We know what works for cycling, #154

We just need to do more of the good stuff, less of the bad, please.

This week, there’s a stark difference between success and failure. This stuff is not rocket science, it just needs for us to take walking and cycling seriously as transport, and stop shoving it to the margins. After all, it’s not 1995 any more.

BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY

LOW EMISSION ZONE…CUTS EMISSIONS. This week, there’s the news that London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has cut air pollution across London. Happily, if ironically, the outer London boroughs where politicians fought against ULEZ saw the greatest reduction of pollutants: in Sutton, Croydon and Merton carcinogenic nitrogen oxides dropped 15% - vs 14% London-wide. The pollution improvements on London’s busiest roads were 80-82%.

PREVENTION OF FUTURE CYCLING DEATHS: WHERE’S THE PLAN? There are systems in place for tackling death and injury in the air, rail and maritime sectors, but not for roads. This Telegraph piece points out just 3% of fatal road collisions see a Prevention of Future Deaths investigation, which hampers our ability to tackle the five daily deaths on UK roads. The last Government promised a Road Safety Investigation Branch, then dropped it. The new one says they have no plans for one.

DEMAND ≥ SUPPLY FOR EBIKES. More than 500 people are on a waiting list for ebikes as part of a pilot scheme in Shrewsbury. The council-run pilot to help more people cycle offers users an ebike loan for £10 a month, rising to £20 after six months. With 100 out for loan and another 120 coming, it seems this forward-thinking council is gonna need a bigger pool of bikes.

ROUNDABOUT FAILURE? ‘Improvement’ of a roundabout in Norwich has turned an adequate cycling facility into a potentially dangerous one. That’s what Norwich Cycling campaign says - backed up by Mark Philpotts (aka Ranty Highwayman), a traffic engineer who calls footage of the new narrow, circuitous shared-use provision around the expanded roundabout ‘a masterclass on all that is wrong about UK roundabout design’.

COMMON SENSE PREVAILS. Campaigners have lost their High Court fight against completion of the Binley Road cycle lane in Coventry - as mentioned last week their objections related to tree felling, the option chosen because they didn’t want to lose on-street parking. It is quite incredible that a sustainable transport scheme, consulted on several times, can be taken to one of the highest courts in the land because some residents didn't want a cycle lane in front of their house. I am glad that common sense prevailed.

OTHER HEADLINES

ROUTES, ROUTES, ROUTES. It’s not just cities building routes. Later this month a Northumberland greenway will open, 60 years after the railway line it sits on closed. The first section of the Alnwick to Cornhill route opens on 29 March. Partly Northumberland too: a 113-mile walking route (108 for cycling) following the River Tweed, received £10m from the Scottish Government last year. The River Tweed Trail project will run from Moffat, near the river source, to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Designed to boost tourism, it’s a collaboration between government, businesses and landowners, connecting towns and villages along the way.

INTERESTING GRAPH OF THE WEEK:

Open data for Scottish bike lanes. New protected cycle routes are helping people make everyday journeys by bike, as Cycling Scotland pointed out last month. These daily peaks, in the morning and early evening, are a promising sign of cycle commuting. Source: https://cycling.scot/news/tracking-travel-by-bike-with-the-improved-cycling-open-data-portal

ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:

Social Safety. The feeling of security in a social environment; in transport terms, it often relates to feelings of intimidation, or otherwise. Socially safe cycle routes, for example, are those where people feel safe from potential attack or ambush. Particularly impacting women, a clip of what that means, is here.

Until next time,

Adam

Adam Tranter

Founder, #BikeIsBest