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.

March 12 2021
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.

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.

Freedom of Information requests lodged by climate charity Possible and cycle trade campaign group BikeIsBest have found local authorities demonstrably “unprepared” to deliver boosted cycle to school rates due to shortcomings on cycling and walking infrastructure connecting homes and educational facilities.

The findings quickly follow a Tweet from the Transport Minister Grant Shapps which called upon people to consider easing pressure on public transport by cycling and walking as schools return this week.

Cycling UK says that the government is suppressing the findings of research into active travel funding from scrutiny by Parliament, maintaining that the data shows that current levels of spend are insufficient to achieve its own targets for growth in cycling and walking.
The claim was made by the national cycling charity’s policy director, Roger Geffen, as he gave evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee’s inquiry, Reforming public transport after the pandemic.

Another year of dangerous Royal Parks roads?
The Royal Parks has received almost 18,000 responses to consultations across changes to five of its iconic parks in London that were subject to trial restrictions to motor traffic over the last six months. And good news is that in every consultation, a strong majority of respondents supported the moves to restrict motor traffic from the park. That’s in part thanks to you and LCC’s campaigning on this issue.

“A growing body of evidence suggests that a well-planned reduction of road space for private cars does not add to congestion,” it says.

Governments should review how much road and parking space is allocated to the different transport modes. “Reallocation of road space and changes to road layouts that give more space to cyclists and pedestrians should be used as a strategy to manage car use.” 
Growing use of micromobility has strengthened the case for reducing road capacity for cars, the ITF believes.