With oil prices rising fast, we call upon our politicians to help the cost of living by accelerating the roll out of #ActiveTravel infrastructure, and making our streets less hostile for walking and cycling by creating #ActiveNeighbourhoods and addressing #PavementParking.
@walkridegm.org.uk
“Labour councillor Fabian Breckels, said: "What we need to know is: are lives more important than anti-car dogma?”
Says a supposedly progressive politician, while spouting pro-car dogma, in a country where 1:4 households don’t have a car #ActiveNeighbourhoods
The green areas on this map were meant to be #ActiveNeighbourhoods and fill the gaps between the main road #BeeLine routes.
But almost all have been abandoned, after huge amounts of work, in the face of political indifference and sometimes antisocial behaviour #MadeToMove
Part of this is slowing/removing through traffic from residential streets - I’m sure there was something a while back saying that #ActiveNeighbourhoods had a positive effect on social cohesion?
What’s true in London will be true in our other towns and cities. The benefits of #ActiveNeighbourhoods are becoming overwhelming, and we need action, and now. Reinstate the #MilkstoneAndDeeplish trial.
#StopDeKindermoord @rochdalecouncil.bsky.social @walkridegm.org.uk
It's hard to overstate the #PublicHealth benefits of walking, cycling and wheeling.
We need more #ActiveTravel infrastructure, whether that's cycle lanes, #SchoolStreets (as announced today) or #ActiveNeighbourhoods
@triciaayr.bsky.social @@elsieblundellmp.bsky.social @walkridegm.org.uk
Nobody set anything on fire or made death threats, so it could’ve been worse.
Big fear now is that #ActiveNeighbourhoods (which are a public health issue as much as anything else) are in the ‘too difficult’ box.
This is what people can have without cars everywhere #ActiveNeighbourhoods
So, let's see the serious investment in #ActiveTravel and the political will to build infrastructure and #ActiveNeighbourhoods in the face of the noisy drivist minority then.
I wonder if the installation team will be back to finish the job? #ActiveNeighbourhoods
A worrying statistic for GM here - all 10 boroughs in the top 20 boroughs with the worst driving standards.
Between lack of roads enforcement, abandonment of #ActiveNeighbourhoods & the non-charging #CleanAirZone, when many cities are trying to reduce private car use, we do things differently here.
This is the thing with #ActiveTravel infra - you get much better synergism if things connect rather than a section here and a section there (which is also why the #BeeActive network won’t work without #ActiveNeighbourhoods to link the cycleways @walkridegm.org.uk)
Problem is that #ActiveNeighbourhoods are already in the GMCA 'too difficult' box, but unless we do something...
Is the MEN arguing that gridlock is desirable?
We thought (and @carltonreid.com has said) that local demand would drive #ActiveNeighbourhoods when people saw the benefits and that hasn’t exactly flown.
And the consequence of stuff like this is that #ActiveNeighbourhoods appear to now be in the “too difficult” box for all 10 GM councils, and TfGM. Without them, the #BeeActive network will never really come to fruition.
I’m sure #ActiveNeighbourhoods have been put in the ‘too difficult’ box, which again begs the question, what’s the point of huge political capital and a vast majority if they’re too scared to use it?
(Now, the need to make short urban car journeys less convenient for health, wellbeing and environmental reasons, whether that’s by #CongestionCharging, #ActiveNeighbourhoods, #BusGates or whatever - *that* is a different conversation]
This is the issue - a bad trial makes it politically much harder to have another go #ActiveNeighbourhoods
Not the least frustrating part of this is MPs asking for an independent review of #ActiveNeighbourhoods not all that long after a DfT-commissioned independent review published supporting them.
As Walker says, this is nothing but displacement activity.
#EvidenceBasedPolicy
#ActiveNeighbourhoods "create places “that are attractive for both residents and retail”. They boost local economies. They improve health and boost quality of life. All this might seem a good thing for governments to pursue. But in England, it seems, some people would just rather argue."
The other issue is that the #ActiveNeighbourhoods were meant to fill spaces between #BeeActive routes, so for example in Rochdale, Milkstone & Deeplish would have filled in the triangle between the Rochdale-Castleton Beeline and the Oldham Road scheme.
And now...
Useful point being made here that traffic restriction is as much a public health intervention as an environmental one, and the cost-benefit is significant. #ActiveNeighbourhoods
