News from Elsewhere

If we’re to get more people walking and cycling in our cities, then we need to make it easier for them

Pablo Guillen, Miguel Loyola and Ursa Komac for The Conversation
Fri 28 Aug 2020
Walking and cycling are in the spotlight given the need to keep fit, get about and keep a social distance from others during the pandemic.

We have pop-up cycleways, enlarged footpaths and even whole streets closed to traffic.

But even if the new cycleways stay in place after the Covid-19 crisis, we’ll still be far from being as bicycle-friendly as Copenhagen or Amsterdam over in Europe.

Loop starts in Winchester and takes in tree-lined lanes, open plains and plenty of pubs

Rob Noonan August 25, 2020

As the summer holidays come to an end and children return to school following lockdown, there couldn’t be a better time for us to consider the school commute. Nowadays, many children in the UK commute to school by car. But getting more parents to ditch the car for school journeys and switch to more active modes of travel, such as walking or cycling, is of great public health importance.

You lobby and wait years for improvements to the Highway Code that help walkers and cyclists, and then a dozen useful changes arrive at once.

Key changes proposed include a hierarchy of users that puts walkers and cyclists at the top, and priority for walkers and cyclists (on the road, in lanes or on tracks) over turning traffic at junctions. These are changes LCC has campaigned-for for years and we strongly urge you to support them. The proposed changes clearly have the potential to reduce road danger and potentially make road design more effective.

@CHAIRRDRF
almost full for Tuesdays #ideaswithbeers update on Transport in the time of COVID-19. At 5pm, 
e-mail @bricycle ideaswithbeers@gmail.com to attend the Zoom session.
Lots on LTNs (messaging, pushback), cycling at only c.30% more than last year etc.
Room for UK outside London news.

Signage of cycle routes in London is a mess – there’s now a mix of Sustrans National Cycle Network signs, London Cycle Network, the original Cycle Superhighway/Quietway and the new Cycleway signage. London now has LCN5, CS5, Q5 and C5. Quietway route 5 was partly rebranded C5, and Q5 replaced some bits of the old LCN route (but the old signage and paint wasn’t removed where it remains, in weird disconnected sections). What does a 5 painted on the road mean? Answers on a postcard, please. And does anyone understand the point of un-numbered bits of Q or C signage that appear without destinations? So there’s a bit of good cycle route there but it’s up to you to work out if it takes you anywhere useful. Great.

Right now London has both a lot of new cycle infrastructure (and quieter streets for cycling in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) and a big growth in new cyclists trying to find their way around the post-COVID city with its restricted public transport.

Campaigners ask authors of two reviews of TfL finances to look again at scheme

Matthew TaylorWed 19 Aug 2020 09.41 BST
Plans to build a four-lane road tunnel under the Thames in London should be dropped as part of an overhaul of transport spending in the capital, campaigners say.

Opponents of the proposed £1.2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme have written to the authors of two separate reviews of Transport for London finances, asking them to look again at the project.