A pre-budget announcement on HS2 last week revealed a £380m cut to cycling and walking funding. This represents a two-thirds reduction of funding in England, and leaves just £100m for active travel in the current financial year. Cycling and walking contributed £36.5bn to the UK economy in 2021, according to Sustrans. Ned, Laura and Adam convene to discuss what's happening and the impact it'll have. We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead ...
Mar 15, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 52
In this episode, we have a special feature in which Ned travels to his spiritual home in Lewisham Shopping Centre to meet the folks at XO Bikes . Founder, Stef Jones, was mentoring in prison and noticed the same people kept coming back - not that they wanted to. These people were lacking opportunities; prison is 'full of entrepreneurs, shifting the wrong product,' he says. Stef left his ad agency to set up XO bikes, to train, employ and inspire people and support them to change their lives, beco...
Mar 09, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 51
We speak to Mums For Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn to chat ULEZ, campaigning and the worrying and urgent need to clean up our dirty air. Almost exactly ten years ago, nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died following an asthma attack, later becoming the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Ella lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham. In 2017 Jemima and a group of fellow mums, on parental leave in south London, decided to act after noticing how poor ...
Feb 17, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 50
What is it really like being a Councillor, especially one who has implemented LTNs? Ned, Laura and Adam speak with Ian Barnes, formerly of Enfield Low Traffic Neighbourhood fame. As Deputy Leader of Labour-run Enfield council until 2022, Ian was among those responsible for delivering Low Traffic Neighbourhoods both before and during the pandemic. We discuss: listening to resident concerns, Mini Hollands, road pricing, the abuse some Councillors face and more. We’re on Twitter and welcome your fe...
Dec 17, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 49
In this special episode Laura goes to the seaside. It may be pouring with rain but Brighton and Shoreham-by-Sea offer a warm welcome, showing us the good stuff happening for cycling in Brighton, and the latest (largely bad stuff) on the short-lived cycle lane on Upper Shoreham road. This ill-fated cycle lane in West Sussex was removed after a few short weeks, despite huge support and a tripling of cycle trips during its existence. What's next for the frankly terrifying road it once sat on, and f...
Dec 02, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Ned, Laura and Adam discuss active travel and the economy. We know that cycling and walking are great for our health and the environment, but is the economic case sold strongly enough? This episode was recorded before the UK Government Autumn Statement on 17/11/22 but talks generally about active travel's impact on the economy and the importance of cheap transport during a cost of living crisis. We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead If ...
Nov 18, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 47
The cost of living crisis is forefront in many people's minds at the moment, but while the pressure has ramped up since the war in Ukraine, for some people transport poverty has plagued their lives for far longer. Our guest Professor Sarah Marie Hall is a geographer with a focus on geographical feminist political economy. She describes this as "understanding how socio-economic processes are shaped by gender relations, lived experience and social difference". Sarah Marie tells us how the impact o...
Oct 27, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Ned, Laura and Adam hang out in a dilapidated old petrol station for an impromptu pod on World Car Free Day to discuss how we use public space, parklets, and how cycling is diversifying. You can check out the Possible Parklet Plotter here: https://wearepossible.github.io/parklet-plotter/ We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more tha...
Sep 24, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Ned, Laura and Adam head to Oxford to ask: Why is the city so popular for cycling? Is it something to do with the university, or is it an ingrained cycling culture? Is it because for decades they’ve filtered through traffic on minor roads? Is it because it costs £35 to park a car for 24 hours? In this episode, we'll be exploring Oxford’s new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and how they have struck a nerve - but we’ll also look at older filters that are the staple of Oxford’s cycling network, and ofte...
Aug 16, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 44
This episode Adam, Ned and Laura meet in person in the grass beside Herne Hill Velodrome. Adam also takes us on an audio journey through South London using a Beeline routing widget to avoid the main roads and discover some quiet gems - and some strange cycleway nomenclature - along the way. As well as pondering the many uses of bollards, not least in creating quiet routes, the Streets Ahead trio discuss the challenges, and solutions, of finding your way by bike, away from the main roads, from pa...
Jun 30, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 43
A special edition of Streets Ahead, in which Laura travels to the Isle of Wight to meet Detective Superintendent Andy Cox for day one of his nationwide challenge to cycle and run 30 miles a day for a week, raising awareness of road danger, and money for charity RoadPeace. Andy is on a mission to drive a culture change around roads policing and road danger, having this week revealed, via the Times, a major shakeup in how police record contributory factors in road collisions, which revealed speedi...
May 19, 2022•29 min•Ep. 42
For Streets Ahead's second birthday, Adam, Ned and Laura go rogue - or at least go outdoors - sitting together on the banks of the River Thames to shoot the breeze. We are, for this episode, a pod without portfolio - drifting beside the Thames like an empty crisp packet and seeing where the current takes us. The Streets Ahead trio reveals the topic, if not the title, of Laura's forthcoming book, and a street that's being named after her late dad, as well as discussing e-scooters, e-bikes, the st...
May 07, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Cities around the world used quick, cheap materials to transform streets for people during the pandemic, but tactical urbanism can, in theory, be initiated by communities and individuals to transform a bare patch of their neighbourhoods at any time. Laura, Ned and Adam talk about their greening efforts, and Laura shares recordings from her giant planters project, during two weeks of construction and two community planting days. Adam also talks about £254m of funds recently awarded for active tra...
Apr 11, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Ned and Laura chat with Dame Sarah Storey, not only Britain's most successful Paralympian, but the new Cycling & Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester, having previously held the role for three years in South Yorkshire. We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active travel, liveable streets and people-focused urban design. We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead If you're reading this...
Mar 17, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 39
This time we’re talking all about mapping walking routes. Back in the Autumn, Emma Griffin from the Footways project joined Laura for a stroll around Bow in East London. Footways is a network of quiet and interesting streets for walking in London, with the aim of getting people out on the pavements and walking for transport. Their aim is to make the pedestrian network the top priority when it’s often the lowest. View Footways’ Google map layer: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1djPyf...
Feb 14, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 38
There's a new Highway Code! Rules for all types of road users have been updated in The Highway Code to improve the safety of people walking and cycling. Naturally, some people have taken the news very badly with strange headlines and talk radio stations going into overdrive. What do the changes mean and what difference will they make? We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active travel, liveable streets and people-focused urban design. We’re on Twit...
Jan 30, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 37
2021: it happened, that we can say for sure. Ned, Laura and Adam go through their highlights and lowlights of the year - and look back at some of the big stories in active travel. Plus: Adam has a new job. Ned and Laura quiz him on being the new West Midlands Cycling & Walking Commissioner. Thank you for your support this year and we look forward to bringing you new episodes in 2022! We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active travel, liveable ...
Dec 31, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 36
In this episode, sponsored by Superpedestrian , Ned, Laura and Adam visit Nottingham, a city bustling with integrated transport. We try the city's new Link e-scooters, by Superpedestrian, visit the tram, ride bikes and hire cars. It's a true smorgasbord of sensible and sustainable transport options - delivered in part by the city's Workplace Parking Levy. We also follow in the footsteps of the Prime Minister, 18 months on from his Gear Change announcement - visiting the bike shop he launched the...
Dec 15, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 35
We’re talking about the power of behaviour change - why, perhaps, soft measures deserve hard cash. While much of the focus in active travel is around the need for dedicated infrastructure, quietly, around the country - organisations are implementing softer measures that can have a significant impact. A few weeks ago Laura visited the Chrisp Street Community Cycles, a ‘cycle hub’ in an empty high street shop in Tower Hamlets, East London. Want to support the hub? The fundraiser is here (until 23 ...
Nov 08, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 34
In this special episode, Adam chats with Matthew Baldwin , Deputy Director General at DG MOVE , part of the European Commission. Baldwin works on sustainable mobility, including how to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists in the coming era of connected, automated and autonomous mobility. Ahead of COP26, it’s an interesting look to active travel’s importance on the world stage - and how we can work together as a global community to communicate best practices to reduce em...
Oct 30, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 33
A year ago we explored e-scooters as the UK began its official trials of rental scooters. How's it gone since? How are other countries dealing with e-scooters in cities? Are we just scared of new stuff? In this episode, sponsored by Superpedestrian , Adam heads to Lisbon to try out their Link scooters and we put some tricky questions to the company's Policy Director for the UK & Ireland, Jean Andrews. We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active...
Oct 10, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are (probably) coming. In this episode, Laura is taken for a spin on public roads in one - going on a journey through Greenwich, London, with nothing other than a robot car for company (if you ignore the two safety drivers ready to step in at any moment). Are Driverless Cars, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, or AVs, a solution to a problem, or are they just tech for tech’s sake? The UK is betting big on AVs. The Government wants to make the UK a hub for this technolog...
Sep 03, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 31
July saw the publishing of the UK Government's Transport Decarbonisation plan, followed by the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, which didn't make for pretty reading. In the UK surface transport is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gases, producing 23% of our emissions, and we’ve made no significant in-roads to cutting that contribution, in a decade. So what needs to change, and are we (and our policymakers) capable of doing it? We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast...
Aug 11, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Ned rode a cargo bike and he liked it. Streets Ahead have a partial real-life reunion which culminates in Ned riding a cargo bike. Thanks to Raleigh for having us at the launch of their new Stride cargo bike range at the Olympic Park in London. Are we on the cusp of a cargo bike boom in the UK? What do we need to consider to take cargo bikes to the masses? For the record, Amazon are trialling cargo bike deliveries in London. We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to...
Jul 27, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 29
We're talking with Dr Gemma Briggs, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University, about distracted driving. Dr Gemma Briggs’ research found mobile phone conversations, as opposed to conversations with a passenger, encourage a driver to create mental images - using the same cognitive resources we need for accurate visual perception of the driving environment. This means competition in drivers’ brains for limited resources. It’s not just the responsibility of individual drivers to change, ...
Jun 24, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Alexei Sayle is an English stand-up comedian, actor, television presenter, author and former recording artist. He is also a cyclist with a surprising interest in active travel. Ned pops for a coffee with Alexei to talk about his cycling history, his return to bike riding in the capital and - of course - Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. You can listen to Alexei Sayle's new podcast here: https://audioboom.com/channels/5038428 - and his YouTube videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDNNsx1x7YDiV...
May 21, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 27
There are elections up and down the country this Thursday 6th May 2021, but how do you vote for better active travel provision? There are a plethora of political positions up for grabs - from Metro Mayors to Police & Crime Commissioners, but who does what when it comes to cycling and walking? We're not going to review the candidates' ambitions - you can get that elsewhere and should read the Manifestos of the candidates where you live - but we will explain how it all works and some of the bi...
May 05, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Advertising is everywhere and while most people think it doesn’t affect them, research shows it undoubtedly impacts the decisions we make. Tobacco advertising has been banned - will car advertising be the new smoking? This week we have Leo Murray from climate action charity Possible. Leo is one of the people behind Badvertising , a campaign to put a stop to the promotion of highly polluting Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs). We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to th...
Apr 24, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 25
The rapid changes in our towns and cities are providing new access to active travel for some people, but are they excluding some disabled people in the process? That's the topic we're discussing with Katie Pennick, Campaigns Lead at Transport For All . Why are disabled people seemingly ignored when it comes to some consultations? What needs to change? Is that status quo a better option? These are all questions you'll get the answers to in our latest episode. You can read Transport For All's repo...
Apr 03, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 24
For episode 23, Ned, Adam and Laura chew the fat with London's Walking & Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, on the capital's active travel revolution. Four years ago, Laura wrote In The Guardian: " Is London's new cycling tsar too nice to face down the bike-haters? " It turns out being nice can be effective. London has built nearly 100 miles of protected cycle lanes in the last year alone with 4% of Londoners also now living within a Low Traffic Neighbourhood. But it hasn't all been plain sa...
Mar 17, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 23
