#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No.93
#BikeIsBest Digest Edition No. 93 | Thursday 7th December 2023 |
Hello and welcome to #BikeIsBest, where we are looking through the Keyhole Bridge, to stories here in the UK, the Netherlands and beyond. From women’s safety to parking, to cars and bikes living in perfect harmony, we have it all right here.
LET THERE BE BIKES!
For cyclists of all stripes. We just need to get rid of the barriers stopping people getting hold of and using them. Let’s get into it.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
LEGAL WIN OVER KEYHOLE BRIDGE
A battle to stop a tiny road being used as a rat-run for through motor traffic has come to a happy end. Cycling UK won the second of two judicial reviews on Keyhole Bridge last week, after a judge ruled the council did not take proper account of government guidance on providing for cycling. A filter, installed during the pandemic by a former Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council administration, was removed by a subsequent one. A third administration has agreed to add a new filter to the north of the bridge, which will remove through traffic once more.
WOMEN’S SAFETY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
A survey by Lime Bikes found half of women fear night-time cycling in the UK. Tackling the Gender Pedal Gap asked 132 Lime riders, and 2,000 adults in a separate UK survey, their experiences cycling. 90% of women faced barriers to cycling, which precipitates the gender disparity we see on the streets. Poorly-lit roads, isolated cycle routes, antisocial behaviour and harassment, were the top concerns. Infrastructure, and routing apps, need to take account of this, the report says.
HEFTY DUTCH CYCLING NUMBERS
New cycle use data from the Netherlands found Dutch people cycled 4.8bn trips in 2022. People travelled an average of 4.7km per trip with a regular cycle, and 9km with an ebike. That’s 3 km per day, on average, per Dutch person. Overall mode share is pretty good - 28% of all trips are made by bike, and 10% of all distance travelled is cycled. Nor does it happen by accident, that’s good transport planning. It also shows the sheer power of the bike, given the right conditions.
MEANWHILE, CAR LEASING BALLOONS
The reason we’re seeing bigger and more expensive vehicles on our roads is the ubiquity of new financing methods that encourage people to borrow vehicles they can’t afford. One academic who crunched the numbers on car finance describes a gilded cage, trapping people into potentially unsustainable debt that could easily pop, like the 2007 sub-prime mortgage bubble. All to prop up an ailing car industry. Cycle-friendly measures like LTNs, he suggests, are a way out of that cage.
CYCLE CAMPAIGN MEETS CAR CLUB
Cambridge’s cycle campaign, Camcycle, has teamed up with Enterprise Car Club to offer reciprocal benefits to members, to support sustainable transport choices. We know car owners make more trips than those who hire, and sharing a resource that’s otherwise parked for 97% of the time makes perfect sense - more room for people, trees, and a million other things. Great idea.
SPEAKING OF CAR PARKING
This piece in TransportXtra, by economist John Siraut, discusses why free parking is a bad idea. Siraut says the draw of a high-street’s offering brings people in, not cheap parking - while proper pricing helps control demand. One town he worked with, where officials wanted to free up parking for local business customers, found half of the available spaces were being used by retail staff themselves for all-day parking. Then he raises the question of what else we could do with all the parking we have, if we managed this resource better. Playgrounds? Housing?
OTHER HEADLINES
GREEN LIGHT FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS
Transport for London launched new green crossing lights for wheelchair users last week. The new crossing lights, featuring a male or female wheelchair user, on a manual or electric wheelchair, are designed to improve representation in the streetscape. Olympic rowing champion, Captain Pete Reed OBE, launched the new signals for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on Sunday.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:
Number of (left) and length (right) of trips, by mode, in the Netherlands, according to the latest data. Fiets is cycle, with the outer pie breaking that proportion down by E-bike and regular cycle. Source.
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Universal Basic Infrastructure? An interesting report from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge posits the concept of Universal Basic Infrastructure for the UK. The idea is better access to things like public transport, schools, hospitals, shops, banks, etc., would enable people to live more fulfilled lives. As Laura Laker points out, despite the ‘future cycle lane’ on the cover, it omits cycling and walking infrastructure. I agree - active travel should be there.
Until next time,
Founder, #BikeIsBest
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