19 May 2021
The Government and councils are united in their commitment to help more people switch short car trips with safe and convenient walking and cycling journeys. More active travel and fewer car journeys reduces pollution and increases levels of exercise to improve public health. Less traffic also reduces congestion. To promote further action the Government introduced a step-change in its active travel ambition in ‘Gear Change: a bold vision for cycling and walking’ with £2 billion in new funding by 2024 to deliver on its aims. This urges councils to go further and faster to increase walking and cycling. This will involve some initially controversial decisions, in the reallocation of road space from cars. Low-traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) are a high-profile example of this kind of policy that polarises opinion in many quarters.
UK already undergoing disruptive climate change – BBC News
2 days ago By Roger Harrabin
The year 2020 was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest on record, scientists said in the latest UK State of the Climate report.
No other year is in the top 10 on all three criteria.
The experts said that, in the space of 30 years, the UK has become 0.9C warmer and 6% wetter.
The report’s lead author Mike Kendon, climate information scientist at the UK Met Office, told BBC News: “A lot of people think climate change is in the future – but this proves the climate is already changing here in the UK.
“As it continues to warm we are going to see more and more extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods.”
West Sussex faces rebuke from minister for cycle lane removal – transportxtra
Transport minister Chris Heaton-Harris has told West Sussex County Council they will not be able to bid for further Active Travel Fund money because they removed pop-up cycle lanes before they were “fully tested”.
West Sussex received £780,000 from the DfT’s Covid-19 Emergency Active Travel Fund last summer to install seven temporary cycleways. However, the Conservative-controlled council removed the lanes just four months later (LTT 13 Nov 2020). A petition with more than 4,000 signatures had called for the lanes to be removed.
In a letter, dated 14 June, Heaton-Harris told the council that cycle lanes funded under the Emergency Active Travel Fund were “not allowed to be fully tested and/or optimised” before they were removed.
Cycling brands gear up for rapid growth in UK cargo bike market | Travel & leisure | The Guardian
Sales are forecast to soar over the coming year with the support of government initiatives and new infrastructure
Sarah Butler
Window cleaners, milk deliverers, beer purveyors, plumbers and DJs are all getting on their bikes as UK government incentives and new infrastructure kick off a two- and three-wheel revolution.
About 2,000 cargo bikes were sold in the UK for commercial use last year, according to the Bicycle Association, and a similar number were sold for use by families and individuals. Sales of the bikes, which can carry heavy or bulky loads, are expected to jump by up to 60% in the UK in the year ahead, according to the association, boosted by various initiatives at local and national level to reduce carbon emissions and congestion.
What Would Providing Every City with High-Quality, Zero-Emissions Public Transportation Look Like? | Urban Institute
During his presidential campaign, president-elect Joe Biden prioritized transportation investment, particularly in the form of projects to mitigate US carbon emissions and increase access to opportunity for people of color.
In his transition plan, Biden aims to “provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options.” The US House of Representatives-passed Moving Forward Act (PDF) promotes a similar ambition to significantly improve transit service across the country.
How effective is transit in American cities today, and how might the federal government facilitate high-quality, zero-emissions transit? A major transit improvement would require a major federal intervention, but it could make public transportation convenient and reliable for people throughout the country, thus reducing emissions, improving access, and increasing social equity.
Capability fund: local transport authority allocations – GOV.UK
Department for Transport
Funding amounts supplied to local transport authorities outside London through the capability fund.
This revenue grant enables local transport authorities to promote cycling and walking in their areas by:
• the development of infrastructure plans, including drawing up bids for capital funding that are compliant with local transport note (LTN) 1/20• carrying out behaviour change activities, such as training and promotion
Department for Transport say councils must give walking and cycling schemes time | road.cc
Three councils are currently facing court action for removing cycle lanes
The DfT say local authorities must ‘always’ leave cycling and walking schemes in place long enough to be properly assessed after it was revealed three councils face court action for removing cycle lanes.
Minister of State for Transport, Chris Heaton-Harris said that the government would shortly be issuing guidance to all local transport authorities ‘making it clear’ that school streets, low traffic neighbourhoods, and cycle lanes, should be given time to have an impact.
He said: “The Department will be issuing updated statutory Network Management Duty guidance to all local transport authorities shortly which will make clear that they should always leave cycling and walking schemes in place for long enough for their impacts to be properly assessed.”
The statement came as Cycling UK revealed that three councils are currently facing court action for removing cycle lanes and experimental traffic orders.
UK landmarks may lose world heritage status, says Unesco | Heritage | The Guardian
Josh Halliday Fri 30 Jul 2021 11.10 BST
UK cultural landmarks such as Stonehenge could be stripped of their coveted world heritage status unless the government curbs “ill-advised development” and protects historic sites for future generations, a Unesco chief has warned.
Dr Mechtild Rössler, the director of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, urged ministers to “do everything” they could to conserve the UK’s treasures after Liverpool became only the third place in nearly 50 years to lose its revered title.
Rössler said developers should be made more aware of the international value of places such as Stonehenge before proposing potentially harmful projects.
She said: “These are the most outstanding places we have on Earth. If we are not capable of protecting these, for me the question is what will be left on this planet?”
The intervention came before Thursday’s high court ruling that the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had acted unlawfully in granting permission for a two-mile tunnel to be be built at Stonehenge.
The Silvertown tunnel will undo Sadiq Khan’s environmental legacy | Letters theguardian.com
Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition Fri 30 Jul 2021
It is extraordinary that Sadiq Khan is listing the Silvertown tunnel – a major highway with dedicated lanes for polluting heavy goods vehicles – as one of the solutions for London’s environmental crisis. No environmental scientist in the world would argue that building a four-lane highway with feeder roads through the most polluted areas of London would actually contribute to helping solve air pollution. It is a 1970s solution to a 21st-century problem.
London’s doctors, nurses, teachers, parents, environmental and traffic specialists, local communities and unions (and Labour party members across London at their annual conference last weekend) have called on the mayor to cancel the Silvertown tunnel.
The mayor is doing good things for the environment. Unfortunately, the Silvertown tunnel will undo most of his legacy.
Majella Anning London
Bike boom: Sales up 25% but increased motor traffic holding back further growth, says Bicycle Association | road.cc
Bicycle Association data shows 40% growth by value against 2020, and 25% by volume – but motor traffic levels may be holding back further growth
For the first time sales figures offer a direct comparison with the bike boom of the UK’s first lockdown in 2020, with sales March-May 2021 up 7% by value and 25% by volume compared with the same period last year.