Peter Walker
As Dom Hallas leads me towards his block of flats, he glances up at the exterior, an endless expanse of dull, brown bricks interrupted by a few tiny windows and a curious-looking zigzag design picked out in lighter stone. “It’s true,” Hallas admits, opening the heavy security door with an electronic fob. “When I tell people where I live, some do say: ‘Oh, I always thought that was Brixton prison.’”
It is an easy mistake to make. Southwyck House, only nine storeys high but almost 250 metres long, looms like a gigantic wall just outside the centre of Brixton. It is one of south London’s most obvious and, it has to be said, forbidding landmarks.
Known locally as the Barrier Block, the building looks that way for a reason. It is an almost accidental relic of an alternative history for London, one that would have made the city very different and, as most people would probably agree, significantly less appealing.
This slab of roadside frontage was designed to be not just social housing but also a vast acoustic shield, screening the neighbourhood from the deafening roar of an elevated, eight-lane urban motorway.
‘The M8 is damaging’ for city centre: councillor calls for rethink | Glasgow Times
30th December – Stewart Paterson
‘The M8 is damaging’ for city centre: councillor says it should be replaced (Image: Newsquest)
THE M8 slicing through the city centre is holding back regeneration in Glasgow and needs to be re-thought and possibly even replaced, according to a senior councillor.
There have been suggestions of a ‘cap’ over the section at Charing Cross but more ambitious longer-term plans are being considered.
The M8 has been a main artery through Glasgow city centre since the early 1970s.
Shifting gears: why US cities are falling out of love with the parking lot | US news | The Guardian
They are grey, rectangular and if you lumped their population of up to 2bn together they would cover roughly the same area as Connecticut, about 5,500 sq miles. Car parking spaces have a monotonous ubiquity in US life, but a growing band of cities and states are now refusing to force more upon people, arguing they harm communities and inflame the climate crisis.
These measures, along with expansive highways that cut through largely minority neighborhoods and endless suburban sprawl, have cemented cars as the default option for transportation for most Americans.
From January, though, California will become the first state to enact a ban on parking minimums, halting their use in areas with public transport in a move that governor Gavin Newsom called a “win-win” for reducing planet-heating emissions from cars, as well as helping alleviate the lack of affordable housing in a state that has lagged in building new dwellings.
It’s Time to Treat E-Bikes Like Vehicles – bloomberg.com
David Zipper
With gasoline prices surging following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. elected officials are trying everything from gas tax “holidays” to dipping into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves to placate drivers worried about overstretched budgets. The Biden administration has suggested that long-term salvation lies in dumping gas-powered vehicles entirely: “When we have electric cars powered by clean energy, we will never have to worry about gas prices again,” the White House recently tweeted. “And autocrats like Putin won’t be able to use fossil fuels as weapons against other nations.”
Behaviour change is eminently possible – Haringey Cycling – Twitter
Haringey Cycling @HaringeyCyclist
82% of Londoners are willing to walk or cycle to work.
87% are willing to walk or cycle other journeys.
Behaviour change is eminently possible.
(From the latest survey of Londoners – Nov 2022)
Folks, do you like your low-traffic neighbourhood in Haringey? Then write to your MP! Hornsey and Wood Green MP – Haringheaven! – Twitter
@HappyHaringey
Folks, do you like your low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in Haringey? Then write to your MP! Hornsey and Wood Green MP:
@CatherineWest1 westc@parliament.uk Tottenham MP:
@DavidLammy mail@davidlammy.co.uk GLA:
@JoanneMcCartney joanne.mccartney@london.gov.uk Folks PLEASE SHARE!
“We went out and bought our own” – free e-cargo bike loans winning people over in rural Wales | electric bike reviews, buying advice and news – ebiketips
E-Move is a Welsh Government-funded pilot project, delivered in partnership with Sustrans, that enables people to borrow an e-bike or e-cargo bike for 30 days free of charge.
It’s currently being run in Aberystwyth, Rhyl, Barry, Swansea, Newtown and their surrounding areas with 20 e-bikes are available at each location.
E-cargo bikes are available to businesses and organisations in Aberystwyth, Swansea and Newtown for up to three months.
Sustrans’ project co-ordinator Emily Sinclair told the BBC: “Obviously it’s very hilly and the electric bikes can be a great way to bridge that gap between people that want to be travelling more sustainably but find that these hills make it impossible to do that.”
Berlin: parking fee exemption for e-scooters, bicycles, cargo bikes – Transport Xtra
Giving bikes and cargo bikes exemptions from parking fees will do much to encourage the take-up of low carbon mobility and logistics services – let’s hope the UK is keeping an eye on this development
From January 2023, parking in Berlin will become more expensive – for cars. This week, the Berlin Senate passed a bill from the Senate Department for Urban Mobility outlining the new rates – but bicycles, pedelecs, cargo bikes, light motorcycles and motorcycles are excluded from any parking fee and will be able to park freely in spaces designated for car parking (“traffic areas of stationary traffic”) from next year.
Let’s go back to the future with e-cargo bikes – Inside track
As Green Alliance has highlighted before, a strategy of switching to alternative modes of transport, combined with technological change, is needed to cut carbon emissions. When it comes to technology, electrification is the clear solution for vans. Electric vans can replace diesel models like for like, leading to four times fewer emissions.
Cars spray painted with ‘MOVE’ and windows smashed in overnight rampage – Manchester Evening News
Cars have been smashed into and spray painted with the word ‘MOVE’ during an overnight spree of vandalism in Leigh.
Residents of Glover Street have woken up to their car windows smashed, and the word ‘MOVE’ spray painted onto it in bright yellow. Images posted in a local Facebook group show at least three cars affected.
The incident has sparked discussion about ‘pavement parking’ in the comments, with some suggesting the cars were targeted because of their placement on the pavements. But others have lashed out at the vandalism, calling it ‘appalling’.
One commenter said the way the cars are parked meant buggies and wheelchairs would not be able to get through, branding it ‘not acceptable’.