#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 133

Hello and welcome to your end-of-summer, heart of the political conference season, where parties reflect on how much has changed in the last year.

Hello and welcome to your end-of-summer, heart of the political conference season, where parties reflect on how much has changed in the last year. Rest assured, here at BikeIsBest, we’re still doing what we do best… which is, I guess, bikes (with some politics thrown in).

GOODBYE SUMMER, HELLO AUTUMN

This week we bring you a big investigation into e-bike fire misinformation, Spain’s €40m bike shopping spree, the power of cargo bikes, and a potential street-based power grab in the heart of London. 

NEXT WEEK IS CYCLE TO SCHOOL WEEK

Getting to school just got awesome! School children across the UK are gearing up for this year's Cycle to School Week from 23-27 September, organised by The Bikeability Trust and supported by NatWest Rooster Money.  This initiative promotes cycling as a preferred mode of transportation for school children. It is designed to highlight the numerous benefits of cycling, including improved physical fitness, better concentration in school, and a positive impact on the environment by reducing carbon emissions. You can make your pledge to be involved here.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

E-BIKE FIRE MISINFORMATION INVESTIGATION. Cycling Electric’s Mark Sutton has spent weeks looking into e-bike fires. It’s an issue holding back sales, and with it car trip, carbon and air pollution reduction targets, with 23% of UK adults now reluctant to buy one. What Mark found was ambiguity in fire brigades’ recording (i.e. legal vs illegal bikes) fanning the flames of poor reporting in the media, fed by a growth in illegal aftermarket modifications and poor-quality imports. Time for a rebrand? The E-bike Positive campaign is a good start. 

A NEW FOUR-WHEELER IN TOWN. Is it a van? Is it a cart? It’s a curious-looking bike-van hybrid. The Financial Times reports on ‘the four-wheel cargo bike makers seeking to oust vans from cities’, pointing out many of these quadricycles can carry more than 150kg, travelling up to 15.5mph. At a quarter of the cost, and none of the congestion charge or parking fines, the burgeoning industry shows promise… if the parts can match the rough-and-tumble of heavy use, and the city infrastructure can keep pace. And riders get the right training, of course.

SPAIN TO SPEND €40M ON BICYCLES. Spain’s president, Pedro Sánchez, has announced an investment of €40m to help boost e-bike purchases and to expand public cycle hire. With €20m each, the two initiatives will help citizens and businesses buy e-bikes, while developing and expanding cycle hire schemes. Sanchez called on mayors to stop seeing the bicycle “as an ideological symbol” associated with progressive politics, instead as a tool for urban mobility. 

BREAKING OXFORD STREET NEWS. Vehicular Traffic (presumably including cycling) will be banned from London’s Oxford Street. This idea has been kicked around, and into the long grass, for years. Meanwhile Ralph Smyth, of Transport Action Network, ponders the unprecedented - and complicated - issues arising, including the question of untangling the surrounding road network for buses and taxis. 

MOST LONDONERS SUPPORT IT? An opinion poll in April this year found 83% of Londoners think more should be done to get dangerous motorists off London streets, while 45% support “the pedestrianisation of the entirety of central London”. The Redfield and Wilson Poll of 1000 Londoners, for On London, also found growing support for ULEZ, though 57% would still support a mayoral candidate whose central policy was its scrappage.

OTHER HEADLINES

PETER’S PEDALLING PERILS. The Guardian’s Peter Walker has laid out common cycling hazards (other road users) to watch out for. From the ‘corner cutter’ to ‘the rules don’t apply now’, we all learn to identify - and avoid - these unfortunately common road users. 

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Worrying data on oversized SUVs and trucks, and their impact on safety. ‘For every one life the 1% biggest of these vehicles saves, there are more than a dozen lives lost in other vehicles’, it says. Source:

https://twitter.com/DavidZipper/status/1830265077544718836

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

MGIF (must get in front). A curiously common sight on our roads. As Peter Walker points out ‘the weird and unsettling compulsion for getting ahead of a cyclist no matter the risk, and despite the fact that in about 95% of cases it brings them no benefit at all”.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

#BikeIsBest