From 1 March all heavy lorries operating in London will have to meet a one star Direct Vision Standard (1* DVS). This is a world’s first – that lorries will be only permitted into a city when they either have better direct vision from the lorry drivers’ seat to the road and pavement around them, or have good mitigation systems to back up their vision. And it’s thanks directly to LCC and your campaigning we’ve won this action from the Mayor.
All lorries entering London from 1 March will need to avoid having the most dangerous blindspots and restricted vision, or show evidence of specified “safe system” mitigating measures including video camera and audio alert warning systems. Because of Covid, operators who have ordered new safety equipment and applied for DVS permits will be allowed 90 days grace after 1 March to install it.
Joe Biden’s secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg wants to build “culture of cycling” | road.cc
After the past four years, it makes a nice change to be able to report on some positive political news from across the pond…Joe Biden’s secretary for transportation Pete Buttigieg was speaking at the National Bike Summit this week and had plenty of nice things to say about his plans for the future of cycling in… [Read More]
Dramatic increase in speeding after pop-up cycle lane removed | road.cc
The number of drivers speeding on Upper Shoreham Road has risen significantly since wands were removed by West Sussex County Council
The number of speeding drivers on Upper Shoreham Road in West Sussex has risen dramatically since plastic wands protecting a ‘pop-up’ cycle lane were removed by the council in January.
According to West Sussex County Council’s own traffic monitors the number of drivers exceeding 35mph on the road, which has a 30mph speed limit, has increased from 1176 per week, or 3.9% of vehicles, to 1908, or 5.71% of vehicles since the week of 11 January when the plastic wands protecting cyclists were removed.
Local cycling campaign, Shoreham-by-Cycle, who identified the rise in speeding, express concerns the road was a collision hotspot and a matter of concern for some time. They point out even the Google Streetview images of the street show the aftermath of a crash.
A spokesperson for Shoreham-By-Cycle said: “Upper Shoreham Road is a key route for many people living in Shoreham – particular children on their way to school. People deserve to be able to choose cycling for their local journeys without being placed at risk from dangerous driving.”
West Sussex County Council faces a judicial review brought by Cycling UK, after removing the lane two months into a six month trial period. Cycling UK argues the decision to remove the lane was ‘irrational and unlawful’ and failed to take into account the needs of children who cycled on the roads when the wands were installed.
Low-traffic schemes benefit most-deprived Londoners, study finds | The Guardian
Data dispels myth that low-traffic neighbourhoods are disproportionately found in privileged areas
Peter Walker Tue 2 Mar 2021
Low-traffic neighbourhoods, which use filters to try to reduce motor traffic on residential streets, do not disproportionately benefit more privileged communities, the most comprehensive study of their rollout so far has concluded.
The research, which examined about 400 filters created in London last year, seemingly demolishes the main argument by opponents of such schemes: that they tend to shunt vehicles from richer residential areas on to roads lived in by more deprived people.
One media report last month used an analysis of house prices to support this objection, saying homes tended to be more expensive in streets that benefited from low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs). Controversy over the neighbourhoods, created in cities across the UK by using planters or bollards to prevent through-traffic while leaving the route open for cyclists and walkers, has led to several being scrapped.
But the new study, led by Rachel Aldred, a professor of transport at Westminster University in London, uses detailed and sophisticated data to compare streets, including occupants’ age, ethnicity, disability, employment and car ownership, and the government’s index of multiple deprivation, down to micro-areas of about 300 residents.
Cycling UK accuse Government of “airbrushing out any role for cycling” in post-covid plans – Cycle Industry News
Liberty Sheldon4 March, 2021
Cycling UK has accused the Chancellor of “airbrushing out any role for cycling in plans for a post-pandemic recovery” in an assessment of his claims that the Government is one “to invest in new infrastructure”.
Previously, Chancellor Rishi Sunak discussed his vision of a budget for the future which he said would impact on successive governments, particularly in cycling and walking investment.
The lack of cycling and walking in his address to Parliament was reinforced in the document outlining the detail of Budget 2021.
Sarah Mitchell, Cycling UK Chief Executive said: “It’s right that the Chancellor sets out his plans for the future wellbeing and prosperity of the nation, but his and the Treasury’s complete disregard for cycling’s role in this future is a complete failure to make good on this Government’s plans to build back better.”
The history behind the filtered permeability in De Beauvoir Town – Hackney cyclist
I’ve written before about De Beauvoir Town, which is a very pleasant area of Hackney to live in, for lots of reasons, one of them being due to the extensive “Filtered Permeabilty” (roads which have been closed for through motor traffic but remain open to pedestrians and cyclists) which reduces motor traffic across much of the area to a very low level. This creates quieter conditions for residents, streets where children can play along with an added advantage, due to it’s location, of a direct & quiet East-West cycle route from Islington to Hackney via London Fields along with the so-called Cycle Superhighway 1 which is a not-as-direct-as-the-A10-but-quieter-than-it route from Shoreditch to Dalston.
Towards the end of the 1950’s the Victorian terraced houses on Buckingham Road and Tottenham roads were demolished and replaced by the Kingsgate Estate, opening in the early 1960’s. Shortly later hundreds of Victorian houses, pubs, shops and about half a dozen streets (almost all land between Downham Road and the canal, bar the industrial buildings surrounding the Kingsland Basin) were swept away to make way for The De Beauvoir Estate.
“This past year, many Americans rediscovered the joy of biking as well as the incredible benefits it can have on our cities and climate” – Pete Buttigieg – Twitter
Secretary Pete Buttigieg @SecretaryPete
7:55 PM · Mar 4, 2021
This past year, many Americans rediscovered the joy of biking as well as the incredible benefits it can have on our cities and climate. Glad to have talked about this at yesterday’s National Bike Summit
Voorrangsplein! Part 1 – The Ranty Highwayman
My trip to the Netherlands in 2017 seems a long way in the past and I’m itching to go on another visit. I have no idea when it will be possible and so I have to rely on my photos, Google Streetview and reading up on innovations and there’s another junction type which I didn’t quite manage to see.
Analysis: Fuel-duty freeze has increased UK CO2 emissions by up to 5% | Carbon Brief
The analysis comes amid widespread lobbying and speculation over the future of fuel duty in the UK’s next budget, due to be announced by the new chancellor Rishi Sunak on 11 March.
Fuel duty is currently applied to petrol and diesel sales in the UK at a rate of 58 pence per litre, plus VAT. Instead of rising with inflation, this rate has been frozen since 2010, meaning motorists have enjoyed a large price cut in real terms, even as public transport fares have risen faster than inflation.
If fuel duty had increased each year as planned in the June budget 2010, then pump prices would have been a fifth higher than they are today. Higher prices would have cut CO2 in 2019 by 2-18 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), some 0.5-5.0% of overall UK carbon emissions, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
Climate change: Carbon emission promises ‘put Earth on red alert’ – BBC News
4 hours ago
By Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst
The world will heat by more than 1.5C unless nations produce tougher policies, a global stocktake has confirmed.
Governments must halve emissions by 2030 if they intend the Earth to stay within the 1.5C “safe” threshold.
But the latest set of national policies submitted to the UN shows emissions will merely be stabilised by 2030.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called it a red alert for our planet.
He said: “It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the goals of the Paris (Climate) Agreement.
“The major emitters must step up with much more ambitious emissions reductions targets.”