Author name: Steven Edwards

News from Elsewhere

Low-traffic neighbourhood plans step up a gear despite court ruling | The Times

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Graeme Paton 2 Feb 2021

The prime minister has vowed to “crack on” with road schemes designed to reduce the dominance of cars, despite a critical High Court ruling.

Last night Boris Johnson said that the government would push ahead with the expansion of “low-traffic neighbourhoods” while Greater Manchester’s “cycling tsar” said opposition to the schemes was driven by a “negative minority” and many concerns were either “unfounded or proven to be surmountable”.

Dozens of permanent schemes are now in development after the award of £175 million from the government in November. This includes wider pavements, new segregated cycle lanes and the closure of residential streets to through traffic. It followed £250 million in May for temporary changes to roads during the pandemic.

News from Elsewhere

The New Road Rage Trailer | Sarah Berry (podcast)

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FEBRUARY 1ST, 2021 | 01:36 | TRAILER
Episode Summary

The New Road Rage is a podcast asking what’s got people so worked up about street changes benefiting pedestrians and cyclists.</p> <p>Each week, host Sarah Berry will be interviewing a different expert or individual with a stake in the game — from journalists to historians, and cyclists to black cab drivers — to try and find out where the new road rage comes from.</p> <p>Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow along on Twitter by following @NewRoadRage and @SarahJ_Berry Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sarah-berry3/message

News from Elsewhere

Could Amsterdam’s New Economic Theory Replace Capitalism? | Time

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One evening in December, after a long day working from home, Jennifer Drouin, 30, headed out to buy groceries in central Amsterdam. Once inside, she noticed new price tags. The label by the zucchini said they cost a little more than normal: 6¢ extra per kilo for their carbon footprint, 5¢ for the toll the farming takes on the land, and 4¢ to fairly pay workers. “There are all these extra costs to our daily life that normally no one would pay for, or even be aware of,” she says.

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UK mayors urge Boris Johnson to commit to tougher air pollution targets | The Guardian

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Cross-party group sign joint letter after inquest into death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah

Matthew Taylor
Wed 27 Jan 2021
City mayors representing more than 17 million people across the UK are urging Boris Johnson to commit to tougher air pollution targets after the inquest into the death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah.
The cross-party group, including the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Conservative mayor of the West of England combined authority, Tim Bowles, have signed a joint letter along with city leaders from Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and the North of Tyne to urge Boris Johnson to enshrine in law a commitment to achieve World Health Organization air pollution guidelines by 2030.

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Highway engineer on bike lanes: “The street is not too narrow, your imagination is” – Cycle Industry News

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Mark Sutton 26 January, 2021

Life as highway engineer who cycles can be tough. In a guest appearance, Twitter’s @RantyHighwayman explains to those opposing cycling infrastructure “The street is not too narrow, your imagination is too narrow…
What is it about the simple act of using a cycle to travel from A to B that sends some people into a frothing rage? Why is it so hard to redesign our roads and streets to make them more people-focused? Why do politicians do everything in their power to maintain the car-centric status quo, despite the continual evidence that walking and cycling provide so many positive economic, health and social impacts in communities where people have genuine choices over how they travel? Why does all this happen when we know that redesigning our streets is actually a very popular thing to do? Well, I am not sure I have the answers, but I’ll happily give opinions to anyone who will listen.

Our highway law has developed in a way which indirectly favours driving and any change to that must be modified either at a national or local level.

News from Elsewhere

Climate crisis: world now at its hottest for 12,000 years | The Guardian

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Scientists say temperatures globally at highest level since start of human civilisation

Damian Carrington Wed 27 Jan 2021
The planet is now hotter than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to new research.
The analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data from that period is less certain.
The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving a longstanding puzzle dubbed the “Holocene temperature conundrum”. Climate models have indicated continuous warming since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago and the Holocene period bega

News from Elsewhere

Removal of bike lanes hits the young the hardest, says Cycling UK | road.cc

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Charity urges councils to back safe cycling infrastructure to provide cheap transport option

Young people are being hit hardest by the removal of pop-up cycle lanes, says Cycling UK. Highlighting that people aged under 25 are likely to be particularly affected by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the national cycling charity is calling on local councils to support safe cycle routes.
According to a YouGov survey commissioned by Cycling UK, 71% of 18-24 year olds – and 77% of students – say that the UK should make it easier for people to cycle by building more segregated cycle lanes, compared to 55 per cent of those aged 55-plus.

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