End of the road for the culture wars and dodgy working practices? #169

Is this the end of the culture wars? Probably not, but we can hope. And the delivery firm row rumbles on.

This week, there’s a new spirit of collaboration on active travel between the country’s directly elected Mayors from Labour, Conservative and Reform parties. Perhaps this is the end of the culture wars? That’d certainly make Chris Whitty happy.

Meanwhile, pressure continues to build on delivery companies whose riders, it has emerged, are too often not who they say they are. The ease with which riders can rent out of accounts, without any additional checks, is causing growing concern as the scale of the problem emerges.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

FOOD DELIVERY APPS TO TIGHTEN RIDER CHECKS. This is after an investigation revealing people without the right to work in the UK were able to rent delivery accounts and work. A lack of checks makes it hard for customers, or indeed companies, to know who is delivering food to their doorstep - which has safety implications too. Firms will increase facial verification and fraud checks to try and ensure the person delivering is who they say they are. Written questions from MPs continue on the topic.

TWELVE MAYORS BACK NATIONAL ACTIVE TRAVEL NETWORK. Twelve of England’s regional mayors have signed up to an unprecedented plan to create a “national active travel network”, focusing initially on helping children to walk, cycle or scoot to school safely, reports The Guardian.

IS THIS THE END OF THE CULTURE WARS? The Mayors backing the plan come from across the political spectrum (although Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Reform’s new Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire is not signed up). The plan is heavily focused, at least initially, on home to school travel - surely something all politicians can get behind? Mayors have a warchest of devolved funding for transport so having a plan, ambition and backing is important to unlock decent chunks of it for active travel. On the culture wars, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty says culture-war coverage of cycling could harm nation’s health. So let’s stop it.

FACT CHECKING ‘EMPTY BIKE LANE’ MYTHS. Misinformation around bike lanes is so common as to be almost unremarkable. That’s why it’s good to see the Glasgow Times looking beyond the hype and lazy assumptions to fact check the claim no-one uses Glasgow's cycle lanes. While comment box warriors may claim bike lanes are empty, in truth hundreds of thousands of cyclists are using the city’s growing network each year, with 13,573 in a week on one route.

POWERED WHEELCHAIR LOOPHOLE. One power wheelchair user had his machine seized by police, depriving him of his mobility for 19 days. Israel Vidal was knocked unconscious after falling from his electric wheelchair. Despite interventions by medical staff, and even his MP, the Metropolitan Police didn’t release the chair after the crash for almost three weeks. As his ‘legs’, its absence placed him under effective ‘house arrest’. He was told the device was illegal without insurance and registration, and police kept the electric attachment. Charity Wheels for Wellbeing wants government clarification that ‘police must not confiscate anyone’s wheelchair’.

END OF THE BYPASS? A ‘relief road’, previously planned for Shrewsbury, has been put on hold due to spiralling costs, which the new council administration says they could not repay. This has led the BBC to publish a history of Shrewsbury’s bypasses. Since motor vehicles proliferated from the 1930s onward, more and ever bigger roads were mooted. Two bypasses were built in the 1990s alone. As usual, traffic volumes simply expanded to fill the space. Now, officials are asking, is there a better (cheaper) way to deliver transport? Cycling for short trips would be one.

CYCLING LINKED TO LOWER DEMENTIA RISK. That’s the conclusion of a recent study looking at 500,000 middle-aged participants over 13 years. Nearly half were inactive, 6.8% were ‘walking-only’, 37% mixed walking and 7% cycling and mixed cycling. The ones who incorporated cycling had lower dementia risk, and fewer cases of Alzheimer’s. They also had bigger hippocampi, the part of the brain involved with spatial memory and consolidating short to long-term memory. Potential reasons for the difference were increased blood flow to the brain, and reduced inflammation, along with the need to negotiate routes and directions.

OTHER HEADLINES

ALL QUIET ON THE BASS FRONT. Dorset Police decided the arrival of Dom Whiting and his drum-and-bass bike ride needed some corralling - after resident feedback from a previous event. Police required riders to follow a set route to minimise disruption, and happily everyone at the bike party was nice and peaceful.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK: Cycling is associated with a lower risk of dementia. Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/cycling-linked-to-lower-risk-of-dementia-study-of-half-a-million-finds

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Misinformation: Incorrect or misleading information shared without malicious intent. This differs from disinformation, which is the deliberate sharing of false or misleading information

Until next time,

Adam

Adam Tranter

CEO, Fusion & Founder, #BikeIsBest

This newsletter is brought to you by Fusion, the agency for movers, specialising in communications and public affairs for active travel and mobility.