#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 137
This week I’ve been thinking about the anniversary of a historic movement which started 53 years ago, and changed the country of the Netherlands.
Hello and welcome to your weekly BikeIsBest newsletter, powered by porridge, coffee, and the joy of autumn leaves (excluding the slippy-under-your-wheels kind).
PRIORITISING THE PERENNIAL PAVEMENT PARKING PROBLEM?
This week I’ve been thinking about the anniversary of a historic movement that started 53 years ago, and changed the country of the Netherlands, saving thousands of lives and transforming neighbourhoods and streetscapes forever.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY. This week in 1971 Simone Langenhoff, aged 6, was killed while cycling to school; hit by a speeding driver. Her death and the ‘Stop de Kindermoord’ (stop the child murder) movement started by her father, Vic Langenhoff, a newspaper journalist, changed an entire country and saved thousands of Dutch lives. This video tells the amazing story through one of the movement’s other founders, former MEP Maartje van Putten.
BRISTOL TAKES ON PAVEMENT PARKING. Bristol City Council is exploring how to banish pavement parking, while potentially introducing workplace parking levies, new bus routes and reclaiming parking spaces for cycle parking and planting. If it goes ahead, Bristol could be the first city in England, outside London, to introduce a citywide pavement parking ban, the Guardian reports.
CYCLE TO WORK REFORM? Cycle to Work is the popular employee benefit scheme which, new research by Sustrans highlights, excludes 1.9m people, including those without traditional work contracts, retired people, or those on low incomes. Cycle shops are already concerned about the toll on their business of the scheme, and want reform. Cycling minister, Simon Lightwood MP, admits the scheme has problems and he will look at Sustrans’ recommendations.
TRAIN-BIKE-CAR: WHICH IS FASTEST? Revitalising the classic format, road.cc journalists pit a cycle commute against the train and car. The experiment explores, albeit within a specific context, whether more UK commutes, most of which are done by cars, could be switched. It’s a bit of fun, and the answer really depends on whether it feels convenient and safe to do so, but it’s illustrative that cars aren’t always as fast or convenient as we think.
WHEELS4ME TAKES OFF. Access to non-standard cycles is a major barrier for people who can’t ride a standard bicycle. A new scheme run in collaboration with Peddle My Wheels, funded by the Motability Foundation, and supported by Wheels for Wellbeing, aims to address that. A variety of cycles can be borrowed for free, and delivered to the homes of Londoners whose needs aren’t met by standard bike hire schemes. Find out more here.
OTHER HEADLINES
TREES, WONDERFUL TREES. 40,000 trees is a heck of a lot of trees, but that’s how many one man has planted in just over two decades. Tiquatira Park in São Paulo, Brazil, used to be a ‘hangout for drug dealers between two busy avenues’. Now the 3.2km long, 100m wide plot is populated by 160 species of trees creating a wildlife haven for 45 bird types in Latin America’s biggest city. With the planet’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide levels faltering, according to worrying recent research, tree planting is crucial.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Policymakers regularly underestimate the attractiveness of cycling. Well, Dutch usage stats show just how popular it is, when there’s safe routes. Source: https://www.emta.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/brochure.pdf
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Accident: Using the word accident to describe a road traffic collision sounds innocuous but it makes crashes sound inevitable; in reality, they’re anything but. Most collisions are preventable and the word accident makes them sound like just one of those things. Today, National Highways revealed they will be phasing out use of the word accident and replacing it with collision. A small victory for accuracy and for RoadPeace who have been campaigning with #CrashNotAccident.
Until next time,
Adam Tranter
Founder, #BikeIsBest
Bristol won't be the second city to ban pavement parking. It has been the law in the city of Exeter for many years.