cyclingindustries.com/events (and click on March) on women in the cycling industry, where things stand and what needs to happen to be more inclusive. Important viewing for anyone looking to make their business more diverse. The registration form is here.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: 

The risk of being killed or seriously injured cycling in London declines as cycling grows, according to data from Transport for London. Source: London Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman.  

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Section 106 funds. These developer levies, and many like them, are key ways to pay for cycling and walking (and public transport) infrastructure when things like housing developments and major infrastructure projects go in. They can, if used well, ensure decent transport links.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

Founder, #BikeIsBest