Author name: Steven Edwards

We put it to you lot…how can we stop beauty spots being mobbed by drivers? The question comes after this morning’s video from Richmond Park and the photos from the Lake District over the bank holiday. 

cqexbesd gave it a lot of thought…
Provide a decent bus service, bike hire scheme, train service (that carries bikes). Ban cars entering without permits. Permits available for short periods and long periods. Permits require you scoring enough points (because we all like a good points system). Points for disability and infirmity. Infirmity can be both temporary or permamnet (i.e. through old age, very young age, pregnancy etc). Points for genuinely having to carry a lot of stuff (e.g. tradespeople working in the area). Maybe limited short term permits for full vehicles (i.e. you can drive as long as there are at least 4 people in your car). Points for people who actually live in the area…
Thoughts? 

We asked the world’s press to commit to treating climate change as the emergency that scientists say it is. Their response was dispiriting
The TV newsman Bill Moyers likes to tell the story of how Edward R Murrow, the pre-eminent US broadcast journalist of his time, insisted on covering what became Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Murrow’s bosses at CBS News had other priorities; they ordered Murrow’s reporters to cover dance competitions in Hamburg, Paris and London, explaining that Americans needed some happy news. Murrow wouldn’t do it. “It’ll probably get us fired,” he told his colleagues, but he sent his correspondents to the German-Polish border; they arrived just in time to witness Hitler’s tanks and troops roar into Poland. Suddenly, Europe was at war. And Americans heard about it because journalists at one of the nation’s most influential news outlets defied convention and did their jobs.

Are measures to make streets safe for walking and cycling unpopular? Are they vote-losers? Have we failed to take communities with us – and will we, as local politicians, pay the price?
As a former Labour leader of Ealing council in west London, I was at the heart of this debate. The low-traffic neighbourhood schemes we installed in my borough, using cameras to stop rat-running in more than a hundred streets, caused a row noisy even by the standards of cycling scheme rows. Demonstrators marched to the council offices with “Julian Bell – end this hell” placards. The “Bell” and the “end” were placed together to make a further well-loved phrase.
The infrastructure was vandalised. I was accused of not consulting or listening to people’s views – though the schemes, as trials, were themselves consultations. The schemes were often labelled “unpopular” and “controversial” in the local press.

 A pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion has been drawn up by the PEP, a joint programme of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).  
The Master Plan aims to help national and local stakeholders streamline efforts to promote cycling. Its objectives include:
Contributing to sustainable economic development and stimulating job creation. 

Local Transport Today is the authoritative, independent journal for transport decision makers. Analysis, Comment & News on Transport Policy, Planning, Finance and Delivery since 1989.

A 28km circular cycling and walking route called the ‘Infinity Loop’ is due to be built in Kilmarnock, Scotland, next year. The £20m route would form a figure of eight providing connections between different communities on the outskirts of the town. The route would link to schools, the town centre, parks and community buildings. Most of the route will be off-road, either shared access pavements or routes, with a few sections on roads within 20mph and 30mph zones..

Damian Carrington Thu 3 Jun 2021
Ice sheets and ocean currents at risk of climate tipping points can destabilise each other as the world heats up, leading to a domino effect with severe consequences for humanity, according to a risk analysis.
Tipping points occur when global heating pushes temperatures beyond a critical threshold, leading to accelerated and irreversible impacts. Some large ice sheets in Antarctica are thought to already have passed their tipping points, meaning large sea-level rises in coming centuries.

With lockdown restrictions continuing, one man decided he was not prepared to wait for indoor parties to be sanctioned once again. So he went on to eBay, bought a custom-made three-wheeled bike, affixed his turntables to the handlebars and started simultaneously cycling and DJing around towns and cities across England, broadcasting electronic music from a speaker.

Jessica Murray Sun 30 May 2021

Birmingham is to launch England’s first clean air zone (CAZ) outside London to charge private cars, in a move hailed by campaigners as a major turning point for the former UK “motor city” that has been plagued by poor air quality for years.
From 1 June drivers of older polluting cars, taxis and vans who travel into the centre of Birmingham will face a daily charge of £8, while buses, coaches and HGVs will be charged £50 a day. It is anticipated a quarter of cars in the city will be affected but there are temporary exemptions for commercial and community vehicles, and some workers and residents.