#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 122

Hello and welcome to your newsletter, where everything is (sort of) ranked according to awesomeness and accessibility. Just as things should be.

UK SCORED AGAINST THE REST OF THE WORLD FOR CYCLING

The latest City Ratings are in, scoring different urban areas worldwide for cycling-friendliness, and let’s just say it’s a mixed bag for the UK - while London continues on a trajectory that’s seeing cycling become a major contributor to transport in the city.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LONDON LEADS UK ON CYCLING. The latest City Ratings by People for Bikes shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, a stark difference between UK cities for cycling. Analysis of cities across the UK reveals a mixed picture, with London scoring 83/100, against a UK average of 60. Quantifying measures like 20mph limits, and networks of safe routes to everyday destinations, the ratings help identify things that will impact cycling attractiveness in those cities. The Evening Standard highlights that London is still behind many of its European counterparts.

AND THE RESULTS ARE…PEOPLE CYCLE! Years of investment in the above measures, across London, are yielding substantial results. While far from citywide (those City Ratings show boroughs like Barnet, Bromley and Harrow have a way to go), a network that’s quadrupled since 2016, is not-so-slowly tempting people to travel in healthy, active ways. 1.26m journeys a day means cycling is now a major form of transport in the capital. 

COULD IT BE…CAR REDUCTION MEASURES ARE WORKING? It’s election season, still. So one prospective MP may speculate Oxford’s LTNs worsen congestion in the same week the council reveals air pollution in the city, generally caused by motor traffic, has dropped. Nitrogen Dioxide has declined faster in Oxford (14%) than the national average (9%). Two years after a Zero Emission Zone pilot, measurements across 128 different sites, including LTN boundary roads, showed consistent pollution reduction.

FIVE STEPS TO TRANSPORT FREEDOM? Sustrans has set out an eminently sensible set of five headline asks, in a transport manifesto for the next government. Those are: safe streets for kids (including pavements); helping people access bikes; developments in sensible locations, built with walking and cycling routes; a five-year National Cycle Network investment plan; and an integrated transport strategy that shifts resources to public and active transport. 

LTN SCRAPPAGE UNITES COMMUNITY? One community in Newcastle has rallied behind traffic reduction measures… after their LTN was removed. The scrapping of the Heaton LTN in April has, locals say, resulted in the return of motor traffic with a ‘vengeance’. While Newcastle City Council says it will engage with the community in due course on a new proposal, newly-engaged citizens are getting together to back new bollards to stop through traffic once more. 

OTHER HEADLINES

CARLTON RIDES AGAIN. Journalist Carlton Reid is cycling 4,500 miles around the UK to research a new book, Best British Bike Rides. His charity partner is World Bicycle Relief, and he’s sharing photos and info of his rides, including a moving map, as he goes, on https://www.bestbritishbikerides.com.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: 

Those cycling growth figures, over the past 24 years, look pretty impressive. As do growth figures on some of the individual routes. Source: https://x.com/willnorman/status/1805171753884287461 

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Congestion. Not a product of reducing road space for motor traffic, as is often wrongly suggested, but of human choice. Give people other options, and make those options easier than driving, they will choose them. 

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

#BikeIsBest