Pedal Power

Issue 174
January 2025

Garendon Park

The Friends of Garendon Park have formed three groups to explore the themes of wildlife, heritage and access (particularly walking and cycling). They welcome new members, and details can be found at http://www.garendon.freeuk.com.

The Developers (Persimmon Homes) have begun to build the road from the A512 roundabout to the new William Railton Road and the A6. It will take two years to complete and three to open. This “Strategic Link Road” will be the principal road access in and out of the housing development. The only other will be to the Hathern Road near the motorway. It will skirt the Registered Park by following the M1 from the roundabout until it crosses the Coach Road. (See map on website for more details).

The work restoring the Triumphal Arch, Temple of Venus and wrought iron gates will begin soon.

There is now plenty more information available about Garendon Park and what is happening. See: http://www.garendon.freeuk.com/gplinks.htm.

Anti-cycling bad for UK’s health

Based on an article in the Guardian

Chris Boardman, who leads Active Travel England (ATE), has asserted that public health is being directly harmed by anti-cycling coverage in parts of the media.

Whilst this culture war has abated since the election, Boardman says that pushing for better walking and cycling routes remained “very politically noisy”, which could particularly put off local politicians. He is openly angry about what he sees as misleading media coverage that presents cyclists as reckless and dangerous when, in a statistic he uses regularly, more Britons are killed by cows or lightning every year than by bikes.

“At the moment we have a very consistent, non-evidence-based, negative narrative to stop any change. It is stopping people wanting to put their heads up and do difficult things,” he said in an interview. “Just 211 miles from here [in the Netherlands], 66% of kids do get around under their own steam, and our children are being denied that.”

The Labour government has pledged to tackle the underlying causes of preventable ill-health, including inactive lifestyles and weight, and Chris is clear that travel has to be part of this: “From a health point of view, active travel is how you reach a nation – you change the way people move around every day. That’s the only way you’re going to really help”.

New Rules on Overtaking Cyclists in Spain

Currently the law in Spain requires drivers to leave at least a 1.5 metre gap when overtaking a cyclist. However, they are now considering a proposal that drivers must also slow down to 20km per hour below the speed limit beforehand, the justification being that this will increase the safety of everyone. It will be interesting to see if this ever comes into force.

Police road signs to refer to ‘Collision’

In order to improve the language used relating to road safety, police will gradually replace ‘Police Accident’ road signs and in-car messaging with ‘Police Collision’. This reflects the fact that the majority of collisions are the avoidable outcome of human behaviour and the word ‘accident’ fails to reflect this. The change required special authorisation from the Department for Transport (DfT), which regulates the design and use of road signage.

The five most common contributory factors causing death or injury, the so-called ‘fatal five’, are speeding, drink and drug driving, distracted driving, careless driving and not wearing a seatbelt. (Ed. The latter only applying to car occupants).

In October, National Highways confirmed it would stop using the word ‘accident’, following pressure from road safety organisations and bereaved families of those killed in road collisions. The strategic roads body had previously defended the use of “accident” as being consistent with police road signage.

2024 London – Major Cycling Success

In 2024 London has seen the highest ever number of daily cycle journeys since statistics have been kept, at 1.33 million per day – equivalent to a third of all daily tube journeys. This demonstrates the effect of providing protected cycle lanes, more Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, safer junctions, and safer lorries. This has made cycling in many parts of London safer, attracting many more people to cycling.

Graduated Driving Licensing

Based on an article on the website of RoadPeace

In Great Britain, young drivers between the ages of 17–24 are involved in 24% of all collisions resulting in death or serious injury, even though this group account for just 7% of the total driving population.

In 2023, 4,959 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes involving at least one young driver – this includes other road users of all ages, such as people travelling in separate cars or pedestrians.

Data from transport safety studies, car insurance companies and driving charities over many years has shown that drivers under the age of 24 are more likely to have crashes when they are carrying similar-aged passengers in their car, when driving at night and when driving conditions are difficult.

In response to this evidence, several countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many US States, have introduced Graduated Driving Licensing (GDL). This is a multi-stage system designed to introduce young, novice drivers gradually to full driving privileges, with measures focused on reducing risk.

In some countries, new drivers are required to limit the number of passengers in the same age group or avoid driving between midnight and 4 a.m. for the first six months after passing their test. These measures help them gain experience in safer conditions before progressing to full driving privileges.

In these countries, there has been a reduction in deaths and serious injuries in crashes involving young drivers by between 20 and 40%, following the introduction of Graduated Driving Licensing.

But despite the overwhelming evidence, and pleas from bereaved families and leading experts for many years, GDL has yet to be introduced in the UK.

Conspiracy Theories and 15 Minute Cities

Based on an article by Carlton Reid in the London Cyclist Magazine

The city of short distances urban planning model has become embroiled in the culture wars, attracting numerous cranks and not of the bicycle variety. They allege that 15-minute cities are dystopian, climate-lockdown concentration camps with people electronically chained to their locality. A Tory MP recently told Parliament that, in effect, living close to shops was an “international socialist concept”.

The professor who coined the term ‘15-minute city’ in 2015 at the COP21 conference said that instead of being perfected for cars, cities “should be designed so that within the distance of a 15-minute walk or bike ride, people should be able to access work, housing, food, health, education, culture, and leisure”.

According to these conspiracy theories the world’s elites want to eradicate cars and, instead, mandate bicycles for everybody. ‘Libertarian influencers’ Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox and Neil Oliver have come out against 15-minute cities, and Jordan Peterson tweeted that “idiot tyrannical bureaucrats [will] decide where you’re ‘allowed’ to drive”, as if road systems have not done this very thing for at least the last hundred years.

Grifters whipping up unfounded fears are now fomenting on-the-ground protests, including a recent one in Oxford; here the march railed against the 15-minute city, but conflated it with LTN expansion trials the city council plans for next year. Patriotic Alternative and other far-right groups were also in attendance.

Cambridge - a model for other cities

According to the Sustrans Walking and Cycling Index, in 2023 Greater Cambridge saw 43.8 million cycling trips, covering 130 million miles: that’s 4% of the total miles cycled in Britain, despite Greater Cambridge accounting for less than 0.5% of the population.

The benefits include:

• prevention of 432 serious long-term health conditions
• £5.5 million saved for the NHS
• prevention of 37 early deaths
• a saving of 19,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions
• £130 million benefit to the local economy.

These impacts show that cycling is a crucial component of our future health and sustainability.

Has this led to safer cycling? In Greater Cambridge, it’s a definite yes: cycling in the region is significantly safer than the national average, with residents 2.7 times less likely to face a fatality and 3.2 times less likely to experience a serious injury per mile cycled.

AGM – Monday 10th March 2025

This year’s AGM will take place at 7-30pm on Monday 10th March 2025 at the Toby Carvery, Forest Road, Loughborough, LE11 3HU. Please try and attend as we have had difficulty in achieving a quorum in some previous years.