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Against a backdrop of momentous geo-political change it is too early to view significant signs of any major shifts in transport patterns; but may become increasingly pertinent, to question the absurdities whereby ordinary people have to go to extraordinary lengths to simply restore conditions that enable getting from one place to another safely, by bicycle.
++ Even in hugely car-dependent Australia, 2/3 of the people would like to cycle more, but, limits to the availability of protected cycleways, or public transport options, limit the potential crossover from car-usage.
But, while some states have made rail & bus options free, others still fail to grasp the problems of the motor car’s over-consumption of resources and energy.
++ In Britain, a surprisingly positive article popped up in The Times: Low-traffic schemes aren’t so toxic, after all! reports Emma Duncan, on her borough’s low-traffic schemes. She has however, concerns about the degree of public involvement required for measures that provide so many obvious benefits: “if lengthy consultations had been carried out, the LTNs would never have happened”.
Emma also reminds us that “leaders should stick to their guns.”
++ Adam Tranter & Laura Laker’s new Streets Ahead podcast looks at similar issues: as landowners hold up some 300 miles of community-driven path campaigns, and 117 miles of council paths.
They argue that rail provision and other forms of public infrastructure, have no need to be fought for with decades-long local campaigns – so why is it still the case for safer public cycling and walking measures?
++ In the US, Andy Boenau suggests that public input can be a death sentence: Voting on safety improvements is dangerous when voters have been conditioned to see traffic violence as inevitable.”
You wouldn’t be asked in a survey, boarding a plane: ‘Should the airline prioritise arrival time or the structural integrity of the landing gear?’
'Yes/No' transport-safety votes remind him of the quote: Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch!
++ Someone who has famously stuck to their guns over the last 12 years, serving to inspire campaigners and practitioners alike in the field of positive transformation of public urban realm, is Anne Hidalgo, who is stepping down after achieving a monumental shift in Paris mobility culture.
In spite of the abuse and outrage from those fixated on their single-occupant car malfeasance, Anne Hidalgo has overseen the creation of 1,500km of cycle tracks, and changed streets blighted with car parking to inviting green places free of motor traffic, where parents now cycle with several childen.
Thankfully, her successor, newly-elected mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, has pledged to further this progress, with plans that include:
- completing the Paris cycle network
- turn the circulatory highway into a boulevard
- adding a thousand new pedestrian streets
- and a further 300 hectares of parkland
++ Turning finally to another place where leaders ‘stick to their guns’, the Chinese city of Guangzhou, has ben highlighted in another great Twitter thread by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.
Here, leaders looked to the car as the future, with manufacturing to drive China's economic growth. Guangzhou's 1993 Transport Master Plan even advised reducing cycling’s share from 34% to 13% plummetting to a low of just 8% of trips cycled.
But the 2010 Asian Games saw greenways and a public bike system introduced, narrowly preventing the cycling culture's extinction.
Ten year later, Guangzhou renovated 1,000km of bike lanes, as (e-)cycling grew massively; with 6 million e-bikes used on the city’s streets!
To enable cycling’s re-emergence as a major transport mode, Guangzhou now plans:
- 83km of major roads are to be redesigned
- 166km of new/upgraded bike lanes &
- 500 intersections will be safely modernised
The greenway system is over 6,000km: one of the world’s largest connected cycling networks.
• • “No red lights or stop signs. Just eye contact and social trust” reads the post accompanying an image of a Guangzhou intersection;
“moving at a human pace: pedestrians, (e-)cyclists, bus and car drivers collaborate with each other rather than compete against each other.”
“When spaces are scaled for people, flow emerges.”
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