Bilenky Cycle Works in Olney had less than two weeks to manufacture the bike.
Harold Brusker 11/6/21
Stephen Bilenky wasn’t sure what to think when he got an email from the U.S. State Department on May 23 asking whether he could make a bike — in less than two weeks.
That was a big request for Bilenky Cycle Works in Philadelphia’s Olney section, a small business whose customers may have to wait at least six months for a bicycle and sometimes up to 18 months, depending on how customised.
What’s more, the budget was just $1,500. Prices for the 75 or so bikes Bilenky makes annually start at $4,500.
Bilenky, 67, and his three employees pulled it off, finishing the custom frame made from Columbus steel and painting it by Memorial Day weekend. The goal was to have the bike ready as a gift from President Joe Biden to Johnson, an avid cyclist, at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, England. The summit starts Friday.
Oxford Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: Map ‘glitch’ shows dozens of roads closed – BBC News
2 hours ago
A technical glitch has seen dozens of roads in Oxford incorrectly appear closed on satellite navigation devices.
According to platforms such as Google Maps and TomTom, barely any routes appear open through the east of the city.
Oxfordshire County Council said it happened after it submitted data on new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) to a Google “network management system”.
It said work was under way to resolve the issue “as soon as possible”.
Some road blocks and bollards are in place in Church Cowley, Florence Park and Temple Cowley as part of the council’s LTN scheme.
It is part of an attempt by the authority to create quieter, safer neighbourhoods.
The New York highway that racism built: ‘It does nothing but pollute’ | The Guardian
Rachel Ramirez Fri 21 May 2021
Just south of downtown Syracuse in upstate New York, a stretch of highway has long divided surrounding neighbourhoods.
On the east side are large buildings where university students live, well-maintained green spaces, and a wall that blocks the highway from view. On the west side is a predominantly low-income and disinvested Black neighborhood where the pollution from the highway exacerbates many residents’ existing health conditions.
asthma than their white counterparts, according to a recent report by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).
SUV advertising with Michelle Tylicki. Brandalism 2020 on Vimeo
Artist Michelle Tylicki’s discusses SUV subvert featuring a highly polluting Lambourghini Urus set in a Hieronymous Bosch hellscape. Video by Calypo Spritz
19 March) Legal challenges against roads programme and NPS continue Roads – transportxtra
19 March 2021
Environmental transport campaigners are hoping for a court date this summer in their judicial review challenge against the Government’s second road investment strategy (RIS2).
In July last year the High Court granted campaign group the Transport Action Network (TAN) the right to present a judicial review challenge against RIS2 on climate change grounds (LTT 24 Jul 20).
TAN is continuing to pursue a possible second challenge against the National Networks National Policy…
‘Inform drivers of link between emissions and high speeds’ – transportxtra
The public needs to be made more aware of the connection between fast driving and carbon emissions, a campaigner has suggested as new statistics revealed an increase in cars exceeding speed limits.
In January to March 2021, the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit in free-flow road conditions in Great Britain was higher than the same period in 2020 and 2019 across all three road types covered.
On motorways, 50% of cars exceeded the 70mph speed limit in the latest quarter..
Pollutionwatch: time to rethink London’s red routes | The Guardian
In many cities around the world, major roads have been restructured to ease air pollution
Gary Fuller 4/6/21
The decision to reroute instead of rebuild the earthquake-damaged Cypress Freeway in West Oakland, California, eased the air pollution burden experienced by local communities and opened new areas for housing and the creation of parks.
Other examples include the unbuilding of part of the Inner Loop in Rochester, New York, the removal of a 12-lane motorway in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to restore the canal that once surrounded the city centre, and the Cheonggyecheon River project in Seoul, South Korea; where a multi-lane expressway was removed to reveal a buried river, creating a green-transport corridor and a place to picnic and relax. These schemes could provide a blueprint for our major urban roads.
£90billion road revamp planned despite drive for green travel | The Times
Tuesday May 26 2020
An official document shows that Highways England, the government-owned company, has proposed significant improvements to the country’s busiest roads over the next 15 years.
This month the government announced a £2 billion package to promote cycling and walking. Last weekend it unveiled a further £283 million to increase bus and tram services.
In the March budget, the chancellor announced a £27 billion investent in motorways and main A-roads in England over the next five years.
At the same time, the Office of Rail and Road, the official watchdog, published its own “efficiency review” into Highways England’s longer-term plans.
There is no business as usual when modelling climate change – Phil Goodwin – transportxtra
Embedded in decades of transport modelling is the assumption that the future will be sufficiently like the past that any relationships observed (or thought to be observed), were stable enough to use as a guide to the future, and reliable enough to support decisions, with a few modest caveats. This philosophical starting point underpinned the rationale for the key transport models used to forecast future movement and support major projects. Brexit, Covid19, and climate change all challenge the credibility of that view.
What Is A Dutch Style Roundabout? – The Ranty Highwayman
Look, I don’t want to be that guy, but when I see a UK cycling scheme trumpeting a “Dutch-style” roundabout, it’s going to get my attention and I’m going to give it a closer look. > North Tyneside Council is currently consulting on a raft of cycling schemes which are being delivered over the next couple of years using funding from the UK Government’s Active Travel Fund (ATF) and the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF). The former is essentially part of the response to Covid where 2020/21’s fund was more about pop-up and interim active travel works with 2021/22 being about making things permanent or extending them. The latter closed to applications in 2018 and is about investing in public and sustainable transport in city regions. Both funds are for England only.