Women feel safer with new LTNs
A NUMBER of women have come out in support of the divisive new Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme (LTNs), claiming they fear less for their personal safety with fewer cars on the roads.
When the LTN scheme was introduced last month to areas in Cowley and Florence Park, some residents argued that women may feel unsafe walking around quieter streets, particularly in light of the Sarah Everard case.
Since then, however, women who live in LTN zones have come forward to say they feel no less safe with reduced traffic on the road – and some claim the quieter streets actually make them feel more confident going out alone.
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Ruth Ballantyne, from Florence Park, said she now feels safer as a result of the LTNs.
She said: “I always disliked walking past Florence Park at night before the LTNs existed.
“However, whilst the streets were quiet enough for me to feel unsafe, they weren’t quiet enough for me to dare to cycle.
“Now I now feel safe enough to cycle, which will actually make me feel much safer at night.”
The LTNs were introduced in the area by Oxfordshire County Council as part of a six-month trial.

A Carmarthenshire man has revealed he was refused admission to the site where he was due to have his coronavirus vaccination – because he arrived by bike, and was told it was a drive-through facility only open to motorists.
John Cooper said that there was nothing in the appointment letter to suggest that people not arriving at the facility at Carmarthen Showground would be turned away if they were not in motor vehicles, reports Wales Online.
The 61 year old had ridden his bike from his home in Ammanford to Swansea railway station, a distance of at least 16 miles, before taking a train to Carmarthen and completing his journey to his appointment by bike.
When he arrived, however, he was told by security staff that he could not be admitted, because it was a drive-through facility.
But there was no mention of any such restriction in the letter offering him an appointment, with Mr Cooper saying: “Why didn’t it say in my letter of invitation that this was a drive-thru facility? Of course then I would have phoned the number given and rearranged the appointment.

While Covid ravaged across the world, air pollution killed about three times as many people. We must fight the climate crisis with the same urgency with which we confronted coronavirus
It is undeniably horrific that more than 2.8 million people have died of Covid-19 in the past 15 months. In roughly the same period, however, more than three times as many likely died of air pollution. This should disturb us for two reasons. One is the sheer number of air pollution deaths – 8.7 million a year, according to a recent study – and another is how invisible those deaths are, how accepted, how unquestioned. The coronavirus was a terrifying and novel threat, which made its dangers something much of the world rallied to try to limit. It was unacceptable – though by shades and degrees, many places came to accept it, by deciding to let the poor and marginalized take the brunt of sickness and death and displacement and to let medical workers get crushed by the workload.

The Corporation aims to generate enough income “to offset the significant cost of continued car park provision so that the charity’s limited resources can be spent on protecting the Forest and improving the visitor experience”.
Parking schemes are already in place at other green heritage spaces, says the Corporation, citing how the National Trust, English Heritage and Royal Parks all use parking income to fund and reinvest in their sites. “Adding a charge for parking will help the City to challenge perceptions that management of the forest is ‘free’ and that there is no cost to its preservation or management, including the upkeep of 50 car parks.”

TfGM’s network intelligence data also shows that cycle trips are up 25% compared with the same period last year (March 2020). Meanwhile, the number of walking trips has fallen slightly (down 10%). “However, considering lockdown restrictions and local high streets are largely closed, this data shows confidence in making journeys on foot and by bike across the city-region,” says TfGM.

A new study drawing on data from over 100 EU cities has concluded that Covid-era cycling infrastructure provision has already demonstrated a high return on investment, growing cycling rates by between 11 and 48%, on average.
Authors Sebastian Kraus and Nicholas Koch calculate that such impressive growth across Europe will generate somewhere between $1 billion and $7 billion in health benefits alone, if new cycling habits are retained; and much of that will hinge on the favourable cycling conditions remaining. Sadly, in many instances lanes have been removed as quickly as they have arrived, despite evidence showing improvements.
106 European cities had their daily bicycle count data combed to spot trends by the researchers, who discovered that during this pandemic period cities have added an average of 11.5km of provisional pop up cycle lanes.

An MP who is an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) has complained to the BBC over a claim by Today programme presenter Nick Robinson that people living in low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) cannot use their cars, describing it as a “falsehood.”
LTNs prevent residential roads being used by rat-running drivers by blocking through routes using planters, bollards and other barriers, while still allowing access to local residents.  
Lillian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, called on the BBC to report accurately on the issue, saying that “the least we can expect from a national broadcaster is a basic grasp of the facts.”