Zoe Banks Gross

Light up the night for #MyRideOurRight ✨

Nearly 50 #GlowRides are happening across the UK, find one near you or organise your own. Can’t join? Donate today and help light up the night.

🗺️ cyclinguk.org/glow-ride-map
💛 cyclinguk.org/glowride-donate

It’s been a busy few days. This morning I had the honour of speaking to a primary school as part of #BlackHistoryMonth. I spoke about #KidicalMass @playingout.bsky.social my experiences in #communityenergy and #volunteering. Kids were amazing and inspiring.

The War on Cars Society & Culture Podcast · The War on Cars brings you news, commentary and stories about the worldwide battle to undo a century's worth of damage wrought by the automobile.

Neighbourhoods where children are safe to play out are better for everyone - so why aren’t we accelerating #LowTrafficNeighbourhoods? @thewaroncars.bsky.social

Paris before and after street transformation

New urban forest planted in front of Paris City Hall

A Paris “School Street” where cars are removed and people space/tree planting are added

According to the City of Paris, in the last 10 years 150K trees have been planted & 45ha of parks created in the already hot city, all intended to not only improve quality-of-life today, but also help the city adapt to & manage summer heatwaves of 50℃ (122F) by 2050.

Just the start.

Common sense.

For example: my daughter has a bus pass and travels from Ladywood to Smethwick to school.

But she has figured out that this 30 minute bus ride is also - you guessed it! - a 30 minute walk.

#UKCarCulture is Birmingham public transport's biggest problem.

🚨🌍 New Report Alert
#EuropesEnvironment2025: Thematic Briefings are out!

Dive into 35 in-depth topics + assessments on how Europe is doing – where we are, where we’re headed, and whether we’ll meet the EU’s 2030 & 2050 environmental goals

Explore them here: eea.europa.eu/en/europe-en... [...]

Even Conservative voters tend not to trust the party on immigration (-14 net score), and are split on how much they trust the Tories on issues like the environment (+5), housing (+1) and keeping its promises (-7)

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

🧵/ Ahead of their party conference this weekend, just 20% of Britons think Kemi Badenoch is doing well as leader of the Conservatives, with even fewer feeling she looks like a prime minister in waiting

Doing well: 20%
Doing badly: 45%

Does look like a PM: 11%
Does not look like a PM: 62%

Spent most of the day in the @landorlinks.bsky.social Transport and Health conference. Great hearing evidence from researchers and examples of live projects where positive change is happening, but there’s still much to do to improve our environment to make it healthier for everyone.

1 in 10 Americans rarely or never drive a car Among U.S. adults, those who live in the Northeast (17%) are more likely than those in the South (10%), West (8%) and Midwest (7%) to be nondrivers.

Fascinating study. Note that this is 1 in 10 adults. Factor in children and the percentage of non-driving Americans is much higher. Cities and towns need to account for their mobility needs too.

We had a full house for last December's #Airpollution conference at the Royal Society of Chemistry, with great discussion and speakers including a session from Defra's Air Quality Expert Group.

Tickets and abstracts are now open for year's event on 15th December.

See you there.

Super lovely morning for a #run spent catching up with a friend. Appreciating #greenspace in the city and evidence of good people.

Und wann passt @spiegel.de seine Victimblaming Textbausteine an?

www.spiegel.de/panorama/war...

Urbanists OUTSIDE North America Worth Following! Join the conversation

NEW STARTER PACK! This time I’m hoping to encourage and support global urbanists from OUTSIDE North America here on Bluesky, so hopefully this will help! Who’ve I missed? Just joined? Let me know! I’ll keep updating, so please keep checking & sharing this pack! And let’s try using #GlobalUrbanists.

Chart showing road fatalities by road user involved in collision. Data for Great Britain in 2024

Road Casualties data for 2024 in Great Britain published this week: www.gov.uk/government/s...

Thanks to @pactsuk.bsky.social, there is an important new chart on the vehicles involved in fatal crashes:

Can’t anyone get Germany’s trains to run on time? The latest attempt to fix the pitiful performance of Deutsche Bahn

Modest proposal:

Hand DB over to SBB.

The Swiss will have those German trains running on time in a week. #Switzerland

www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Screenshot of a call from ne.antifascist on Insta to write and complain about permission given to UKIP to march through Newcastle tomorrow. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mh5sfD6VRAtQ1kdF-AaZMx1ZGILzOVWMcwApC2gmdFA/edit?usp=drivesdk

UKIP have been given permission to march through Newcastle City Centre tomorrow to a hotel housing asylum seekers and people with refugee status.

Please email complaints and concerns to Northumbria Police and Newcastle politicians (MPs and councillors).

Link to template letter in alt text.

Scarlett McNally: Upgrading public transport and active travel can transform communities and public health I’ve been travelling more on buses recently. After my recent hip replacement surgery, I was advised to avoid cycling and driving for six weeks. Buses have improved since my journeys to school in the 1...

Public transport needs an upgrade, alongside active travel infrastructure. The brilliant @scarlettmcnally.bsky.social wrote this and will be at the Transport & Health conference in Bristol next week.

www.bmj.com/content/390/...

‘It’s the best feeling’: how Copenhagen gave cyclists a green wave Traffic lights are synchronised so a rush-hour cyclist at 20km/h can catch green lights all the way

Traffic lights in Copenhagen are synchronised so a rush-hour cyclist at 20km/h can catch green lights all the way.

“It’s so important to have the freedom on a bike to just ride along at a good speed… You can feel the city wants you – and supports you – going on a bike.”

Really enjoyed discovering more #greenspace in Broadmead today! More of this please #Bristol #WestofEnglandCombinedAuthority!

Petition: Stop airport expansion: halt all airport expansion plans across the UK More than 20 airports across the UK have expansion plans, which will result in a combined increase of 60%+ capacity. More flights means more emissions, at a time when we should be doing everything we ...

LAST DAY to sign our petition to stop airport expansion: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

We now have 10,929 signatures. Let's make it at least 11,000.

So pleased to have this crossing for cycles and pedestrians! For years felt like Frogger trying to get across this road. Now it’s easy. Thanks #Bristol @bristolgreenparty.bsky.social!

Kids claim the streets of Oxford The latest Kidical Mass family bike ride attracted a record turnout, according to organisers Cyclox. More than 200 cyclists of all ages converged in Oxford ringing bells as they circled the city centr...

Kids reclaimed the streets of Oxford in Kidical Mass, a family bike ride, around the city centre earlier today. Our special report and photo gallery 👇

oxfordclarion.uk/kids-claim-t...

It is #worldcarfreeday today. Had an early errand and had to dig out a puffa and find my gloves, but enjoyed my #cycling journey.

Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed Tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food.

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by normal driving, account for 28% of microplastics entering the environment globally.

Heavy vehicles eg SUVs/EVs especially.

Via @us.theconversation.com

Nearly 900 fewer people injured since 20mph introduction in Wales Figures show a 25% reduction in the number of injuries on Wales' roads in the past 18 months.

Almost 900 fewer people have been injured on Welsh roads since the default speed limit was lowered from 30 to 20mph two years ago

Casualties on 20 to 30mph roads between July and September 2024 were the lowest for the three month-period since records began in 1979

👏 Evidence-led policy

Why is is so hard for people to say these words?:

Lough Neagh, the UK's biggest lake, is being killed by *livestock farms*.

Morning all.

Photographer John Heywood, ‘Waterproof Children’
Northampton 1979.
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O126437...

‘I was told I had two weeks to live’ – why are so many young, fit, non-smoking women getting lung cancer? For decades, lung cancer has been viewed as a disease of older men who smoked. Now, cases among young women are on the rise and doctors are baffled. Could air pollution be behind it?

"We’ve got to the point where the burden of ill health caused by #AirPollution is so huge, I’m asking myself: ‘What will it take to make the public demand more action?’." Well said @ellarobertafdn.bsky.social.

Such a powerful read about the rise of #LungCancer in non-smoking, healthy young women.

"Predictions" of civil war in the US are attempts to foment it.