News from Elsewhere

Kensington cycle tracks: council to re-consider removal – LCC

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• By SimonM 4 days ago
Update, Update – Council to re-consider removal of cycle track on 17 March 2021

In a press release dated 8th January  Kensingtion and Chelsea council leader Elizabeth Campbell says she has has asked the council to look again at the decision to remove temporary cycle lanes on Kensington High St. She says she has asked officers to provide an up-to-date report on the tracks.

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Homes Without Jams: join the campaign – Transport for New Homes

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Homes Without Jams: join the campaign

Planning needs to be reformed. But the Government’s proposals threaten more traffic and pollution. Transport for New Homes is calling for Homes Without Jams.
Our country needs more homes. What we don’t need is more sprawling, car-dependent estates far from town centres and public transport links.
Right now, too many housing developments lack local shops and services, decent public transport and cycle routes. Some streets even lack pavements. The result is that the people who live there must drive for almost every journey: a recipe for traffic, air pollution and climate change.
Now the Government wants to reform the planning system – but its proposals threaten to make things worse. The outcome would be more big housing estates in the countryside connected by more roads.

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MPs investigate zero emission vehicles and road pricing – TransportXtra

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“A consequence of the transition to electric vehicles is a potential £40 billion annual fiscal black hole, due to the reduction in Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty. Something will have to change. We will be exploring whether radical road pricing or ‘pay-as-you-drive’ schemes can offer a revenue-raising solution to this problem. We will explore the practicalities of different schemes, the level of public support for them, and best practice from other countries. We will also assess whether new technologies and pricing can both be utilised to incentivise consumer behaviour change, reduce congestion and promote active travel.”

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The third edition of the Sustainable Safety vision – Bicycle Dutch

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Bicycle Dutch 6 January 2021

Sustainable Safety is one of the corner stones of the Dutch road safety policies. Its ultimate goal is to make traffic so safe that everybody can get home safely. Not only fit able-bodied people or drivers in protected vehicles, but every road user – the schoolchild, the commuter, the commercial driver and the active senior, whether they walk, cycle or participate in traffic in any other way. I’ve published about Sustainable Safety before, in 2012 and in 2017, but the policy was updated in 2018. That is why I want to start this year with another look at Sustainable Safety. First, I would like to wish you all the very best for this new year! I also – as you will have noticed – updated the look of my blog.

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Jan 2017) Corporate fascism and the car – Ban Private Cars In London

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by V Readhead
The rise of fascism in the 1930s was supported by the avantgarde movement called Futurism. It emphasised speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane, and the industrial city. The autonomous pedestrian and cyclist quickly became an irritation in the march towards futuristic progress. 
It was Benito Mussolini who first favoured the elimination of autonomy in favour of corporatism. The advent of fascism welcomed and incorporated mass production of cars. Social Darwinism meant abandoning democracy, weeding out the ‘weak’ and promoting the interests of ‘successful’ businessmen, like the automobile moguls. For the fascists the superior individual drove a car and at speed, dominating public space. Mussolini was often warned, even by those in his own party, about his reckless speeding in his Alfa Romeo.  “

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Pollutionwatch: fine particles affect lungs of those near airports | The Guardian

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Trial finds reduced lung function and heart changes in young people who exercised near Schiphol

Gary Fuller Fri 1 Jan 2021

Extinction Rebellion activists protesting against climate pollution at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. 

For seven months in 2018, a lorry trailer was parked near a runway at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. It housed exercise bikes and air pollution measurement equipment. Twenty-one healthy young people took turns to visit the trailer for pedalling sessions. Air was funnelled from the outside as the young people exercised, and researchers monitored their heart and lung functions.

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France makes security marking mandatory in bid to halt bike theft – road.cc

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29 December 2020, 13:10
A law coming into force in France on 1 January will make it compulsory for all new bicycles to be security marked with a unique number that links them with their rightful owners, in a bid to halt bike theft.
Bikes being sold second-hand, including through online marketplaces such as Bon Coin, will also need to have a number engraved on the frame from 1 July next year so that details of the new owner can be lodged, reports France 3(link is external).
Details of the type, make, model and colour of the bicycle, as well as the name of the owner and their telephone number and email address, will be held on a central database, enabling the Gendarmerie to trace ownership of stolen bikes.

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