:excerptstartTransport minister cites £2bn fund as evidence of commitment to supporting ‘active travel’ The public’s growing enthusiasm for walking and cycling around UK towns and cities must be supported and encouraged as the country emerges from Covid-19 lockdowns, a minister has said.The transport minister Chris Heaton-Harris said there was huge interest in “active travel” in the UK and… [Read More]
School Streets reduce nitrogen dioxide by up to 23% during morning drop off – transportxtra
Survey reports 81% of parents and carers supported the measures at their children’s school
Closing the roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times has reduced polluting nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 23% and is strongly supported by parents, new research published by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan reveals.
To measure the air quality benefits of the new School Streets, 30 sensors from the Breathe London network were installed at 18 primary schools across Brent, Enfield and Lambeth to record nitrogen dioxide levels.
Electric bike sales in the U.S. grew 145% from 2019 to 2020
:excerptstartLiberty Sheldon17 March, 2021 Spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic, bicycle sales rose 65% in the United States between 2019 and 2020, according to a report in the New York Times. Researchers at the NPD Group, which supplied the findings, also claim that electric bike sales grew by 145% in the same period. :excerpted link to original… [Read More]
London council ignites safety row as it rejects cycle lane plans | The Guardian
Calls for government intervention after Kensington and Chelsea leadership team’s decision
Campaigners have called for the government to intervene after a council rebuffed plans to reinstate a flagship cycle lane in central London, reigniting a controversy that has come to exemplify community battles around the country over safe travel amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The lane was installed last year in busy Kensington High Street as part of efforts to boost active travel during the pandemic, and was immediately controversial. Just seven weeks later, despite protests by a local school as well as cyclists who supported the lane, Kensington and Chelsea council took it out again.
Jenny Jones talks cycling’s funding shortfall and impact through protest -Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton18 March, 2021
Having gathered the views of Labour and Conservative MPs previously, it’s time we gathered the thoughts of what one may assume to be the most natural alignment for the cycling market, The Green Party. CI.N speaks with Peer Jenny Jones on progressing the active travel agenda.
Back in December of 2019 when the Conservative Party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party laid out their ‘Cycling Election Manifestos’ at Brompton’s Greenford headquarters three of the four were clearly geared up for a fight on cycling. It had become a genuine policy hot potato; and why not? After all, cycling is directly relevant to everything from the health service, through transport and the economy, not to mention the broader issue of climate change politics.
Road pollution affects 94% of Britain, study finds – theguardian.com
Damian Carrington
Fri 12 Mar 2021
Pollution from roads affects virtually every part of Britain, with 94% of land having some pollution above background levels, according to research.
Roads, which occupy less than 1% of the country, “form vast, pervasive and growing networks, causing negative environmental impacts”, the scientists said.
The most widespread pollutants are tiny particles, mostly from fossil fuel burning, nitrogen dioxide from diesel vehicles, and noise and light. More than 70% of the country is affected by all of these, with the only land to escape road pollution being almost entirely at high altitudes.
Newcastle To Build Back Better By Designing Cars Out, Pedestrianising More Of City Centre – forbes.com
Carlton Reid
14/03/21
There are plans for Grey Street to go greener.
Newcastle City Council
In the 1960s, Newcastle City Council leader T. Dan Smith planned for the city to become the Brasilia of the North, dominated by the automobile. An urban freeway—the Central Motorway—was cut through the beautiful city, with soil from the workings piled up on the green lung of the Town Moor. Citizens were told the spoil would be made into a ski slope.
But Smith’s promise of a “city free and beautiful” fell short: the ski slope never materialized (it was grassed over), a bunch of adjoining freeways never got built, and he was jailed for conspiracy and corruption.
Electric Cars Are Great. Even Better? No Cars. – Bloomberg
The Biden administration is plugging EV adoption to help the U.S. meet its climate goals, but electrification alone won’t do the job: We need to reduce vehicle use, period.
When President Biden recommitted the U.S. to the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, he set into motion what will undoubtedly be an ambitious climate strategy. Already, with his executive order to replace the federal government’s massive vehicle fleet with U.S.-made electric vehicles — quickly followed by a ground-shifting pledge by General Motors to sell EVs only by 2035 — we are witnessing a flurry of actions aimed at reducing emissions across various industries and sectors. After four years of backtracking, the U.S. is on the cusp of a meaningful policy response to climate change.
The path to the post-Covid city – ft.com
Simon Kuper
This has been the biggest year of urban change in decades. Many cities have remade themselves during the pandemic, laying bike paths or turning parking spaces into café terraces overnight. Offices have emptied and shops closed, some forever. Every organisation on earth seems to have held a webinar on “The future of cities”. The city — 10,000 years old — obviously isn’t going to die, but it is evolving on fast-forward.
Europe doubles down on cycling in post-Covid recovery plans | The Guardian
Success of schemes during pandemic has led many cities to plan vastly expanded bike networks
When the coronavirus pandemic led to lockdowns a year ago, hundreds of cities reconfigured their streets to make walking and cycling easier to aid social distancing and reduce air pollution. Now, with an end to the lockdowns in sight, the measures have proved so successful that cities across Europe are betting on the bicycle to lead the recovery.
According to the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the continent’s cities spent €1bn on Covid-related cycling measures in 2020, creating at least 600 miles (1,000km) of cycle lanes, traffic-calming measures and car-free streets.