#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 124

Hello and welcome to this, your post-election newsletter, in which we look into the crystal ball and try to see what the new government might mean for cycling and walking.

MYSTIC #BIKEISBEST PREDICTS THE FUTURE

We have a new government this week. I, like many of us, feel hopeful for the future of active travel, for it to be integrated across Government departments as part of a genuinely integrated transport system and health strategy. It’s not just about the UK this week, though, we have inspirational stories from around the world, just because we’re like that.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LOUISE HAIGH - PRO-CYCLING MINISTER? Every time there’s a new transport minister, the cycling world reads the tea leaves on whether they’ll be good for cycling or not. With hopes of the former, with Louise Haigh, as with all former ministers, only time (and actions) will tell. Can she and her team at the DfT, and her new Local Transport minister, Simon Lightwood, finally treat cycling as a genuine transport choice for short journeys? I’m hopeful.

POLITICAL CYCLING PUNDITRY. It’s tempting to look at the world through an active travel lens when it’s your work, an interest, or the way you get around. Of course, there are many things that impact elections: trustworthiness, delivery record, values, local and national concerns, being just a few, but it’s fun to look at things through a cycling lens, so over to road.cc for some of that.

BUT REALLY… The London Cycling Campaign has an interesting take on how a Labour government and a Labour mayor may interact. It also points out many MPs who actively opposed active travel have been replaced by those who support it. The piece’s focus is on London but this story applies to metro mayors, and indeed council leaders, all over the UK.

HOW E-BIKES WON OVER EUROPE. Meanwhile, this US-based take on the European e-bike boom highlights just what a phenomenon the battery assist has been this side of the pond. Though perhaps not yet in the UK. While the e-bike is happily shifting people to low-carbon transport for everyday trips, Bloomberg journalist David Zipper speaks to transport bod David Crist about the nuts and bolts of behaviour change and how policy has shaped it. 

CARGO BIKE SHARE IN BOSTON. This two-minute film of a family ride around Boston’s protected bike lanes and parks is a thing of joy, with the serious message safe infrastructure enables all sorts of cycling trips. “Excuse me geese!” 

OTHER HEADLINES

BIKES ON BUSES! FlixBus is embracing buses on bikes, and this short video shows how the two fit together, thanks to a handy bike rack. They’ve deployed bike buses on ‘almost all’ of Poland’s cycle routes, many of which are not accessible without a car. You can reach almost 20 countries with your bike on the rack, including Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Czechia, Germany, and Romania. More of this in the UK, next?

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Rod King and the 20’s Plenty team have crunched the numbers and revealed not a single anti-20mph candidate won in Wales. As is often the case the noise does not reflect most people’s strongly held beliefs. People want safer streets, not speeding traffic. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7215754071603843072/ 

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Fietsgemeente - Cycling city in Dutch. It is, apparently, a national competition in which Dutch cyclists are surveyed about their local areas about their experiences cycling in their local areas. The best one is nominated cycling municipality of the year. Perhaps it’s the kind of friendly competition we need here.

Until next time,

Adam Tranter

#BikeIsBest

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