Sarah

The sorts of journeys that are made very easy by bike! But riding a bike with a small person feels daunting at best and terrifying at worst in lots of places around here.

This time stamp is really typical of journeys I need to make - roughly similar times by car or bike, at least twice as slow by public transport and generally too far to walk, especially with a child in tow if the child is walking themselves.

A screenshot from Google maps showing the time summaries for different transport options for the same route in south Manchester: 20mins in a car, 53 mins public transport, 1hr46 walking and 25 minutes on a bike.

Lack of cycling infrastructure that would make it safe to ride a bike with small children is basically a huge time tax on caregivers, particularly those who are unable to drive. Which of course is a group largely dominated by poorer women.

Guess which of these stories came first on both the BBC One and Radio 4 bulletins.

We have also submitted written evidence today. We are extremely concerned about these exclusionary amendments which would make comprehensive safe cycling for children, families & many disabled people impossible.

Bleak story in the @manchestermill.bsky.social briefing about how unsafe the roads are in GM: all 10 boroughs are in the top 20 areas in England and Wales with the highest rates of dangerous driving. So when I said unsafe roads, I guess meant unsafe drivers.

Ever-rising height of car bonnets a ‘clear threat’ to children, report says High-fronted vehicles are more likely to kill and are on the rise in Europe with the UK an extreme example

Small children are invisible to SUV drivers
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Chart 11: Proportion of pedestrian casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2019 to 2023 (England only)

Chart of who owns the cars on our streets. Ten columns with poorest households owning 1/5th as many cars as highest income households

A damning pair of charts.

People on lowest incomes own FIVE TIMES fewer cars than the richest do.

Meanwhile kids in most deprived areas are FIVE TIMES more likely to be injured by cars.

Had a few days at Center Parcs.
There are no cars 5 days of the week, a totally pedestrianised centre, everything you need within a 15 minute walk and decent cycling facilities. Bonkers that people want these things for their holidays and don't want to make it a reality for their everyday.

Incredibly powerful investigation in Dutch newspaper NRC: Seven of the world’s leading genocide scholars — including renowned Holocaust experts — describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.

And according to them, nearly all of their peers agree.

He should talk to @playingout.bsky.social !

...and how kids should be reclaiming that space from traffic.

The Anxious Generation with Jonathan Haidt [VIDEO] What Now? with Trevor Noah · Episode

Great Trevor Noah episode on the Anxious Generation with a little slot towards the end thinking about how the lack of public space to play affects kids - inc how huge SUVs make parents scared to let their kids play in the street. open.spotify.com/episode/0I7l...

#carspreading

Western governments say what’s happening is complex and nuanced and that it would wrong to rush to judgement. Meanwhile,

If you live in a city and ever think "why can't we have more nice things?" the answer is often because we have too many cars

Ooh thanks! 🙏🏼 Looks like my old twitter list

Left X months ago but only just made my way here. Hit me with your best bluesky recs! (What do we call tweets round here?)