It’s been a week of glaring double standards where driving, tech and micromobility are concerned. Our motornormative society still sees cars as essential, and any downsides are rapidly dismissed as the cost of mobility - while the use of e-cycles and e-scooters are framed with hyperbole and misinformation when things go wrong.
Questioning how we use our streets is key for healthy, liveable cities, but we need to zoom out and look at the big picture, and the unintended consequences of our actions.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
CRACKDOWN ON CYCLING LAW-BREAKERS? People cycling on pavements and through red lights is unacceptable. It can be irritating and alarming - and put pedestrians in danger. While this is unacceptable, there’s a much bigger road danger, which we rarely discuss. This week, on Good Morning Britain, Chris Boardman ended up correcting presenters’ claims that Dutch cyclists have registration plates (therefore we should too, went the argument). Meanwhile, a GMB presenter stood beside a junction in Birmingham, where drivers get away with jumping the lights every three and a half minutes because the enforcement cameras were turned off. Rather than talk about the 340 pedestrians killed last year, and the 5,960 injured, the programme chose to instead point the finger at badly-behaved cyclists. Without wishing to downplay the latter, it’s worth asking: where is the balance?
TECH COMPANY VS WHEELCHAIR USERS. Starship Technologies is coming after a walking charity with claims they staged a crash between a disabled person and one of its pavement robots. Living Streets recently took to the pavements of Leeds to test out interactions with Starship’s new delivery bots, with a film crew. At one point Emily Green, aged 18, who uses a wheelchair, was headed for a drop kerb when one of the machines ran into her legs. Delivery robots claim these vehicles give way to pedestrians, when this interaction indicates something different. Meanwhile, in a glimpse of the UK’s potential future when embracing delivery robots, Estonia World reports that a Starship robot ran a red light in Tallinn, Estonia, injuring nine bus passengers. What a time to be alive.
BOLLARDS VS PARKRUN. While often installed with good intentions, barriers on cycling and walking routes can inadvertently render those routes inaccessible for legitimate users. Cyclopark Parkrun, near Gravesend, was cancelled this month after Kent County Council installed a nest of bollards and planters on a traffic-free path. Organisers decided the barriers posed a risk to participants, though they hope to re-start, pending discussions with the council. The path, which is on National Cycle Network route 177, is beside Kent’s Cyclopark, meaning its users may well be affected too. Fears of unauthorised vehicle use shouldn’t render a path unusable.
SELECTIVE DATA. The Telegraph headline, ‘Scrapped LTN failed in efforts to reduce traffic’, and most of the article, suggests a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in south London didn’t work. The LTN in Dulwich was removed following a legal challenge by local residents, with a judge finding the council didn’t account for legitimate residents’ concerns. However, the council’s reply at the end says traffic counts cited by the Telegraph are from shortly after the LTN’s installation, to see if ‘minor tweaks’ were needed, rather than to understand the LTN’s long-term impact - which was never established. We know that while traffic on boundary roads can increase immediately after LTN installation, over time traffic across the zone tends to go down. So it’s slightly misleading to cite the data in this way.
BIKE BUS ACCELERATOR LAUNCHES. Bike buses are brilliant, so how can we create more of them? One of my favourite projects this year has been working with Shimano Europe Group to develop the Bike Bus Accelerator, delivered by BYCS. This new grants program will help start and grow more bike buses across Europe. Applications are open for grants of €500 or €1,000, with tailored support, from practical tools and equipment to expert guidance or funding for a specific need - whether you’re a teacher or parent, community organiser or Bike Mayor. Find out more here.
OTHER HEADLINES
BRUSSELS BANS E-SCOOTERS IN DRUG HOTSPOTS. E-scooters have become part of the transport mix in many European cities, and offer an efficient alternative to private cars, or even public transport. Like all modes of transport though, they can be deployed by criminals. In Brussels police are banning all e-scooters from known drug hotspots - a move that will impact law-abiding citizens using the vehicles. While e-scooters were used in a quarter of the city’s shootings, which have surged recently, it’s interesting motor traffic will only be restricted in the event of a serious threat - and even then, residents will be exempt.
INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:
In Toronto, cyclists have been protesting the removal of protected bike lanes by Mayor Doug Ford. Protestors’ chants of ‘get home safe’ as municipal workers tried to physically remove the lanes seem particularly poignant - as is this sign, which reads ‘Bike lanes save lives’.
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Mobility propagandists. Urbanists Melissa and Chris Bruntlett were recently subject to some concerted online trolling. These experiences can be deeply unsettling and unpleasant but keen to laugh at the experience, they’ve made themselves ‘mobility propagandist’ t-shirts, a term coined by one online commenter.
Until next time,
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.
