Category Archives: politics

Copenhagen

Posted on by Posted in Copenhagen, cycle touring, cycling, Darlington, Denmark, inspiration, politics

So, we’ve made it to Copenhagen! In some ways it’s an advantage that we’re staying out of town (in Gentofte). The suburbs are quite different from the city, where metropolitan rushing seems to be the order of the day. In fact mobility in Copenhagen altogether seems more frantic than the likes of Bremen. The wide cycle paths don’t simply cater for large numbers. They cater for different styles – and speeds – of cycling.

Don’t be fooled by the excellent Cycle Chic movement. Large numbers of Copenhagen’s cyclists, chic or otherwise, seem to be in a mighty hurry to get to wherever they are going. Maybe they have taken the point that cycling is quicker than driving in a city to heart, and are desperate to prove it with every last heave of the pedal. The funny thing is, this speed cycling is not restricted to the helmet and lycra brigade. Today, for example, we were doing our usual 15 kilometres per hour pootle along the coast, on a lovely sunny day (it’s my birthday, all the more reason to pootle), when we were overtaken by a frantic, bell ringing lass in her 30’s, sitting more or less horizontal with head right down between her handlebars. Only they were dutch style handlebars, the grips a good foot back from her nose.

Could this strange (in our eyes) cultural phenomenon be simply a result of our having spent too many years in small, provincial Darlington, the “quiet town” of 1970s fame? Or is said birthday (shit, 59!!!!!) a watershed in the ageing process, when suddenly everything and everyone around you seems so young, fit and fast (ok, drop that last remark when applied to the young of Darlo)?

Maybe the Copenhagen Cycle Quick movement is related to the thousands of joggers we’ve also spotted around the city. There seems to be a positive plague of jogging going on here, and not just in the obvious places like parks and waterfronts. We sat outside our hotel last night here in quiet suburban Gentofte until just before midnight, and the two wildly exciting events were either a bus passing or a jogger jogging on the main street. But then I suppose hectic metropolitan life doesn’t stop for silly things like sleep, so maybe we should expect such sights, even in Gentofte at midnight.

As for the serious stuff, cycling infrastructure, well we’ve done the videos, both in the city and out here in the suburbs, and we’ll be editing them together over the next few weeks. Having cycled in to Copenhagen from the countryside, and before that from Germany, there are interesting comparisons to be made between the German rural/urban and Danish rural/urban approaches, and we’ll be aiming to do that with the video material. Suffice to say right now, Copenhagen still has its car-centric legacy (motorways going right into the city, traffic jams, appalling noise) in many areas. But this simply illustrates the historical urgency of the pro-cycling policy. Much had to be done, much has been done, and much more is and will be done. And at its core, this involves taking space from motorised transport and using this to create substantial cycling infrastructure to a high standard. A standard, in fact, that needs to accomodate we pootlers, the cycle chic of the city, and the permanent rush-hourers.

Video report to come!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The cycle paths to happy cycling – digging deeper

Posted on by Posted in academic research, best practice, Bremen, Darlington, habitus, politics

With the launch of our new website, our work now turns to exploring the political, social and economic constraints on cycling. We recently published an article in the new magazine Cycling Mobility, which explored the influence of habitus on cycling policies in the UK and Germany. This set us thinking about the many hours of material that were never used in the final production, and how there are many other stories that could be told by these young women. We featured short portraits of Darlington girls Sofija, Kate and Lauren during their visit to Bremen in 2009, but the Bremen girls, and their perspectives on cycling, are just as interesting. They reveal how there is much more to what David Hembrow calls “subjective safety” than has so far been written. And how our understanding of cycling can be so different.

Ricarda, one of the Beauty and the Bike girls from Bremen, spoke of “cycling” in the UK not being what she understood as “cycling” at all. We later queried her about this, and she talked a lot about cycling on roads with motorised traffic, whether in a lane or without, as being completely alien to her. There was an interesting aside about this when we were filming the two groups of girls in Bremen. Ricarda asks Harri what she thought of cycling along a mandatory cycle lane that had recently been developed on Hamburger Strasse. Harri responds by saying how safe she felt. But Ricarda later stated that she prefers to cycle “on the pavement” – this mandatory cycle lane just wasn’t up to the standard that she wanted from cycling infrastructure.

Of course Ricarda didn’t actually mean that she preferred to use the pedestrian space we call the pavement or sidewalk. What she was saying was that her idea of cycling was very much divorced from roads designed for motorised traffic. Living in Bremen, it was possible to get around most places without actually using a busy road. Yet here was a bit of new infrastructure that contradicted this vision. The road engineer who worked on this project also hinted that it was a “little bit different” for Bremen to be developing cycling infrastructure on the road – historically, Bremen’s cycle paths have been built, as Ricarda says, on pavements.

From an infrastructure point of view, Hamburger Strasse is deemed an advance for cycling. Considerable space was taken away from motorised traffic to create the cycle lanes, and in fact they are often on the pavement as well. Bremen’s older on-pavement cycle paths are often painfully narrow. But from a cycling culture point of view, it seems like a bit of a backward step to be putting cyclists on a road – albeit with some sense of safety provided by the nature of the mandatory lane.

Ricarda’s vision of cycling as having nothing whatever to do with on-road activity has some pretty interesting cultural repercussions. If cycling is less like vehicular traffic and more like walking, well we can chat and take our time, can’t we? We can use umbrellas, stop and window-gaze at every little shop,

 
play at look no hands as we cycle along, the possibilities are endless. And a long way away from the health and safety oriented vision of cycling in countries like the UK and the USA. Yet these contrasting ideas about cycling are shaping how cycling develops culturally. 

I would suggest this is a bit like pedestrians and pavements. In most countries with little or no infrastructure, roads/dirt tracks are shared by all. In most western societies, pavements have developed in urban areas for pedestrians. As pedestrians, we would find it alien to have to share all urban roads with motorised traffic.

Bicycling is a different mode of transport, with its own needs, speed, age ranges, that logically does not tally with the very different needs of motorised traffic. Yet certain countries deem it acceptable to continue to insist on cyclists doing just that. Perhaps for consistency, we should begin to rip up our pavements and insist that pedestrians also share road space. After all, some American cities organise their streets in exactly this way.

How to best integrate different transport modes requires a clear understanding of the nature of each. To take an obvious example, speed. On urban roads with a 30mph (48km/h) speed limit, average free flowing traffic speeds are in fact just that – 30mph (2009).  The average free-flow urban cycling speed in cities with dedicated infrastructure lies between 6.2 mph (10 km/h) and 17.4mph (28 km/h) with a majority of the reported speeds in the literature being between 7.5mph (12 km/h) and 12.4 mph (20 km/h). Average walking speed is about 4mph (6.5km/h).

Clearly, any decision to combine two or three of these modes requires careful consideration about the impact one mode might have on others. Thus mixed cycling and walking space is typically designed primarily around the needs of (slower) walkers, with cyclists treated as invited guests.  Similarly, mixed walking, cycling and motoring space such as Home Zones are designed to make motorists feel that they are a guest in the street, and must make it difficult for them to travel at speeds of more than 10 mph. In both these cases, priority is given to slower, more vulnerable traffic member.

Applying the same principle to mixing cyclists and motorists also makes absolute sense. Thus in countries with a more developed planning approach to cycling, facilities like Cycle Streets are designed as cyclist-priority streets with access for motorised traffic.

Cycle Street in Bremen, Germany

Similarly, the aim of the 20’s Plenty Campaign is to establish a speed limit norm of 20mph (30km/h) in residential areas, as a means of moving towards streets that again can be used by residents and their children. What is particularly interesting is what happens in residential streets when such speed limits are combined with a strong cycling culture – the subject of our next post. But undoubtedly the great exception to these principles is the mixing of cyclists and motorists on busy 30mph roads. The illogic of this is only sustained as long as the number of cyclists is kept to a minimum, or in  some cases legally eliminated altogether. In the vast majority of towns and cities where this is the norm, cycling numbers remain stubbornly low. Dutch style infrastructure, as currently being considered by London Cycling Campaign, and advocated by both Darlington and Newcastle Cycling Campaigns, as well as a host of other online commentators, means good quality cycle paths alongside busy arterial roads.

Without this key strategic understanding, all the well-funded work going on around 20mph speed limits, cycle training, the marketing of cycling as healthy, and so on will have little effect on the levels of cycling in countries like the UK. “Cycling”, as understood by Ricarda in our film, will continue to be a pipe dream.

New Research Confirms – It’s the Infrastructure

Posted on by Posted in academic research, best practice, infrastructure, politics

High quality, dedicated infrastructure will be required if Britain is to become a mass-cycling country, according to new research. Academics from Lancaster University, the University of Leeds and Oxford Brookes University have just released the results of a three year in-depth study of cycling in four English towns (Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester and Worcester). The work is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Key findings are summarised on the Bike Hub blog.

The research found that, broadly, two cycling cultures existed. In more affluent communities where people largely understood the message that cycling is “a good idea”, there is none the less widespread reluctance to use the bicycle on an everyday basis. As Dr. David Horton, one of the researchers, wrote, “The idea of it is too hard, too strange, and far too dangerous. They do cycle though, predominantly for pleasure, and especially on sunny summer Sundays. Away from the roads.”

In the second cycling culture, predominantly amongst less affluent working class communities, the bicycle is simply seen as irrelevant to transport, a child’s toy. Here, the bicycle is used more as a second-rate substitute for a car due to lack of affordability of the latter. As Dr. Horton writes, “although people from these communities tend not to rate cycling very highly, some do nontheless ride, through necessity, and on the footway. They ride on footways for two main reasons: first, because they feel safer there; and second, in order to stay out of the way of cars, which they don’t want to delay”.

The research concludes that our towns and cities have, over the past 50 years, been successfully developed for car use. Now we need to re-develop them for bicycle use. And the clear and well-tested policy of slow-speed residential streets combined with high quality separated cycle infrastructure on busy urban roads is confirmed as the way forward:

“We need radically to restructure our urban mobility systems in ways which will get people out of their cars and make them cycle. Half of the infrastructural change required is underway – the push for a maximum speed limit of 20 mph on residential streets is gaining momentum. But the other half of the key infrastructural change required needs a similar push, and this push should be for very high quality and continuous segregated cycling infrastructure on our biggest and busiest urban roads, the kind of roads on which almost everyone today refuses to cycle”.


The emphasis on infrastructure is made because of successive government and local authority decisions to support some of the easier requirements for a mass cycling culture – improved cycle parking, cycle training, bicycle coops and shops, promotional events and activities, bike hire. And 20’s Plenty campaigns around the country (including in our own Darlington) are gradually succeeding in moving local authorities to accept 20mph as the default speed limit in residential streets.

But the key need to address the quality of the cycling experience on busy main roads is consistently avoided, for fear of offending “the motorist”. With endless technical examples of best practice available from countries like the Netherlands, the problem is clearly political. Yet even in this sphere, inspiring examples of successful political action to radically transform cities, such as Seville in Spain, can be found.

But in the end, it may well be down to who our politicians listen to, rather than any technical expertise or ideas of best practice. One positive sign is that cycling’s national organisations appear to be slowly coming round to the same conclusions of Beauty and the Bike, the EPSRC, and an increasing number of cycling campaigns around the country. Whether UK politicians take any notice, though, is another matter.

20 mph crucial say Transport and Health Group

Posted on by Posted in 20MPH, politics 2 Comments

More on our joint election campaign with Darlington Friends of the Earth for a blanket 20mph speed limit in the town’s residential streets. New research entitled “Health on the Move 2” evidences why 20 mph limits in residential areas are key to improving the health impacts of local transport.

The book, published by the Transport and Health Study Group, evidences the interactions between transport, health and inequalities.  It firmly recommends making 20 mph or lower speed limits the norm for residential streets.  Dr Stephen Watkins, Chair of the Transport and Health Study Group, said:

“The difference between travelling two miles at 20mph and travelling it at 30mph is only two minutes.  Those who oppose this measure are saying that two minutes off journey times is more important than children’s lives.”

Large parts of the street system should be closed to through motor traffic (with a 20mph speed limits on vehicles using them for access) and developed primarily for walking, cycling and community interaction, according to a group of health and transport professionals in a book welcomed by the former Chief Medical Officer of England, Sir Liam Donaldson.

Traffic in streets reduces social interaction leading to people having fewer friends and less commitment to their community. As social support networks have been shown to increase life expectancy the group contends that creating “living streets” will increase community cohesion and improve health, as well as creating new cycle routes.

Health is impacted by transport in positive and negative ways.  Moving around is a way to access to goods, services, jobs and amenities.  Walking and cycling offer excellent ways to build activity into everyday life.  But transport also causes injuries, stress, disruption of communities, noise and air pollution, and emissions.   Transport’s effects exacerbate inequalities, with gains from motorised transport accruing particularly to the better off, while the adverse effects fall disproportionately on the disadvantaged.

The connections between transport policy and other policy areas such as health and economic inequalities are often ignored by local politicians, who tend to deal with such issues in a highly compartmentalised way. But candidates for the coming election would do well to compare the conclusions in this book with the aims of our council’s core strategy for the next 10 years, One Darlington, Perfectly Placed. If they are serious about narrowing the gaps in life  chances, nurturing a strong, vibrant and cohesive borough-wide community, tackling the gaps in health and well-being across the borough,  and doing all that we can locally to reduce our contribution to global CO2 emissions (all verbatim quotes from that document), 20mph for residential streets is a crucial component in the solution mix.

With the Local Elections Approaching

Posted on by Posted in 20MPH, politics 3 Comments

With local elections due in Darlington on May 5th, Darlington Cycling Campaign has joined forces with Darlington Friends of the Earth to ask all council candidates whether they support a 20mph speed limit for all residential streets in the town. The Campaign has argued for such a policy since our 2007 AGM.

The full text of the letter, which is self-explanatory, is set out below.  Council candidates are free to comment on their position re a default 20mph for all residential streets below this post. There is also a Facebook group for the 20’splenty in Darlington campaign here.

Dear Candidate,

With local elections approaching, politicians and voters alike are looking for policies that make real improvements to the lives of people in the borough of Darlington. You may be aware that in surveys conducted last year over 80% of members of the public were in favour of 20 mph for residential roads. This mirrors the developing view across the country that our current speed limit of 30 mph is just too high in residential areas where it is inevitable that vulnerable road users will be at greatest risk.

In fact, if we compare it with the speed limit in Northern European towns it is 60% higher than the 30 kph (18.5 mph) limits that they have for residential streets. No wonder perhaps that 92% of pedestrian deaths are on urban roads in the UK and at 21% we have a higher proportion of pedestrian deaths on the roads than any of our European neighbours.

In Hilden, Germany, the setting of their 30 kph limit in the early 90’s was the foundation of them encouraging cycling and walking. In fact now 23% of in-town trips are now made by children and adults using bikes instead of cars.

You may be wondering about how much this would slow down our car journeys and cause congestion. Well, the campaign is only for residential streets to be changed with most A, B and arterial roads remaining at their current speed limits. As almost every house, office or school is within 1/3 mile of such an arterial road then the maximum increase in journey time would be just 40 seconds. Surely worth the benefit in lives and injuries saved.

You may also be wondering about the cost and inconvenience of all those speed bumps. Well, many authorities are using changed Department of Transport guidance which encourages lower speeds to be set without necessarily involving physical calming. With education, consultation, social pressure and some enforcement, authorities such as Portsmouth have implemented a council wide default 20 mph limit for residential roads without any physical calming at all. While we are on the subject of cost, latest DfT figures (for 2009) show that the cost to Darlington of Road casualties is £16,435,990. Even more alarmingly the DfT estimate that the total cost of sedentary lifestyles to Darlington is an eye-watering £23,752,582 per annum.

Other authorities are taking Portsmouth as an example and Transport for London recently announced the intention for all London Boroughs to adopt 20 mph as the default for residential roads as part of the Breaking Point report. Lewisham, Islington and Southwark have already implemented such a default.

Most significantly City Councillors in Norwich recently unanimously voted to have a default 20 mph in residential roads. Such support from all local political parties shows how 20’s Plenty is a universal aspiration for communities, constituents and politicians rather than a party political one.

At the time of writing this letter I have just heard that Warrington Council have voted to increase the number of residential roads that will be protected by a 20 mph zone by 200 and a Hartlepool scrutiny committee has recommended to the council adoption of Total 20 for the town.

And of course 20’s Plenty saves lives. A recent PACTS (Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety) identified that child casualties fell by 67% where 20 mph schemes were introduced. I do hope that Darlington people can rely upon you to follow through this excellent policy for the sake of its communities. It would have all the following advantages:-

  • Encourage modal shift to walking and cycling leading to healthier children and adults.
  • Lower pollution
  • Lower noise
  • Create a better environment on residential roads
  • Save lives and injury

Most people involved in transport development recognise that, at some time, 20 mph will become the default speed limit for all residential roads in the UK. Darlington can “hang on” till such a time and in the intervening period vulnerable road users in Darlington will die or be injured as a result of such a delay. The sooner we adopt the 20’s Plenty initiative then the greater the saving in lives and injury and the earlier the benefits in quality of life on our streets. There are already 5.4 million people in the UK who have the benefit of living in places where it is agreed that 20 mph is the correct speed limit for residential roads.

Darlington children and adults want and need 20 mph as a default speed limit in the roads where they live and 20’s Plenty For Us will be continuing its campaign for early adoption of this life saving move. I trust that our communities can count on your support for this initiative and that Darlington can be a “can do” authority when it comes to taking such sensible steps to make all our lives better and safer.

Please pledge your support for default 20 mph speed limits on Darlington’s residential roads and add this promise to you campaign. If I can assist in explaining the initiative, its benefits or its implementation then I would be very pleased to help.

Yours sincerely

Matthew Snedker

darlington@20splentyforus.org.uk

01325 488313 or 077 80 80 70 59