Alf Alderson
The highest point of the writer’s rise in the Preseli Hills was 300 metres, high enough to be fully exposed to the weather blowing off the Irish Sea. All photographs: Owen Howells Photography
The path on which I’m riding my e-mountain bike across the hills of north Pembrokeshire is known as a bridleway, but to Ed Sykes, who grew up in these hills, it’s an “e-trail”. Ed is the founder of Hidden Routes in Newport (between Cardigan and Fishguard), an e-mountain biking outfit that takes clients on guided rides through what is probably the least-known corner of Pembrokeshire.
Car free visions: Tooting – wearepossible
Do you live in or near Tooting? Please join us for the unveiling of our brand new visions of Tooting in a car free future, designed with local residents.
The event will include the first viewings of our new Car Free Tooting designs, a speaker panel on how we can create an equitable, car-free London that meets the needs of all our communities, followed by Q&A, refreshments, discussion and networking.
Register to join us at the event. 6:30-8:00pm, Monday 30th January 2023 at the United Reform Church, Rookstone Rd, SW17 9NQ. Nearest Tube Station: Tooting Broadway
US Cities Are Falling Out of Love With the Parking Lot – wired.com
California and many local governments are scrapping requirements that once made cars the center of the urban landscape.
Oliver MilmanJan 7, 2023 8:00 AM
This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
They are gray and rectangular, and if you laid all 2 billion of them together they would cover an area roughly the size Connecticut, about 5,500 square miles. Parking lots have a monotonous ubiquity in US life, but a growing band of cities and states are now refusing to force more on people, arguing that they harm communities and inflame the climate crisis.
Americans Are Paying a Record $717 a Month for New Cars – bloomberg.com
Craig Trudel l 6 January 2023, 12:00 GMT
Americans are agreeing to bigger monthly payments on new-car loans than ever before, with the average climbing to $717 in the fourth quarter, up 50% from 2010, according to car-shopping researcher Edmunds. Almost 16% of consumers who financed a new vehicle in the last three months agreed to at least $1,000 monthly payments. That’s up from 10.5% a year earlier and just 6.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Why do traffic reduction schemes attract so many conspiracy theories? – The Guardian
Peter Walker
Jordan Peterson is rarely lacking in strong opinions, but even by the standards of the Canadian psychologist turned hard-right culture warrior, this was vehement stuff: a city is planning to lock people in their local districts as part of a “well-documented” global plot to, ultimately, deprive them of all personal possessions.
Where was this? Not Beijing, or even Pyongyang. It was Oxford. In the days since Peterson’s tweet – viewed 7.5m times – officials in the city have fielded endless queries from around the world asking why they are imposing a “climate lockdown”. Inevitably, there have also been some threats.
Public transport is the best route to levelling up Britain | Transport policy | The Guardian
Zoë Billingham is right to argue that transport is crucial for improving regional economies (England’s transport system is a creaking misery – and an easy win for Keir Starmer, 3 January). But Labour should be wary of simply endorsing the massively expensive HS2 scheme, which delivers little for deprived areas of the north, as evidenced by its very low benefit-cost ratio. Instead, the party should focus on local improvements to bus services, the lifeblood of many communities, and on tram schemes in urban areas that have demonstrable wider benefits.
Islington outlines bold vision for cleaner, greener, healthier streets – Islington Media
13 Jan 2023 Media Library
Islington Council is announcing exciting plans to bring environmentally-friendly interventions to 70% of the borough, as it continues to tackle the climate emergency and create cleaner, greener, healthier streets for all.
The council is marking the start of 2023 by announcing pioneering plans for a network of Liveable Neighbourhoods, new environmental improvements to boost air quality outside schools on main roads, and bringing its successful School Streets to secondary schools. This huge programme of work – which was approved at last night’s Executive meeting – will be made possible through a £9m commitment the council has made for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25.
Nov 22) Transport in the era of The Head of Uncertainty – At War With The Motorist
Joe Dunckley August 31, 2011
There has been much jest made of the Department for Transport advertising the role Head of Uncertainty. But the narrative around uncertainty can have a profound impact on the direction of transport policy.
It was perhaps a predictable PR risk to advertise for somebody to head up delivery of “uncertainty” for transport at a time when the nation is full of such questions as “will my train turn up today?”, “will the railway be operating on the day that I want to travel?” and “is the government’s flagship rail policy dead or not?”. And the comparisons with W1A’s Director of Better were inevitable, but that’s because W1A was such a perfect parody of modern management that it’s true of half the senior roles advertised these days.
Lambeth Council’s Kerbside Strategy – lambeth.gov.uk
How we use this space must be guided by equity and sustainability.
The kerbside – most easily recognised today as the space where cars park – is one of the largest public
assets we have control over. In Lambeth, it is a space the size of 194 football pitches. How we use this space
can both support, and work against, our objectives. Today, 94% of the kerbside is used to provide and
manage car parking.
‘Can we reimagine Haringey’s streets for a sustainable future?’ – hamhigh.co.uk
Louise Wass, Haringey Living Streets
“Tag!” we cheered, charging from one pavement to another.
It was the early 1970s, local car ownership was low. As children, we were out all day: playing, exploring, climbing, biking. I knew every nook and cranny in our neighbourhood and formed a deep attachment to the landscape.
In the last 40 years, there has been a drastic decrease in children’s freedom to roam – they are visibly absent from our streets.
Sixteen children are killed or seriously injured in road crashes every week so this is no surprise. Air pollution affects us all, particularly the youngest.
Should children not have the same freedoms that we enjoyed? Why have we allowed unfettered car dominance to grow at the expense of our children’s well being? Hands up, when I owned a car, I did make some unnecessary journeys – it’s an easy habit to slip into.
Recent neighbourhood filtering in Haringey has met with some resistance. Low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) are often judged on their short term impacts, with little discussion on their vision or the multiple long term benefits – instead, “for or against” polemics are surfaced in an attempt to avoid the issues.
