Ross Lydall
Campaigners have claimed an early victory in a battle to prevent a mayor from ripping out traffic-calming measures across an east London borough.
Lutfur Rahman had launched a consultation on his “reopening the roads” pledge in the summer after being re-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in May.
It would have been one of the biggest reversals of the trend to favour “active travel” over motor vehicles in the capital.
Many residents feared this would “destroy four years of street improvements” in the London borough with the lowest car ownership and make walking and cycling more dangerous by reopening residential roads to through traffic.
The Amazon will reach tipping point if current trend of deforestation continues – news.mongabay.com
Alexandrapopescu
• A report by the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) claims that 26% of Amazon forests have transformed irreversibly and show high levels of degradation.
Across the entire 847 million hectares of Amazonian territory, some 26% of its forests are showing evidence of deforestation and degradation — 20% have suffered irreversible loss and 6% are highly degraded. The tipping point for the Amazon is no longer a distant scenario, but a present reality in some parts of the region. Of the nine countries that make up the Amazon basin, Brazil and Bolivia have the largest amounts of destruction and, as a result, “savannization is already taking place in both countries.”
This is embarrassing! 60% of asphalt imported from Russia – archyde.com
This is embarrassing! 60% of asphalt imported from Russia
After Putin was sanctioned, the UK could not even repair the roads. (Illustration/Dazhi/Associated Press)
[周刊王CTWANT] The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, pointed out on 31 August that since about 60% of the bitumen in the European market comes from Russia, the Moscow authorities implemented bitumen exports after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The embargo has caused the cost of road maintenance in the UK to continue to soar, with some sections of the road taking up to 10 years to repair successfully, in addition to an extra £12bn.
Cyclists report multiple muggings and thefts on London cycle route | road.cc
A warning has been painted on the entrance to a section of Cycleway 10 in south east London, following concerns over the path’s safety
Graffiti telling cyclists to beware of bike thieves has been daubed on the entrance to a section of a south east London cycle route following reports of robberies and muggings by “masked men” in recent months.
Multiple cyclists have contacted the Metropolitan Police, Lewisham Council and British Cycling after a local cycling Facebook group reported that masked, knife-wielding thieves were targeting solo bike riders at night on a quiet portion of Cycleway 10 (formerly known as Quietway 1) near The Den, Millwall Football Club’s stadium.
Active travel to be “first choice for our daily journeys,” says minister | road.cc
Department for Transport Minister Lucy Frazer reaffirms commitment to cycling and walking
A transport minister has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to active travel, including cycling and walking, in the first such announcement since Liz Truss won the Conservative Party leadership election and took over from Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
In a written question, Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York and Shadow Minister at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, asked the Secretary for State for Transport whether “(s)he will introduce a funding pilot aimed at increasing the number of people who shift from using cars to public transport.”
In response, Lucy Frazer, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, said: “As set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, we want public transport and walking and cycling to be the natural first choice for our daily journeys.
A message to the Transport Secretary… from Glenn Lyons
Roadblocks? They were telling us to ‘kill the car’ in the 1990s! | Camden New Journal
Reclaim The Streets take over Camden High Street [Adrian Fisk]
CAMDEN High Street was brought to a halt after protesters warning about the rocketing amount of greenhouse gases in London’s polluted air dragged obstacles into the road and held an impromptu party and demonstration.
Not this week – but a protest in Camden Town 25 years ago, as a new exhibition points out.
The photographs of Adrian Fisk, which include images from the Reclaim The Streets protests that brought Camden to a standstill in the mid-1990s, are the subject of a new exhibition at the Climate Change Centre in Upper Street, Islington.
He remembers the day protesters brought the fight against the climate crisis to the bustling weekend streets of Camden Town.
Government bans councils from enforcing 15mph speed limits | The Independent
Jon Stone
Last year the City of London Corporation announced that it would be the first local authority to introduce the lower speed limit across the Square Mile in a bid to make its streets safer.
Other councils in built-up areas around the country were expected to follow suit if the change was successful.
But The Independent has learned that the Department for Transport (DfT) has refused to grant permission to the corporation to enforce the planned lower limit.
DfT officials said they were concerned about the accuracy of speedometers at such low speeds and the fact that not all speedometers were marked in 5mph gradations.
Why don’t we grieve for extinct species? – theguardian.com
Jeremy Hance
In early 2010, artist, activist and mother, Persephone Pearl, headed to the Bristol Museum. Like many concerned about the fate of the planet, she was in despair over the failed climate talks in Copenhagen that winter. She sat on a bench and looked at a stuffed animal behind glass: a thylacine. Before then, she’d never heard of the marsupial carnivore that went extinct in 1936.
In Norway, 62% of children walk or bike to school – David Zipper – Twitter
@DavidZipper
Here’s a stat to make American brains explode: In Norway, 62% of children walk or bike to school.