Streets Ahead

From lost panniers, stolen bikes and a proposed HS2 cycleway - this is our podcast without portfolio (our favourite kind) where we chew the fat on active travel.By the way, if you want ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.Episode edited by Clare Mansell.

Okay, it's not strictly active travel - but it is walking, sort of. In this short bonus episode, Laura and Adam go Mudlarking on the Thame's foreshore and find Medieval pottery, clay tobacco pipes, a Boris bike and a traffic cone.Thanks to Chris from the Thames Explorer Trust for being our guide.There’s also some extra bonus content on our new Patreon. That’s right - if you want ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.Episode edited by Clare Mansell.

Cycling is booming in London, and in cities around the world, as are cargo bikes. With prices ranging upwards of £2,000, theft is a real and present concern for owners, and a major barrier to more people experiencing the joy and convenience of owning a larger bike, whether for work, carrying children, or as a mobility aid.In this episode Laura travels to north London for a celebration of possibly the UK's first on-street dedicated secure cargo bike parking, joining about 50 other cargo bike fans. She talks to wanna-be cargo bike parents, disabled cyclists and those behind the new cycle hangar, to discuss why cities need more of this kind of thing - and what happens when it's not there.There’s also some extra bonus content on our new Patreon. That’s right - if you want ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.Episode edited by Clare Mansell.

Welcome to this special episode, in which it’s just Laura, her suitcase and one amazing guest, sat on a bench in the middle of one of the city’s famous Superblocks.There’s also some extra bonus content on our new Patreon. That’s right - if you want ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! In late 2023 Laura travelled to Barcelona by train from London. She was curious about the superblocks programme which involved some of the city’s streets being pedestrianised, leaving others as thoroughfares for motor traffic, and introducing things like greenspace and seating to the inner roads. Starting in 2022, streets in the Eixample district were transformed for walking and cycling, with a focus on cutting air pollution, overheating in summer and improving accessibility.On those streets, people can still drive in and out, but through traffic is discouraged. While I was there I met Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, a researcher and professor in urban and transport planning, environment and health, and Director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative, and Head of the Climate, Air Pollution, Nature and Urban Health at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Mark has quantified, in his research, the toll poor urban and transport planning has on the environment and health - and some of it is pretty scary. Mark was a delight to interview and I’m excited to share this episode with you.You can find some of Mark Nieuwenhuijsen’s research here:Street pedestrianization in urban districts: Economic impacts in Spanish cities https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026427512100367X  Superblocks’ impact on health, local climate and economy https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019315223?via%3Dihub PASTA research https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e009924Mark's current research can be found here https://ubdpolicy.eu/About the current Superblocks https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/es/content/asi-seran-las-nuevas-plaza-y-ejes-verdes-eixample We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.This episode was edited by Clare Mansell

And we have reached the end of 2023! What a year that was: we had highs, we had lows, we had some culture wars, we did a podcast in a pub. How was 2023 for you? Ned, Laura and Adam give their perspective.>> Oh, and we're on Patreon! If you'd like to support Streets Ahead, get ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes content AND receive wonderful stickers, please head to:https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast <<We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.Episode edited by Clare Mansell.

For this episode, Ned, Adam and Laura navigated east London's cycle lanes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to speak in-person, in front of a live pub audience, to Councillor Clyde Loakes, at the Wanstead Tap in Waltham Forest.For the past decade Cllr Loakes has led his borough's transformation for walking and cycling. Waltham Forest is very much no longer a forest, in North-East London, but has become world famous for its Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, people-friendly high streets and for pioneering high-quality cycle lanes and transforming massive car-dominated junctions in outer London for active travel.During the podcast we talk about political courage, and what the borough has achieved since Clyde's team won an unprecedented £27m from Transport for London back in 2013 for its 'Mini Holland' programme. We discuss how ultimately this kind of transformation, while hard, is possible - even in the most car-centric of places. We discuss the role of a range of players, from campaigners on the outside, to the political and officer support within the council - and the importance of listening to genuine concerns from the public.In a speech in 2018, Cllr Loakes said: ‘I spent years talking about encouraging a shift to bikes and walking without actually doing the things that make a difference. If I am honest - I was tinkering with parking schemes and pandering to car owners. I was not delivering for our community. Then I got a chance to do something extraordinary. We won our Better Waltham Forest mini-Holland bid with low traffic neighbourhoods and protected bike lanes . We had signed up to deliver a huge public health implementation at pace.’ He added: ‘For too long we, in fact I, as a councillor had been focused on maintaining a status quo that did nothing for anyone. But now we have done something extraordinary, a radical intervention that puts people first.’Thank you to Dan at the Wanstead Tap, to everyone who turned out on a rainy Monday night in December, to join us live, and to Pedal Me who cycled our equipment across London.The Healthy Streets Scorecard, which ranks London boroughs based on people-friendly measures, can be found here: https://www.healthystreetsscorecard.london/*That* coffin picture is here: https://twitter.com/mthrel/status/1402221590167838722Clyde Loakes is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LabourstoneWe’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://twitter.com/podstreetsaheadIf you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.Episode edited by Clare Mansell.