The Department for Transport’s (DfT) decision to "slash funding for walking and cycling by two-thirds" is facing a legal challenge. Campaign group Transport Action Network (TAN) claims ministers bypassed legal processes to chop investment. TAN is arguing this unlawful cut will have a domino effect, toppling wider government promises to protect the climate, clean the air and level up the country. Last summer, ministers announced major investment, saying active travel was “one of the best return

The fourth Cycling and Walking Innovations event will highlight why boosting cycling and walking is a win-win, because it is politically more supported than ever and the benefits are visible in quality of life, the environment and local economies. The 2017 DfT Innovation Challenge Fund was the catalyst for the first Cycling and Walking Innovations event in 2018, which was launched to celebrate the innovators – from the private and public sectors – who are driving the active travel s

Public bodies and transport operators must do more to enable people with mental health conditions to make journeys, states a new report. An online survey by the UCL’s Centre for Transport Studies revealed the main barriers for people mental health issues. Of the 385 respondents, 90% have anxiety issues, 71% suffer from panic attacks, 68% have depression while 51% have difficulty communicating and 45% have memory loss. The survey was supported by a range of organisations including Sustrans

In creating safer street design for cycling and walking, junctions consistently prove to be the greatest challenge for many designers and engineers. Dutch transport consultancy Mobycon

The Mini-Holland programme was the turning point for Waltham Forest, giving the council the means to challenge the dominance of the car, believes Clyde Loakes. The £29.6m grant from TfL changed everything. Up until then, the council had tried to encourage active travel through a range of small-scale measures, says Loakes, the council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport and the Environment.  “Yes, we had the traditional traffic calming engineering solutions, b

The Landor LINKS Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever sector of transport you work in, MaaS is now having an impact either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech. We'd like to hear from you, so please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive se

A tech firm that deploys cameras and machine learning software to analyse the movement of people and traffic has received £25,000 from the North East Small Loan Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Newcastle-based Streets Systems says the funding will enable it to acquire more equipment as well as increasing its workforce and extending its client base. The firm, set up by Tom Bailey and Tom Komar, uses sensors to gather in-depth data on pedestrian and cycle movement

A new guide packed with useful information about the Mini-Hollands and Liveable Neighbourhoods programmes has been published. The 64-page guide, published by Landor LINKS in partnership with Transport for London, includes a round-up of all the Liveable Neighbourhoods projects being developed across the capital. Building on the success of Mini-Hollands, the Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme will use the Healthy Streets Approach to deliver attractive, healthy, accessible and safe neighbourhoods.

Free bike hire is being offered to patients in Cardiff to help improve their health.  The pilot scheme, led by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, is aimed at people with Type 2 diabetes, and those who are overweight or suffering from low mood, anxiety and depression. The health board says the pilot is a first for the UK. Initially it will run at two GP practices, offering a free six-month membership to the city’s bike hire scheme, operated by Nextbike.  Tom Porter, a co

Living Streets started life as the Pedestrians Association, a charity launched in 1929 by the journalist Tom Foley OBE and Nobel Peace Prize winner Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. During the 1930s the charity played an influential role in the introduction of the first Highway Code, the driving test, the 30mph speed limit in built-up areas and zebra crossings. The Pedestrians Association became Living Streets in 2001 and now runs the annual Walk to School Week and campaigns on issues such as the dan

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, has celebrated its 90th anniversary by paying tribute to the journalist and diplomat who took the first steps towards making roads better and safer spaces for pedestrians. Thomas Foley was a journalist who worked for a number of London newspapers. Foley loved walking and never learned to drive. Throughout his life he campaigned to improve life for pedestrians as became increasingly concerned about he dangers posed by growing numbers of cars,

The winners of the 2019 everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been revealed. Over the past 12 years the everywoman awards have championed women in the transport and logistics industries, showcasing and celebrating the sectors’ most exceptional role models. The winners were announced at Grosvenor House in London on 13 June. While many of the winners were drawn from the passenger transport, infrastructure and freight sectors, the world of walking was also recognised at this y

Hilary Gander has witnessed a few political twists and turns since the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames secured Mini-Holland funding five years ago. The LibDem council won the £32.7m grant in 2014, but the following year control of the council switched to the Conservatives. Then, at last year’s local elections, the LibDems returned to power. Which means that Gander, as Portfolio Holder for Environment & Sustainable Transport, has been handed the opportunity of shaping the

The Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever your work in transport, either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive sector than public transport – but there are developments coming through now whi

Free bike hire is being offered to patients in Cardiff to help improve their health and wellbeing. The pilot scheme, led by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, is aimed at people with Type 2 diabetes, and those who are overweight or suffering from low mood, anxiety and depression. Cardiff and Vale UHB say the pilot is the first of its kind in the UK. Initially, the pilot will run at two GP practices, Lansdowne Surgery and Fairwater Health Centre, offering a free six-month membership to th

The London Borough of Enfield’s programme of bus stop boarders for cyclists is making streets more inaccessible and dangerous for blind and partially sighted people, according to the National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK). Enfield has installed boarders that see the cycle track pass in front of the bus stop (see picture). Bus passengers cross the cycle track to board and alight from the bus, creating the potential for conflict with cyclists. The campaign group describes Enfie

London mayor Sadiq Khan has criticised Westminster City Council and other un-named boroughs, accusing them of trying to thwart his cycling agenda.  The comments came during a conference speech in which he said 73 miles of segregated cycle lane were now complete or under construction in the capital, up from 33 miles when he became mayor three years ago.  “I’m delighted that in just three years we have achieved more than the last mayor did in eight years, already doubling t

Oxfordshire County Council has approved a scheme to improve cycle safety at a notorious city centre junction.  Oxfordshire’s cabinet member for the environment, Yvonne Constance, last week approved the redesign of the George Street/Worcester Street/Hythe Bridge junction, which lies on one of the two main pedestrian routes between Oxford railway station and the city centre.  The current layout, introduced in 2014, is unpopular with cyclists. It features a teardrop-shaped waiting

The Blue Badge, Motability and Cycle to Work schemes should be offered to disabled people using bikes, says Sustrans. This would remove some of the barriers to cycling that many disabled people face, believes the walking and cycling charity. “The Blue Badge scheme should be extended so that disabled people can use it with their cycle for better access,” said Tim Burns, Sustrans’ senior policy and partnerships advisor.  A growing number of high footfall city and town cent

The shared mobility charity CoMoUK has appointed Richard Dilks as its new chief executive. Dilks was previously transport programme director at the business group London First, where he led policy and advocacy across a wide range of transport modes. Prior to that he worked as a policy adviser and journalist at the consumer body Which? Dilks said: “It is a huge honour to become CoMoUK’s chief executive at this momentous time for shared mobility. The opportunities for it to deliver th

Bradford’s new £3.1m Canal Road Cycleway has opened. Providing a missing link in cycling infrastructure between Shipley and Bradford, the cycleway is part of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s £60m CityConnect programme aimed at encouraging more people to travel by bike or on foot.  The 2.3km route runs along Hillam Road, Bolton Lane and Valley Road, ending at Lower Kirkgate, near Bradford Forster Square.  To the north the cycleway links to the existi

Right from the moment Enfield became one of TfL’s Mini-Holland boroughs back in 2014, the rumbles of dissent began. Cllr Daniel Anderson, who until recently was the council’s deputy leader, recalls being verbally abused at public meetings: “It’s fair to say we faced considerable opposition. People referred to me - and still do - as the idiot who built the cycle lanes. But I can live with that. If I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do I wouldn’t ha

Fear of air pollution is preventing a generation of children walking to school, says the charity Living Streets, which has launched a School Streets toolkit aimed at parents who want to prevent cars from surrounding their child’s school. Research by Living Streets indicates that two-thirds (65%) of UK parents of 4-11 year olds are concerned about the effect of air pollution on their child’s health. This marks a 17% increase on 2018 data. And two-fifths (40%) are specifically concerne

If you thought the debate about the appropriate speed limit for urban areas was between 30mph and 20mph, then think again: the City of London Corporation wants the speed limit on all of its roads cut to 15mph. The proposal is one of many eye-catching aspects of a new transport strategy to give pedestrians and cyclists more priority. The strategy also sets a 25 per cent traffic reduction target by 2030 as a “minimum aspiration”.  The Corporation already has a 20mph speed limit a

Dockless bike hire firm Mobike has announced that it is pulling out of Newcastle and Gateshead to “increase the sustainability” of its UK business. This follows reports of vandalism - including bikes being dumped in the River Tyne or abandoned elsewhere. The Chinese firm says it will focus on building its UK operations in London, Oxford and Cambridge.  A fleet of 450 bikes was launched in Newcastle in October 2017, with another 500 the following February and a further 200 when

A cycle path between two RSPB nature reserves in West Sussex is now open. The county council’s Public Rights of Way team worked with The Manhood Peninsula Partnership on the scheme.  The route – which connects the Pagham Harbour and Medmerry nature reserves – includes 1.2km of shared pedestrian/cycling pathway and 1.7km of improvements to flood defences at Selsey.  The £400,000 scheme was chiefly paid for by West Sussex County Council, with £58,000 of Se

Leeds City Council is to procure a public bike hire scheme this summer, one year on from Chinese firm Ofo’s decision to abandon the launch of a dockless scheme in the city. The council wants the initial scheme to have 1,000 bikes. Procurement will commence in early summer with the intention of launching the scheme next spring. Last February the council chose Ofo as its preferred operator for a scheme focused on the city centre and surrounding area (LTT 16 Feb 18). Ofo, however, abandoned

Councillors in Leeds have authorised more than £25m to be spent on city centre traffic management and public realm measures. The council is to spend £20.7m on detailed design and construction works for the Headrow Gateway scheme on the main east-west route across the city centre, on the north side of the pedestrian core. A further £5.6m is allocated to design and construction works for complementary works on Park Row, which connects City Square outside the railway station to

An ambitious programme to transform the National Cycle Network (NCN) has been launched with the opening of a traffic-free section on the Caledonia Way between North Connel and Benderloch in Argyll and Bute. The new link at Ledaig - funded by Transport Scotland and delivered by the charity Sustrans – has opened after a decade of community and landowner engagement.   It forms part of a £2m investment by Transport Scotland in NCN Route 78 throughout Argyll and Bute and the Highla

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is calling for changes to traffic sign regulations to allow zebra crossing markings to be installed on side road junctions as part of its new Bee network of cycle routes.  The combined authority has  just approved funding for a research study, which could provide evidence to persuade the DfT to revise the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016. Eamonn Boylan, interim chief executive of Transport for Greater Manchester, told

British Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey (pictured) has been appointed active travel commissioner at the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which is led by Labour elector mayor Dan Jarvis. Storey is Britain’s most successful female Paralympian, having won 14 gold medals in swimming and cycling. The combined authority is now recruiting an active travel project director on a two-year contract, due to commence on 23 April. The director will work a minimum of four days a week, taking their

Leicester City Council has signed a partnership agreement with Santander to sponsor a bike hire scheme in the city. Firms will be invited to bid for the operating contract next month, with the scheme due to start at the end of the year. The scheme – comprising 500 bikes at 50 docking stations – will cover the city centre and surrounding neighbourhoods, including the railway and bus stations, Leicester Royal Infirmary, university and college campuses, major workplaces and sports faci

The Scotsman’s transport correspondent, Alastair Dalton, was scathing in the extreme about the poor state of cycling provision north of the border in a column on 15 March. “Bike lanes in some Scottish cities are now in such bad condition they look like archeological evidence of a past civilisation that once encouraged cycling,” he began. “Fading paint and semi-obscured markings shout utter disdain at those choosing to ride rather than add to congestion and pollution by dr

Roads have been closed to traffic outside 40 schools across England, Scotland and Wales for a two-week trial period as part of the Big Pedal event. This is the Big Pedal’s tenth year, but it is the first time schools have closed streets, working in partnership with walking and cycling charity Sustrans, the campaign group Playing Out and local authorities. More than 2,200 schools are taking part in this year’s event, which runs until 5 April. Sustrans is helping schools and local au

We’re seeing these developments on the ground now, changing the way people travel. Sometimes it’s trial on a small scale with local introductions of new services across a limited area. The flexible on demand driven bus service in launched by Arriva started in an area of Sittingbourne just 4 miles wide and 6 miles long. A single bus route converted by TransDev to ‘pay for how far you travel’ measured by Bluetooth beacons. One Royal Mail depot trialling electric cargo trike

New mobility solutions such as self-driving vehicles could exacerbate congestion and result in fewer people walking and cycling, warns a new report from the DfT. Rising automation must be complemented by more efficient use of limited road space, for example through shared rides, increased occupancy and consolidating freight, states Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy. Analysis carried out for the DfT suggests that traffic could grow 55%

Plans for a ‘Beelines Network’ of cycling and walking routes across Greater Manchester will take another step forward if 18 schemes gain approval next week. This will take the number of endorsed schemes to 42, delivering 319 new and upgraded crossings and junctions and 70 miles of new cycling and walking routes. If the latest schemes are approved by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the total value of cycling and walking related-projects across Greater Manchester wil

Leicester City Council has signed a partnership agreement with Santander for a bike hire scheme. An invitation for bike hire operators to submit bids will be published next month, with the scheme due to start at the end of this year. The scheme – comprising 500 bikes at 50 docking stations – will cover the city centre and surrounding neighbourhoods, including railway and bus stations, Leicester Royal Infirmary, university and college campuses, major workplaces and sports facilities.

The Big Bike Revival – a project that aims to help people get their unused bikes back on the road – is to take place for the fifth consecutive year. The DfT is giving the charity Cycling UK £1m, double last year’s amount, to stage events across England.  The project offers free cycle checks, maintenance advice and tips on how to get cycling, along with training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Cycling UK targets people on low incomes, those

The DfT has announced funding of £21m to kick-start a major upgrade of the National Cycle Network (NCN). Plans to improve the quality of the tracks will be managed by the charity Sustrans, which has earmarked an initial 50 ‘Activation Projects’ for completion by 2023. This forms the first stage of Sustran's long-term strategy to improve the network launched last year. The Activation Projects include: • Refurbishing and upgrading Cinder Track North in Whitby, North Yor

Plans for a multi-storey car park at the Bristol Royal Infirmary have been turned down. The 820-space car park is intended for use by patients, visitors and staff. Of the 820 spaces, 34 would be for disabled use and there would be six electric vehicle charging bays. The car park would also have a 400-space bike hub with changing rooms, bike storage and cycle maintenance areas, and facilities for oversize bikes and battery-assisted bikes. Bristol City Council’s planning committee refused

The biggest review into transport in a generation will pave the way for transforming the way people and goods move around our cities, the government has announced in its Future of mobility: urban strategy. Also, in a boost for sustainable transport, the government has announced the first winners of the Transforming Cities Fund and awarded £60 million to 10 city regions for schemes supporting low-carbon vehicles, cycling and walking projects, and smart traffic controls. The Transforming Cit

Scottish transport secretary Michael Matheson has criticised a Bill to make 20mph the default speed limit on most roads in built-up areas of Scotland. He said decisions about 20mph speed limits were best left to councils and warned that the proposed legislation could even jeopardise the Government’s active travel spending. Matheson made the comments to the Scottish Parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee, which is scrutinising Green MSP Mark Ruskell’s Restricted

The removal of a large roundabout in Waltham Forest, north-east London, marks the final phase of the borough’s Mini Holland programme. Waltham Forest was one of three outer London boroughs – along with Kingston upon Thames and Enfield – to receive funding from the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson in 2014 to create cyclist and pedestrian friendly routes. A new T-junction, with signalled crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, and bus interchange (pictured above) has replaced

Parklets are a concept that developed as a protest by architects in San Francisco against the dominance of the car in urban areas. Their guerilla action spawned the annual PARK(ing) Day event, which sees parklets set up in cities across the world every September. The parklets created in kerbside parking bays by campaigners, designers and communities become social hubs decked out with greenery, games and activities. While PARK(ing) Day lasts one day a year, the parklet does not have to be a tran

Contemporary and 1960s car parks, school streets schemes, charity fundraisers, cycle hubs and digital payment systems make up the eclectic list winners at the British Parking Awards 2019. The British Parking Awards have been presented annually by Parking Review magazine since 2002, and the awards ceremony organised by Landor LINKS is the social highlight of the parking calendar.The ceremony was compered by the comedian Shappi Khorsandi, who revealed that in being evicted first on I’m a Cel

Eleven London councils have secured funding for projects to make their streets more people-friendly. The Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) is providing a total of £53m in the second phase of its Liveable Neighbourhoods programme. Seven boroughs were awarded a total of £33m towards phase one projects in 2017.  TfL received 22 bids for phase two funding. The winning bids comprise a range of projects designed to cut rat running, make junctions safer, implement new wal

Motor traffic dominates road-based travel and the bicycle, invented in 1817, remains an under-valued mode. Machines resembling modern bicycles with chains driving the rear wheel were developed in the 1880s. By the mid-1890s there were a million cyclists in the UK. Cycling’s heyday was in the 1930s, but the growth of motoring led to what Cycling magazine described as “carnage on the road”.  Thinking in relation to cycle traffic and pedestrian provision generally assumes th

A six-week consultation to discuss possible developments around Crewe railway station has been launched by Cheshire East Council.  An action plan is being drawn up to manage development and support the regeneration of the site around the station ahead of HS2’s arrival, scheduled for 2027. This will help identify the most immediate opportunities around the railway station, and ensure that related growth and development is ‘plan-led’, says the council.  The action pl

It’s clear that the auto industry has its sights on shared mobility, but in a model that is much closer to Uber and Lyft’s taxi-alternative than true co-mobility or shared modes such as Uber Pool or Lyft Line, which connect potential clients with other passengers with the same route or location. BMW and Daimler have launched a combined car-sharing venture called  ‘Jurbey’ and, under the terms of their deal, reports Automotive News, which includes Daimler's Car2Go and

Local authorities can radically improve their transport system by increasing the use of shared modes, especially active ones, but need operational and regulatory guidance. CoMoUK is supporting local authorities by bringing together stakeholders, including the DfT, to help deliver shared mobility goals, a process that will kick off at the Shared Transport Masterclass in Leicester on 22 February Cities in the UK are on the precipice of an upcoming revolution in the way we provide transport. The p

Shared mobility modes have great potential to address congestion and poor air quality challenges, but the practical delivery of an integrated shared mobility strategy is complex. The Shared Transport Masterclass on February 22 will bring together operators, local authorities and potential mobility users to take the first steps in creating a practical framework, based on 'mobility pledges', that can guide the set-up for successful shared mobility. The mobility pledges are rooted in work tha

As Unicef published its latest briefing on air pollution, stating that across 86% of the UK, children are breathing in harmful levels of toxic air that can harm their lungs, damage the development of their brains and stunt their growth, new figures from Close Brothers Asset Finance’s quarterly survey of businesses in the UK and Ireland suggest that traffic congestion is reaching crisis point across the UK, affecting both productivi

Waltham Forest council has launched a £20,000 fund to help local community projects encourage more active travel.   Organisations can bid for up to £2,500 from the Community Walking and Cycling Fund to deliver projects with residents in the London borough over this spring and summer.  The council hopes the fund will lead to more community led guided walks or rides as well as bike maintenance classes for community groups.  Funding will come from the £27m Mini H

The City of London Corporation is to begin design work on the next phase of changes to Bank Junction, which could see some of the junction’s five arms closed to traffic. The ‘Bank on safety’ project introduced in 2017 saw all motor vehicles except buses banned from crossing the junction between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday. The City made the scheme permanent last September. ‘Bank on safety’ was always regarded as an interim project, ahead of the more substantial &

A huge range of road-focused innovations are to be trialled in a £23m DfT-funded programme announced this week.   Trials will take place in Kent; Staffordshire; Reading; Suffolk; Solihull and Birmingham (joint); Cumbria; Buckinghamshire; and Central Bedfordshire. The councils are working with numerous private and public partners (including more councils).  Buckinghamshire has received £4.49m for a diverse programme of projects, including: using kinetic energy recovery fro

The end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 have seen a host of consultations, reports and inquiries into why it’s so necessary to boost walking and cycling levels; both through securing long-term investment and fully integrating quality cycling and walking infrastructure with public transport, homes and work. First, the Department of Health and Social Care launched its ‘Prevention is better than cure' vision, which specifically mentions the need to 'coordinate transport, housing, educat

EU partners will continue to work over the next three years to raise the profile of shared transport solutions as part of the SHARE-North project. Speakers from project members CoMoUK and SHARE-North will be speaking at the Shared Transport Masterclass on February 22 in Leicester. The aim of the SHARE-North project is to develop, implement, promote and assess shared transport options such as car clubs, bike share, ride sharing and other shared transport options. CoMoUK will focus on engagi

The NHS will save £319m if cycling doubles in seven UK cities every eight years by 2040, according a new report from Sustrans. The charity calculates that 34,000 life-threatening illnesses - including Type 2 diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and depression - would be prevented, along with 628 early deaths. Transforming Cities: The potential of everyday cycling uses data from Sustrans’ 2017 Bike Life studies of B

Plans have been unveiled for two schemes in Crawley, West Sussex, designed to create better links between the town’s rail and bus stations and improve pedestrian, cycling and bus access and facilities.  The £5.3m Station Gateway project aims to provide a better public space and transport connectivity and improved town centre facilities while the £8.3m Eastern Gateway scheme is designed to deliver better public space and connectivity to support development opportunities at

Construction work has started on a new transport hub in Derry which will serve as a “gateway” to Northern Ireland’s north-west. The plans involve the restoration and refurbishment of the listed station at Waterside.  Funding of around £27m has been secured from the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme with support from the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland.  Northern Ireland’s public transport body Tr

A new national planning framework is urgently needed to place public transport, rather than car-based “low density sprawl”, at the heart of policy for new developments, says a new report by the Urban Transport Group. This would enable the “agglomeration” of economies – where firms benefit from close proximity to each other – and meet housing demand without making congestion and air quality worse, according to The Place To

Sheffield City Region has today announced plans to appoint its first Active Travel Commissioner. The post will cover all aspects of active travel schemes to be delivered across the region, as part of Sheffield City Region’s bid for a share of the government's Transforming Cities Fund. Earlier this month, Sheffield City Region submitted six active travel and public transport schemes to the government for co

Major improvements to Greater Manchester’s transport networks will play a vital role in supporting the conurbation’s spatial development over the next 20 years, according to the area’s new draft spatial plan. The revised draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework includes two major ‘development corridors’ to improve the north of the conurbation’s socio-economic fortunes. These will require hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in roads and public trans

New roads, bus rapid transit corridors, tram-trains, and light rail extensions all feature in the list of projects to be developed over the next five years to support Greater Manchester’s growth.   Transport for Greater Manchester’s draft delivery plan for 2020-2025 says business cases will be prepared for projects including:  • extending the Atherton branch of the Leigh-Salford-Manchester busway westwards to Wigan • a new road linking the M61 to the new A49 li

A new transport interchange has opened at Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, featuring a new subway, stairs, lifts, ticket office and improve passenger waiting facilities.  The £18.95m scheme, funded by the Local Growth Fund and Merseytravel, also provides step free access to and between the platforms via the new subway and lifts, a bus interchange adjacent to the new ticket office, and a dedicated drop-off and pick-up area. Parking capacity has increased from 80 to 400 spaces with th

All new cycle routes in London will have to satisfy six new quality criteria in order to receive funding from Transport for London. The criteria are set out in a new cycling action plan that also confirms plans to drop the ‘cycle superhighway’ and ‘quietway’ brandings for cycle routes in favour of a new unified brand. TfL says Londoners find the current superhighway and quietway brands “misleading and confusing”. It will reveal the new brand in the coming wee

The Project Centre has appointed Andy Brookfield as the regional director and for Manchester and the North. He will oversee the consultancy’s new Manchester office. Brookfield has over 22 years’ experience in the traffic and transport planning fields, working on both private and public sector projects. His areas of expertise include development planning, the preparation of transport assessments and masterplan schemes, car park design, travel plans, highway infrastructure business c

Councils should develop and maintain routes that give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and those using public transport over motorised vehicles, NICE [the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] has stated in a draft quality standard published today. The body calls on planners to develop policies and initiatives to ensure “safe, convenient, inclusive access” for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport passengers with priority over motorised vehicles such as cars, mot

Waltham Forest council is offering its employees free hire of electric bikes to use for work-related trips. Ten e-bikes, supplied by Freebike, will be made available to staff during a one-month trial. Staff can activate the dockless system by using the Freebike App/Staff card. A council spokeswoman says: “Freebike will provide the council with usage data and we’ll undertake staff travel surveys with registered users to monitor journey modes.” Councillor Clyde Loakes, deputy

A bike parking sensor system that gives real-time information on the number of free spaces is being trialled at the cycle hub at Walthamstow tube station.  The London Borough of Waltham Forest says the 80-space hub, designed and installed by Falco, is often full to capacity. A council spokesman told Local Transport Today: “We want to make it as easy as possible for our residents to get around and this system will allow cyclists to quickly establish whether a parking space is availabl

The British Parking Awards 2019 recognises excellence in management, design and innovation in both the on-street and off-street parking sector. To give entrants some extra time refine submissions, the deadline for sending in entry packs has been extended to Thursday 10 January. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover the design and upkeep of buildings, as well as ground-breaking policies, excellent services and innovative technology.&nb

Hire schemes for electric scooters could be one of the next urban mobility innovations to hit the UK, according to shared transport association CoMoUK. E-scooter hire schemes already exist in other parts of the world, including the United States. They operate on similar principles to public bike hire schemes. US e-scooter app-based sharing firm Bird is running a trial on private land this month in East London. Escooters run on battery power, with users pressing a button or using a ‘twist

Councils will get new powers allowing the use of CCTV and ANPR cameras to enforce parking restrictions in cycle lanes as part of a government ‘action plan’ to improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The two-year plan, published today, will end the requirement for civil enforcement officers to issue penalty charge notices to vehicles parked in cycle lanes. Among a raft of

Belfast’s Queen’s University has become the first organisation to achieve a Gold Standard in a new international Cycle Friendly Employer accreditation (CFE-UK). The scheme has been launched by EU project ‘Bike2Work’, with the charity Cycling UK the recognised provider for the UK.  CFE-UK is the only international standard for workplace cycling, working in partnership with countries across Europe. Site auditing and advisory work is also provided by charity Sustrans

Improving cycling and walking infrastructure can increase spending in shops by up to 30%, according to a report published today by Transport for London (TfL). The research found that people walking, cycling and using public transport spend 40% more each month than car drivers. Some 45% of high street visits are for “social and community reasons” while improving streets for cycling and walking led to a 216% increase in “people stopping, sitting and socialising”, said the

People-friendly spaces a dedicated cycleway and plazas are among proposals for Edinburgh’s George Street and New Town public realm design project. A draft concept design for the area, which has been produced after extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders including community and specialist interest groups, went on show at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre for the first time on 8 November. As part of the wider City Centre Transformation project, the George Street and New Town (G

US electric scooter manufacturer Bird is launching a pilot scheme at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The company, which operates in around 40 American cities, believes that its pilot scheme will demonstrate the usefulness of this hop-on, hop-off form of transport. The scooters are unlocked using an app. They are time-managed, being only available between the hours of 07.00 and 21.00. The scooters are collected and charged overnight. Bird believes this will overcome problems t

Covered cycle parking has been created at Dundee Railway Station. The 120-space cycle park, which is owned by Network Rail and maintained by ScotRail, is located to the north west of the railway station next to the car park. Access to the free facility, which is covered by CCTV, is via automatic doors. It was designed by Jacobs and Nicoll Russell Studios and was built by Tayside Contracts.  The £400,000 project was financed by Dundee City Council, TACTRAN and Abellio ScotRail. 

Plans to make 10,000 miles of the National Cycle Network (NCN) traffic-free have been announced by Sustrans. Since the network was launched 23 years ago, the active travel charity has installed more than 5,000 traffic-free miles and aims to double this by 2040. This is among the pledges in a major review of the network, publis

The work done on the pedestrian pound by Living Streets back in 2013 showed that shoppers on foot spend up to six times more than those who arrive by car, and calculated that well-planned improvements to public spaces could raise footfall and trading by up to 40%. This was accompanied by other great work, even further back in 2011, from the now defunct Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) on the value of good street design, and the former TfL Urban Design Team’s Val

New innovations can pave the way to smarter mobility on better quality roads and footways, offsetting the impact of funding cuts. This is one of the chief findings of a new report by the Local Government Technical Advisers Group (LGTAG).  The report says that “new techniques and low cost interventions” can help ensure the efficient repair of roads in England. The DfT’s local highway maintenance funding for English authorities is about £1bn a year, which is matched b

Landowners, developers, car park operators and constructors have to make investment decisions and we have to make practical decisions. They are asking what is happening right now and what does the future hold? There is currently a lot of uncertainty in the sector, but there are three main trends that I see having a profound effect on car park design. Firstly, how we use cars is changing. We’re seeing far more car-pooling going on and car ownership falling. Secondly, the car industry itself

Total Car Parks’ employee Ryan Taylor completed a 90-mile Palace to Palace cycle challenge on 7 October, raising around £1,000 for The Prince’s Trust.  Taylor, 26, pedalled from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle. He opted for Ultra route, which includes the Surrey Hills and Leith Hill Place (the alternative Classic route is half this distance). Taylor, a ‘Young Ambassador’ for the charity, spent six months shaping up for the challenge and completed a 60-mile

Greater Manchester has a new way of thinking about the role streets have in creating sustainable, healthy and resilient places. The Streets for All approach is a sub-strategy to our 2040 Strategy.  It begins with a focus on the needs of people and place, rather than prioritising the movement of vehicles alone. A key aim of Streets for All is to set out a more integrated approach to the design and management of Greater Manchester’s streets. This will enable us to address multiple agend

A 2.5km stretch of Nine Elms Lane and Battersea Park Road will be redesigned to make the streets more people-friendly, says Transport for London (TfL).  The proposals include: a new substantially segregated cycle route connecting to Cycle Superhighway 8, which runs between Wandsworth and Westminster; signals and junctions designed to separate cyclists and motor vehicles by time or space; wider pavements; 23 new or improved pedestrian crossings; and improved bus lanes.

A new European cycling industry association has been formed in a bid to influence government transport policy. Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) will supersede the European Cyclists Federation’s Cycling Industry Club. The CIE will be led by Tony Grimaldi, chief executive of bike company Cycleurope, and the Cycling Industry Club’s Kevin Mayne. The new association will bring together cycle and accessory suppliers with bike share operators, cycle delivery firms, consultancies and digital

Every police force in the UK is to be offered a free ‘close pass’ virtual reality film and headset after a successful Kickstarter campaign by Cycling UK. The cycling charity has met its fund raising target of £15,000 in eight days and now plans to start distributing the film, which will allow drivers to see how it feels to be ‘close passed’ by a vehicle, by the end of November.  This follows a Kickstarter campaign last year, which enabled Cycling UK to give &l

I’ve done my fair share of travel behaviour change programmes in my time. These programmes often succeed in getting more people cycling, walking and using public transport more often but, when we ask people their primary reason for making a change, the main reason is something to do with personal health and fitness. Similarly, when we come to evaluating programmes, the largest benefits tend to reside in health improvement rather than ‘transport’ benefits. So, I was interested

‘Don’t underestimate true cost of pavement parking’: Living Streets  The cost of pavement parking vastly underestimated by councils, says Living Streets Scotland. The walking charity submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the costs of the Transport (Scotland) Bill. It called for action to bring forward a national footway parking ban. The Transport (Scotland) Bill 2018 set out plans to introduce a national ban on pavement and double parking to make it easier for

Pedestrians were awarded at least £2.1m in compensation after tripping on pavements in the past year, research by the AA has revealed. The motoring association found that 10,572 people made claims against local councils, although only 859 (8%) were successful. While some councils paid compensation on more than 75% of claims, others made no payouts, despite hundreds of claims. The AA’s Freedom of Information request to 421 councils throughout the UK resulted in 365 responses, repres

Parents in Tower Hamlets can ask for temporary street closures Schools in east London will be able to pilot streets closures to cars for a few hours a day where parents are concerned about their children’s health. Tower Hamlets Council is also going to enable ‘Play Streets’, where some roads are closed off at weekends at a community’s request. This is part of #Breathe Clean, a campaign to reduce air pollution in Tower Hamlets, introduced in March 2018.  John Biggs,

New research from YouGov released to mark the start of International Walk to School Monhas found the Top 10 things British parents of 4 to 11-year-olds find most annoying about the school run. Traffic congestion and pavement parking top the list of things that annoy parents about the school run, according to research conducted for Living Streets, the charity behind the Walk to School campaign,  The YouGov survey of parents of 4 to 11 year olds was released on 1 October to mark the start of

Ford, Uber and Lyft will work together to develop a universal data standard for real-time kerb demand and availability. The car-maker and ride-share companies will work with SharedStreets, Bloomberg’s ‘open transport partnership’, to develop a data platform that will make it easier for the private sector to work with cities around the world and leverage data to improve urban mobility.  The agreement seeks to provide a common standard for sharing data across all cities, wh

The High Court has blocked   a plan to start construction of a cycle superhighway route into central London because Transport for London had not gained the support of Westminster City Council, on whose roads part of the route would run.  Cycle superhighway 11 (CS11) would connect Swiss Cottage, in the London Borough of Camden, with Portland Place in Westminster, via Regent’s Park.  In March, Ben Plowden, TfL’s director of strategy and network development, surface tra

Sustrans has welcomed the launch of the Safer Streets Bill, which seeks to make 20mph the standard speed on residential streets in Scotland. John Lauder, the sustainable transport charity’s national director for Scotland, argued the Bill is great news for people who walk and cycle. “When it comes to saving lives and reducing injury on our roads, the benefits of 20mph speed limits are well known but worth repeating,” Lauder wrote in his blog on the charity’s website. 

The 2019 edition of the British Parking Awards is up and running. Now in its 18th year, the competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The awards encompass both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover the design and upkeep of buildings, as well as ground-break

Around 50 streets in the capital will be closed to traffic on Sunday 22 September to mark World Car Free Day. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Transport for London (TfL) are backing London Play, the charity that works to give children the freedom to play by shutting roads to traffic. The charity helps residents to organise Play Streets, where roads are closed to traffic a few hours once a week or month to provide a safe space for children to play outside with their friends. Play Streets also enc

Opening this month, Edinburgh's Your Bike cycle hire scheme is using innovative 'hybrid lock' technology that supports a network of 'virtual' geo-fenced bike parking stations along with physical stations. It's about bringing a planned and integrated approach with new facilities and solutions for cities so that the private car is no longer first choice, says Matt McNulty, urban mobility director for Serco and Your Bike The Your Bike scheme in Edinburgh, to be known as ‘Just Eat Cycles&rsqu

Dockless bike hire operator Mobike has carried out its threat to withdraw from Manchester and is reducing its operating territory in London, though the company insists the latter is only a temporary measure.  The Manchester scheme was launched last July and marked the Chinese firm’s first foray into  Europe. The operation has been blighted by theft and vandalism, prompting Mobike to warn last month that the scheme could be withdrawn.  Confirming the end of the operation, J

Bike hangars have been installed in Salford, Greater Manchester, for residents with little or no internal space to store their cycles. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Salford City Council are piloting the scheme, with the initial installation of 11 Cyclehoop hangars. The hangar - which is designed to protect bikes from harsh weather conditions, theft and vandalism - can store six bikes. Initially, the annual fee will be subsidised at £20 per year for the first two years, befor

A traffic ban trial at Bank Junction is to be made permanent, the City of London Corporation has announced today. The ‘Bank on Safety’ scheme, which restricts the junction to buses and cyclists only between 7am and 7pm, has been in operation since May 2017. This marks the first phase of plans to totally re-design the junction by 2021, which could result in the removal of all motorised traffic.  The corporation’s Court of Common Council made the final decision after month

The government has announced £2m to support the uptake of e-cargo bikes. The funding is designed to help pave the way for electric delivery vehicles to replace older vans, improving both the environment and reduce congestion. The announcement is part of the international Zero Emission Vehicle Summit being held in Birmingham this week. The event brings together policy makers, industry experts and opinion formers from around globe to tackle carbon emissions and to explore ways to impro

Dock-based bike hire operators this week spoke of their enthusiasm to set up schemes in Greater Manchester as dockless operator Mobike said it may pull out of the area because of continuing vandalism and theft to its fleet of bikes.   Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has already hinted that it is preparing a tender for a conurbation-wide bike hire scheme (LTT 20 Jul) and dock-based operators Nextbike UK and Serco told LTT this week they were keen to bid. Chinese-owned Mobike launch

Transport company Uber has signalled a shift in emphasis from cars to electric bicycles and scooters for shorter journeys in urban areas as part of its long-term strategy, according to the ride-hailing app’s chief executive.  In an interview with the Financial Times, Dara Khosrowshahi said more individual modes of transport were better suited to inner-city travel. He admitted that, in the short-term, the move would mean a further financial hit for a company that lost $4.5bn last year

An east-west cycling route has been officially opened by London walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman. The 12km Quietway 2 (Q2) will enable people to cycle from east London into the city centre and on into Bloomsbury and Walthamstow via Angel, Haggerston, London Fields and Clapton. The Quietway network is a continuous direct and clearly signed cycle routes on the capital’s traffic light streets. The Quietways complement fully segregated cycle routes that Transport for London (TfL)

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has launched a cycle training scheme designed to get whole families out and about on two wheels. The training programme consists of free two-hour sessions led by a professional cycle instructor who travel to the family’s home and tailor each session to suit their needs. Parents will be taught how to lead safe cycling trips on the road and how to ride protectively with children. Their children will be taught how they can travel safely on the roads t

Parking company Indigo has develped a bicycle hire service as part of moves to broaden its offer. The Indigo Weel station-free, self-service bike scheme has been launched initially in France. Users can hire a bike downloading the Indigo Weel mobile app from the App Store or from Google Play. Once users sign up they can unlock the bike using the app. At the end of a journey. the bikes can locked using the app and the user is notified the ride has come to an end.  The bikes are tracked, ena

New laws to crack down on dangerous cyclists have been proposed in a new government consultation. The new offence would be equivalent to causing death by dangerous driving. The government says the three-month consultation would complement proposals announced in June for a crackdown on dangerous drivers who pass cyclists too. Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “In recent weeks we have announced a range of measures designed to protect vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestria

The Department for Transport (DfT) has set out its Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS), which aims to improve accessibility for disabled people across the UK’s transport network. It is hoped that the measures set out in the strategy will make travel fully accessible and inclusive for disabled passengers by 2030. This strategy was produced following the Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) consultation, which received over 1,000 responses from disabled people and passenger groups. In parallel to

A shared pedestrian and cycle path linking Bognor Regis to Littlehampton in West Sussex has been officially opened. The 4.5km shared cycle and walking route cost £2m to construct. The new path runs alongside the A259 and was funded by the county council and Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership.  Rupert Chitty, chief executive at Coast to Capital, said: “Improving transport links has been identified as a priority in our newly-published Strategic Economic Plan – Ga

The London Borough of Enfield has fitted purpose-built safety devices to its vehicle fleet to prevent fatal collisions with cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. The panels were designed by a former police officer who attended many collisions during his time with the Metropolitan Police. The PeoplePanels are designed to prevent people from going under a lorry. They fitted to the sides of lorries, with prominent warning signage and significantly reducing the risk of injury during a collision

The DfT has issued a call for evidence on how to increase the use of electric cargo bikes and electric vans for delivery services in urban areas.  The DfT says e-cargo bikes have “huge potential” but asks if financial support is needed to make them commercially viable.  It asks if their widespread use requires changes to infrastructure, such as roads, parking, loading zones, and cycle lane design.  “What level of training should riders have?” the DfT add

A 20mph speed limit will be introduced on all Transport for London roads within the central London congestion charging zone, London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced.  The proposal features in the ‘Vision Zero’ road safety action plan published by the mayor of London and the Metropolitan Police Service.  The plan envisages no deaths on the capital’s roads by 2041. Interim targets are for 65 per cent fewer people killed or seriously injured in 2022 against a 2005-09 bas

Proponents of cycling have long argued that more should be done to encourage a fuller cross-section of society onto the saddle. Better infrastructure is part of the solution but even in cities such as London, where extensive cycle routes are in place, a large proportion of the population continues to eschew the bicycle. Electrically assisted bikes are making cycling accessible to many people who previously regarded it as too strenuous. Crucially, this includes elderly or overweight people who l

New mobility services capture the imagination and have the potential to transform how we travel. An otherwise truly terrible course I was on a few years ago introduced the earworm of “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should; just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s good.” So how do we identify ‘good’ and when does ‘can’ become ‘should’? There is a healthy coherence emerging around the whole agenda-that-has-no-name &ndash

What does it take to become a cycling champion? That is a question I could ask any of my recent bosses: Andrew Gilligan, Will Norman and Chris Boardman. I have held senior roles under all three, advising on the quality of infrastructure and planning the spending of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. I hope they don’t mind this Viewpoint, or that’s my career finished! They are three very different characters, all with their own unique attributes and specialities but there i

The 100th citybike docking station has been installed in Liverpool within the Titanic Hotel’s car park, in the World Heritage listed Stanley Dock. The new station, which can hold 10 bikes, connects the district to a network of stations across Liverpool, with the scheme now offering 500 bikes. Situated near to the Regent Road entrance the Ten Streets creativity district, the citybike station provides easy access to the city centre. The Regent Road area is undergoing a multi-million pound

Transport for London is offering grants to schemes to help groups in the capital that face barriers to cycling. The Cycling Grants London (CGL) programme, funded by TfL and run by environmental regeneration charity Groundwork London, is offering a total of £240,000, which will be available to up to 30 groups. Projects will receive up to £10,000 over a three-year period to support groups that do not cycle due to barriers relating to income, health, ability, skills and access to inform

The Department for Transport is seeking ideas on how to increase the number of ‘last mile’ deliveries made by electric cargo bikes and vans. The Last Mile and Future of Mobility call to evidence, both published today, will explore how technology could make transport safer, more accessible and greener.  The results of the call for evidence will form part of the government’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, which will explore all the regulatory barriers to technological

Canterbury City Council has launched a ‘park & pedal’ scheme at one of its park & ride sites. The council is offering free parking at its Wincheap site for people who then cycle into the city rather than take the bus. A new 28-space cycle compound, which can only be accessed via a key card and is available 24/7, has been built to provide secure storage for bikes. Maintenance equipment is also available. There are two signposted routes into the city: the Chartham to Canterbu

Thousands of motorists are still flouting a traffic ban that was introduced three years ago in the London Borough of Waltham Forest as part of the Mini Holland programme. More than 9,000 fines have been issued to motorists contravening the traffic ban on Orford Road in the Walthamstow Village area. The scheme was introduced in 2015 as part of the Mini-Holland programme, with three outer London boroughs – Waltham Forest, Enfield and Kingston upon Thames – receiving around £100m

Proposals to make London the world’s most walkable city have been unveiled by Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner. The capital’s first Walking Action Plan, which is supported by Public Health England (PHE), maps out a vision to make London the most walkable city in the world, with a million extra walking trips each day by 2024. London’s Mayor Sadiq Kahn wants to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport from the cur

Plans for a major upgrade of junction 9 of the M3 motorway at Winchester have attracted overwhelming support at a public consultation. Some 96% of respondents backed the need for the improvements to this junction, which will be redesigned to create a dedicated free flow lanes, which will allow drivers travelling between the M3 and the A34 to avoid using the junction roundab

Speed limits on all red routes in London's congestion charging zone will drop to 20mph by May 2020, as part of plans to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on the capital’s road network by 2041.  The Vision Zero action plan – published today by the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – also states that by 2024 speed limits will be cut in most of London’s town centres and other high risk locations. Overall, TfL is

Painting a picture of the changing use of our transport system is not easy. A picture composed only of averages or aggregate change amounts to clumsy brush strokes. The finer detail in the picture comes from the artist’s ability to reflect the diversity of components of change – the distributions from which the averages arise. The Department for Transport's latest statistical release, 'Road Traffic Estimates: Great Britain 2017'  attempts to paint a picture, including fine

­­One of the largest dockless bike hire firms in the UK has quit two cities and dropped plans for a further city launch as it concentrates operations in London and the South East. Chinese firm Ofo has closed its Sheffield and Norwich operations and scrapped plans to launch in Leeds as part of a global restructuring. It will continue its operations in Oxford, Cambridge and London.  Ofo’s retrenchment adds to the sense of upheaval in the UK’s dockless bike hire sector. R

A project designed to reduce the dominance of the car on a shopping street in Newcastle has won support from a retailer who was among its harshest critics. Steve Robson (pictured) and other traders had opposed Newcastle City Council’s plans to remove parking bays on Acorn Road, in the suburb of Jesmond, and feared the changes would drive away customers. Three years ago the council implemented the £350,000 project, funded by the government’s Cycle City Ambition Fund, making th

The government must start to lay the foundations now for the altered streetscape of 2050 when all cars and vans will be electric as well as mostly autonomous, argues the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in a new report. The first National Infrastructure Assessment, published this week, sets out a long-term strategy for the UK’s economic infrastructure from 2020 to 2050. Electric vehicles will soon have the same range and be cheaper to buy and maintain than fossil fuel vehicles, t

A once notorious gyratory road system has been transformed into Aldgate Square, one of the largest public spaces in the City of London, featuring safer routes for cyclists and pedestrians. The six-year, £23m project is now complete, with the square being opened by Charles Bowman, the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The square, which is near Aldgate Underground station, has undergone a host of changes. The one-way gyratory system has been replaced with two-way traffic. Also, new cycling

Nearly half of cyclists often experience ‘close pass’ incidents when out on their bikes, according to a survey by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC). The online survey, which received more than 3,000 responses from LCC members and supporters, reveals that being passed closely by a motor vehicle happens to 23% every time they cycle while 45% said it was a frequent occurrence. Among the other key findings, 50% said they now cycled in the centre of the lane as much as possible, 32% had

The Santander Cycles hire scheme in the capital has broken records for two months running, with last month becoming the scheme's best June to date, TfL has reported. The 1.18m hires last month follows a record-breaking May with 1.1m hires. London's heatwave has helped encourage more people to explore the capital on two wheels, says TfL. Santander Cycles has been able to meet this demand by providing extra bikes at parks during weekends and launching a new trial in Westminster and the City to pr

Plans have been drawn up to transform Stockport’s bus station into a transport interchange. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is working with Stockport Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to develop the £1bn investment plan. The proposals include: A fully accessible, covered passenger concourse in the interchange with seated waiting areas Better and easier routes to the town centre for pedestrians. with improved links to the rail station, Merseyway

Former London cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan has recommended a huge investment in cycling facilities in Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes in a report for the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission.  Gilligan was commissioned to write a report on cycling provision in the three cities as part of the NIC’s wider work on the growth prospects and infrastructure needs of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc. His report is highly critical of  provision for cyc

Plans for a cycling and walking network across Greater Manchester, made up of more than 1,000 miles of routes, was unveiled at Cycle City Active City last week. The ‘Beelines’ network will include 75 miles of segregated bike lanes as well as 1,400 safer road crossings on most routes and 25 ‘filtered neighbourhoods’ where priority will be given to people over motorised traffic. Beelines was launched at Cycle City Active City by Chris Boardman, Greater Manchester’s c

Slough Borough Council has awarded Indigo a new five-year parking enforcement contract. Indigo has worked for the council since 2010. The contractor has made a commitment to employee development, sustainability and technical innovation. The company will upgrade the Berkshire town’s entire pay & display machine portfolio. It has also pledged to use only electric vehicles and bikes and launch an apprenticeship scheme. The company will replace the current fleet of vans with an electric

Plans for a cycling and walking network across Greater Manchester, made up of more than 1,000 miles of routes, was unveiled at Cycle City Active City last week. The ‘Beelines’ network will include 75 miles of segregated bike lanes as well as 1,400 safer road crossings on most routes and 25 ‘filtered neighbourhoods’ where priority will be given to people over motorised traffic. Beelines was launched at Cycle City Active City by Chris Boardman, Greater Manchester’s c

The government will encourage police forces to tackle ‘close pass’ driving, the transport minister Jesse Norman has announced. Speaking at the Cycle City Active City conference in Manchester last week, the minister praised the work of West Midlands Police, which was the first force in the UK to carry out ‘close pass’ operations.   Norman visited police officers Steve Hudson (pictured above) and Mark Hodson, who pioneered the West Midlands operation. “It has be

The retailer Halfords is to give around £1m to the Bikeability scheme to enable an additional 25,000 primary school children in England to receive cycling training. The 40-month agreement between Halfords and cycling training charity the Bikeability Trust was announced by transport minister Jesse Norman at the Cycle City Active City conference in Manchester last Friday. Norman said: “This extra money will expand Bikeability so that more children can cycle safely and confidently on l

A road junction with one of the poorest safety records in London is being upgraded by Transport for London (TfL), the Mayor of London and Islington Council. Reconstruction of the Highbury Corner junction begins on the 28 June. The works will transform the see the 1960s roundabout removed and replaced with two-way roads and segregated cycle lanes on all three remaining sides of the roundabout.  There will also be a new public space created for residents and visitors. The improvements to t

Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor, and Nathalie Nicholas, the Combined Authority’s recently-appointed Deputy Portfolio Holder for Transport and Air Quality, represented the city region during June at a National Clean Air Summit convened by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, UK100 and IPPR. The idea is a simple one, says The Independent: ‘Get people from across the UK in the same room, from a local level all the way up to the corridors of Whitehall, to see what can be do

Wide-ranging reforms to the way active travel programmes are funded and delivered in Scotland have been recommended by a taskforce set up by Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf. Yousaf asked Roy Brannen, the chief executive of Transport Scotland, to chair the task force   to examine ways to deliver ambitious walking and cycling projects. The group’s formation in 2016 followed decisions by two councils to remove a segregated cycle path and halt the delivery of further phases of a

A London-wide byelaw to manage dockless bike share schemes is being explored by  London Councils and Transport for London.  The plan was presented to London Councils’ transport and environment committee (TEC) last week. Owain Mortimer, London Council’s principal policy officer, said: “TfL and London Councils are exploring the feasibility of putting formal mechanisms in place for the regulation of dockless bicycle operators, restricting their operation other than by c

Brighton's bike share scheme (BTN BikeShare) is to expand with 120 new bikes and nine new hubs, mostly in Hove.  The scheme started last September with 450 bikes at 51 sites and, in the nine months since, has attracted 35,000 subscribers. Back in March, after gaining more than 22,000 users in just six months, the scheme became the biggest in the UK outside of London, and by the end of May there had been 213,000 rentals and more than 400,000 miles cycled, according to the Brighton and Hove N

A mass cycle ride took place on the streets of Portsmouth yesterday to mark the start of Refugee Week. The event was organised by The British Red Cross and charity Cycling UK to highlight how giving refugees and asylum seekers access to bikes can help change their lives. The event is part of Cycling UK's Big Bike Revival project, which seeks to refurbish unused bikes along with maintenance advice and training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Am

Westminster City Council is taking legal action in a last-ditch effort to halt the construction of Cycle Superhighway CS11 through Swiss Cottage.  A Westminster City Council spokesperson said: “We fully support the provision of safe cycling and we are making major investments in the City to provide this, working closely with TfL and the Cycling Commissioner. However, residents are overwhelmingly opposed to the Cycle Superhighway 11 proposals.” Residents have expressed concerns

Measures to improve road safety outside a girls’ school in east London have been drawn up by an all-female team. Tower Hamlets council brought in consultant Project Centre to work on the project with students from Central Foundation Girls’ School (CFGS).  Supported by female managers from Project Centre, students went on a site visit, collected survey data and assessed the needs of all road users. This helped shape the proposed measures, which are now out for public consultatio

Proposals to re-design street layouts across Dublin to provide new bus and cycle lanes will require the removal of on-street parking bays and sections of front gardens. The Irish National Transport Authority (NTA) has published a discussion document - Core Bus Corridors Project - which sets out draft proposals to improve bus journey times and cycling priority along an increasing number of congested corridors in the Dublin region. The project is part of the NTA’s Government funded €2

Stockholm’s congestion charge scheme has proved remarkably effective at suppressing traffic levels and encouraging a shift to other modes of transport in the 20 plus years since its launch. After initially facing widespread public opposition, it now has majority support, even among those who regularly pay the charge. One of the scheme’s architects, Director of the Stockholm City Transport Administration Jonas Eliasson, vividly recalls the uproar around its launch in 2006: “It w

Westminster City Council has withdrawn its support for the Mayor of London’s proposals to pedestrianise the western section of Oxford Street. Mayor Sadiq Khan wanted to see the section from Oxford Circus to Orchard Street, near the flagship Selfridges store, pedestrianised.  This would have coincided with the opening of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) between Paddington and Abbey Wood next year, with improved pedestrian access at Bond Street station. However, the council has now stat

More than 50% of would-be cyclists are put off getting in the saddle because of overtaking cars, potholes and having to share the road with HGVs. These were among the key concerns raised by adults across England, Wales and Scotland who took part in a survey conducted for the charity Cycling UK by YouGov. In the online poll, involving 2,024 respondents, 57% said they are deterred from cycling by lorries and other large vehicles while 56% cited drivers overtaking too closely and 56% highlighted p

A virtual reality tool to promote safer interaction between drivers and cyclists has been launched by Ford Motor Company. The ‘Wheelswap’ tool will help bring about behaviour change, making urban areas safer and helping to reduce pollution and congestion, said Ford. The tool is designed to show motorists and cyclists how inconsiderate driving and riding can be potentially fatal. Initial studies show that after undergoing the experience, nearly all participants said they would chang

A major overhaul of the National Cycle Network (NCN) is set to begin next year, with the widening and re-surfacing of paths, new signage and wayfinding, and moving some sections off-road, says Sustrans. The active travel charity is leading a review of the 16,000-mile network in partnership with the four UK governments, local authorities and other landowners including Network Rail, the Highways Agency, National Trust, Forestry Commission and the Canal & River Trust.  All the stakeholder

Funding is being offered to schools and local authorities in Scotland to help them create safe, traffic-free routes. The Safer Routes to School scheme is being funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the charity Sustrans. Sustrans hopes that creating safe zones around schools will encourage children and their parents or guardians to travel to school on foot, by bike or scooter. As well as helping schools develop traffic-free zones, Sustrans plans to target further education colleges

Planners are calling on the Welsh Government to strengthen active travel messages in its revised Planning Policy Wales document.  Responding to a consultation on the new version of the planning statement, the Royal Town Planning Institute Cymru says the document “must be amended so that it explicitly requires accessibility by active travel modes to be prioritised over access by other modes both in the location and design of new developments”. RTPICymru says it is surprising th

The key findings of a European research project into the impact of transport policy on congestion have been published in a new report. The project – called CREATE (Congestion Reduction in Europe: Advancing Transport Efficiency) – examined congestion reduction policies in five western European capitals: Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Vienna. The report charts how policy priorities in the cities have shifted over the past 50-60 years: from road building, parking, lower density

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

The government is being urged to ban cars from the immediate vicinity of school gates during drop-off and pick-up times by Living Streets. The walking and sustainable transport charity has produced a report, Swap the school run for a school walk, in which it sets out 21 recommendations designed to enable more children to walk to and from school.  The charity delivered the report to the transport minister Jesse Norman at the start of Walk to School Week. More than 2,000 primary schools in

A cycle hire scheme being launched in Edinburgh will feature a hybrid lock system so that users can choose between dockless parking or leaving bikes at docking stations. Public service provider Serco will run the scheme for Transport for Edinburgh (TfE), with the first bikes set to be in operation by September. Serco also runs the cycle hire scheme in the capital for Transport for London. The Edinburgh fleet will comprise the same Pashley Cycles currently being rolled out in London, although i

The Department for Transport is urging the public to take part in a consultation on cycling and walking before the 1 June deadline. The department’s call for evidence on cycling and walking - Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) safety review in England – and seeks views and opinions on everything from improved infrastructure to education for all road users. In March transport minister Jesse Norman announced in March 300,000 in total for three pilot projects, which aim to

As a major supermarket joins the trend for using electric cargo bikes for its delivery services, changes in general travel trends need much more careful scrutiny, say researchers. Increases in levels of home deliveries, and the rapid growth in light van traffic, for example, are poorly understood. In April this year, Sainsbury’s began its innovative new trial of grocery delivery services by electric cargo bike. A fleet of five zero emission bikes is making deliveries across South London,

Work to build Cycle Superhighway 11 (CS11) at Swiss Cottage is to start in mid-July, Transport for London (TfL) has announced. The current gyratory system will be removed and a two-way system introduced on Finchley Road and Adelaide Road. Avenue Road, which is between College Crescent and Adelaide Road, will become bus and cycle only, with a stepped cycle track, creating a new public space. Changes to Swiss Cottage are due to be finished in September. The reconfigured route will improve safety

Do you know how to open a car door safely? Exactly who is allowed to travel on the pavement? Is there a speed limit for cycling? During May 2018, as part of a public consultation, the Minister for Transport's team will be visiting four English regions to talk with the public about road safety prior to possible changes in the law Against the backdrop of a country concerned about obesity levels, air pollution and congestion, the Government is keen to make cycling and walking the natural cho

Nearly 400 guided walks are to take place across Greater Manchester in May as part of a festival to encourage people to make journeys on foot and explore the region. The event, organised by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), will offers free guided walks exploring local towns, cities, countryside, canals, riversides and parks across the conurbation. The festival has the support of several local walking groups and charities. Walks cater for all abilities and interests, including a family

Over two-fifths of children are worried about air pollution near their school, a new UK-wide survey reveals. Some 43% of children living in urban areas are concerned about the levels of air pollution near their school. The YouGov poll, carried out for walking and cycling charity Sustrans, surveyed over 1,000 children aged six to 15 years old last month about their attitudes towards air pollution and the actions they think should be taken to help clean up the air.  More than one in three (

For over 40 years John Grimshaw has been at the forefront of the drive to create cycling and walking routes in the UK. From acting as designer of the Bristol-Bath path in the early 1980s, Grimshaw became chief executive of the active travel charity Sustrans from its inception in 1984, and oversaw the creation of the National Cycle Network that now extends to over 14,000 miles. Since leaving Sustrans in 2008, he has continued to work on implementing a range of off-road cycling and walking paths,

The overall and major problem with the London Assembly transport committee’s report on cycling is that it is right to say Transport for London processes are much too slow but the committee has not suggested how to speed up delivery (‘Cycle superhighways brand is ‘past sell-by date’ – Assembly’ LTT 30 Mar). There are several unnecessary causes of delay: 1. TfL may only own 5 per cent of London’s roads but it manages 100 per cent of the capital’s s

Britain is awash with innovative transport products and services, either in development or here right now. Most of the innovation is focused on big cities, where commercial operators are most likely to receive good returns on their investments and where public authorities have the resources and scale to plan and deliver new products and services over sustained periods. Consequently, many city dwellers have more travel choices than ever before, with bikeshare, car clubs and app-based ride hailin

Nextbike has won the contract to operate a dock-based bike hire scheme featuring 5,000 bicycles across the West Midlands conurbation. A soft launch this summer will see about 100 bikes delivered to Birmingham, with 2,000 bikes introduced to Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton in  September. A further 3,000 will  be introduced by September 2019. These will be delivered to the other four districts of Solihull, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell, as well as supplementing the initial deploym

The phrase cycle superhighways sends out the wrong message to new cyclists and should be abandoned, the London Assembly’s transport committee said this week. The committee’s report on London’s cycling infrastructure also expresses concern about the slow pace of delivery of some cycle schemes and says the “jury is still out” on the effectiveness of the Quietways programme of routes for cyclists who lack the confidence to use main roads.  Cycle superhighways we

A public realm and road safety project involving the closure of one side of a roundabout in North London will make journey times slower for almost all road users, traffic modelling by Transport for London suggests.  The Highbury Corner scheme will see the western arm of the roundabout closed to create a  public space of about 2,600 square metres extending to the Highbury & Islington station forecourt.   Two-way traffic flow and segregated cycle lanes will be introduced on th

Jon Orcutt, director of communications and advocacy at Transit Center, NYC, talks to Transport Xtra about the need for NYC's proposed congestion charging policy and why Uber and Lyft are currently a menace to the city. Jon talked with Andy Salkeld, Leicester City Council Transit Center is a national Foundation dedicated to improving public transit. We are based in New York City, specifically in Lower Manhattan, and were closely involved with the major positive changes that took place under th

A £400,000 fund to help make Scotland’s rail stations more cyclist-friendly is being offered to councils and community organisations. The Scotrail Alliance – a partnership between Abellio ScotRail and Network Rail – is offering £100,000 a year to cycle-rail projects, which must provide at least 50% match funding. The Deadline for applications to the fund is 20 April 2018. The Scotrail Alliance says the fund will contribute to its vision of providing a ‘doorst

The rising demand for cycle parking across the capital is not being met, with Network Rail particularly culpable in its failure to provide enough cycle racks at train stations, says the London Assembly in a report published today. Transport for London (TfL) should set out “clear steps” on how the rising demand for cycle parking will be met, which partners will be involved and how the infrastructure will be funded, says the assembly’s transport committee. Network Rail was sing

Secure cycle parking areas are being rolled out across the Dutch rail system. The Netherlands has a long-standing culture of commuters using cycling as the initial part of their journey, with 400,000 passengers using their bikes to travel to the station every day, according to NS Stations figures. The rail station operator has appointed Siemens to improve cycle parking at 47 railway stations by installing self-service cycle parking solution. These will provide cyclists with a s

Proposals for a 5km cycleway have been announced by Manchester City Council. The mostly segregated route would link the city centre with Chorlton Park to the south. The Department for Transport has awarded £3.9m for the project while Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Chris Boardman, are seeking to raise a further £5m. A Manchester City Council spokesman said: “This would pay for the

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has appointed nextbike to run the largest docked bike-share scheme in the UK outside London. More than 2,000 bikes will be available for hire in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton from September. A further 3,000 bikes will be rolled out in phases in Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Solihull in 2019.  Docking stations will be installed at key sites, with bikes available 24 hours a day, and annual membership will cost £30. A discount rate will be of

Walking and cycling campaigners claimed last week that Wales is not taking its pioneering active travel legislation seriously. One even suggested that the Welsh Government should repeal the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 unless it increased its funding and direction to local authorities. The Act was the world’s first legislation requiring local government to plan and implement coherent networks of walking and cycling routes. It was accompanied by new design guidance. Giving evidence to a

Cumbersome industry processes are preventing railway investment that would support local housing and economic growth and improve modal integration, local authorities in the south-west of England have said. One example quoted is a £5,000 cycle parking scheme at a station that was abandoned because securing rail industry permissions would have cost £20,000. In their responses to the DfT’s consultation on the next Great Western franchise (LTT 08 Dec 17), local authorities stress

The first generation of station travel plans (STPs) were implemented in a bid to better manage, and proactively influence, the modes of travel people use to get to and from UK rail stations. They generally sought to actively promote sustainable travel options; reduce single occupant car trips; and tackle imbalances between parking demand, the quality of facilities for different station users, and differential impacts on neighbouring land uses.  Following an initial wave of pilots, the UK b

Gender inequality remains a big issue when it comes to active travel in the UK, says Sustrans. The charity has published a new report, ‘Are We Not There Yet?, revealing that women’s journeys around cities are typically shorter than men’s, use different modes of transport and are more likely to involve ‘trip-chaining’ (multi-stop journeys) which tend to be for a balance of child care, work and household responsibilities. While women are motivated to tr

Tottenham Court Road is set to become more cyclist and pedestrian friendly, with all motor vehicles except buses banned from using the thoroughfare between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The restrictions are due to be in place by early 2020, said the London Borough of Camden. The first phase of the £35m scheme begins in March, with initial works to include: new granite paving on New Oxford Street by Centre Point; the removal of pedestrian barriers and traffic light poles from Tottenham

A growing number of workers in the UK would rather be based in lively urban centres than business parks on the outskirts even when there is ample parking, according to a new report from the Urban Transport Group. “More people in more key sectors of the economy do not wish to be ‘buried alive’ in a business park on the outskirts (however good the car parking) and their skills are in sufficient demand that they can choose the employers that provide them with a more interesting a

Parking apps, sensors, empty space mapping and bay reservation systems are among the technologies competing for recognition in a European transport innovation awards. A jury of international transportation experts has selected the shortlist of nominees of the biennial Intertraffic Amsterdam Innovation Awards. A field of 60 entries has been narrowed down to the final 15, leaving three nominees in each of the five categories: Infrastructure, Parking, Safety, Smart Mobility and Traffic M

The Campaign for Better Transport has announced it is looking to appoint a new chief executive office to replace Stephen Joseph, who will be stepping down at the end of Autumn. Joseph was appointed executive director of Transport 2000 in 1988, the same year Michael Palin was appointed President, and received an OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment. Transport 2000 changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. During his 30-year tenure with the charity, Joseph

The British Parking Awards 2018 attracted around 100 entries from across the country, from which a short list of finalists has been selected. The entries have been assessed by a panel of experts made up of parking managers, transport and parking consultants, representatives from the major parking associations and bodies representing the motoring and freight sectors. The winners will be revealed at a gala lunch to be held in London on 9 March. To see the list of finalists click here The diverse

Cycling UK is to run its Big Bike Revival across England for the fourth consecutive year having secured £500,000 funding from the Department for Transport (DfT). The campaign will offer free cycle checks, maintenance advice and tips on how to get cycling. The project seeks to help people get their unused bikes back on the road along with training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Last year’s event encouraged more than 6,000 people to become regular cyclists

With all the talk of autonomous and electric cars, hyper loops, bi-mode trains that run under wires and then don’t, etc, the world of the transport planner is being turned upside down. What we thought we knew is no longer holding true, technology is changing all we knew, and legislation is not keeping up. Let me illustrate through one simple example. With the advent of electric-powered cycles, what is the difference between such a cycle and a mobility scooter (or an invalid carriage as th

Leeds City Council has chosen Ofo as preferred operator of a dockless bike share scheme in the city. The news follows on from Ofo launching a 1,000-bike scheme in Sheffield last month. Martin Farrington, Leeds City Council’s director of city development, told councillors that a  number of dockless bike hire operators had approached the council about launching a scheme in the city.  There were no legal barriers to prevent them doing so, he added, and this meant the council could

The DfT’s Bike Share masterclass held last week in Leicester saw local authorities and operators alike give a strong heads-up that, in future, some kind of bike share licensing framework may be needed. Whilst agreeing that voluntary codes of conduct and signing up to Bikeplus’s accreditation scheme are working for now with the co-operation of the current players operating in the UK, there is no guarantee that less co-operative operators won’t seek to place their bikes in  

A plan to restrict motor vehicle access to Regent’s Park, making the roads more pleasant for cycling, looks likely to go ahead after months of delay and uncertainty.  Closing four of the eight gates into the park to vehicular traffic for 20 hours a day (except 11am-3pm) was part of then London mayor Boris Johnson’s proposed cycle superhighway 11 plan linking Swiss Cottageto the West End.  The four gates, one in the north and three in the south, give access to the outer ci

Active travel and rail campaigners are embroiled in a dispute about the future of the Bristol-Bath railway path, amid speculation that the alignment could be needed for light rail. The 13-mile Bristol-Bath path was built between 1979 and 1986 and was the first major project undertaken by Sustrans. The active travel charity says the path is now the “busiest traffic-free route in the country”. The latest data shows 3,800 people used the path in east Bristol between 7am and 7pm on one

Islington Council has invited public comment on the redesign of the Old Street roundabout as part of the £1m competition to transform the gateway to London’s ‘tech city’. Thirty-nine proposals have been selected for discussion from the 120 submitted. One proposal, called Silicon Hill, from architects Cove Burgess and Eco Cycle storage envisages three cylindrical glass towers with safe storage for more than 600 bicycles, which would surround a 'pocket park' and café

The Department for Transport (DfT) Bike Share masterclass, held last week in Leicester, saw local authorities and operators alike give the DfT a strong heads-up that, in future, some kind of bike share licensing framework may be needed in England. Whilst agreeing that voluntary codes of conduct and signing up to the Bikeplus accreditation scheme are working for now, with the co-operation of the current players operating in the UK, there is no guarantee that less co-operative operators won't seek

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has given the green light for six new cycle routes across the capital, with a mix of main roads and Quietways through Ilford, Barking, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden, Peckham and Rotherithe.  About 75% of the routes, spanning nine boroughs, will run on main roads. “We have already expressed a strong preference for most of the routes on main roads to be segregated,” said a Mayor of London spokesman. These projects have been chosen from a list of 25 routes

Sustrans is inviting cities and local authorities to take part in a project to collect cycling data relating to infrastructure, travel habits, public attitudes and air quality. As an extension of its Bike Life initiative, the charity says the project will help participating cities build the case for cycling and inform planning at a local level while shaping the political and funding landscape for active travel across the UK. For example, Greater Manchester’s cycling commissioner Chr

Plans for a new ‘Station Quarter’ around Runcorn rail station forms the centrepeice of a major regeneration of the Cheshire town. Halton Borough Council is working with a consortium, including architects We Made That and consultants Regeneris and Steer Davies Gleave, to develop a masterplan featuring housing, retail, commercial and leisure units in Runcorn. Runcorn station is on the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Mainline and is also a commuter station into Liverpool Lime Street

People who are too busy to include exercise in their daily routines should “multi-task” by cycling or walking to work, suggests a new study by the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The study found that cycling in particular helped to improve health. It said that that people who are less physically active are more likely to develop health issues such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes; and likely to die younger.  It suggests that councils and government need to make it a top pri

Young adults in Great Britain and other countries are driving less now than young adults did in the early 1990s. The Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned the Centre for Transport and Society (UWE, Bristol) and the Transport Studies Unit (University of Oxford) to carry out a systematic assessment of available evidence on the subject, both by review of UK and overseas published literature, and by new secondary analysis of existing UK data sets. The study sought to address the questions:

A new statistical release for January 2018 from the Department for Transport presents four pieces of analysis using National Travel Survey data.  Key findings include:  There have been substantial changes in travel behaviour since 1975. The total number of trips per person per year increased from 1975 until 1990 and has been falling since 1995. The basic unit of travel in the NTS is a trip, which is defined as a one-way course of travel with a single main purpose. In 2011-2014, dis

Look at the headlines and it’s tempting to think everything is rosy for cycling in the capital: soaring volumes of trips, record numbers of hires on the Santander cycle scheme, and mayor Sadiq Khan has just pledged a 28% increase in funding for  borough cycling schemes over the next five years (LTT05 Jan). Yet Andrew Gilligan, who served as cycling commissioner to Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, says the picture is a lot bleaker if you scratch below the surface. ‘He wou

In the past week or so, Transport Ministers Jesse Nornam and Baroness Sugg have answered several Parliamentary Questions (PQ) from fellow MPs and Lords about bike share schemes and cycle safety. The increasing volume of queries and concerns about bike share schemes, in particular, indicates how seriously local authorities are taking the issues of regulation and control – and of future developments in bike share business models and scheme operation.  A PQ is a question put formally to

Residents in Cambridge are fighting the introduction of a new cycleway arguing it will be dangerous for pedestrians and will remove parking spaces. The cycleway scheme, due to be installed later this year, will stretch from the Robin Hood junction on the south-east edge of the city and along Fulbourn Road to Yarrow Road roundabout. The Greater Cambridge Partnership - formerly the City Deal - is funding the project.  Residents have signed a petition raising concerns about safety, access, p

A bicycle training and servicing enterprise has launched an initiative to give refugees refurbished bikes and bike maintenance training. Pro Bike Service CIC is seeking financial donations, bikes and bike parts to support refugee families in east London. This will enable refugees to access amenities and services, education and employment while also providing a means of healthy transport.  Pro Bike works within the gift economy, where services or goods are given without any explicit agreeme

A new report from the MaasLab at UCL, commissioned by TfL, provides insights about Londoners’ attitudes towards car-ownership, shared mobility services and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as well as an impact assessment about a potential introduction of MaaS in the city. Londoners’ attitudes towards car-ownership and Mobility-as-a-Service: Impact assessment and opportunities that lie ahead is available online.  According to the report, at least 35% of regular car users stated that

CIHT has finally launched its review of the issue of shared space and how it is being designed, implemented and installed across England. ‘Creating better streets: Inclusive and accessible places’ provides a series of recommendations to Government and industry on how this complex issue can be further improved and developed. The review’s recommendations are aimed at Government, local authorities and those professionals who are working to make our highways inclusive, safer and a

Responsibility and regulation is becoming an increasingly hot topic for bike share, with questions being asked in the UK Parliament and the Lords about what powers local authorities in England have to regulate schemes within their boundaries. These issues will be a major focus of the DfT-supported Bike Share Masterclass in Leicester on 30 January, as Minister Jesse Norman contemplates the need for a possible ‘national standard’  Bike share goes from strength to strength acros

A cargo bike delivery service has been launched in the City of London to encourage businesses to reduce deliveries made by diesel vans. This follows a pilot scheme in the Smithfield area over the Christmas period. The service is being offered to businesses in the Square Mile making deliveries anywhere within the Congestion Charge zone. “The pilot has shown that cargo bikes and trikes have capacity to deliver successfully in central London for a range of customers,” a City of London

Fears over safety is the main reason why parents and carers will not allow their children to actively travel to school in Scotland, reveals new research. The findings come from the School Travel Survey for Parents, released by Sustrans Scotland and the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC). It found that 42.4% of parents cited a range of concerns over active travel to school. These included unsafe walking and cycling routes, a lack of or inadequate pavements, ineffective or lack of crossings

A new safer route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, connecting the villages of Okeford Fitzpaine and Shillingstone in north Dorset, has officially opened to the public. The route, known as the Little Lane Trailway, had been largely impassable for the last 30 years. The project was wholly funded by the EU’s LEADER Rural Development Programme through the Northern Dorset Local Action Group (LAG). The Little Lane Link Project secured an award of £44,200, due to

The Scottish Government has started talks with ScotRail over the provision of carriages with space for outdoor equipment, including bicycles, on some of the nation’s scenic railways. The Government’s programme for 2017-18 committed to taking forward work on “introducing dedicated carriages for cycles and other outdoor sports equipment on rural routes in the north and west”.  ScotRail and Transport Scotland were unable to comment on suggestions that single-carriage

Swansea University and Brunel University London have won a competition to run Santander bike hire schemes, after raising the highest amounts in crowdfunding campaigns.  Swansea and Brunel raised the most among a shortlist of five universities towards the running costs of cycle hire schemes. The cycle hire schemes will be open to students, residents and visitors. The winning universities will now receive the capital costs for their schemes from Santander, which will cover the initial

Barriers that prevent some groups in the capital from cycling are being removed thanks to a grants programme, says Transport for London (TfL). The Cycling Grants London (CGL) programme, funded by TfL and administered by environmental organisation Groundwork London, aims to support those that do not cycle due to barriers relating to income, health, ability, skills and access to information or equipment. Since the programme was launched in 2015, nearly £600,000 has been awarded to a wi

Poor air quality and physical inactivity are the public health issues of our time. In political circles, we hear plenty of strategic posturing: the new £220m Clean Air Fund has been announced, although details are not yet forthcoming. Integrated transport and spatial planning is back on the agenda, this time to improve health, rather then economic, outcomes. In reality, a combination of appropriate measures is needed to get more people moving, and to do so in clearer air. Plans for air qu

Construction work to transform Waterloo into a people-friendly area will start in early 2020, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Lambeth Council have announced. Waterloo roundabout will be removed to create a new public space, with better routes for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. Earlier this year Waterloo Roundabout was identified in TfL’s Safer Junctions programme as one of 73 junctions in the capital with the worst safety record for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclist

Greater Manchester's walking and cycling commissioner Chris Boardman has published his much anticipated report Made to Move (report will download instantly), which outlines 15 key steps to transform Greater Manchester by changing the way its citizens and visitors get around. The goal ‘should be to double and then double again cycling in Greater Manchester, and make walking the natural choice for as many short trips as possible. We must do this by putting people first, creati

The Department for Transport has unveiled an investment of almost £200m to help improve the condition of local roads and encourage cycling, transport minister Jesse Norman has announced. The funding will be used for highways maintenance, repair potholes, developing technologies to improve highways resilience and the provision of cycle parks. The £200m includes: £46m to help repair potholes £151m for the local highways maintenance incentive fund a £500,000 com

Electric, connected and autonomous vehicles will “revolutionise” the road network, leading to a new era of safer, easier and less polluting travel, predicts Highways England in a report published today. The report outlines Highways England’s proposals for the strategic road network (SRN), with an interface between roads and connected vehicles to “communicate in a more useful way with those driving on our roads”.  Technology has a pivotal role in improving mai

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed at a gala ceremony held in London during March by the comedian Lucy Porter. The competition is free to enter and, as is now traditional, the deadline for submissions has been extended to Monday 8 January. According to Time Out, Lucy Porter “is one of the most talented comics on the circuit”. Having had 11 Edinburgh Fringe shows and international tours, Lucy is a well-established and loved comedian. On TV, she has

We are passionate about parking annual reports at Brighton & Hove City Council. We have been producing them since 2008 and were fortunate enough to win the very first PATROL PARC Award, and have been shortlisted for the past eight years, winning the last two awards. Annual reports are an excellent way to communicate key facts about your parking team’s performance and priorities to stakeholders. Annual reports also let you explain how parking services fit into wider traffic management,

Berlin-based Chargery offers a green mobile charging service for electric cars in urban areas. Based on smart data analysis, Chargery proposes bringing the charging station to its customers by bicycle, reports New Atlas. At the moment, the service is focusing on businesses but when the scheme rolls out to private customers, bookings will be made via an iOS/Android companion app for a pay per use model, with the price inclusive of delivery. The Chargery project is currently undergoing t

ON 24 NOVEMBER The Guardian suggested that the “future of dockless bicycles [is] under a cloud amid concerns there are too many bikes and not enough demand”. The article in which this suggestion was put forward made little reference to the situation in the UK, however, but, rather, concentrated on the state of play in China. “Customers are charged just pennies per 30 minute ride, but competing companies have flooded cities with bikes to ensure cycles are always available,&rdquo

More space for hire bikes is urgently needed at mainline railway stations in central London, according to David Eddington, head of cycle hire at Transport for London.  “We’ve had docking stations at Waterloo for the past seven years and it works well. There are 300 bikes that are returned to the docking points [as commuters make their homeward journey].  “In the early evening our team then wheels the bikes to a lock-up where they are stored securely. The next mornin

Construction work has started on Glasgow’s South City Way (SCW), a 1.8 mile segregated cycle and pedestrian route on the city’s Southside from Queen’s Park and the city centre.  The project was Glasgow City Council’s winning bid in the 2016 Community Links PLUS (CLPLUS) competition, funded by the Scottish Government and run by sustainable transport charity Sustrans. A £3.25m was awarded, with match funding from the city council. The first phase of works

Islington Council is seeking design ideas to create an “iconic gateway” at Old Street roundabout. The London borough is seeking proposals incorporating public art and embracing the spirit of “Tech City” - the technological, economic and cultural powerhouse around Old Street. Applications are being sought from a range of disciplines including architecture, urban planning, transport, art, Smart Cities and technology. The 1960s roundabout will undergo a major transformation

More space for hire bikes is urgently needed at mainline railway stations in London to meet commuter demand, according to David Eddington, head of cycle hire at Transport for London (TfL).  Secure, overnight lock-up facilities for the Santander cycles should be provided near stations, he said. Staff could wheel the bikes between docking stations and nearby storage facilities or do shuttle runs in vans, which would be “much better than transporting the bikes through the congestion of

Sustrans’ research has been recognised by the United Nations as an example of best practice in using science to shape sustainable development policy. The new UN report, ‘Strengthening the Science-Policy Interface: A gap analysis’, highlights the need for greater collaboration between scientists and policy makers in finding solutions to environmental challenges. It recognised Sustrans’ Fit for Life report covering independent research by leading experts

The current UK physical activity guidelines were published by the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in 2011, and offer evidence-based recommendations for physical activity related health outcomes. Starting at the end of 2017, a review will be conducted to provide updated practical public health guidelines and develop potential implementation pathways for all groups, from healthcare to communication professionals.   Access the UK physical activity guidelines review pages  Over t

Working with the UK charity Sustrans, independent environmental consultancy Eunomia has developed a model that measures air quality benefits from reducing motor emissions due to shifting to walking or cycling and changes in personal exposure to air pollution. The model aims to support local authorities in making the case for investment in boosting walking and cycling and estimates the contribution of active travel in reducing levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide – and the sub

A new publication has been released providing user guidance on using the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEA

Sport England has chosen 12 places to work with on a new approach to build healthier, more active communities across England. Around £100 million of National Lottery funding will be invested in the pilot scheme over four years, to create innovative partnerships that make it easier for people in these communities to access sport and physical activity. The 12 pilots are: Birmingham and Solihull, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Essex, Great Exeter, Greater Manchester, Hackney, Pennine Lanca

Housing developments will be car-free except for disabled people in parts of the capital with the best public transport connections, under new measures announced by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. This is among the proposals to reduce parking capacity in the mayor’s draft London Plan, published this week. The draft states that residential car parking would not be linked to unit size, so that parking spaces would no longer go up as unit sizes increase. Meanwhile, office developments in central a

Train operator Southeastern bagged two trophies at the National Cycle-Rail awards presented at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster yesterday. Southeastern took the coveted Operator of the Year award as well as Best Station of the Year for its work in improving bike parking facilities at Gravesend Station. The awards, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), celebrate the work done by the rail industry and associated organisations to encourage integrated cycle-rail travel. Station of the Year G

Dockless bike share operator Mobike is revising its service in Manchester/Salford after learning lessons from the pilot scheme launched this summer. The scheme was Chinese firm Mobike’s first foray into the UK market. The scheme was launched this summer with about 1,000 bikes. It quickly attracted negative publicity after bikes were left in inappropriate places and vandalised.  Steve Pyer, general manager of Mobike UK, said this week: “Manchester has been a hugely valuable lea

More than one million cycle journeys have been made on the segregated Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road Cycleway in Greater Manchester since monitoring began with automatic cycle counters in September 2016, reports Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The milestone was reached last week, a month after the digital ‘totem pole’ cycle counters outside Manchester Royal Infirmary on Oxford Road recorded 5,000 two-way cycle journeys on a single day for the first time. Encouraging more pe

A survey of seven UK cities has revealed that 75% of residents want to see more investment in cycling. Cycling and walking charity Sustrans carried out research in the cities - Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Greater Manchester and Newcastle – two years after an initial survey.  The new reports showed a rise in the number of segregated cycle lanes and bike parking spaces in the past two years, but also a rise in concerns about safety. Only 30% of respondents think c

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed on Friday 8 March by the comedian Lucy Porter. Parking Review launched the British Parking Awards in 2002. Now in their 17th year, the annual competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The competition is 

The House of Commons Transport Committee is to look at how digital transport service platforms can enable the provision of Mobility as a Service, or MaaS. Digital platforms are increasingly being used to deliver a variety of transport services, ranging from niche online car and bike-sharing schemes to high profile taxi and private hire smartphone apps. The Transport Committee’s inquiry will look the potential of integrated, multi-mode MaaS apps, and ways of overcoming barriers to im

The first of a new fleet of bikes for the Santander cycle hire scheme in London have hit the streets. The bikes, manufactured by Stratford upon Avon-based Pashley Cycles, feature a number of differences from the existing fleet, including: a gel saddle, a lower frame, smaller wheels, tyres with puncture prevention, and better positioned and brighter Blaze lighting. The bikes have Bluetooth wireless technology and the capacity for GPS technology, allowing system operator Serco to record bike

The regulatory environment for road transport needs to be overhauled to make it fit for emerging forms of mobility products and services, Michael Hurwitz, Transport for London’s director of transport innovation, has told the London Assembly’s transport committee inquiry into future transport.    Said Hurwitz: “The regulations were set in the 1970s and the 1990s, and the world of transport in those days was crudely speaking as follows: you had a car or you took a priv

Dockless bike share schemes will not be welcome in the West Midlands conurbation, as the combined authority focuses on procuring a single dock-based system.   Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) will commence the procurement of a scheme with between 3,000 and 5,000 bikes later this month/early next month. A contract should be awarded next spring. The decision to pursue a dock-based system follows an options reviewcommissioned from consultant ITP this summer. Nine suppliers of dock-base

The first of a new generation of Santander Cycles have rolled out onto the capital's streets, with thousands set to join Transport for London cycle hire scheme over the next few years. The new cycles will offer riders improved handling, safety and comfort, with a new gel saddle, lower frame, tyres with puncture prevention abilities, new gear hub, improved front and rear Blaze lighting, and bluetooth connectivity, says TfL. The bikes are British built by cycle manufacturer Pashley Cycles in Str

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans has developed a tool with environmental consultancy Eunomia that has been designed to help make the case for walking and cycling measures in terms of air quality. The air quality tool shows how to get the best value in terms of air quality from supporting walking and cycling, and sets a framework for how to build plans for walking and cycling into plans to improve air quality. Dr Andy Cope, director of insight at Sustrans says

A secure cycle parking system that sees a rack of bikes overlooked by a lighting post equipped with CCTV cameras has been unveiled. Shuffle Cycle has been developed by lighting company Schréder UK working in collaboration with cycle parking specialist H-B Designs. The Shuffle Cycle docking stations are overlooked by a tall lighting post that features an LED light ring that indicates the availability of spaces from a distance. The Shuffle Cycle post comes with in-built CCTV, a public addr

Active travel will enable cities to spend less on building, maintaining, and upgrading their infrastructure by replacing congested urban road networks and car parking infrastructure, according to a new report by technology company City Science. Helping incorporate higher levels of physical activity into the daily life of the city, walking and cycling can reduce regional healthcare costs, says the report. Some of these benefits might be readily captured by conventional transport planning impact

Replacing private car traffic with new shared mobility services in urban areas can dramatically reduce the number of cars needed, significantly cut CO2 emissions and free public land for uses other than parking – without making it more difficult for users to get from door to door. This latest report from the International Transport Forum at the OECD, presented at Smarter Travel LIVE!, examines how the optimised use of new on-demand shared transport modes could change the future of mobilit

A new set of road use rules devised specifically for London is among the ideas proposed by an independent commission studying ways of making the capital’s highways work more efficiently. A ‘Movement Code’ is one of a series of policies proposed by the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets, convened by the Centre for London think-tank with the aim of developing new thinking on what can be done to manage the conflicting pressures on the capital's surface t

Urban streets could be converted into pedestrian and cyclist friendly green spaces by replacing roads for traffic with planting and adding greenery to building façades, a landscape architectural practice has suggested. WATG has unveiled its ‘Green Block’ concept with a visualisation of how Fleet Street in central London could look if transformed into a traffic-free, planted environment. The design is a response to a public challenge by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to designate

A project combining Ordnance Survey (OS) geospatial data with real-time air quality data will be used to highlight clean cycle routes in Britain’s cities. Air quality specialist EarthSense is producing citywide visualisations of air quality using a network of fixed and static air pollution sensors. When combined with OS’s open dataset of greenspaces, the EarthSense air quality models are designed to highlight areas of higher air pollution, which often along busy roads. It is en

Smarter Travel LIVE! 2017 offers an expertly-crafted overview of need-to know people, initiatives, products and services – all in one place Resources are squeezed, time is precious and expectations upon local authorities and transport professionals increase.  The travelling public assumes that everything about their travel experience can, and should be, improved through the smart (and positive) implementation of technological innovation.  But is it really that easy? The t

The emergence of dockless bike share was, not surprisingly, the central topic of discussion at this year’s Bikeplus conference, hosted by Transport for Greater Manchester. The rise of the dockless model has been extraordinary; since last year’s conference it has quickly evolved from a mere possibility into reality, with several schemes now in operation. Indeed, delegates were able to use Manchester’s Mobikes to get to the conference, and enjoy a social ride on co-sponsors&rsqu

Dockless bike sharing start-up oBike has launched in Oxford, providing cyclists and cyclists-to-be with a cost effective, convenient and sustainable way of travelling around the city.   Following substantial liaison with the local authorities, oBike will roll out its dockless bike sharing scheme across the city on an indefinite trial basis. Haroon Khan, Business Development Lead for oBike Uk, said: 'We are extremely excited to launch oBike in Oxford. Building on from our successes in

Is current guidance on walking and cycling distances in need of an overhaul? And, if so, why does this matter? These distances form the basis of many decisions about where we live and work. Distances are used as criteria in assessing land allocations in Local Plans and in determining planning applications. They are also used in decision-making around transport infrastructure, including bus stops.  We decided, firstly, to investigate the distances on which existing guidance is based and the

The dockless bike hire market has taken off in the UK over the past year, with trials being launched in Greater Manchester, Oxford and the London boroughs of Ealing and Lambeth, with another scheme due to start in Waltham Forest later this month. And it is now looking very likely that other trials will be launched in other city and town centres next year. In most cases it appears that the operational costs will be fully covered by the operators, making the schemes an attractive proposition for

The Department for Transport has this week published its Summary Report on the Impacts of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), which indicates that the Fund successfully supported projects that reduced car use, increased walking and cycling levels, boosted bus patronage, supported local economies and cut carbon emissions. Published figures suggest that LSTF investments 'achieved high value for money', says the report. In 2011, the Department launched the £540 million LSTF to i

Propelmee, an autonomous mobility software provider with specialist expertise in perception, will unveil its last mile delivery pod ‘Go4’ at the Smarter Travel show in Milton Keynes on 19 & 20 October. ‘Go4’ will appear on the ‘Street of the Future’ showcasing the first demonstration platform of Propelmee’s unique and highly robust autonomous mobility capabilities. ‘Go4’ will go live in a public demo in Cambridge later this year as a foot

More than 300 delegates attended Healthy Streets at Walthamstow Assembly Hall last week to explore the connections between public health and transport strategies. The event, organised by Landor LINKS and hosted by Waltham Forest Council, brought together council officers, urban designers, public health specialists, transport planners, consultants, academics, equipment developers, innovators and campaigners. The programme encompassed health-led street design, re-allocation of road space, behavio

Detailed plans for two segregated Cycle Superhighways stretching out to the west and south-east of the capital have been unveiled by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The 6km CS9 would link Kensington Olympia to Brentford while the 4km CS4 would run from Tower Bridge to Greenwich.  Transport for London (TfL) estimate that CS9 would cost around £70m, which would include extending the route to Hounslow, while CS4 would cost up to £55m and, subject to the results of consultations, construc

A campaign encouraging motorcycle riders to consider additional security measures has seen almost all machines now parked in Birmingham city centre being protected. Following an increase in the theft of powered two wheelers (PTWs) from Birmingham City Centre during the early part of the summer, West Midlands Police started running a ‘Lock it or lose it’ campaign. The campaign has been delivered in partnership with the Motorcycle Industry Association’s MASTER (Motorcycle and S

The winners of the inaugural Healthy Streets Awards were announced at Walthamstow Assembly Hall last night, with a host of inspiring entries gaining recognition. The trophies were presented following the Healthy Streets conference and exhibition, hosted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest and organised by Landor LINKS. Among those receiving trophies was Caroline Russell, London Assembly member and Green Party councillor at the London Borough of Islington, who was named Healthy Streets Champ

Caerphilly County Borough Council is hoping that the next Wales and Borders rail franchisee may not share Network Rail’s opposition to active travel routes over level crossings. The Active Travel (Wales) Act  obliges all 22 unitary authorities in Wales to plan and implement networks of walking and cycling routes. By 3 November they must submit to the Welsh Government their Integrated Network Maps (INMs), outlining route proposals for the next 15 years.  Network Rail objects on

The government has initiated an “urgent review” to consider whether a new offence equivalent to causing death by careless or dangerous driving should be introduced for cyclists. The Department for Transport (DfT) announced the review into cycle safety following a series of high profile incidents involving cyclists. The highest profile involved the death of mother-of-two Kim Briggs after she was struck by cyclist Charlie Alliston, who has received a custodial sentence after bein

A consultation has been launched for a new segregated cycle superhighway that will bring safer cycling to west London. Cycle Superhighway 9 (CS9) will add nearly 6km of new segregated track to the capital’s roads linking Kensington Olympia to Brentford. CS9 will also feature five new traffic light crossings and improvements to 20 pedestrian crossings. The superhighway is part of the Mayor of London’s work to encourage more Londoners to walk and cycle as he makes the capital’s

Jesse Norman MP, appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport in June 2017, will be giving a keynote speech and taking questions at Smarter Travel LIVE! on 19 October. As Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution, the minister is responsible for buses cycling and walking policy, Highways England and strategic roads, local roads policy and funding, road safety, transport and the environment and transport technology (incl

Santander Cycles has announced the five finalists in its Santander Cycles University Challenge - an initiative that offers Santander UK university partners the chance to develop their own bespoke cycle hire scheme on campus. The University of Birmingham, Brunel University London, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Surrey and Swansea University have been shortlisted from 23 entrants for the chance to win capital funding for a cycle scheme. Each of the five finalists must now run a c

Five active travel schemes have been awarded funding totalling £22.5m by the Scottish government. The shortlisted projects, to be delivered by charity Sustrans, will receive 50% of the total costs. Two of the schemes are in Edinburgh while the others are in Glasgow, Stirling and Inverness. Work on each project is due to begin in the next two months, with Inverness City Active Travel Network (Highland Council) set for completion by summer 2020. Meanwhile, Walk, Cycle, Live (Stirling Counci

A bike sharing partnership has been formed in Germany between Ford and a subsidiary of Germany’s government-backed railway company Deutsche Bahn. From October, 3,200 FordPass bicycles will be available via Deutsche Bahn Connect’s ‘Call a Bike’ cycle hire system in Cologne and Düsseldorf. Steven Armstrong, group Ford vice president and president, Europe, Middle East & Africa, said: “As a mobility provider, we will collaborate on sustainable solutions

Police in Greater Manchester deleted a tweet about a crackdown on “inconsiderate” cycling after protests from cyclists over the image that accompanied the tweet. On 15 September, police from Denton and Droylsden Division said “due to increased reports of inconsiderate cycling” they would be “challenging/fining” cyclists who do not follow “good practice”. The accompanying image showed a cyclist wearing a helmet with reflective material on it, but

In the twentieth century, planning for the city was about planning for the car. In recent years, however, the true impact of this approach has become only too apparent. From a changing global climate to the obesity epidemic, an over-reliance on the private automobile is driving many of the greatest challenges of our time. With rapidly rising urban populations, these problems are set to intensify - that is unless radical changes are made.  At the same time, the case for non-motorised modes

Reading Borough Council has awarded Hourbike a new three-year contract to operate the Readybike public bike hire scheme.  Readybike features 200 bicycles and 28 docking stations located in the town centre and at places such as the University of Reading, Royal Berkshire Hospital and Thames Valley Business Park. Hourbike has operated the scheme since launch in 2014, with over 71,000 hires recorded. The system was initially funded by the DfT’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund, which a

Building segregated cycle lanes alongside main roads could speed-up bus services by removing slow-moving cyclists from the carriageway, researchers have suggested.  The findings challenge the narrative that has developed in London where cycle superhighways have been blamed for delaying bus services by reducing carriageway capacity for motorised traffic.  The research into the impacts of cyclists on bus journey times was conducted by Rachel Aldred, a reader in transport at Westminster

The scottish Government is to double investment in walking and cycling to £80m a year from 2018/19, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured) has announced. The SNP administration’s programme for 2017/18 signals a major push on environmental transport issues.  It sets a target to phase out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032, eight years before the rest of the UK. This will require a big expansion of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network.&

Last year saw the publication of the Department for Transport’s eagerly anticipated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This has since been accompanied by guidance to local authorities on how they can help double cycling activity by 2025.  While the availability of government funding for delivering walking and cycling network improvements remains a topic for debate, the guidance to councils appears sound. The guidance was developed by an expert advisory team, drawing on interna

The arrival of Will Norman as London’s first Cycling & Walking Commissioner in February heralded a new approach to reducing car use in the capital. The former global partnerships director at Nike is seeking to develop a comprehensive network of ‘corridors’ that link main roads with Quietways, as set out in mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft Transport Strategy.  Alternatives to superhighways Norman moved to the Mayor’s office on the understanding that his remit woul

Mobike dockless cycle sharing is now available to residents in the London Borough of Ealing. This follows the UK launch of the Chinese app-based system in Greater Manchester in July, and the London launch in Ealing in September. There will be 750 Mobikes available in Ealing after an initial trial in Acton – with residents able to sign up to the scheme for a discounted deposit of £29. Users will be charged 50p per half hour.  Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, said: “

Some 50% of those who had bikes stolen felt that the police did not investigate the crime, the national cycle database BikeRegister has revealed. The survey found that bike theft occurs from a wide range of locations, but the most common is from home 61% and most commonly from a shed or garage. The next highest was from outside shops at 18%, while 11.5% was from outside work. The survey shows that of the 1,386 respondents, 50% have had a bike stolen. Of those, more than 43% have had two bikes or

Last year saw the publication of the Department for Transport’s eagerly anticipated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This has since been accompanied by guidance to local authorities on how they can help double cycling activity by 2025. While the availability of government funding for delivering walking and cycling network improvements remains a topic for debate, the guidance to councils appears sound. The guidance was developed by an expert advisory team, drawing on international

The arrival of Will Norman as London’s first Cycling & Walking Commissioner in February heralded a new approach to reducing car use in the capital. The former global partnerships director at Nike is seeking to develop a comprehensive network of ‘corridors’ that link main roads with Quietways, as set out in mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft Transport Strategy.  Alternatives to superhighways Norman moved to the Mayor’s office on the understanding tha

A cycling charity has called for wider awareness to be made about the dangers of ‘car-dooring’ and how to prevent it through a public awareness campaign. Car dooring incidents involve drivers or their passengers opening car doors without checking for the presence of cyclists. Cycling UK is also advocating that people open car doors with their far hand, rather than the near as a way of preventing avoidable collisions. This method is sometimes called ‘the Dutch Reach' as it is c

With less than six weeks to go before Smarter Travel LIVE! on 19 and 20 October, this year’s Smarter Travel LIVE! event is bringing together the widest ever range of key players to spark dialogue and debate. The convergence of digital technology with the travel and transport sector is catalysing the most radical and sophisticated possibilities in decades, and Smarter Travel LIVE! is the place to be for those who need to be engaged in what is happening across the UK and beyond. Such rapid

Traveller information must get much more reliable and available before Mobility as a Service (MaaS) can become a reality, a group of transport experts has warned. The ITS (UK) Public Transport Interest Group in London says out that only a quarter of bus companies have their timetable organised electronically, rather than on paper, making dynamic travel solutions almost impossible. The group said that more complete real-time information is required from local authorities and t

A dockless bike hire scheme is being launched in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The council, in partnership with the dockless system supplier Urbo, will launch a one-year trial in October.  To start with, 250 bikes will be available, which can be hired for 50p per half hour. If the trial proves successful, the scheme will be introduced permanently in Autumn 2018. The bikes are digitally operated – the user either locates and selects an available bike via an app, or finds a bi

The Department for Transport and Landor LINKS announce new Cycling & Walking Innovations event on 21 November in London.   This new event will focus on how cycling and walking is supporting the Government's Industrial Strategy by keeping active modes at the heart of intelligent mobility. Sessions will include best practice examples of using innovation and technology to boost levels of cycling and walking. The event will showcase smart ways for local authorities to work with investors

Free guided walks are being offered by Transport for London (TfL) to encourage people to explore the capital on foot and to highlight the benefits of walking for health and wellbeing.  The Mayor’s draft Transport Strategy aims to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport to 80% by 2041, compared with 64% now. “To make this commitment a reality, a wide range of improvements to London’s streets, junctions and public spaces are underway,

The way we travel is on the threshold of a major transformation. We will be able to make journeys that are safer, cleaner, more efficient and cheaper. And the catalyst for that change will be intelligent mobility (IM). In this new environment we will have access to connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and new mobility services (including super-smart ticketing). But in order to see these benefits we will need sector collaboration and convergence. If this transition is managed well the rewards ac

The case of a cyclist convicted of ‘wanton and furious driving’, but acquitted of manslaughter, after running over and killing a pedestrian in London, generated much media coverage last week. On 26 August The Times devoted a page to an interview with the pedestrian’s widower in which it was acknowledged that the tragedy had “led to a trial that made legal history” because “for the first time a cyclist was charged with manslaughter”. “He [Matt Bri

People living in Belfast are being encouraged to take up walking and cycling as a way of leading a healthier life. Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency (PHA) has developed a Community Active Travel Programme, which is being delivered by sustainable transport charity Sustrans.

A stretch of disused railway between Scarborough and Whitby which could be given a new lease of life as cycling and walking route. Sustainable transport charity Sustrans has used a grant from the Coastal Revival Fund to develop a plan for a restoration of the old Yorkshire railway line, which is now referred to as The Cinder Track. The

A cycle lane in Paris championed by the French capital’s mayor has been criticised by the city’s chef of police as being a safety risk. Mayor Anne Hidalgo and police commissioner Michel Delpuech have been embroiled in a war of words on the proposal. The Le Monde newspaper has dubbed it “The battle of the bicycle”. The two-way cycle route between the Place de la Bastille in the east of the city to the Place de la Concorde in the west would run parallel to the River Siene

A cyclist who knocked over and killed a 44-year-old woman in London last year has been cleared of her manslaughter. However, he has been found guilty of causing bodily harm by “wanton or furious driving”.  Charlie Alliston, 20, was riding a fixed gear bike with no front brakes when he hit Kim Briggs, 44, as she was crossing Old Street in Shoreditch, east London, in February 2016. The HR consultant and mother-of-two suffered serious head injuries and died a week later in ho

The 2017 National Cycle-Rail awards is now open to nominations. The event, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and sponsored by Cyclepods, recognise progress made by the rail industry and associated organisations towards encouraging the integrated use of bikes and train travel. The categories are: Station of the year Operator of the year Best Customer Service Cycling Champion Cycle Security Innovation Door-to-Door Journey, inclu

The number of New Yorkers regularly making bike journeys has risen nearly 50% in five years, reveals a report from the New York City Department of Transport (NYC DOT). Between 2009 and 2014 the number of people cycling ‘at least several times a month’ went up 49% from 521,000 to 778,000, says the report. It adds that the number of daily cycling trips has gone up from 100,000 in 1990 to 450,00 in 2015. The number of cycling commuters in New York has increased 80% between 2010 an

Liverpool City Council is to bring operation of the city’s public bike hire scheme in-house.  The Citybike scheme was launched in 2014 and features about 1,000 bicycles for hire from 140 stations across the city. The council says the scheme has seen about 300,000 rentals to date, and has about 32,000 active users. The scheme is currently operated by Hourbike Ltd and requires an operating subsidy.  Liverpool City Council says bringing Citybike in-house will save £100,000

LibDem MP Layla Moran has been appointed Vice Chairwoman of the All Party Cycling Group, replacing Conservative MP Alex Chalk. Chair of the group is Labour MP Ruth Cadbury. The Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West & Abingdon called on the government to improve cycling infrastructure in the city and across the country.  Moran submitted an early day motion prior to Parliament going into recess, and said the campaign to encourage people in Oxford to get people cycling complemented calls t

Road safety outside schools has become an all too frequent cause for concern across the UK. In an effort to tackle the problem, a range of measures are being deployed including school-led awareness campaigns, CCTV enforcement and parents volunteering as parking patrol officers. Meanwhile, a project in south London has taken a different approach, re-configuring the street layout to bring about behaviour change. The layout on New Park Road, off Brixton Hill, was designed by the charity Sustrans i

Transport charity Sustrans Scotland is offering employers a way to offer its employees access to healthier journeys to and from work via its Active Travel Champion (ATC) programme. Active Travel Champions are organisations that have committed to increasing levels of walking and cycling at their organisation. Sustrans works with sites of 200 or more employees on which ‘champions’ are permitted to spend one to two hours of time per month on ATC related planning and activities.

Largely car-free and rail-free cities as dense as Manhattan and restricted to 15km in diameter with compulsory cargo bikes for deliveries would be possible utopias for cyclists, according to a new book. With private cars banned and trades-people carrying up to 500kg compelled to use cargo bikes there are "never more than a few dozen heavy vehicles moving throughout 'Velotopia' at any one time even though it is a city of millions - not enough to warrant a network of service roads," Dr Steve Flem

The world's largest bike share operator has signed up as Official Bike Hire Sponsor at this year's Smarter Travel LIVE! taking place on 19-20th October at ArenaMk in Milton Keynes. Delegates will benefit from free bike hire throughout the event and can sign up for this service by contacting Billie Svark.  The nextbike Milton Keynes bike shire scheme was first launched on 17th June 2016 with 300 bicycles at 42 docking stations across the Borough of Milton Keynes.  The scheme utilises

Scottish Government statistics on children’s physical activity reveals almost 9 out 10 of children do not meet the government’s physical activity guidelines. Only 11% of children surveyed by the ‘Growing Up in Scotland’ study met the recommended 60 minutes of activity per day. Meanwhile, the latest ‘Hands Up Scotland&r

The Automobile Association (AA) has produced a version of the Highway Code specifically for cyclists. A recent AA-Populus Survey revealed that 21% of AA members cycle, with one-in-ten saying they cycle between one and five miles each week.

The Government's announcement that the sale of new petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles will be banned in the UK from 2040 predictably dominated both the headlines and the thoughts of leading transport commentators in late July. Much of the commentary concerning the Government’s plans was critical, with several pieces suggesting that by setting a deadline more than 20 years into the future, the Government was attempting to distract attention from its alleged unwillingness to take shorter-ter

The evolution of technology has opened up the transport industry to endless possibilities. As this grows, so too does the need to address customer choice and empowerment. But is industry doing enough to understand the people who use and rely on transport services?  Understanding the customer experience is arguably more important now than ever. A web of conflicting interests need to be addressed, from traditional engineering and safety considerations to the new and future digital landscape,

With roads close to saturation point and trains becoming overcrowded, transport providers and innovators must work together to develop new solutions, believes Stephen Hart at Innovate UK. “Congestion is getting worse, with growing frustration leading to more road rage,” he says. “There’s no longer a rush hour, there’s a rush five hours.” Current systems used to manage roads and rail services need to be better integrated to be effective, says Hart, head of co

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) are seen by the DfT as critical to the success of the Government’s first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS). The DfT wishes to encourage as many local authorities as possible to publish soundly-based LCWIPs, which will set out a long-term network plan for cycling and walking across a defined area, and a series of short, medium and long-term improvement schemes. Ministers believe that LCWIPs are the best means of putting i

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has appointed Olympic gold medalcyclist Chris Boardman (pictured) as Greater Manchester’s first cycling and walking commissioner. Said Boardman: “With my background in sport, I’m a big fan of setting targets, being measured and being held accountable for results. I’m going to spend several weeks talking to people to understand the landscape for cycling in Greater Manchester before setting a number of goals we want to achieve and times

Sustrans has launched three spreadsheet models intended to help local authorities make the case for walking and cycling schemes.  The Excel spreadsheet models are part of a wider active travel ‘toolbox’ put together by Sustrans with the help of Living Streets, the TAS Partnership, and Adrian Davis. The infrastructure impact tool estimates how different types of cycling infrastructure investment could affect cycle and car use. The calculations are based on experience from a ran

A riverside cycle route in Leeds that was damaged by flooding in 2015 has been repaired and improved by sustainable transport charity Sustrans. The new path, linking the Royal Armouries and Liberty Dock student accommodation, is now wider, with a tarmac surface suitable for people on foot or bike.   The path will be managed by Leeds Community Foundation, with support from the Canal & River Trust and South Bank Leeds. Funding came from the Leeds Flood Appeal grant. This section of the

Chris Boardman, Olympic cycling champion, has been appointed as Greater Manchester’s first ever Cycling and Walking Commissioner. Greater Manchester’s Mayor, Andy Burnham, selected Boardman to help boost cycling and walking in Manchester, which was a key pledge in Burnham’s mayoral election manifesto. The announcement comes as the Mayor received and endorsed a four-year plan to get ‘Greater Manchester Moving’. Burnham has committed his leadership to implement the

Two drivers in the West Midlands have become the first to be taken to court for overtaking cyclists too closely.  The driver of an HGV was fined £1,038 and given five points on his licence while a transit van driver received a £1,033 fine and four points. In both cases the evidence to convict the drivers was supplied from a member of the public out cycling with a helmet camera. The drivers were shown the video evidence but pleaded not guilty at Birmingham Magistrates Court. Bot

This week Sustrans publishes a series of long-awaited reports about the monitoring and evaluation of Cycling England’s ‘Cycling Demonstration Towns’ (CDT) and ‘Cycling City and Towns’ (CCT) programmes, which received Government funding between 2005 and 2010, before Cycling England was abolished by the incoming coalition Government. The reports show that cycling in the 18 towns and cities supported by the two funding programmes increased by an average of 24% (in the

The UK’s fledgling dockless bike hire industry was this week urged to work with public authorities – or risk having their bikes removed from the streets. The warning from London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham came after thousands of bikes were delivered to the capital’s streets by Singapore firm oBike.  Hammersmith and Fulham Council used Highways Act 1980 powers to slap obstruction notices on some of

Best Behaviour Change Initiative Award Big Commuting Challenge – Travelwest North West Leading the Way with Active Travel – Derry City & Strabane District Council Vehicle Idling Action project – Green Gumption on behalf of the Idling Action Partnership Destination Walking & Cycling Project – Visit Isle of Wight Ltd Build A Bike – Southwark Council Heathrow Commuter Goes Mobile –Landing in your term

Transport strategies that turn vehicle-dominated streets into ‘people places’ will do much to tackle the health and social challenges that we face, believes Lucy Saunders Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has placed the Healthy Streets Approach at the heart of his 25-year Transport Strategy. This will require all transport decisions and investments to benefit health by improving the 10 Healthy Street Indicators (right). Making public health the driving force behind a transport strategy may

About 200 moped drivers and motorcyclists blocked traffic in Westminster on 18 July before marching on foot, calling for stronger penalties for those caught using acid as a weapon. The protest came in the wake of five acid attacks that took place in less than 90 minutes in east London on the night of 13 July. Not all the victims were delivery drivers, but all were riding mopeds at the time of the attacks. At least one of those attacked has suffered ‘life changing’ injuries. The pro

The driver of an HGV has been fined more than £1,000 after being found guilty of dangerously overtaking a cyclist in the West Midlands. This is the first conviction in an operation launched by West Midlands Police last year to tackle ‘close pass’ offences. Evidence of the offence was recorded on the cyclist’s helmet camera. The lorry driver from Birmingham was convicted of driving without due care and attention having squeezed past the cyclist last November.  He de

A guide offering organisations in the Square Mile practical advice on how to get employees to switch to active travel is out now. 'Safer in the City' – Best Practice Guide 2017 has been developed by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the Active City Network – a forum created to promote safe active travel. The guide is full of case studies and interviews highlighting initiatives in a number of organisations across the City of London including the Bank of England, Nomu

Plans have been published to reconfigure the busy Fiveways junction in Croydon, south London, with the aim of making it safer for all road users.  Transport for London (TfL) and Croydon Council say the proposed improvements would help to reduce delays and congestion. They point out that the Fiveways area is often busy, with motorists and bus users experiencing congestion at peak times, especially on weekends when large numbers of visitors go to and from the retail parks along Purley Way.

Proposals have been drawn up for a new foot and cycle bridge in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, which would be built over the River Ouse. Cambridgeshire County Council has launched a public consultation to ask people their views on four possible locations of the bridge, which would link the town with the area to the west of the river mirroring the current southern bridge.  Initial cost estimates range from £2m – 4m depending on the option. Ian Bates, chairman of the county council&

Swansea University is testing the market for an operator of a proposed public bike hire scheme, while it competes to win funding from the Santander Cycles University Competition.  Swansea was one of 23 universities that entered the competition in March. Santander sponsors cycle hire schemes in London and Milton Keynes and, in the first phase of the university competition, each institution received advice from Santander’s cycle hire partner Nextbike on how to deliver a scheme and from

New software designed to reduce congestion, encourage active travel, improve the passenger experience and help transport operators run more efficient services is being showcased by a programme to support startups. The programme was developed by Nitrous - a company that encourages collaboration between startups and the public sector to help create smart cities - and supported by Transport for London (TfL).   Several hundred applications were received and these were whittled down to a short

Transport for London (TfL) has unveiled its plans to upgrade the streets of Nine Elms in south London to support regeneration in the area and make it better to use for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers. The 2.5km stretch of Nine Elms Lane and Battersea Park Road would be redesigned.

The Guardian yesterday highlighted the benefits of e-bikes and a new cycle-to-work scheme giving discounts to employees that organisations including the City of London and Heathrow Airport have signed up to. The article asserts that "the financial benefits of e-bikes are compelling," despite a cost of at least £1,000, and quotes Rob Howes, managing director at the cycle-to-work scheme, the Green Commute Initiative, as saying its research indicates that 43% of people who currently do not c

People-friendly streets planned for Waterloo and Lambeth Bridge Plans to make Lambeth Bridge and Waterloo roundabout more people-friendly have been published today by Transport for London (TfL).  The new layouts will improve conditions for walking, cycling and public transport, says TfL. Waterloo roundabout and Lambeth Bridge northern roundabout were identified by TfL as among the 73 junctions in the capital with the worst safety record for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Change

“The more visible the security, the less visible your scooter is to thieves: adding extra security makes it harder for them to steal.” This is the message of a Metropolitan Police advertising campaign that urges riders of scooters, motorcycles and mopeds to use more security to avoid the theft of their vehicles. Commissioner Cressida Dick launched the campaign on 23 June at a popular parking bay in St James’s Square in Westminster, a borough that has been widely affected by th

Planning guidance has been published for the redevelopment of Oxford’s railway station, a project that will provide more capacity for trains and remodelled interchange facilities.  Oxford station is already a bottleneck with only two through platforms to serve the Great Western services to/from London Paddington and the Cross Country services between the North/Midlands and Reading/South Coast. Since December, Chiltern services from London Marylebone have  operated into the north

On 12 June The Guardian devoted a lengthy article to the proposed ‘dockless’ bike hire due to open in Manchester at the end of the month. Describing the concept of dockless bike hire schemes as having “the potential to reshape the look and feel of many cities”, the paper suggested that this ‘Uber for bikes’ model “has seen virulent competition and bikes littered haphazardly around cities or dumped by the hundreds in bushes and alleyways” in the con

A dockless public bike hire system is to be piloted in Manchester. Chinese firm Mobike will provide 1,000 bikes in the six-month pilot scheme covers central Manchester and Salford. It is due to launch at the end of this month.  Mobike’s first scheme was launched in Shanghai last April and the company now operates in 100 cities across Singapore and China. The Manchester/ Salford trial is its first operation outside Asia.  An app enables users to locate a bike using inbuilt GPS

Transport for London has identified 25 connections in inner and outer London with major potential for more cycling.  The routes were identified through an exercise that began with an analysis of about eight million trips each day that could reasonably be cycled – so-called  ‘cyclable trips’.  The study made use of Cynemon, TfL’s new Cycle Network Model for London. This is a strategic transport model that estimates cycling routes, journey times and flows &

The need to create healthy streets is at the heart of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s first transport strategy, which sets out proposals to reshape transport in the capital over the next 25 years. The Draft Transport Strategy includes proposals for ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’ that encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport and to increase opportunities to use streets as public spaces and for play. The mayor wants to create ‘Healthy Routes’ - attra

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) says new proposals announced by the Mayor of London for road charging based on elements such as distance travelled and vehicle emissions could be a positive step for freight operators, provided they don’t simply add cost. The organisation, which represents half the UK’s road fleet, says it is interested in distance-based charging as an alternative to broad schemes such as congestion charging and low emission zones. However, the FTA says the pr

A new Quietway for cyclists that links Wanstead Flats and Barkingside in east London has been completed. The 14km route, funded by Transport for London (TfL) in partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge and sustainable transport charity Sustrans, makes full use of the newly-built bridge in Ilford’s Valentines Park, before heading through Wanstead Flats and across east London.  The Redbridge Quietway 6 gives riders a low-traffic, leafy cycle route, which is one of seven such Qu

Routes that have the biggest potential for growth in cycling trips in London based on current flows and forecast population and employment growth have been identified in a Strategic Cycling Analysis by TfL. The routes, almost all connected to central London and the fewest in west London, will "help to plan for future superhighways, quietways and liveable neighbourhoods," said TfL. The process included identifying the top 20% of busiest connections for current flows, and the the propensity of th

A 'smart' bike sharing scheme without docking stations or public funding that has proven popular in Asia is to launch in Manchester and Salford later this month. The Mobike scheme will launch with an initial 1,000 bikes accessible to anybody downloading the Mobike app after Mobike agreed a voluntary code of working with the city councils and Transport for Greater Manchester to ensure it does not inconvenience other road users. Mobikes are equipped with smart-lock technology and users are encour

Nottingham City Council’s pioneering scheme to transform the city by funding greener transport through a workplace parking levy and Birmingham Big Bikes scheme have shared the 2017 Ashden Award for Clean Air in Towns and Cities. The Ashden Awards are presented to pioneers in sustainable energy and are a globally recognised measure of excellence. Along with 12 other organisations, Nottingham City Council will receive its award on Thursday 15 June at a prestigious ceremony at the Royal

Sustrans Northern Ireland has launched a loyalty scheme designed to encourage more people to cycle to local shops and cafés in East Belfast. The ‘Pedal Perks’ initiative is part of the £3.8m (€4.4m) European

I wrote last time (LTT721) about a project I’m involved with that aims to breathe new life into around 300 miles of Ministry of Transport-funded segregated cycleways that were built in the late 1930s. Some of these became buried and lost, while others are hidden in plain sight. Some remain designated as cycle tracks, but other have long since been ‘repurposed’ as general carriageway. An update on the project was then on the front page of LTT723. It began by seeking ‘Kick

Joseph Seal-Driver has left car-sharing provider DriveNow, where he was UK director, to launch a new bike-sharing scheme. DriveNow is a joint venture of BMW and rental company Sixt.  Seal-Driver said: “When I joined DriveNow five years ago as the first international hire, the Munich team were cramped in one room and planning the second City launch. Since then DriveNow has established itself as a leading car-sharing service, operating from 12 European Cities with over 850,000 custome

As we consider new models of mobility – whether these are autonomous vehicles or Mobility as a Service packages – the interesting question arises, of the people you know, how might they be travelling in five or ten year’s time?  In the housing sector, an oft-overlooked likelihood is that about 80% of 2050s housing stock has already been built. In a similar vein, how similar will be people’s mobility lifestyles in 2050 to now? Who (and how many) might be travelling d

The City of York Council is to trial the light segregation of a cycle lane to protect it from motorists encroaching it as they pass over speed cushions.  Triple speed cushions have been installed across a carriageway at two sites close to a school on the Haxby Road. The council normally only installs two cushions but the width of the road justifies a third.  Drivers were expected to cross briefly into the advisory cycle lanes as they drove over the cushions but the practice has cause

A major change to traffic flow in the City of London came into effect this week with only buses and cycles being allowed to pass through Bank Junction outside Bank Tube station between 7am and 7pm Monday to Fridays. The restriction could be the precursor to a complete re-design of the junction by 2021 that would see the removal of all motorised traffic. Until this week the six-arm junction handled about 1,600 motor vehicles every hour of the day on weekdays. In the AM peak hour (08.00-09.00) th

Some of those attending this year’s Cycle City Active City arrived in style, riding into Bradford on the Cycle Superhighway from Leeds. Not surprisingly, several local delegates referred to the route with pride during the two-day event.  The fully segregrated 23km cycleway, completed last year, forms the centerpiece of a range of infrastructure projects being implemented in West Yorkshire. Phase 2 of the CityConnect project is now focusing on improving cycling infrastructure in Hudde

A Green Transport Act would be one of five environmental Acts tabled by the Liberal Democrats if they win power. The party says the acts are needed “to incorporate existing EU environmental protections, maintain product standards such as for energy efficiency, and establish a framework for continual improvement”.  There would also be a Zero-Carbon Britain Act, which would set new legally binding targets to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050.&

What the feature in the last issue on heavy goods vehicles shows is that bold freight policies are needed (‘Can’t live with them, can’t live without them: whither the HGV?’ LTT 12 May). We receive many requests for advice from the public on how to ameliorate the adverse impacts of lorries using unsuitable urban and rural roads. In the past, freight, which does not have a vote and was not seen as sexy, was often overlooked by politicians and officials alike. Growing aware

There is an urgent need for improved cycling infrastructure at junctions in Scotland, says Sustrans. Research carried out by the sustainable transport charity shows that roundabouts and T-junctions are the main cycle accident hotspots in Scotland. The findings, published by Sustrans’ Scottish Research Programme, were presented at the Scottish Transport Applications and Research (STAR) Conference in Glasgow yesterday. The research entitled ‘Cycling Safety in Scotland, Cycle Collisio

The Rail Delivery Group is mounting its second PlusBike campaign to inform occasional rail users of cycle parking facilities at rail stations.  This follows last year’s PlusBike marketing campaign, which resulted in an increase of awareness levels by 9% and more than doubled usage of cycle-rail facilities. The campaign also generated over 50,000 clicks through to the PlusBike webpage. The three-week online campaign runs from 22 May to 11 June. This will include canvas advertising o

A traffic ban at Bank Junction in the City of London comes into force today. Only buses and cycles will be allowed to use the junction from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday under the experimental traffic order imposed by the City of London Corporation. This marks the first phase of plans to totally re-design the junction by 2021, which could result in the removal of all motorised traffic. The 18-month trial will cut the number of casualties and improve air quality, without impacting on traffic flow

Stepped cycle tracks should be the default provision for cyclists on busy streets, according to design guidance prepared by Oxfordshire County Council. Presenting the guidance to councillors, Susan Halliwell, Oxfordshire’s director for planning and place, said stepped  cycle tracks (see image) were safer for cyclists than on-road cycle lanes.  “This style of cycle lane provides cyclists with their own space and helps ensure motor vehicles stay out of the cycle lane by rai

Persuading Londoners to walk and cycle more is an important part of mayor Sadiq Khan’s policy agenda. The person entrusted with the day-to-day delivery job is Will Norman, the mayor’s recently appointed walking and cycling commissioner. Appearing before the London Assembly’s transport committee last month, Norman explained that he’d spent six years working on ways to increase the population’s physical activity, the last three as director of global partnerships for s

Gwynedd Council has gone back to the drawing board in its quest for a safer way to accommodate cyclists and steam trains on a section of road.  The narrow-gauge Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) runs on rails set into the carriageway surface on the Britannia Bridge in Porthmadog. The track runs parallel to the kerb in the westbound traffic lane before crossing the eastbound lane. The entire section of road is treated as an elongated level crossing, with signals halting road vehicles at each end

Cycling UK is once more running its Big Bike Revival across England thanks to a further £1m funding from the Department for Transport (DfT). The six-week campaign, launched today, will offer free cycle checks, maintenance advice and tips on how to get cycling. Bike and accessory supplier, Halfords, community groups and bike recycling centres across the country are also partners in the campaign. The project seeks to encourage and inspire people to get on their bikes again, or cycle for the

Sustrans is to review the UK’s National Cycle Network and explore whether more of the network could be on traffic-free routes. The NCN project was launched by Sustrans in 1995 and the network now totals 16,000 miles, which is a mixture of traffic-free and on-road routes.   Sustrans chief executive Xavier Brice revealed the plans to review the NCN to LTT this week. “We are embarking on a review of the National Cycle Network – we’re just in the process of scoping it

English local authorities outside London are being invited to bid for consultancy support to prepare local walking and cycling infrastructure plans (LWCIPs).  Guidance on preparing the non-statutory plans has just been published by the DfT alongside the new Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (see above). The guidance draws on Transport for London’s cycle design guidance and the Welsh Government’s active travel guidance.  In preparing LWCIPs, the DfT says councils sho

A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians across the River Aire in Leeds opened this week. The Skelton Bridge opens up future access to Rothwell Country Park. Leeds City Council invested £500,000 and Sustrans designed and installed the structure. 

A bike share scheme in Glasgow looks set to more than double in size in response to demands for more stations from users, says the city council. The nextbike scheme was launched just before the Commonwealth Games in 2014 with 400 bikes located at 31 hire stations. Plans are in place to expand it to 900 bikes at 100 stations before the end of this year. Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety says: “The scheme has been a phenomenal success since it was launched and the people of Glasgo

Recently there has been a paradigm shift in approaches to active travel within the transport and urban planning industry. Just five years ago, cycling was still seen as a niche pursuit, often accommodated by paint on tarmac and the liberal sprinkling of ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs across the nation, while walking was considered something one did from the door to the car.  With growing awareness of active travel’s myriad benefits for air quality, public health, reducing cong

Once upon time, a certain country’s Ministry of Transport oversaw and largely funded the construction of high quality, Dutch-inspired, segregated cycle tracks alongside around 250 miles of roads. The country was England; and the time was the late 1930s. These facts have recently come to light due to the research that cycling historian and author Carlton Reid was undertaking for a forthcoming book (called Bike Boom). But it’s not just the facts that have lain hidden for the best part

The Leeds to Bradford Cycle Superhighway is changing driver behaviour for the better and opening up cycling to “ordinary people”, believes Pete Zanzottera, a member of the CityConnect advisory group that helped shape the 23km route. The CityConnect project is funded by the Department for Transport’s Cycle City Ambition Grant, which awarded £60m to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and local authority partners for two phases of improvements, which are due to be comple

Recently there has been a paradigm shift in approaches to active travel within the transport and urban planning industry. Just five years ago, cycling was still seen as a niche pursuit, often accommodated by paint on tarmac and the liberal sprinkling of ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs across the nation, while walking was considered something one did from the door to the car.  With growing awareness of active travel’s myriad benefits for air quality, public health, reducing cong

A £1.2bn plan to make cycling and walking mainstream modes of travel for shorter journeys has been published today by the government.  The Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged to double cycling, reduce bike-related accidents and increase the proportion of 5 to 10 year-olds walking to school to 55% by 2025. Funding will be allocated to a wide range of projects designed to create safer cycling routes, new cycle links between city centres, provide more cycle proficiency and safet

Cycling to work could almost halve the risk of developing cancer and heart disease, according to new research from the University of Glasgow published today. The research found that commuting by bike was linked with a 45% lower risk of developing cancer and a 46% lower risk of heart disease, compared with a non-active commute. Those who cycled to work had a 41% lower risk of premature death, the study found. The study analysed data from 263,450 participants at 22 sites across the UK. 

A bike share scheme in Glasgow looks set to more than double in size in response to demands for more stations from users, says the city council. The nextbike scheme was launched just before the Commonwealth Games in 2014 with 400 bikes located at 31 hire stations. Plans are in place to expand it to 900 bikes at 100 stations before the end of this year. Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety says: “The scheme has been a phenomenal success since it was launched and the people of Glasgo

There has been plenty of debate across West Yorkshire and beyond about the Leeds to Bradford Cycle Superhighway, which was completed last summer. The 23km route – the flagship of the CityConnect project – is the largest scheme of its kind outside of London. Questions have been raised about the route’s impact on traffic levels, the safety of bus stop bypasses for passengers and whether it will encourage people who have never cycled before to get in the saddle for everyday journ

In theory, the collection of robust and (where possible) impartial data allows people and organisations to make informed decisions about policy and investment. This could be about geographical patterns of travel demand, trends, and better understanding of what might drive demand into the future. In practice, this may not be borne out in reality, as shown elegantly in the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s recent report The end of the road? Challenging the road-building consensus (LTT 31 M

ScotRail looks set to halve bike storage capacity on long distance services. Currently four bikes are allowed on each train, but once the operator rolls out its new high speed train (HST) fleet this will drop to two. Franchise holder Abellio plans to start introducing the HST fleet from 2018 onwards. The 26-train fleet, which will comprise 54 power cars and 121 carriages, are actually refurbished 40 year-old InterCity 125 High Speed Trains (HST) first introduced in England in 1977. The rail op

Transport for London (TfL) is offering more open data about cycle routes in the capital in a bid to encourage app developers to improve their products. TfL has added mapping information for eight Cycle Superhighways and one Quietway to their open data portal, allowing developers to make it easier for Londoners to find and use the best cycle routes.  The additional information will enable developers to accurately map out the existing network, says TfL. This can be combined with previously

Camden Council has signed up to a construction industry standard that aims to improve road safety. The London borough has joined some 400 construction industry members of CLOCS (Construction Logistics and Community Safety). While the construction industry has signed up in numbers, councils have been far slower on the uptake. Camden Council is one of just two London two local authorities, along with the City of London, to join the scheme so far. The focus on work related road risk is a new devel

The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is working with the City of London to find out the views of cyclists who cycle to or through the Square Mile. The City of London Corporation is keen to encourage more people to safely cycle and walk within its boundaries and has set up Active City Network to bring businesses together. The Square Mile Cycle Survey seeks feedback on experiences of cycling in the Square Mile, what sort of cycling facilities are offered in the workplace. LCC said the survey should

There has been plenty of debate across West Yorkshire and beyond about the Leeds to Bradford Cycle Superhighway, which was completed last summer. The 23km route – the flagship of the CityConnect project – is the largest scheme of its kind outside of London. Questions have been raised about the route’s impact on traffic levels, the safety of bus stop bypasses for passengers and whether it will encourage people who have never cycled before to get in the saddle for everyday journ

‘Smarter choices’ have been in the news again recently. The Behavioural Insight Team reported that several ‘low-cost behaviour change interventions’ designed to reduce commuting to Heathrow Airport made no measurable difference. Their comments on evaluation methods (“don’t trust self-reported surveys”) have re-opened a long-running controversy: how do we know any of these measures actually work? ‘Smarter choices’ is a catch-all phrase, encom

In the early 1990s, German cities began to reconsider their basic principles for urban transportation. The key idea was that traffic should no longer dominate the city, which  should instead aim to become a livable, healthy and attractive place for people rather than cars. But these matters were, at the time, exclusively discussed amongst Germany’s major capitals and key university towns. Cities like Hamm in Westfalia, an unremarkable place hidden on the fringe of the Ruhr industrial

The centre of Oldham, Greater Manchester, has been turned into a cyclist and pedestrian-friendly zone. The £1.8m scheme involves a number of measures in the King Street area to reduce the impact of traffic and make it a safer and more attractive public space. The road has been reduced from four lanes of traffic to two, with wider pavements, new wide cycle and pedestrian crossings close to the new leisure centre, with improved street lighting, bus shelters and cycle parking facilities.&nbs

The 100th Bikehangar has been installed in the London borough of Waltham Forest, with another 30 to be added over the summer. The first units were installed in 2015 as part of the council’s Mini Holland programme to make the borough more cyclist and pedestrian-friendly. Additional funding for the secure storage units has come from the Mayor of London’s Borough Cycling Programme. Each Bikehangar, which can store six cycles, is 2.5 metres in length, taking up half a car parking s

Plans for a 366-mile cycling network linking all the major towns, workplaces and transport hubs across Oxfordshire has been submitted to the county council by a cycling campaign group. The Oxfordshire Cycling Network (OCN) calculates that the new route would cost £120m to build, and would improve safety levels and encourage cycling among people of all abilities. This would increase cycling from the current 3% of all journeys to 10%, resulting in £112m worth of savings a year, 80% of

Elevated cycleways and automated underground bike storage feature in concept designs proposed for Waterloo in London and Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens. The designs have been created by cycle manufacturer Ribble Cycles and a panel of transport planning consultants, university lecturers and regional directors. Based on existing examples from around the world, these future urban landscapes are designed to stimulate the debate surrounding urban cycling and inner city planning. Ribble Cycle

Work to make Westminster Bridge more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly is due to start at the end of March. The 155-year-old structure will become the fourth bridge in central London to have segregated cycle lanes, with the south-side junction re-modeled to make it easier to cross for pedestrians. The re-worked layout will improve pedestrian access with three upgraded pedestrian crossings and new pedestria

Lancashire county Council may repay hundreds of penalty charge notices issued to drivers who entered a remodelled bus-only street in Preston. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal ruled that drivers faced difficulties seeing the restriction sign because they were having to be vigilant for pedestrians crossing the street. The case concerns Fishergate in Preston, the busy east-west shopping street close to the city’s railway station. Major public realm improvements were made to the street in 2014, r

Parkex, the British Parking Association’s annual conference, celebrates its silver jubilee this year. The three-day parking event runs parallel to Traffex at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC). Over 70 companies will be showcasing the latest products and services available to the parking sector in Hall 5 at the NEC between 4-6 April. Companies on show will include payment equipment manufacturers, digital parking solution developers, enforcement IT specialists and traffic

There is a common perception that all a town or city centre needs to do to thrive is to provide ample, free parking. But encouraging people to visit a particular high street or shopping centre is a more complex equation. I recently held a business focus group and workshop to try and identify some of the major challenges facing the town centre. I’m sure many places would be able to identify with the issues that came up. Firstly, I asked: “What is the biggest challenge facing the town

Parking & Property 2017 8 June: 15 Hatfields, London Parking & Property is the only annual event dedicated to off-street parking. Over the past 7 years the conference has provided a forum for debate and sharing best practice among public and private sector car park owners and operators, developers, planners and companies supplying design and equipment services. The conference content is developed by Nigel Williams, managing director of Parking Matters, and Mark Moran, editor of

Brighton’s £1.45m cycle hire scheme is due to begin operation in June, with up to 430 new ‘social bicycle’ (SOBI) smartbikes available for residents and visitors to hire from hubs and docking stations. Popular sites, including the seafront and Brighton Station, have been put forward as potential docking stations, with the scheme also planned to operate along the A27 corridor, heading out to the university campus sites at Falmer. Brighton & Hove City Council est

Parking projects that seek to make the lives of children safer and easier where among the winners at the British Parking Awards 2017, which took place on Friday 10 March. Kent County Council won the Front Line Award for its Responsible Parking Squad initiative. The council has devised a toolkit of materials and techniques that can be used by pupils at secondary schools to tackle the problem of dangerous parking and driving, especially during the school run. The London Borough of Wandsworth rec

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2017 will be revealed at an awards ceremony in London on 10 March. The British Parking Awards were launched by Parking Review magazine in 2002 to recognise achievement and best practice in the design and management of parking. With winners selected by a jury of their peers, the British Parking Parking Awards logo and trophy have become a respected and coveted mark of excellence among parking professionals. Below we provide a guide to the finalists. Par

New Cycle Superhighways may well initially increase journey times locally for those driving, but this would disappear in time, while the benefits would be an overall reduction of motor traffic and pollution across the whole road network, Cycling UK has told the House of Commons Transport Committee. The charity's policy director Roger Geffen said that localised journey times by motor vehicles may increase, as has happened on London’s East–West Cycle Super Highway. But this would

The London Borough of Redbridge has been through a period of self-scrutiny, renewal and reinvention over the past 12 months. Since the arrival of new chief executive Andy Donald a year ago there have been big changes, with a new structure put in place.  Transport matters sit within the civic pride section of the place directorate. Mirsad Bakalovic, the head of civic pride, was previously head of parking, mobility and transport services at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and, before tha

The benefits of walking range from positively impacting local economic growth, to being effective as a prevention to and treatment of physical and mental health conditions. Despite this, 69% of short journeys are still taken by car and there has been a national decline in walking activity. 1  Encouraging the uptake of walking as a natural choice for shorter journeys will require us to think of longer term solutions, to ensure our walking networks are fit for purpose. Local networks will ne

Hull has one of the greatest potentials for cycle commuting of any English city, according to research using the DfT’s Propensity to Cycle software. Using 2011 Census data about main mode of journey to work, the software tool estimates which journeys could be easily switched to cycling, based on journey distance and topography.  Researchers tested two scenarios. In Go Dutch, they applied Dutch rates for cycle commuting to England, adjusting for distance and hilliness. In the Ebikes

Andy Burnham has promised to “re-regulate” Greater Manchester’s bus network if he becomes the conurbation’s first directly elected mayor. But he stopped short of committing to use the franchising powers of the Bus Services Bill. The Labour candidate in the 4 May election has pledged to end the “free-for-all” of buses on the conurbation’s road network.  In a campaign video highlighting the conurbation’s poor air quality, he said: “For 3

A guide designed to help local authorities understand the opportunities and challenges presented by rapidly accelerating advances in transport technology has been published by the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) and ITS (UK). The second edition of the Local Authority Guide to Emerging Transport Technology is targeted at local government officers, elected members and their consultants and explains how technology can aid delivery of a range of policy objectives, from reducing em

Sedentary lifestyles are too common these days, and this comes at great cost to our health and to the public purse. But building in 20 minutes of recommended physical activity every day isn’t always easy. One way to change this would be to make physical activity part of our daily routine, and this is where the PASTA project comes in. The EU-funded project PASTA – Physical Activity Through Sustainable Transport Approaches – aims to connect transport and health by promoting activ

The City of Cardiff Council is to remove recently installed  signage on a shared pedestrian/cycle path that sees the cycle route end at every bus stop.  The authority installed the signs in Birchgrove last year as part of its remodelling of Caerphilly Road to include bus lanes. On the approach to each bus stop an ‘End of Route’ sign appears for cyclists, followed by a shared space sign a few metres beyond. In one erroneous arrangement, northbound cyclists encounter ‘

Glasgow City Council has awarded Nextbike UK a seven-year contract to operate the city’s public bike hire scheme. Nextbike has operated Glasgow’s mass automated cycle hire (MACH) scheme since its  launch in 2014. The new contract will see the scheme expanded from the current 435 bikes and 43 docking stations across the city, to 900 bikes and 100 stations. The contract includes the option of  two further one-year extensions.  By the end of the procurement process, Nex

Two apprentices have been appointed by Sustrans to help restore a cycling and walking route in Cumbria. The sustainable transport charity Sustrans has appointed Todd Dixon from Whitehaven and Connor O’Neill from Maryport, who are both 18, to work on the new project, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. They will work on the Track of the Ironmasters path, which is on the Sea to Sea cycle and walking route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth. The apprentices will be attached to Sustra

More than 600,000 journeys were made using the capital’s hire bikes in January, reports Transport for London (TfL). Some 638,491 trips were made using the Santander cycle hire scheme last month beating last year’s January record of 586,325, says TfL.  Last year 10.3m hires were made using Santander Cycles – a 4.4% increase on 2015. In total since the scheme was launched in July 2010, there have been more than 56m journeys, says TfL. Improvements made to the scheme last y

The European bike sharing market is expected to double from 151,302 units in 2016 to 341,250 units by 2025, according to new forecasts from innovation & growth strategy partnership Frost & Sullivan. As densely populated urban centres all over the world grapple with issues of rising fuel consumption and carbon emissions, green mobility solutions such as public bike sharing service (BSS) are becoming more prominent, say the partnership. Growing congestion, volatile fuel costs and high pa

Councils are using humour to raise awareness of road safety issues among children and parents. They are handing out booklets, by creative agency Serious Comedy, which feature amusing scenarios to shed light on dangerous parking and driving as well as offering children advice on how to cycle safely to school. One of the guides - ‘Should You Sack Your Chauffeur?’ - shows parents committing offences such as using a mobile phone while driving, to the chagrin and dismay of their child pa

A cycling strategy is not only about getting more people on bikes. It’s about positive development and health, it’s about safety, social equality and well-being. That's what cycling and walking strategies can deliver. Policy, planning and urban design is part of the mix: it’s about tying these things together, and it transcends a transport plan. We need to change the conversation. We need to go back to first principles and talk about people. This includes understanding how we d

The ambitious targets range from doubling cycling, reversing the decline in walking activity, reducing cyclist fatalities or serious injuries and increasing the number of children (aged 5-10 years) walking to school. The benefits are far-reaching, from encouraging local economic growth, to positively impacting health and well-being and promoting sustainable transport modes. However local authorities must recognise the true value the strategy can bring, and commit to developing bespoke plans for

We may not be able to predict what the future of transport will be, but we can be sure of what it will not be. And we can be wiser. There is no need to scan deeply into the horizon to spot the green shoots of change: they are everywhere to see. We may not be sure exactly what shape it will take, but we know that the revolution in transportation and travel habits is going to be big. Increased robotics are already in every new vehicle: assisted parking, sensors, automated efficiency, and even sof

Transport secretary Chris Grayling’s apparent antipathy to cyclists (LTT 20 Jan) continued to generate some ripples in the media in late January/early February. In The Oxford Mail’s ‘On yer bike’ column on 31 January, for example, Alison Hill observed: “Extraordinary statements from our transport secretary continue. First he says that people on bikes are not road users. Now we hear he has taken against London’s cycle superhighways, which he considers take spac

Plans that would make ‘direct vision’ cabs compulsory on HGVs in the capital have been published by Transport for London (TfL). This follows research for TfL proving that having direct vision from the cab of a lorry rather than relying on mirrors and monitors has a substantial impact on improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. TfL has published a consultation into the use of its world-first ‘zero to five star’ Direct Vision Standard for HGVs operating in the L

January – the time for fresh starts, a time when many of us will be resolving to get healthy – to go to the gym every day after work perhaps, or to join that running club. These good intentions can be hard to sustain as the winter chill draws you indoors towards box sets and comfort food. Fortunately, there is a way to boost your physical activity level without breaking too much of a sweat. It could be as simple as changing the way you travel. Transport is among the key issues deter

There are three pillars of sustainability that must be appropriately addressed to achieve meaningful results; be it in transport, housing or any other sector. You could think of these as three interstitial layers, each necessary in their own right, to create a functional system of sustainability: economic, environmental and societal requirements. The success of one relies on the others, and our focus will be on the most neglected of the trio, society.  The societal impact of sustainability

The London Borough of Redbridge has been through a period of self-scrutiny, renewal and reinvention over the past 12 months. Since the arrival of new chief executive Andy Donald a year ago there have been big changes, with a new structure comprising four directorates: People, Place, Resources and Strategy. Parking, traffic management and transport now sit in Place, which is made up of three sections – Regeneration & Property, Housing and Civic Pride.  Civic Pride also covers high

The government has today announced 64m funding for a host of active travel projects across the UK. Big winners include Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which will get £7.5m and Bristol City Council £6.9m. In a consortium bid Blackpool Council will get £7.498m with Buckinghamshire County Council, Hertfordshire County Council, North East Combined Authority, Stoke on Trent, West Sussex, Hampshire, Leicester, North Lincolnshire and Surrey county councils. Landor LINK

In the early days of 2017 it seemed, according to media reports at least, as if senior Conservative Party figures really had it in for Britain’s cyclists. On 6 January, for example, The BBC reported that Tory party grandee Lord Michael Heseltine had been fined £5,000 for knocking a cyclist off his bike whilst driving. “Heseltine pulled out of a lane and into the path of the cyclist,” The BBC reported. “The cyclist had multiple injuries, including a broken arm and sh

Some of Europe’s leading cycling practitioners will converge on Bradford, West Yorkshire, this May for Cycle City Active City.  Now in its fifth year, the two-day event has earned a reputation for lively presentations, stimulating debates, an exhibition covering all aspects of active travel, ‘speed learning’ sessions and city cycle tours. This year’s event, taking place on 11-12 May, will be hosted by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and organised

Work has started on extending a cycle route in Salford, Greater Manchester, to boost access to job opportunities, leisure facilities and green spaces. The development of the Port Salford Greenway will see the existing £1m, one-mile route in Winton extended by a further mile to the Bridgewater Canal in Worsley, to provide a cycling route that avoids the busy Barton and Worsley Roads. The new route, which is being delivered by Salford City Council, is part of the Cycle City programme led b

The long list of entries to the British Parking Awards 2017 has been unveiled. This year the competition has attracted over 90 submissions that are now being assessed by the jury.The British Parking Awards encompass the worlds of traffic management, architecture, enforcement, technology and property.This year there are entries from local authorities, commercial operators, rail companies, universities, retailers, consruction companies, equipment suppliers and many others. To see the 2017 entry li

Birmingham City Council is refocusing its cycling investment programme to deliver fewer, higher quality on-road cycle routes, following criticism that recently implemented schemes are too basic. The council is also to investigate a public bike hire scheme for the city. The £57.9m Birmingham Cycling Revolution programme is part-funded by a £39.1m contribution from the DfT’s Cycle Cities Ambition Grant. The council and local contributions are providing £12m, and Greater Bi

For the first time ever a full-time walking and cycling commissioner for London has been appointed. Nike director Will Norman has been given the role of helping deliver the pledge to get more Londoners active by making cycling and walking safer and easier in the capital. Norman will work closely with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Deputy Mayor for Transport Val Shawcross and Transport for London (TfL). Sadiq Khan said: “I’m determined to make walking and cycling safer and easier for a

The City of London Corporation this week approved plans to ban all but buses and cyclists from one of the Square Mile’s busiest junctions between 0700 and 1900 Mondays-Fridays.  The six-arm Bank junction outside Bank Tube station handles about 1,600 motor vehicles every hour of the day on weekdays. In the AM peak hour (08.00-09.00) cycling accounts for 50% of all vehicles and there are about 18,000 pedestrian crossing movements. In the five years ending November 2014 the junction had

Derby City Council is to procure a public bike hire scheme.  “Based on the available funding we would expect an initial scheme with around 15 docking stations and 115 bikes,” said Martin Rawson, Derby’s cabinet member for communities and city centre regeneration. The scheme’s actual size will be decided through the procurement process.  The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership has pledged a capital grant of £480,000 towards setting up the scheme and the Uni

The capital’s new East-West and North-South cycle superhighways have attracted huge numbers of cyclists but led to heavier delays for motor vehicles, with some journeys across central London taking up to 15 minutes longer. A report on the impacts of the superhighways programme was presented to Transport for London’s programmes and investment committee by Ben Plowden, TfL’s director of strategy and planning, and Alan Bristow, director of road space management. In the five mont

Transport for London aims to break-even on its day-to-day operations in 2021/22 by growing public transport passenger volumes, delivering a £4bn programme of efficiencies, and increasing commercial revenues from advertising, consultancy, and property.  TfL’s net cost of operations, taking into account capital renewals and financing costs, is forecast to show a deficit of £793m this year (2016/17).  The organisation’s financial projections are set out in the ne

Edinburgh’s newest train-tram interchange opened for commuter travel on 11 December. The £41m Edinburgh Gateway, in the west of the city, offers increased travel options for passengers from Fife and the north giving easier access to the Edinburgh tram network and the city’s airport. The new station has two 265 metre, 10-car platforms with 1,500 metre squared concourse and circulation space. A step-free access bridge links the platforms within the station and connects to the tr

The widespread use of “risk averse” autonomous vehicles could make roads safer for pedestrians, resulting in people-friendly neighbourhoods, according to a new study from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Self-driving cars will “slow down and yield” to pedestrians and cyclists, said author Adam Millard-Ball, assistant professor at the university’s environmental studies department. “Autonomous vehicles could empower cyclists to ‘take the lane&rs

Getting people to change how they drive, installing more cycle lanes and clean air zones plus the introduction of congestion charging will help combat air pollution, states a draft consultation by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Charge points for electric vehicles should be installed in residential areas and commercial developments, says the organisation, which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care.  Councils should draw up t

Funding for cycling projects in the capital is set to nearly double, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledging £154m a year over the next five years. The investment will form part of Transport for London’s (TfL) five-year draft Business Plans. During his second term as London mayor, Boris Johnson spent £79m a year on cycling, said TfL. Khan, who was elected Mayor of London in May, had pledged in his manifesto to increase the proportion of TfL’s budget spent on cycling. Unde

The efficient management of the kerbside and roadspace is essential to the health, wealth and vitality of urban centres. These were central themes of Parking World 2016, which took place in London on 24 November.  Over 250 people attended Parking World to listen to a programme featuring over 50 speakers from across UK and Europe. There were presentations by local authorities, academics, consultants, architects, technologists, campaigners and contractors. The programme was devised by Mark

Councillors in Cambridgeshire have approved plans to remodel a roundabout in the city into a ‘Dutch-style’ that will improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. Vanessa Kelly from the council’s cycling projects team said the Fendon Road/Queen Edith’s Way roundabout had a poor safety record and was a major barrier to increased walking and cycling.  “There have been 15 accidents at the roundabout over the past five years, 14 of which involved a car and a bi

Using plainclothes police to track ‘close pass’ incidents is making drivers show more consideration to cyclists, says West Midlands Police. Deniz Huseyin reports West Midlands Police is pioneering a new approach to tackling motorists who fail to leave a safe distance when passing cyclists. Plainclothes officers on bikes are recording ‘close pass’ offences, with colleagues stopping offending drivers and giving them anything from on-the-spot education to prosecution. 

The benefits of pedestrian-friendly streets and innovative traffic management measures were recognised at an awards ceremony staged by built environment network The Academy of Urbanism on Wednesday night.   Among the winners was Wood Street in Walthamstow, north-east London, which took the Great Street award. The judging panel noted “traffic management had made the street more attractive to all”. Wood Street has been given a new lease of life in recent year thanks to £1.5

Plans for the UK’s first Dutch-style roundabout have been approved by Cambridgeshire County Council’s Economy & Environment Committee. The Fendon Road/Queen Edith’s Way roundabout in Cambridge will be designed to provide better walking and cycling access. The improvements are vital as more housing and employment is planned for the area, said Vanessa Kelly from the council’s Cycling Projects Team. “We are anticipating over 10,000 new jobs by 2026 at nearby Addenb

The British Parking Awards 2017 are open for entries. The annual competition recognises excellence in parking policy, design and management. The awards span the on-street and off-street parking sectors, encompassing the planning, design and management of both structures and operations. There are also categories that recognise the achievements of individuals and teams working in the parking sector. The awards also categories that recognise innovative systems and business approaches. The categor

The efficient management of the kerbside and roadspace is essential to the health, wealth and vitality of urban centres. This will be a central theme of Parking World 2016, which takes place at the Kia Oval in London on 24 November.  There will be sessions on: the provision and regulation of parking in town and city centres; the workplace parking levy concept; fighting Blue Badge fraud; and the development of online parking payment and booking services. To book your place click here (Quot

The bicycle is an incredible invention. It’s a social leveller, the second cheapest mode (after walking), leads to healthier people and cuts congestion and emissions. There are also still far more bikes in the world than cars. Rather than being displaced by the internal combustion engine, the humble bike is busy reinventing itself as an increasingly important component of future travel and future lifestyles. Whilst there must be access for those who cannot walk or cycle, active travel has

The City of Edinburgh Council is to order additional secure cycle lockers for residential streets following successful trials. The provision of residential cycle parking is a problem in many parts of the Edinburgh, notably the city’s inner-city tenement housing.  In the two-year trial, three designs of on-street locker were installed at five locations, at a cost of about £30,000. The 51 bike spaces were offered to residents on a ‘first come first served’ basis at n

It was formed in 1878, describes itself as the world’s oldest transport organisation and now has 67,000 members. But Cycling UK, as it renamed itself earlier this year, is now taking steps to become a modern, forward-looking outfit. Formerly the Cyclists’ Touring Club and, before that, the Bicycle Touring Club, the organisation’s  transition has been spearheaded by Paul Tuohy, who took over as chief executive in 2014. Perhaps surprisingly, the organisation only became a c

With a population of nearly 2.5 million people in its greater metropolitan area, Vienna is the largest city in Austria. The city is actively taking forward measures to improve sustainable transport, including stringent parking space management and improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. These policies are outlined in STEP 2025, Vienna City Council's Urban Development Plan, of which Andreas Trisko, Head of Department of Urban Development and Planning, City of Vienna, was a key contribu

Tyne and Wear Metro has extended a cycle trial allowing customers to travel with non-folding bikes. A limited trial was launched earlier this year to test how far it was possible to support onward travel for cyclists with non-folding bikes without impacting on safety and comfort of other passengers or causing delays and other disruption. Metro managers have now decided to extend the trial for a further six months until the end of March 2017. This will enable customers to continue taking non-fol

There has been a 95% drop in general traffic on Oxford Road into Manchester city centre since the installation of a ‘bus gate’ and cyclist and pedestrian friendly measures, reports Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). Since new ‘Dutch-style’ cycle lanes have been introduced and bus gates were installed in September traffic heading into the city on Oxford Road has fallen from 5,000 cars to fewer than 250. The ‘bus gate’ has resulted in quicker bus service

A host of high-flying innovators and operators received prizes and plaudits at the 2016 National Cycle-Rail Awards hosted by the Rail Delivery Group last week. The Best Customer Service award was won by East Midlands Trains, which now provides seven large, secure, free-to-use hubs on its network. East Midlands Trains was also named Operator of the Year in recognition of improved signage  on trains, staff training, and heightened engagement with cyclists and cycle user groups.  The op

A personal transportation system designed to fit neatly into the boot space usually occupied by a car’s spare wheel is among the finalists in a Ford challenge to create future mobility solutions for urban areas. The Carr-E, developed by Kilian Vas, a Ford systems engineer based in Cologne, Germany, was among 633 proposals for persona

More than 200 delegates attended Transforming London Streets at Southwark Cathedral to explore the ways in which public spaces and cycling and walking infrastructure in the capital are changing. The event, organised by Landor LINKS and hosted by Southwark Council, brought together experts from local government, government agencies, consultancies, academia, equipment and service providers and campaign groups. The programme encompassed placemaking, regeneration, behaviour change, technology, comm

There is now considerable interest in how the transport sector makes places as well as connects them, says Jonathan Bray, Director, Urban Transport Group, in conversation with Juliana O'Rourke, programme developer for the Better Places Symposium and a director of the Better Places Network. The past focus on connecting places has been expressed via an interest in journey times and capacity and, although these issues remain important, there is now more attention paid to how well-designed and appr

On 1st January this year, legislation decreed that British cyclists who are over 14 can use a 250 watt electric motor to supplement their pedal power on public highways. Please note the significance of the word ‘supplement’; it means the motor cannot be the sole power source of the vehicle. This puts us in line with the Dutch, the Germans and the French, and the bike motors they produce. Because I am retired and out-of-touch, I was unaware of this, and while searching the internet f

Transport is experiencing a period of disruption. New thinking, new business models, new technologies and new channels for sharing and engagement are combining to offer real potential for positive change. Join us on 24 November to meet expert international speakers and hear them explain how towns and cities can make the most of these new opportunites. Become part of the Better Places Network to remain involved with news, developments and best practice. Why?

Blaze Laserlights have been fitted to 4,000 on London’s Santander hire bikes to make users more visible at night. Over the next nine months the lights will be fitted to all 11,500 hire bikes, said Transport for London (TfL). The Blaze Laserlight, developed by Emily Brooke, projects the symbol of a bicycle six metres in front of the cycle, onto the ground.  Over the winter months the number of rides each day falls below the warmer seasons, but TfL hopes the lights will encourage more

The public will soon be able to get a subsidy for electric motorcycles and scooters, which has so far only been available for four wheel vehicles, says the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA). The announcement is part of a £35m boost for ultra-low emission vehicles. MCIA has been involved in negotiations with the Office for Low Emission vehicles (OLEV), the government department which encourages low emission vehicles, for the past three years. An initial announcement about ex

One of Nottingham’s busiest routes is to be turned into an ‘Eco Expressway’, with priority given to buses, bikes and electric vehicles. The six-mile route will run between the city centre and Vale Road in Colwick, via Manvers Street and Daleside Road.  Work started on 3 October and will be delivered in phases, with the first phase due to be completed by March 2017. The upgrade will see a new cycle route and a road lane for electric vehicles and buses. Next year a fleet

Since opening in the late summer, the Leeds-Bradford Cycle Superhighway has not been without its critics. Both local press and national cycling publications have questioned some of the designs, mainly focusing on narrow bus stop bypasses. However, early monitoring has shown the route has seen a 30% increase in cycle trips in the area. Part of the funding for the route came from the Department for Transport’s Cycle City Ambition Grant (CCAG). Cycling infrastructure experts found out more a

A debate is raging in the media over the impact of segregated cycleways on traffic after The Daily Mail ran a widely-shared article asserting that they are causing "gridlock". The Daily Mail article quotes business group London First saying that the reduction in roadspace for motorised traffic caused by the cycling superhighways is increasing journey times and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association that "when you take away something like 25 per cent of the capacity, as they have in some places,

Exeter's first electric bike hire scheme will begin operation on 13 October, with hubs at Exeter Central rail station, Digby & Sowton park & ride and the Forum on the university’s Streatham Campus. The scheme will be run by Co-bikes, a subsidiary of Co-cars, the hire-by-the-hour car club in the South West. Registered users will be able to hire the power-assisted bicycles for as little as 75p a time. Members will be able to hire the battery-assisted e-bikes from hubs

The bicentenary of the bicycle next year is being celebrated in Germany with the issuing of a €20 Euro coin (£18). Featuring the Laufmaschine, the "running machine" that later started to morph into the bike as we know it. The Laufmaschine – or draisine – was invented by Baron Karl von Drais of Mannheim, Germany, in 1817. Drais was a civil servant who created his machine as a horse substitute. In 1815, dust from the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia covered the Northe

Sainsbury’s is using bikes to carry out deliveries for the first time in 116 years. Customers will be able to order up to 20 items via the supermarket’s app Chop Chop, for delivery by cargo bike within the hour. The service costs £4.99 per delivery, but for now is will only be available in parts of south and west London, and only to iPhone users. Sainsbury’s has recruited a team of 40 shoppers and cyclists to run the service. It says the app will be useful for buyi

PARK(ing) Day is an annual event that sees cities around the world convert parking bays into ‘Parklets’, temporary spaces where people can sit, talk, read books, listen to music and play games. This year’s event took place on 16 September, with an estimated 1,000 parklets being created in around 35 countries. PARK(ing) Day was launched in 2005 in San Francisco by an art and design collective called Rebar. Their original intention was to take over a parking bay for a couple of

Many bridges have been built in recent years to provide routes for cyclists and pedestrians. However, with distressing frequency, these bridges have proved not fit for purpose.  In July a cyclist was seriously injured after he fell off his bike on the new Twin Sails Bridge in Poole. The cyclist, Andrew Gay, fell against barriers and seriously gashed his arm, which resulted in him needing 40 stitches.  There have been other incidents relating to this bridge, but nothing seems to have

The winners of the Cycle Planning Awards 2016 were announced at Glaziers Hall, Southwark, last week. The awards ceremony took place after the Transforming London Streets event, organised by Landor LINKS and sponsored by AECOM and Project Centre. With 90 entries submitted, which were then whittled down to a shortlist of 32, there was fierce competition for the eight categories, judged by a panel of respected figures from the world of cycling.  The chair of the judging panel was Philip Darn

The winners of the Cycle Planning Awards 2016 were announced at Glaziers Hall, Southwark last night. With 90 entries submitted, which were then whittled down to a shortlist of 32, there was fierce competition for the eight categories, judged by a panel of respected figures from the world of cycling.  The chair of the judging panel was Philip Darnton OBE, executive director of the Bicycle Association. Other members of the panel were:  Dr Rachel Aldred, senior lecturer in transport at W

Measures designed to encourage active travel at a business park on the outskirts of Newcastle have resulted in a 20% drop in car use since 2008, a travel survey of businesses has revealed.  Quorum Business Park said that the number of employees using bus services has risen by 33% since 2008 when active travel incentives were introduced. In addition, regular cycle use to and from the site has increased from 2% to 6% since 2012, Quorum’s commuter centre manager Laura McVittie told Loca

A new 100-space cycle hub has opened at Winchester rail station as part of a £3.8m investment to deliver 1,400 extra cycling spaces at 36 stations across the South West Trains network by the end of the year. The hub has two-tiered racks and free to use cycle maintenance equipment, including pump, tools and stand. It is fully enclosed, providing shelter from the weather with 24/7 CCTV for additional security and a real-time information display screen. It has been developed in partnership

The Urban Transport Group is telling the political parties that the city regions are delivering transport improvements but are stymied by fluctuating local transport funding and uncertainty over bus franchising. The transport authorities' report highlights the expansion of the Manchester Metrolink, overhaul of the Tyne and Wear Metro and introduction of cycleways as evidence of success but says that Government makes the job harder with unpredictable transport funding subject to resource-hungry

West Midlands Police has become the first force in the UK to target ‘close pass’ drivers who endanger cyclists. Plainclothes officers will patrol some of the region’s busiest routes on bikes looking out for motorists who put cyclists at risk. Rules of the road stipulate motorists should give cyclists at least the same space as vehicles when overtaking. Anyone encroaching inside that safe passing distance − widely considered to be a minimum of 1.5 metres − runs the

Air quality in Edinburgh has shown a marked improvement so far this year compared with 2015, with 97% of the city’s streets meeting required standards, according to the city council. New nitrogen dioxide monitoring data covering January to August 2016 demonstrates a 33% improvement at St John's Road compared with the same period last year, while emissions on Glasgow Road at the Newbridge Roundabout are down by more than a fifth since 2015, says the council. A significant source of nitroge

Six new cycleways have opened in Greater Manchester, in the first phase of the conurbation’s £42m DfT-funded Cycle City programme. The Broughton Cycleway (pictured) between Broughton and Manchester city centre features low-level plastic blocks and traffic islands to separate cyclists and traffic along its 2km route. Transport for Greater Manchester says it is the longest cycleway of this type in the UK. The other five routes are from Timperley to Manchester Airport; Altrincham to Man

Welcome to my new monthly column on shared transport. I’m going to use this column to explore the shared transport landscape and some of the tectonic shifts that are currently shaping it. Some effects are already visible and have names and some are only just coming into view, but there are still huge areas that will emerge over the next few years.  It will look not only at the shared transport sector (car clubs, car or ride sharing, bike share schemes and taxi sharing), but use it as

London’s cycle network must be usable by the majority, including disabled cyclists using trikes, handcycles or tandems, argues Isabelle Clement Cycling infrastructure is often designed with the fit and the brave in mind – as a result, disabled people are routinely denied access to adequate cycling opportunities. However, research by Transport for London (TfL) shows that in the capital 15% of disabled people use a cycle to get around occasionally or often, compared with 18% of non-di

The London Borough of Waltham Forest has "changed for the better" thanks to Mini-Holland funding, creating improved public spaces and designated space for cycling, according to Clyde Loakes, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for environment. He says the £27m grant has laid the foundations for better connected town centres and is preventing rat-running in residential areas while encouraging more people to get out and about by bike or on foot. Waltham Forest was one of t

An expansion of London’s congestion charge zone and the introduction of a workplace parking levy could help restrain traffic growth, Sustrans has told the London Assembly’s Transport Committee’s investigation into traffic congestion. Sustrans called to a full feasibility into the introduction of an extended, usage-based road charging scheme for London, covering as much of Greater London as feasible. The charity suggested that such a study would need to consider the potential c

Six new cycleways are now in operation in Greater Manchester, marking the first £20m phase of Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM’s) £42m Cycle City investment programme. The new cycleways have been designed to link communities with town and city centres and areas of employment, education and training. The six cycleways are:  • Airport City Cycleway: connecting Timperley and Manchester Airport • Bridgewater Canal Cycleway: canal-side route linking

Ford is to launch a new City Solutions team to work with cities around the world on their transportation needs. This is one element of a series of urban mobility initiatives, including ride-sharing and bike-sharing, announced by the US-based car-maker. The City Solutions team to work with cities on expanding mobility services worldwide as part of Ford Smart Mobility LLC. John Kwant – who has worked with several global cities during his Ford career as part of the company’s government

Plans for a safer and simpler gyratory system around King’s Cross have received the backing of the majority of people living, working or passing through the area who responded to a consultation. The plans, developed by Transport for London (TfL) and Islington and Camden councils, include new road layouts and better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, which were supported by 70% of those who responded to the consultation held earlier this year. TfL says the next step is to consider a

A rival to the London cycle hire scheme, which will be free to use, is due to launch next week. The Buzzbike scheme is seeking to challenge the Santander scheme. Each single-speed bicycle has an advert displayed on the frame and rear mudguards, emulating the way black cab drivers display company promotions. In return for a free hire of a bike and lock, as well as free insurance, riders must sign a contract agreeing to ride to work at least 12 days a month, and park their bike in a public place

The City of Edinburgh Council is drawing up plans for an east-west cycle route across the city centre. The City Centre West to East Link would create a cycle route largely segregated from vehicles, with protected cycleways on main roads – separated from vehicles by a kerb and a narrow paved strip.  It would start in Roseburn in the west, where it would connect with existing cycle routes, and run to Leith Walk in the east. In the city centre the route would be integrated with public

Plans for a North-South Cycle Superhighway linking King’s Cross and Elephant & Castle have been approved by the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL). The 5km route, also known as Cycle Superhighway 6 (CS6), will be either fully separated from traffic, or on quiet back streets. At its northern end, the route will connect both with the planned Quietway 2, and Central London Grid routes. This will allow cyclists to travel safely to Hackney, Walthamstow, Camden and Swiss Cottag

Proposals to more than double the size of Glasgow’s Mass Automated Cycle Hire Scheme (MACH) have been announced. The initiative was launched before the Commonwealth Games in 2014, with 400 bikes located at 31 hire stations. There are now 435 bikes at 43 stations. Glasgow City Council is seeking up to offer 900 bikes at 100 stations by 2017. Some of these stations would be located further afield such as Springburn in the north, Shawlands in the south, Tollcross in the east and Scotstoun i

Modest improvements at street level can be more effective and satisfying than expensive, highly designed interventions, believes Hank Dittmar  It seems like London is awash with grand transport projects. These range from CrossRail to HS2 to the Cycle Superhighways and the Garden Bridge, and they all promise to transform this world city through big money, big engineering and big design. In all the focus on big projects, I fear we are ignoring the impact that many small actions can have in t

New planning tools are identifying the routes with the greatest potential for cycling trips, explains Brian Deegan The social, political and academic interest in the transformative effect of cycling on society has led to the development of number of sophisticated planning tools.  At Transforming London’s Streets I will be reviewing these tools and highlighting how they can make cycle network planning and route delivery more efficient and eff

The character of London is changing, with gyratories, large roundabouts and one-way systems giving way to people-friendly public spaces, says Esther Kurland Although we might not realise it, we are pretty good at creating excellent public spaces and streets in the UK. I recently hosted a delegation from NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials), a coalition of city transportation departments in 46 cities across the USA, Canada and Mexico.   NACTO were producing a n

The number of residents cycling in Wandsworth has increased at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country, according to new data published by the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT’s Local Area Walking and Cycling Statistics: England, 2014/15, reveals that the south London borough’s highest annual cycling statistics increased from 18% to 31%, a 12.5% increase over the period between 2013/15. This was followed by South Norfolk with a 10.6% increase and Barrow-in-Furness on

Bob Kiley, London’s first transport commissioner, has died at the age of 80. American-born Kiley was appointed transport commissioner by London’s first mayor, Ken Livingstone, in 2001, and served until 2006.  Sir Peter Hendy, who succeeded Kiley as transport commissioner, said: “Bob prompted Ken to be an even bolder mayor than he would have naturally been. His choreography of the opposition to the ill-fated PPP for the Underground was superb, even if at the time unsuccess

Nearly eight out of ten people support plans to improve cyclist safety at the notorious Hammersmith gyratory. A Transport for London (TfL) consultation found that 79% of respondents backed plans for dedicated cycling crossings, improved pedestrian facilities and a new bus lane. The kerb-segregated two-way route for cyclists will remove the need to cycle around the gyratory, mixing with fast-moving traffic, and will break a key barrier to cycling in west London, says TfL. The changes are n

Social media and interactive websites are key to encouraging communities to participate in the consultation process, believes AECOM’s Hugh McCarthy With the world becoming increasingly urbanised and people often living closer together, public engagement is more important than ever to transform streets and places and deliver the best outcomes for all. While experienced transport specialists can design and implement effective active travel infrastructure, the process also requires communit