The West Midlands is the historic home of the UK’s automotive industry. It can be the future too. An ambitious green industrial strategy – with workers and communities at its heart – can ensure the region leads the UK’s transport revolution: producing the electric vehicles of the future, centring mobility justice, and securing the green industries and trade union jobs of the future.
Drawing on workshops with local trade unionists, climate activists, policy officers, and researchers, the Architectural Association, the AA Groundlab, and Common Wealth have created a vision of the Birmingham’s auto industry and transport systems that is electric, public-oriented, and thriving.
Forget Tesla, e-bikes should be at the heart of the electric vehicle revolution – greenallianceblog.org.uk
Steve Garidis, executive director of the Bicycle Association of Great Britain
E-bikes have taken the world’s cycling markets by storm. They (mostly) look just like regular bicycles. They are ridden just like regular bicycles. And, in many countries, they have the same rules: no licence or registration is required to use them on the road.
E-bike riders are evangelical about them, many discovering (or rediscovering) a passion for cycling. They come with all the joys and benefits of cycling, and far fewer of the downsides; just a subtle and silent helping hand that flattens hills and dismisses the curse of headwinds.
Long gone are those days when cycling businesses, used to focusing on the enthusiast market, sniffed at e-bikes as ‘cheating’. E-bikes cost more than regular bikes, attract better margins and have attracted a new sort of customer. They are driving much of the growth and investment which the cycling industry has enjoyed in the past five years.
Offset rising costs by leaving your car at home, Brice urges – transportxtra
“Sustrans works every day to make it easier for everyone to walk, wheel or cycle,” said Brice. “It’s not always as easy as it should be, but with 45% of our urban journeys being under two miles, it can be easier than we think to leave the car at home and walk, cycle or wheel to school or to the local shops.
“There’s never been a better time to reduce your car use and travel actively. This includes business leaders supporting their employees making the active travel choice, schools working with parents to walk instead of drive, and family days away being made doable by public transport.”
Cost of living pressures are eased by cycling | Cycling | The Guardian
It is false economics to suggest that a decline in cycle sales means fewer people are cycling (Cycling growth in UK at risk of being left behind by Europe, experts warn, 8 August). When car sales drop, we do not say fewer people are driving. It is a change in consumer not travel behaviour.
Cost of living pressures are forcing people to consider cheaper alternatives for their shorter journeys. Regularly updated Department for Transport travel figures show a huge 47% surge in weekday cycling trips since petrol prices began escalating in March, much like we witnessed during the 70s when the oil crisis made driving unaffordable for many.
Increases in the cost of living affect everyone, forcing us to reconsider our options. One such option could be to return to a “repair and reuse” model, for which the humble bicycle is eminently suited.
Number of Hackney bike hangars to double – Transport Xtra
Hackney Council has pledged to more than double the number of bike hangars in the borough from the current 647 to 1,322 over the next four years. With each hangar storing six bikes, this will increase the number of bike spaces by more than 4,000.
The council said it will install 225 cycle hangars each year up until 2026. It hopes the new hangars will significantly reduce the number of people waiting for a cycle parking space, which currently stands at 5,000.
Mete Coban MBE, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “We know that access to secure cycle parking can be a barrier to cycling.
“We already have more cycle hangars than any other borough, but as London’s capital of cycling, we want to do as much as we can to encourage more people to cycle – helping them to travel more healthily, tackle emissions and rebuild a greener Hackney.”
The Other Electric Vehicle: E-Bikes Gain Ground for Americans Avoiding Gas Cars – wsj.com
Christopher Mims
Crystal and Brianne Williams, a married couple who live just outside of Denver, recently made a decision that would have seemed radical just a few years ago.
The pair, 33 and 29 years old, ditched their car for a pair of electric bikes. Brianne rides hers every weekday, 18 miles round trip, to study at her university. Crystal, a less experienced rider, uses hers a couple of times a week to get to her job in downtown Denver, and for errands and outings. Their custom models, assembled by a local e-bike specialty manufacturer, are now their sole means of personal transportation.
Cycling growth in UK at risk of being left behind by Europe, experts warn | Cycling | The Guardian
The UK risks being left behind Europe on cycling growth, experts have warned, as cycle sales are down by a quarter on pre-pandemic levels and electric bike sales are plateauing following a boom in 2020.
Although cycling levels have significantly risen since the pandemic – up 33% in the year to 30 July, according to Department for Transport (DfT) figures – sales of new bikes are not keeping pace.
Those in the industry say more needs to be done to boost cycling uptake, including investing in infrastructure, secure cycle parking, and e-bike subsidies and charging networks.
According to the latest market report from the Bicycle Association, cycle sales are down more than a quarter on pre-Covid levels from January to June. Sales of hybrid and children’s cycles, considered the two most “mainstream” categories, are worst affected, while “enthusiast” categories of road and gravel bikes have grown. Cycle sales are generally linked with cycling levels.
Pilot plan for 20mph speed limit on country roads gets green light – Daily Telegraph
Surrey County Council is to trial new restrictions in areas between Guildford and Dorking
By Jack Leather 7 August 2022 • 3:54pm
The DfT says rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads and motorways
Speed limits on some country roads in Surrey could be cut from 60mph to 20mph under plans to tackle dangerous driving in rural areas.
Surrey County Council is to pilot new 20mph and 30mph restrictions across roughly 80 square miles south of the A25 between Guildford and Dorking.
Supporters say lanes with a legal limit of 60mph are often plagued by joyriders racing in 4x4s and on scrambler motorcycles, raising the risk of collisions with other vehicles.
But the AA questioned whether introducing a “blanket speed limit” would make country roads any safer, adding any 20mph restriction “only makes sense where there is a specific danger”.
“Speed limits work in places where they make sense to the drivers, where there is a particular hazard that requires drivers to slow down,” said the group’s Luke Bosdet.
“The problem is 20mph zones pop up all over the place and they’ve lost their meaning.”
Ignore the culture warriors – low traffic neighbourhoods don’t close streets, they liberate them | George Monbiot – The Guardian
George Monbiot
It reminds me of the school board controversies in the United States. A small group of furious men, whipped up by the media and opportunist politicians, are seeking to turn quiet, practical attempts to protect local people into full-blown culture wars. The further from reality their beliefs diverge, the readier they are to resort to vandalism and violence.
But this isn’t the US, and it’s not about textbooks. It’s playing out in the streets of Oxford. The angry men have resorted so far to arson, angle grinders and physical attacks on local people. What is the frightful cause of these reactions? The council’s efforts to ensure that through-traffic stays on main roads.
There could scarcely be a more reasonable policy. Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) seek to stop residential streets being used as escape valves for overloaded arterial roads. They replace a privilege exercised by a few – rat-running through local streets – with rights enjoyed by the many: cleaner air, less noise, safe passage for children, cyclists, users of wheelchairs and mobility scooters, stronger communities.
2017) A thread for all the pundits lining up to wring their hands about dangerous cycling and light sentencing in the wake of the Alliston case – Jon Ormondroyd – Twitter
Jon@ormondroyd Sep 19, 2017·
A thread for all the pundits lining up to wring their hands about dangerous cycling and light sentencing in the wake of the Alliston case…