Rebecca Sharkey

Image of a walkable, local coffee shop in a walkable neighbourhood, with the caption “Walkable Neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.” With the logo Urban Truth Collective” at the bottom. @urbantruth.bsky.social

Walkable neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.

#UrbanTruth

One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss Copenhagen, the bicycle-friendliest place on the planet, publishes a biannual Bicycle Account, and buried in its pages is a rather astonishing fact.

“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.”

“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath

Some costs aren’t costs.

Birkenhead Park with lots of walkers, runners, and dogs, and not a car in sight.

Birkenhead Park – the inspiration for New York's Central Park – once again proving that car free places bring lots of people out; even on a cold winters' morning. When you don't have to worry about cars, you get runners, dog walkers, and kids learning to ride a bike.

The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported

And another bites the dust?

The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A portion of the Strøget pedestrian street in Copenhagen that widens into a grand people-place.

One of the most successful pedestrian streets in the world, the Strøget in Copenhagen, was filled with cars until a 2 year pedestrianization pilot project in 1962. The opposition argued “no cars means no business,” but the street has been a massive retail success, the city’s busiest shopping street.

Loved listening to this brilliant discussion, thank you!

Really enjoyed talking to @alexvont.bsky.social about the novel. Do have a listen. And if you’d like to hear my thoughts on the film I will also be on Front Row tonight to review it.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Screenshot of Tommy Ten Names, claiming he's afraid and fleeing the UK.

Just checking, it's now ok to flee your homeland, because you're afraid for your safety, and seek refuge in another Country?

Glad we've cleared that up. Let's hear no more about immigration and refugees then.

I'm firmly of the opinion that if you use you car as a weapon then you shouldn't ever be allowed to drive again.

Driver described as "otherwise decent individual" spared jail after ramming cyclist off the road - Cycling News | Bike Reviews | road.cc A driver who cut across a cyclist before ramming into him was described as a “decent individual” as he was handed a suspended prison sentence.Asif Laher, 55, was driving through Bayswater, London in F...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you're going to attack somebody, you've got a better chance of a lenient sentence if you do it in a car. A suspended sentence for a what amounted to attempted murder.

The news from Scotland

Brilliant to hear how local campaigners successfully stopped the building of a dual carriageway right down the middle of Rimrose Valley Country Park in Sefton.
Now, thanks to @rimrosevalley.bsky.social it's teeming with wildlife and walking and cycle paths for everyone to enjoy. Have you visited?

The victim blaming of people walking or cycling and injured or killed in road collisions is off-the-charts shocking.

It seems motor normativity is so ingrained that people desperately clutch at the language of “accidents” or worse just blame the victims.

Two men and two women - all African-American - pose with bicycles near a bridge. They are wearing the bicycle costumes common in the early 20th century: the men in plus-fours, the women in long skirts. They are all wearing hats.

Four bicycle riders stop for a photograph on the Alameda Avenue Bridge, Denver, Colorado
ca. 1905

Let’s shift the narrative: focus on drivers — with better legislation, clearer guidance and stronger communication — so harm isn’t normalised or dismissed as “cycling is risky”. It’s long past time to prevent harm, not explain it away. Less victim-blaming.

So no, 15-minute cities are not restrictions

Restrictions on car use are normal and have been in place for decades in one form or another

A congestion scheme is NOT the same thing as a 15-min city

The ability to DRIVE wherever you please, whenever you please is not an inalienable human right👍🏼
24/

Ok, let’s do this🙄

We’ll start with an explainer covering:

🕒What is a 15-minute city
🏫What on Earth is going on with Oxford
👽Where the conspiracy theories have come from

And then we’ll look at the Telegraph article

🧵
1/25

Alex Pretti Unity Ride - Boston #NoICE #PrettiGood #MinnesotaStrong

More great video from yesterday’s unity ride in Minneapolis, from Recovery Bike Shop.

This one has a clip of our city council president, @elliottpayne.org , corking an intersection to keep other riders safe.

Minneapolis is a special place.

🚲 ❤️

Pavement parked cars on Railway Road

Pavement parked cars on Kendal Road

Car parked in the alleyway in Gorse Hill

Car parked in the alleyway in Gorse Hill

It’s match day, so of course any Street in Stretford without residents parking becomes an unofficial match-day car park.

Appears that those drivers too selfish to pay for parking are also the type to block pavements with their cars. Who’d have thought it 🤷

This is one of our main cycling and walking routes (#8) and here we have a 5 km stretch with ZERO at-grade crossings w/ motor traffic. I repeat, it's physically impossible to meet any motor traffic here. So it is very peaceful, safe & comfortable to ride & walk completely uninterrupted. Just bliss.

A couple of people cycling on a wide, illuminated bicycle path, in a frosty scenery, under the moon

Frosty scenery and trees, moon and mist, a person pedaling on a bike path

It is rather beautiful here in Oulu 🇫🇮, right now. Absolutely no filters needed at all 🤌
-20°C, wind chill -28°C.
#Oulu #MeanwhileInOulu

Motonormativity is not clearing snow from the sidewalks and then doing an Instagram post telling pedestrians not to walk in the road.

Just went on a school mums night out (brilliant). At least half of the 15+ attendees came by bike. Most of the rest walked. Wasn't just us - more than 20 bikes parked up at the Jolly Farmers in Oxford's Florence Park.

Does your city allow you to do this? Nag your politicians if not!

🚴‍♀️❤️

How Helsinki and Oslo cut pedestrian deaths to zero After years of committed action, neither city recorded a single pedestrian fatality in 2019

“They cut speed limits, changed street design, removed space for cars… Now it appears that work is paying off. #Oslo & #Helsinki are reaping the rewards of committed action on making their roads safer, reducing pedestrian fatalities to zero last year.” #VisionZero #SpeedKills

my grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor, was Anne Frank’s neighbor in Amsterdam, and Oma thinks this comparison is perfectly apt

Yup. The whole "you ride a bike, therefore you're a cyclist" narrative needs to be countered constantly and professionally. Someone who rides a bike as transport to work, school, the shops, the dentist is no more a cyclist, than someone who uses a train to get to work is a rail enthusiast.

As we resist Trump’s tyranny, America gains solidarity.

As we gain solidarity, we feel more courageous.

As we feel courageous and stand up to Trump, we weaken him and his regime.

As we weaken Trump and his regime, we have less to fear.

“Auschwitz took time….”
#HolocaustMemorialDay