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We start off closer to home this month, in fact it’s the London borough of Camden no less!
++ This Tweet from @London_Cycling has some fine words for our council and in particular our Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden: “Camden's new plans for Holborn are mind-blowingly good: https://bit.ly/4qOtVMg
Major changes for Theobalds Rd, Southampton Row, Kingsway, High Holborn & further afield. New Oxford Street & Great Ormond St plans look like big changes for better!”
“Kudos Cllr @AdamDKHarrison“
++ From Camden over to Cambridge, where (co-incidentally) Adams Road has been dubbed the 'first cycle street in England'.
The road is being transformed to prioritise travel by bike and on foot, making it safer and more accessible for everyone. 3,000 cyclists use this road daily at peak times.
++ From Cambridge to Cardiff next for another UK first, as the city council imposes higher parking charges on vehicles over 2,400kg in weight, since “they take up more parking space and endanger other road users.” The surcharge aims “to encourage drivers to switch to smaller vehicles.”
SUVs have increased in number from 3% to 30% of existing cars in the past two decades.
++ New housing developments in the US are legally obliged to provide car parking adding to that nation’s over-reliance on car-use. However, these parking mandates are being challenged, leading to some not insignificant successes:
100 US cities have now fully abolished parking mandates citywide, with Baltimore on the verge of becoming their '101st red dot on the Parking Reform map'!
Transport Findings show off-street parking takes up:
- 31.7% of downtown Tulsa.
- 22.3% in downtown
- Los Angeles.
- 20.5% in downtown Dallas.
- 19.9% in downtown Indianapolis.
++ Back the UK Nicholas Boys Smith, of Create Streets writes about A-road severance of rural communities; from Cumbria to Cornwall, Somerset to Scotland, thousands of Britain’s villages are sliced in two by a fast, red A-road, that brings pollution, noise, danger, and preventing children's once care-free mobility; coating front doors in diesel and soot.
- A road on a diet – narrowing the carriageway
- Greening (street trees in/along the carriageway)
- Raised tables (with crossings & road narrowing)
- Continuous crossings
There has been an urgent requirement for an intervention at national level, and, finally something may happen.
++ The UK’s 15-year fuel duty freeze has lost around £100 billion, benefitted the richest drivers most, and made motoring cheaper in real terms, worsening congestion, road damage, and more.
Fuel duty raises £24.4b a year but as Ecar sales increase (1.6m of 34m vehicles), this revenue will soon create a large hole in public funds.
Larry Elliott argues that Chancellor Rachel Reeves should end the freeze to recover revenue and cut traffic incentives. Which she looks set to do with a pay-per-mile system to reflect congestion and ensure both EVs and ICEs pay for roads and public finances.
++ From Copenhagen: “Hitting a green wave? It’s the best feeling, especially when you’re in a hurry,”
This system started 16 years ago to encourage bike travel by synchronising traffic lights for rush-hour cyclists at 12mph, to catch green lights all the way along.
++ The final word is from from the US, an image of an attractive, quiet, car-free, side street (likely a Dutch town) tweeted recently by Philadelphian @glenpmatthews (who has 2,803 Followers and is into “Capital Markets and everything your dad likes”).
His message reads simply: “Philly would be a top 5 city if the whole place looked like this”
To date it has 7.5 million views.
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