Professor Jem Bendell

Thanks to Hollywood, we have all seen stories of near apocalyptic futures, where people descend into violence and depravity. We have also seen sensationalist, even racist, TV news reporting on looting after natural disasters. It seems the mass media is not always a good channel for hearing about the solidarity and cooperation that emerges between so many of us in times of crisis. It takes authors like Rutger Bregman to remind us of the better sides of human nature. Or Rebecca Solnit to show how human solidarity has always been a powerful resource during crises. Unfortunately, such views don’t get as much airtime when it comes to dis1cussing the possibility for societal disruption and collapse.
Which is what I do. Because hundreds of scientists and scholars have been warning us that we face “global systemic collapse” due to the pressures we are putting on the planet. 

The £600,000 project is being funded by a partnership made up of Leicester City Council – following the council’s successful bid to the Department for Transport’s Transforming Cities fund – with sponsorship from Santander UK and additional investment from the operator, Ride On, and their delivery partner Enzen Global
Leicester City Council has announced that specialist e-bike hire provider Ride On will be providing the city’s e-bike share scheme. Known as Santander Cycles Leicester, the scheme will see 500 electric bikes available to hire from 50 locations across Leicester city centre.
This will make Santander Cycles Leicester the largest docked e-bike hire scheme in the UK.
Work is getting under way to create the docking stations where the bikes will charge up, ahead of a public launch currently planned for spring next year.  

A commonly raised trope amongst the driving community is that there is some kind of clandestine war on the motorist. This ‘opinion’ is formed when those in a position of huge entitlement and privilege suddenly find their unchallenged societal priority comes under threat. The under threat positioning is described well here by Peter Walker but I’ll leave him to describe that in better words than I could.

Matthew TaylorFri 13 Nov 2020 07.00 GMT

Leading scientists, academics and campaigners have called on governments and businesses to go beyond “net zero” in their efforts to tackle the escalating climate and ecological crisis.
The former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the leading climate scientist Michael Mann are among a group of prominent environmentalists calling for the “restoration of the climate” by removing “huge amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere”.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic cycle tourism has set some surprising records in Europe this summer to the benefit of local and national economies.

Addressing the virtual Cycle Summit 2020 the European Cyclists Federation’s Jesús Freire pointed to data from both France and Hungary.
In Hungary The Centre For Development of Active and Ecotourism alongside road maintenance firm Magyar Közút delivered a study that revealed that 2020 “shattered” prior records as people took to bicycles in the absence of international travel. As part of the surge it was noted that development of new routes prompted a wave of tourism.

Coming days after 14 Conservative MPs called for the funding to be scrapped in a letter to Transport Minister Grant Shapps, the cash comes with caveats. Local authorities will be urged to publish detailed plans showing consultation with communities and businesses, submit evidence of further consultation prior to implementation and thereafter submit monitoring reports on schemes for between 6 and 12 months after their opening showing how each has been modified on ongoing community feedback.

Further to the MPs and motoring orgs rubbishing active travel efforts, Shapps himself signed off a letter to local authority transport leaders last week with “no one should be in doubt about our support for motorists.”

A survey of 2,211 adults has looked at public attitudes towards traffic and road use in England. This included attitudes towards local action; views on reduction of traffic and reallocation of road space; and perceptions of traffic and road problems within local neighbourhoods

Developed by Vivacity Labs, the initiative first went live earlier this year and last week won the Innovative Use of Technology award at the 2020 Intelligent Transport Systems, ITS (UK) Awards.

Sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) built into them mean that different groups of road users to be anonymously identified, enabling TfGM to prioritise different modes of transport as needed.
As a result, with greater numbers of people travelling by foot or on bike to avoid public transport due to the coronavirus crisis, those using active modes of travel can be prioritised.
The technology can also be used to improve air quality through reducing emissions by being able to respond to congestion and traffic queues quicker than existing systems can.

The Mayor of London has explained just why he wants more cycle lanes in London’s during his Speak to Sadiq show on LBC

In the eight years leading to Sadiq Khan becoming Mayor the number of cars in the city sky-rocketed from 60,000 to 120,000.
But as the population increases, so do the vehicles, causing gridlock and mayhem on the city’s roads.
To counteract this, the Mayor wants to introduced more cycle lanes, and told LBC’s James O’Brien: “95% of the roads in our city are controlled by our 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation and 5% are controlled by TfL,” he said.
“We try and work with the boroughs, the boroughs are trying to do right by their residents, they understand the consequences of air quality and pollution.”