Speed data of 65 streets where the limit was reduced from 30mph to 20mph also showed a widespread drop in average speeds, said Edinburgh City Council.
The 20mph roll out was undertaken in four phases, starting in May 2016 and completing in early March 2018. Road Traffic Collision data was analysed for a 36-month period before the scheme was implemented, and for 36 months after.
Data for the 36 months after the scheme showed a 30% drop in collisions – a reduction of 1,015, from 3,384 to 2,369 – compared with the 36 months before. This resulted in a 31% fall in casualties – a reduction of 1,227 from 3,969 to 2,742. Comparing data for the 36 months ‘before’ and ‘after’ revealed a drop in collision severity levels, with four fewer fatalities, 22 fewer serious injuries, and 989 fewer slight injuries.
Active Travel England guides councils toward “constrained” infrastructure cash – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton 5 August 2022
Active Travel England has begun sending all England’s councils guidance on how to plan, obtain funding and build quality infrastructure as part of the ambition to see 50% of short trips undertaken either walking or cycling by 2050.
Writing today on the long road ahead, Active Travel England has asked councils to begin grading themselves against benchmarks it has created to measure “local leadership, supportive transport policy and their track record on delivery.”
Pairing the self-assessment with track record and performance data already held by the Department for Transport used to inform current funding allocations, the newly-formed body will now rank authorities on a grade of one to four, four being the metric for high levels of leadership, ambitions and delivery. The active travel org expects most councils at the present time to rank at one out of four, though reassessments will be undertaken on an annual basis in order that progress is fairly measured.
Why we drew 600-mile long picture of a bicycle across Europe | Climate crisis | The Guardian
Couple rode thousands of miles to plot GPS image to raise awareness about climate crisis and encourage bike use
Daniel Rayneau-Kirkhope and Arianna Casiraghi, accompanied by their dog, Zola, have just finished 4,500-mile (7,250km) bike ride across Europe to draw a giant GPS-plotted bicycle across seven countries to raise awareness of how cycling can help tackle the climate emergency. It is believed to be the world’s largest GPS drawing. You can see photos of their trip on their Instagram account.
We really, really love cycling. Like everyone, we’ve become more aware of climate change, and we wanted to add our voices to what should be a bigger chorus. We think using the bike as a form of transport is a wonderful thing, and wanted to do something.
Location, Location, Location: Winning (and Losing) the Housing – Transit Lottery – California YIMBY
Do people have innate transportation preferences that they express independently of their living conditions, or does the built environment of our neighborhoods influence those preferences? New evidence from researchers at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz analyzed data from San Francisco’s affordable housing lottery, and found that the transportation, parking, and other amenities located near a home play a significant role in the mode of transportation people use.
The study, “What Do Residential Lotteries Show Us About Transportation Choices?,” shows that households randomly assigned to housing throughout the city make significant mode shifts depending on the availability of parking and transit. Despite random variation, more available parking results in more automobile trips, supporting the thesis that parking spots “induce” people to drive more.
Affordable Housing for Humans Means Less Housing for Cars – California YIMBY
A new analysis by Garcia & Tucker (2021) at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation crunches the numbers on Asm. Laura Friedman of Glendale’s proposed Assembly Bill 1401, which would eliminate parking requirements statewide for housing developments within a half-mile of public transit.
Key takeaways:
• Local on-site parking requirements significantly drive up the costs of affordable housing projects.• Eliminating parking requirements may substantially reduce the amount of new parking in developments, but developers will likely still provide some.• State density bonus incentives for affordable housing are seldom used across the state, but when they are, reducing on-site parking is a popular option.AB 1401 would “prohibit a local government from imposing a minimum automobile parking requirement, or enforcing a minimum automobile parking requirement, on residential, commercial, or other development if the development is located on a parcel that is within one-half mile walking distance of public transit.”
Major cities blighted by nitrogen dioxide pollution, research finds | Air pollution | The Guardian
Fiona Harvey
Cities in relatively prosperous countries are blighted by serious levels of air pollution from nitrogen dioxide, often without realising the extent of the problem, research has found.
Moscow is the world’s second worst city for nitrogen dioxide pollution, behind Shanghai in China, while St Petersburg takes fourth place. Other cities near Russia follow close behind, including Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, and Minsk, capital of Belarus, at seventh and eighth place respectively, according to the research, published on Wednesday.
Pallavi Pant, senior scientist at the Health Effects Institute in the US, who oversaw the research, said: “Finding several Russian cities at the top of the list [for NO2 air pollution] was definitely surprising for us. It is likely to mainly come from traffic pollution and a vehicle fleet that is older.”
Teachers say air pollution worsens students’ concentration and performance – AirQualityNews
Nearly three in five teachers deemed a classroom with poor air quality to be ‘not fit for purpose’ – for either teachers or pupils.
The Air Quality in UK Classrooms Report – conducted by ventilation experts Airflow – asked teachers at 133 schools across the UK for their insights.
The report found that conditions impacted student health, with three in five (61%) teachers believing classroom air quality is aggravating asthma and other lung conditions in pupils.
Ill-effects on health were 55% more likely in cities, where both industrial and road pollution are more prevalent.
Cyclists could be made to have registration plates and insurance – report | Road safety | The Guardian
Tom Ambrose
Bikes could be made to have registration plates and insurance as ministers weigh up bringing speed limits for cyclists into line with those for drivers.
The government is also considering the possibility of cyclists receiving licence penalty points and fines if they break speed limits or run red lights, the Daily Mail reported.
It comes as the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, proposed a Whitehall review of how cyclists who flout the law can be tracked down by police.
“Somewhere where cyclists are actually not breaking the law is when they speed, and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed limit restrictions to cyclists,” he said.
Cycling organisations outline priorities for coming years – Cycle Industry News
Wondering what the organisations supporting cycling uptake have been up to since the world began trying to get back to normal, if such a thing exists? The London Cycling Campaign, Sustrans and Bikeability fill CI.N columnist Duncan Moore in on work that has been ticking along in the background to grow cycling rates and safety…
As people took to cycling during Covid lockdowns, to get their fitness fix as gyms and other facilities were closed, was the wider cycling industry able to engage with these people? And have those organisations that were successful in engaging with new cyclists been able to maintain the momentum?
Increase walking and cycling budget to relieve NHS, says Sustrans CEO – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton 19 August 2022
The CEO of sustainable transport charity Sustrans, Xavier Brice, has penned an open letter to the next Prime Minister calling for an increase to the five-year, £2 billion walking and cycling budget.
With an air of uncertainty surrounding active travel policy lingering since Boris Johnson announced he would leave office, many commentators, including Brice, are concerned that cycling has lost an ally in Number 10. Notably, Andrew Gilligan, Johnson’s right-hand man on cycling and a special advisor, is likely to be removed in the switchover.
As reported this week, anti-cycling sentiment is beginning to emerge in the transition of leadership, with both leadership candidates turning down the dial on climate policy, among other areas that could lend to increased active travel.
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