Author name: Steven Edwards

Councils must act to improve conditions on boundary roads around LTNs, a study by climate charity Possible and the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy concludes.

This could involve increasing the number of bus lanes and public transport provision, urban greenery, widening pavements, and protected cycle lanes as well as expanding low emission zones.

It is “highly likely” that boundary roads will remain polluted, unsafe, or difficult to cross or cycle on, the report warns. “Removing LTNs is unlikely to alleviate these issues so it is vital for local authorities to consider other measures that could. For instance, expanding low emission zones, road user charging, increasing the number of bus lanes and public transport provision, urban greenery, widening pavements, and protected cycle lanes could all make a contribution.”

Peter Walker

99. Car Brain with Dr. Ian Walker January 31, 2023

Is it acceptable to harm another person? To steal someone’s private property? To bend health and safety rules just to save a few minutes or make more money? According to a new study, it might depend on whether or not a car is involved. Dr. Ian Walker, a professor of environmental psychology at Swansea University in Wales, joins us for a fascinating discussion about the unconscious biases we all share in favor of cars, how those assumptions shape our streets, and how they prevent the kind of change needed to make them safer. It’s a phenomenon he and his co-authors call “motonormativity.”

Peter Walker

Millions of Britons are trapped in transport poverty owing to a lack of alternatives to car ownership, with some spending nearly a fifth of their pre-tax income keeping a car on the road, a study has found.
Those who own a car spend on average 13% of their gross income on it, above the 10% generally seen as the indicator

of transport poverty. For those paying for their car with a finance or loan deal this proportion rises to 19%.
The report, produced by the cycle industry campaign group Bike Is Best, found that about three-quarters of drivers think they will always own a car, while just under half, 47%, believe they have no alternative.

What other innovative public schemes are out there that encourage a decrease in car dependence?

From Monday, 13 February, Queen Victoria Street will close permanently to motor vehicles where it meets Bank Junction.
Meanwhile, a temporary one-way system will be introduced westbound in Mansion House Street, with a diversion route in place for eastbound traffic, including cycles.
The work marks the next phase of All Change At Bank, a City of London Corporation scheme timed to coincide with Transport for London’s Bank station upgrade.

LTNs in London introduced between May 2020 and May 2021 have “typically resulted in a sub- stantial relative reduction in motor traffic inside the scheme area, with particularly strong reduc-tions in Inner London”, the study says.

The borough said the first phase of its Sustainable Streets programme will focus on the roads around Deptford and Catford, with changes due to start next summer.
Better use of pavements and road space will improve local streets and road safety, reduce noise, traffic, and air pollution, and help more people walk, cycle and use public transport, the council states.