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Birmingham pledges to make Low Traffic Neighbourhoods work for all – transportxtra


Birmingham City Council has made a commitment to work with residents and businesses to adapt and improve Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes in Moseley and Kings Heath.

The council has also promised to implement a series of “quick fix” measures to improve traffic flow in congested locations including better signage and changes to traffic signal timings.
A dedicated project board will be created to oversee future phases, including the continued development of travel plans to encourage walking and cycling to school, as well as a full public consultation on new designs.

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road.cc staff: London cargo bike mum who was victim of social media pile-on for cycling on pavement explains why she does it | road.cc


A London cargo bike user and cycling campaigner who was this week subjected to a social media pile-on after pictures of her riding on the pavement, with her daughter in the cargo box, were shared to a local Facebook group and other platforms, has given a detailed explanation of why she avoids riding on the road at the location in question.

In an opinion piece for road.cc Sylvia Gauthereau, who is a trustee of London Cycling Campaign and co-chairs its policy forum, outlines why she uses “that pavement and that crossing at that location consciously, deliberately, and regularly, for my own and my children’s safety,” and highlights that “The real issue here is the complete lack of safe cycling provision on the A5 and the lack of connectivity to the side streets.”

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Ban sale of SUVs and charge drivers per mile to meet climate goals, ministers told | The Independent


Transport is the largest driver of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK

Wednesday 02 June 2021
Ministers must ban the sale of the most polluting vehicles such as SUVs immediately and bring in a charge on drivers for each mile they travel if Britain is to meet its climate goals, experts have warned.
Transport is the UK’s most polluting sector, accounting for around a third of the country’s CO2 emissions before the start of the pandemic.
Ministers hope to slash these emissions by encouraging a switch to electric vehicles, with a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 part of Boris Johnson’s 10-point climate plan.
But experts have warned that it is “delusional” to believe that emissions can be tackled through a switch to electric cars alone – and pointed to more drastic action and “hard choices” to end transport’s contribution to the climate crisis by 2050.

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Boris Johnson’s bike from Joe Biden was made in Philadelphia – Philadelphia Inquirer

How a Philly shop built a bike — quickly and at a discount — for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The buyer: Joe Biden.

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.

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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.

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The New York highway that racism built: ‘It does nothing but pollute’ | The Guardian

In the 1960s, I-81 ploughed through a historically Black neighborhood in Syracuse, displacing hundreds. Organizers’ dream of seeing it torn down may get new life under Biden

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).

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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…

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‘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..

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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.

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