New data released by Strava’s commuter focused Metro platform has placed Manchester as the UK’s per capita leader on cycling in the UK.
Efforts to make cycling more friendly in the northern city have been spearheaded by Transport Commissioner and former Olympian Chris Boardman and arteries with safe infrastructure appeared frequently in datasets. Oxford Road, Manchester Road and the Bridgewater Canal were most used.
Chris Boardman said: “It’s fantastic to see Greater Manchester leading the way on the number of commuters who chose to travel by bike and that’s before we have wide scale provision of connected routes. It’s no coincidence that the current number one route is Oxford Road which is where we have quality, segregated lanes in place. The appetite is clearly there to ride when it feels safe.

Senay Boztas

In a clearing in the Amsterdamse Bos, a forest on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, is a “tree hub” where hundreds of saplings, among them hazelnut, sweet cherry, field maple, beech, chestnut and ash, are organised by type.
The idea behind it is simple: every day unwanted tree saplings were being cleared and thrown away when those young trees could be carefully collected and transplanted to where they are wanted.
Volunteers have already collected thousands of saplings cleared from woodland paths and those unlikely to survive in the forest shade. On Saturday, on donate a seedling day, people will be encouraged to take unwanted saplings or cuttings from their own gardens and give them to 200 tree hub locations across the Netherlands.
This winter, Meer Bomen Nu (More Trees Now) aims to give away 1m young trees to farmers, councils and landowners. The small Dutch foundation hopes this circular practice will become commonplace across northern Europe.

This was written in Glasgow, on what was ‘Transport Day’ at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26). From many people, with many different perspectives, there’s been a pretty good deal of eye-rolling, frustration and indeed anger about the COP26 proceedings. However, there is, in my view, and to steal a turn of phrase from Oscar Wilde, only one thing in the world worse than talking about climate change, and that is not talking about climate change.