1/ Adding cycling to walking QUADRUPLES the number of people who can get to their local shops and community resources in less than 20 minutes. And critically 15 - 20 minutes is about how far most people will actively travel without getting in a car / bus.
2/ When councils don’t enable getting to the local high street by bike they are excluding large groups of people from their daily dose of excercise - particularly the elderly.
3/ When a council puts a bike track through an unlit park or canal route, they are excluding many women, the elderly and many young men who feel vulnerable in our cities.
4/ When a council send a route round the houses and make it longer, ‘Distance Decay’ evidence is that it is older residents and women who simply abandon using a bike and lose their daily dose of active travel.
5/ When a council put anti-moped barriers on pathways and cycle tracks - they are excluding disabled bike users and parents (more often than not women) from their daily dose of Active travel.
6/ When a council fail to provide protected routes that a 10 year old can use on their own....they rob our children of freedom. We need cities fit for autonomous kids not autonomous cars.
7/ Our failure to make Active Travel something for the many, not just the brave disproportionally falls on the very groups that most politicians want to enable to live healthier more fulfilling lives. Streets should not be conduits to a Type II Diabetes crisis.
8/ It’s time to talk about ‘enabling’ active travel, not just encouraging it. If we want health for everyone we need to enable active travel for the 1-3 km journeys to local shops and schools and realize that low traffic neighbourhoods are good for public health.
Healthy streets is about a public health crisis that needs actions across our city. The mayor needs the power to build a high-quality, dense network of contiguous infrastructure. This is not about bikes... it about better streets for everyone.
