Author name: Steven Edwards

Findings
Goodman, Anna, Scott Urban, and Rachel Aldred. 2020. “The Impact of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Other Active Travel Interventions on Vehicle Ownership: Findings from the Outer London Mini-Holland Programme.” Findings, December. https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.18200.
Abstract We use vehicle registration data to examine whether active travel interventions in Outer London between 2015-2019 affected motor vehicle ownership, compared to other neighbourhoods. We find statistically significant reductions in car/van ownership in areas introducing ‘low traffic neighbourhoods’ (-6%, or 23 cars/vans per 1000 adults, after two years). We also find statistically significant but smaller reductions in areas introducing other infrastructure such as cycle tracks (-2%, or 7 cars/vans per 1000 adults, after 2 years). These effects increased after adjusting for the changing age profile of the intervention areas. Our findings indicate that active travel interventions can reduce motor-vehicle ownership, particularly interventions involving low traffic neighbourhoods.

SIMON_MACMICHAEL TUE, DEC 08, 2020

Angela Giuffrida 9 Dec 2020
Luca Santini took his fight against Amazon and others to the streets after having to close his bookshop

Luca Ambrogio Santini is considered to be something of a knight-errant as he cycles around parts of Milan on his red cargo bike delivering books to people’s homes, so much so he is affectionately called the “Don Quixote of booksellers”.
“Quixote went to fight against the windmills,” Santini said of the protagonist in the classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. “My windmills are the online retailers from those monster multinationals … which for us independent booksellers are unnameable.”
The former bookstore owner sighs before uttering a name: “Obviously, Amazon––I practically do what they do, and often I’m faster than them.”

by Jeremy Leach and Emma Griffin

The news that not one pedestrian or person cycling died on Oslo’s streets in 2019 came as a jolt to the countries and cities struggling to meet Vision Zero targets. 
Last year, 130 people died on London’s streets including 71 pedestrians and five cyclists, according to TfL’s provisional figures. This January, in Peckham alone, three people were killed in road collisions. The UK was also one of only three European nations where pedestrian casualties rose in last decade, according to European Transport Safety Council.
So what is Oslo (and Norway that adopted Vision Zero in 1999) doing that’s so different? Is there a link between Oslo’s commitment to go car free and this fall in fatalities? 
New research suggests there is. Action Vision Zero has been exploring a report by Todd Litman, from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, that concludes that all motor traffic exposes people to danger. This means that road safety policies must do more than tackle dangerous driving and include actions for traffic reduction, such as road pricing. In doing so, Vision Zero is not just about solving road danger, but also our air quality, climate change and inactivity crises. 

11 hours ago

Mark Sutton 3 December, 2020

This week’s Good Cycling Faciltiy is a cycle-only exit from a residential street in the Dutch city of Delft.
This street is effectively a dead-end for motor traffic, as the exit here only opens out onto a cycleway(link is external), with no access onto a road for motor traffic. As a consequence, the residential street is quiet and safe, both for residents, and for people walking and cycling along it. In addition, walking and cycling has an advantage over driving, with direct access to areas at the end of this street that involve a circuitous route for anyone driving.

Mark Sutton 30 November, 2020

RBKC controls key east-west routes linking west London to the city centre, including Holland Park Avenue and Kensington High Street. These roads have a high potential for cycling, but conditions are currently too dangerous for many people to consider cycling along them. 
RBKC has just announced that it intends to remove a temporary cycle lane which had been installed on Kensington High Street, on the grounds that it harms local business, yet it has produced no evidence to support this claim and the decision appears to be based on political pressure, not facts. In its 7 weeks of existence, the bike lane saw a tripling of people cycling along the High Street, along with reduced traffic congestion – a clear demonstration of demand for safe cycling routes and of their efficiency in moving people across London.