Author name: Steven Edwards

News from Elsewhere

Shared use and covert cycleways: how cycling on footpaths came to be officially recommended – War On The Motorist

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Joe Dunkley March 28, 2021
A misunderstanding in the ’00s led cycling organisations to recommend against separating

cycling from walking and aided the proliferation of bad shared use paths. We’ve made some
progress towards correcting that mistake, but it lingers in Bristol’s covert cycleways.
For anyone who has been missing getting together for Infrastructure Safaris lately,
here’s a reminder that I’ve put some on YouTube. The latest is about shared use and
covert cycleways:
I won’t try to replicate the video exactly in written form, partly because the point of an
Infrastructure Safari is to (virtually) ride along and see everything in context, but
mostly because it largely covers topics that I and others have written about before.

News from Elsewhere

Dec 20) Scottish Government Plans 20% Cut In Car Use Within Ten Years—And That Includes Electric Cars – Forbes

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Carlton Reid 17/12/20
Many countries aim to phase out petrol and diesel cars, relying instead
on uptake of electric cars, but Scotland plans to reduce motoring in general.
Using both carrot and stick, the Scottish government plans to cut car use by
20% within ten years. 
“We are not aware of any other country that has committed to such an
ambitious transformation,” writes Scotland’s Environment Secretary
Roseanna Cunningham in an updated climate change plan. 
The plan, released December 16, was re-written after Members of

the Scottish Parliament agreed that targets to cut 66% of carbon
emissions of 1990 levels by 2030 should be increased to 75%. 

News from Elsewhere

Feb 21) Boris Johnson urges councils to “crack on” with cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods | road.cc

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Simon MacMichael 03/02/21
Prime Minister says government’s research highlights majority support for active travel initiatives

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says councils should “crack on” with building cycle lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods, and that the majority of local residents support such initiatives in areas where they have been put in place.  
In May, Mr Johnson promised “a new golden age for cycling” and transport secretary Grant Shapps subsequently announced £225 million in emergency active travel funding for local authorities in England to make it easier and safer for people to get around on foot or bike during the pandemic.
Some schemes have been removed by councils following small but vocal opposition, however the Prime Minister – who was said to have gone “ballistic” when the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea removed pop-up cycle lanes on either side of Kensington High Street in early December – says that research carried out on behalf of the government demonstrates widespread support, reports The Times.

News from Elsewhere

March 26/19) EU to require speed limiters, driver monitors in new cars from 2022 – cnet.com

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Speed limiters are promised to reduce road deaths by 20 percent.
Jake Holmes 26/3/19
New cars sold in Europe after May 2022 will be required to have a variety of new safety technologies, including speed limiters and systems to monitor the driver’s attention levels. The European Commission announced the rules Tuesday, saying that intelligent speed limiters alone could reduce fatalities on European roads by 20 percent.
The speed-limit systems would use road-sign recognition or data from navigation maps to warn the driver of the current speed limit and whether he or she is exceeding it. Such technology is actually offered on many new vehicles already, but the EU plan is to make it standard on every car.
Other technologies that would be required include systems to determine whether a driver is distracted or drowsy, automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, backup cameras and an improved event data recorder to store information from before a crash. The rules still need to be formally approved by the EU Parliament later this year, the Commission said.

News from Elsewhere

Nov ’20) The Paramedic Case for Safer Streets – College of Paramedics

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By Jules Mattsson, Student Paramedic And Committee Member Of The London Cycling Campaign In Hackney
27/11/2020

An ambulance response car uses a protected cycle lane to bypass general traffic. Picture: Cyclingmikey

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, one big change for residents of towns and cities has been how we get around. With public transport capacity reduced, many took to private cars to avoid the guy wearing a mask under his chin while sitting opposite you on the train. Unfortunately, if this trend had continued we were heading towards long-term gridlock – so urgent action was needed to enable alternatives like walking and cycling.

News from Elsewhere

Lockdown walking habit could outlast the pandemic, survey suggests – TransportXtra

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Coronavirus regulations may have a lasting impact on the population’s behaviour even after restrictions are lifted, according to a study to mark 12 months since the first national lockdown came into force in the UK.

Walking, working from home and shopping locally are among lockdown behaviours that people will maintain after pandemic restrictions are lifted, according to the survey, which was commissioned by the BBC.
The research, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and Ipsos MORI, is part of a wider study with BBC News to mark the first anniversary of the announcement of a national lockdown by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 23 March 2020.
Ipsos MORI interviewed 2,442 people aged 16 and over about how the pandemic may change their lifestyles in the long term.

News from Elsewhere

What Rupa Huq is getting wrong on low traffic neighbourhoods – Medium

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Sarah Berry
In an address to Parliament earlier this week, the Member of Parliament for Ealing Central and Acton, Rupa Huq, asked a question of her peers. Dialing in over Zoom from her home, Huq raised the issue of women’s safety on the UK’s streets, which in light of the recent kidnap and murder of South London woman Sarah Everard, is understandably at the forefront of many minds.
But in a confusing move to many, Huq didn’t reference women’s safety generally, but instead she specifically asked about the connection between safety and low traffic neighbourhoods, urging her peers to ensure that any reappraisal of LTNs across the country ensure

News from Elsewhere

Lockdown did not reduce air pollution from tyre wear in London | The Guardian

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Gary Fuller 26/03/21
Less traffic meant less congestion, but the remaining vehicles went fasterI asked William Hicks how he felt when lockdown suddenly happened in the middle of his year-long air pollution investigation. “Excited,” he replied. Not the answer that I expected. “It was like moving the field laboratory to a whole new road.” Hicks, and his team from Imperial College London, were studying tiny particles from tyres, brakes and road surfaces on London’s Marylebone Road.The inside of the field laboratory is a noisy environment full of the rattle of pumps, as an array of equipment measures the size and chemical nature of the air pollution. Hicks was measuring metal particles in the air to work out how much pollution came from each source. Barium particles are released from brake pads and zinc, used to vulcanise rubber.

News from Elsewhere

The true cost of driving in cities? – transportxtra

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Even now, after everyone has been told to stay at home, any of those who have the time and money are back in their cars. It’s really important to remember that it is a luxury, an expensive luxury that isn’t available to as many people as we think.

Fresh data shows that Manchester is the most expensive UK city to drive in, costing on average £1,058.99 based on fuel, insurance, parking and MOT. Yet still in Greater Manchester there are around 250 million car journeys of less than one kilometre each year – the equivalent of a 15-minute walk or a five-minute bike ride. 
Some have noticed that driving might be a tad expensive, like the insurance companies, who have higher profits left over from the fact people weren’t driving around and crashing into each other.

News from Elsewhere

Pop-Up Cycleways And Low Traffic Neighborhoods Not Delaying Ambulances, Say NHS Trusts – forbes.com

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:excerptstartCarlton Reid 26/03/21A Freedom of Information (FoI) investigation of NHS ambulance trusts in England, Scotland and Wales has found that none were opposed to the new pop-up cycleways or “low traffic neighbourhoods” (LTNs) installed during the COVID-19 lockdown last year.The FoI requests were placed by member organisation Cycling UK.The so-called “active travel” schemes were funded by the Department for Transport

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