#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 123

Hello and welcome to this, your last newsletter before the General Election tomorrow. There are highs, there are lows, and there are weird boxes popping up on your streets, maybe.

ONE, TWO, THREE, EASY AS…

If only things were easy. Sadly there are some sobering figures around for cycling this week. The industry is suffering, post-pandemic, and the latest government figures show a slump in cycling levels. Who knows what this week will bring, but one thing’s for sure, next week will be different from last week.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

CREATE STREETS FOR THE FUTURE. A few manifestoes are flying around, but this one, from Create Streets, speaks to the need for better planning and vision for our urban spaces. Gentle density, planning reform, particularly around how we deliver roads, and consulting people on what they like are all there, as well as greening streets.  

AND 1.5 FOOTBALL PITCHES OF SUSTAINABLE DRAINAGE. 6,000m2 of sustainable drainage, or SuDS, has just been installed in southwest London. Transport for London, as part of a roundabout redesign, added new foot and cycleways and extra vegetation. Plants and trees, and the soil they sit in, absorb rainwater, slowing down its progress to the sewers. They also improve cooling and shade in the summer.

NOT WEIRD METAL BOXES. There’s a trend in cities around the world to place these strange tree-like objects on the pavements. Some of them include advertising and are installed as part of a deal, struck by councils with advertising companies, in return for cleaning up the public realm. Some have green walls on top of them, but these, friends, aren’t trees, they’re a waste of public space and resources. Trees = good. Weird metal boxes = bad. 

INDUSTRY WOES RESOLVED … NEXT YEAR? It’s a tough time in the industry, to say the least. Overstock, following the feast and famine of the pandemic, brought some major industry players down. There is light at the end of the tunnel, Europe’s bike industry associations’ rep, CONEBI, says, but will it come soon enough? Good cycling policy is needed to bring people back to cycling and help the industry, it says. 

CYCLING RATES DOWN IN UK. Speaking of which, the latest government cycling figures show a contraction in cycling levels of 0.8% compared to pre-pandemic levels. The sharpest fall from their March 2021 peak, to March 2024, was a huge 32.1% - almost a third. Without a coherent, long-term, funded plan that gives people the genuine choice to cycle, many have no option other than to drive. 

OTHER HEADLINES

FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT…TO CYCLE. Cycle campaigns can be incredibly effective at showing support for cycling. Movements like Critical Mass have been going for three decades now. This recent academic paper looks at German cycle campaigns, and their impact on policy. When political pledges aren’t matched with action, dissatisfied citizens press for change. That pressure works - but only when the movement has broad support and effectively uses political levers, i.e. petitions that set specific goals that can become politically binding laws. See also: the London Cycling Campaign’s 2012 mayoral campaign.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Professor Ian Walker shared this graph a couple of weeks ago, the huge volumes of trips that could easily be cycled in England (and the rest of the UK). These proportions have remained broadly the same for years. It takes policy and investment to change them. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2021/national-travel-survey-2021-mode-share-journey-lengths-and-public-transport-use 

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Critical Mass. A form of direct-action cycle protest, but also the term used when enough of something (like people cycling) forms to create real-world change, be that political pressure, or attitudinal and behaviour change. 

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

#BikeIsBest