Why Ljubljana's cycling policy shames UK cities

 

Guess what? I have read something which cheers me up! Makes a change from all the bad news which has me tearing my hair out.

I have read about grand cycling facilities abroad where many countries are taking steps to restrict car use.  No, not Holland nor Denmark this time, the leaders in sustainable transport planning often written about in this column.

Instead, this time we go  to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, who have shown what can be achieved. It gives you heart, proves that where there is a will transport congestion can be solved.

For this story I  am indebted to Jim Densham’s feature in the recent issue of Cycle, the excellent bi-monthly magazine of national cycling organisation Cycling UK.

The article, entitled: Less Traffic, More Cycling, describes the author’s experience when he visited cycling friendly towns while on holiday abroad, places which have successfully cut traffic congestion by creating safe roads in towns for cycling and walking.

He writes that last summer he visited Ljubljana (pictured above) where he found a huge area of the old city is pedestrianised…”enjoyed by thousands of people taking in the sights, buying from market stalls and food vendors, and relaxing in on-street café seating.”

But by contrast, 60 miles away in Trieste in Italy, he found the town was throttled by traffic, with noisy, crowded streets, narrow pavements, the stench of traffic fumes, cars and mopeds rushing about. Just like in the UK. It was a world away from the capital of Slovenia.

Densham tells that Slovenia made changes following a “52 per cent increase in car use between 2002 and 2012".

So they came up with radical plan to limit motors and give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. Over 10 hectares – just under 25 acres - of the city centre was pedestrianised.  Doesn’t sound much when converted to miles, 0.386 square miles.

But that fact in itself reveals how little road space is needed to  improve conditions.

It can make a big difference.

Densham says it shows that huge challenges can be met in the urgent need to restrict car use, and he also mentions the initiatives in Paris which hosts this year’s Olympic Games. Barcelona, too, aims to put people before cars.

He mentions Ghent in Belgium which seven years ago introduced a city “circulation” plan to dramatically cut car travel in the centre. The changes boosted cycle use from 22 per cent of journeys to 37 per cent.

All of these fine initiatives show just how far the UK lags behind.

                              Torquay's bonkers answer to overcoming a gradient on a cycle route

                                                   was to provide steps (see Blog June 2, 2022). 

                                             Do note, the above pic is not the Torquay masterpiece.

The author  compares his experiences abroad to the reality of his home city of Glasgow, streets full of traffic. A visit there, he says, may leave a bad taste in the mouth, literally.

Which can only get worse. Densham writes that government predictions for England and Wales say traffic is to increase by up to 54 percent by 2060.

A grim picture.

Elsewhere in Cycle, the various stories reflect on the huge enthusiasm in Cycling UK to get Britain cycling despite the setbacks. Setbacks such as government slashing funding for cycling; of plans

to allow traffic to enter previously  restricted areas because Sunak thinks this  unfairly punishes motorists.

If Britain is good at anything it is dancing the Quick Step.   They agree to funding cycling one moment, then slash the budget the next; one step forward, one step back. The Cycle Planning Quickstep.

The front cover of Cycle depicts a London city night scene and a huge Cycling UK slogan on the side of a building declaring “Rishi, fight climate change…don’t fuel it.”

 

 

Sunak's pro driving policy prompted by conspiracy theory

 

Recently I discovered the twisted logic behind Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to do away with low traffic neighbourhoods in  order to allow drivers free access them. Low traffic neighbourhoods were created to make them safer for residents and to encourage walking and cycling.

You may have thought that creating traffic-free areas was more relevant than ever with the need to reduce traffic pollution in a bid to tackle climate change.

But to hell with all that, says Sunak. We cannot punish the motorist!  

                                                 

Clearly, he is shit scared of losing votes in this year’s general election and is turning current transport thinking on its head.   He is not considering for a moment that taking a stand to help reduce car dependency might instead work in his favour.

I have since learned that Sunak’s decision, which flies the in face of the government’s own Active Travel Policy, was based in part on a conspiracy theory whipped up by ministers concerned about “15-minute cities”!

“15-minute cities”, explained Peter Walker in The Guardian recently, is an urban planning concept devised by France-based urbanist, Carlos Moreno.

It is described as a broad planning concept devised for people living within easy reach of schools and work places, for whom cycling and walking would likely offer an attractive alternative to driving.

It is all part of the world wide move to reduce car dependency and reduce pollution which is killing people and one of the causes of climate change which could  ultimately wipe us out. But who cares, says Sunak and cohorts, we can’t allow that, its anti-motorist!

According to Cycling UK’s research large numbers of people would willingly switch to cycling for short journeys instead of always using the car, if road safety was improved. It was not about forcing people to stop driving, they have insisted!

Restricting vehicular access to certain neighbourhoods was seen as vital to improving road safety, and this has largely been acceptable in government circles for years.  It was never the intention to force people to stop driving, but to restrict access and bring calm to residential areas where children may play as they always used to be able to do, and cyclists and walking becomes safer.

The current problem has its roots in the 1960s, when car ownership took off. The government of the day seized on this, with a policy to encourage drivers to be able to go where they liked and when they liked. And most drivers believe it.

Trying to row back on that “promise” is proving a problem.

So now we have a government which has dropped all pretence at supporting Active Travel and has become gripped by the fear drivers are unfairly being targeted.  Supporting this belief are conspiracy theorists that see it as part “climate lockdown”, in which, as Walker describes it “people are forcibly kept within their local neighbourhood and not allowed to travel.”

Walker reports a speech by Mark Harper, the transport secretary,

 made to Conservative conference in October.  In this bonkers speech he describes 15-minute cities as schemes in which “local councils can decide how often you go to the shops” – which was incorrect and never been proposed in Britain.

But we are where we are. Sunak – bidding to become our fourth useless Prime Minster after Johnson,

May and Truss – is set to scrap government guidelines to local councils to install more 20mph speed restrictions, spreading the lie that Active Travel policies intended to improve the quality of life are in fact “anti-car measures”.

 

 

Wishful thinking

 

The New Year dawns and my wish are for more things to go right than wrong in 2024.

So good bye to miserable, tension filled days. Welcome to doing nice things, fantasy things, like those Facebook posts which report that so is at the Pier Head.  Or so and so is in Thirsk, having a beer.  And they get a 100 likes and lots of fawning comments.

Or so and so is in the Bahamas – again. I admit to being envious.

Are they lying?

I don’t think so. I think they are “blessed”.

"Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd. 

We’re not blessed. We be carers and worn out with worry for our room-bound patient.

And, like our dear daughter, we be house-bound - for years now - as a consequence, like so many thousands of others.

Better days will see us all getting out there. I'm all for wishful thinking.

I think we'll take Eurostar to Paris, just for starters.

Official at check in: Sorry sir, the Chunnel is flooded, no services. There are thousands of frustrated customers here, their holidays ruined.

What? I don’t give a toss. I do not wish to hear this.

Let me speak to the driver.

Hi, there, can you get on to control; tell them who I am... We wish to get to Paris, my family and myself.

The driver calls control, gives them my name.

Control says: If he’s the train spotter who used to stand at Wigan North Western in the 1960s.  My dad knew him. Good man. Good to go the Paris. Never mind the flood. It’s only a few inches, drop the speed to 50.

Driver.  Turning to us   Hop in. Your wish is my command.

Zoom…300kph and Paris in two and half hours, taking a little longer due to the flood in the Chunnel.

 

No need for the snorkels.

At the Gare du Nord, we lunch nearby at Restaurant  ‘Poo Poo’,  across the road..

What next? Oh, yes. What do you on a day trip to Paris with so little time to take it all in?

You go to the one place which will confirm you were there and no where else.

We take a cab to the Eiffel Tower, go the top 1000 feet up, and admire the view in the setting sun. Then cab to the Gare du Nord and our Eurostar which is still not running – they say.

“Pardon, Mons,” says platform official.

“Etes-vous observateur de trains du Nord Western de Wigan?”

Qui. I say.

“Allez. Bon route.”

We are waved forward by our driver. Off we go, back to St Pancras.

A dream trip.

And now how to deal with daily Hell of the self-service checkout at my supermarket.

These newly introduced machines are meant to ease the pain of shopping, but they don’t because they are likely to misread most of the goods scanned.

Shop with own Bag? The screen says.

Place bag in position, orders the screen.

You scan in the first item.

Place your purchase in the bag, it says.

I do so.

At the third item the machine fails to register it in the bag and tells you to put the fucking thing in the bag.  I have done so, I say, but it takes no notice.

Instead on screen message appears in red “Assistant coming”.

Except they take a whole minute or more which is too long.

The assistant presses keys, juggles this, that, the machine relents.

I am able to proceed to the next  item, number 4 of 15 and if its bad day the machine will four more times stop and query  something or other, taking a dislike to the bread, or the tomatoes, or whatever, the colour  of my coat: and each time it calls for the assistant.

This is happening all down the line to other customers, all now quietly seething.
I seethe, but noisily.

WILL YOU GET RID OFTHIS HEAP OF JUNK!!!

I know now how to take charge of the situation. I take my cue from Richard, the big Aussie ex-firefighter who decades ago did a spell at Cycling Weekly designing page layouts on screen.

Whenever there was glitch and the page froze he would exclaim loudly with Aussie expressions.  Then to my delight, remonstrate with the machine by smacking the computer with the flat of his hand. This direct action would elicit a cry from the editor’s office where Andy would call out. “OH, no…, that’s a few thousand pounds worth of kit”!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, at the first sign of trouble with the checkout shit heap I smack it hard. Shoppers turn their heads in my direction.

You bastard, I call out, raising my voice.

It doesn’t always work. But satisfaction is guaranteed.

GET RID OF THEM,  I tell the assistant and managers who come running.

Next day, we have a splendid take away frozen meal from COOK. We have Beef Stroganoff – or as Sid, mishearing the waitress, once said: “Strong enough for what, dear?”

And from the wine cellar all good Face bookers have, a bottle of Chateau Nuff Du Wot. Or was it Blue Nun?

The following day we’re in Bournemouth, watching the heaving seas as waves crash onto the beach.

Then to the silence and grandeur of the Scottish Highlands, oh, the majesty of those peaks.

Off to Stockholm, to wander about the old town – Gamla Stan.

There is a parachute jump at Biggin Hill.

Risky.

We go Nordic Walking with sticks over our local Surrey Hills – always a good workout.

Finish with a coffee in Mullins down the road, named in honour of its long gone owner, identified on the Blue Plaque on the wall outside: “This is the house of William Mullins,, a Pilgrim Father who sailed to America on board the Mayflower in 1620. “

Wishing you all the best.