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The evidence is in: low-traffic neighbourhoods are popular

The London election proves that measures to make streets safer are a vote-winner, says a former Labour leader of Ealing council

Are measures to make streets safe for walking and cycling unpopular? Are they vote-losers? Have we failed to take communities with us – and will we, as local politicians, pay the price?

As a former Labour leader of Ealing council in west London, I was at the heart of this debate. The low-traffic neighbourhood schemes we installed in my borough, using cameras to stop rat-running in more than a hundred streets, caused a row noisy even by the standards of cycling scheme rows. Demonstrators marched to the council offices with “Julian Bell – end this hell” placards. The “Bell” and the “end” were placed together to make a further well-loved phrase.

Julian Bell is councillor for Greenford Broadway ward, and was leader of Ealing council for 11 years

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Want to make the streets safer for women? Start with cycling

The UK’s cycling infrastructure is hostile to women – and smart new measures in Paris and Lisbon show that change is overdue

It was enraging and exhausting to read comments on social media in the wake of Sarah Everard’s killing from men suggesting she had made a “poor decision” to walk home alone in the dark. Every day, women and gender non-conforming people reflexively make calculations about their safety in a way that most men do not have to – and yet sometimes, tragically, it still is not enough.

We have normalised a society in which men can move around as they please while the rest of us fear for our lives for the simple act of travelling home.

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Cycling, Environment -

Want to make the streets safer for women? Start with cycling

The UK’s cycling infrastructure is hostile to women – and smart new measures in Paris and Lisbon show that change is overdue

It was enraging and exhausting to read comments on social media in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder from men suggesting she had made a “poor decision” to walk home alone in the dark. Every day, women and gender non-conforming people reflexively make calculations about their safety in a way that most men do not have to – and yet sometimes, tragically, it still is not enough.

We have normalised a society in which men can move around as they please while the rest of us fear for our lives for the simple act of travelling home.

Related: Europe doubles down on cycling in post-Covid recovery plans

Related: UK increase in cycling and walking must be nurtured, says minister

Kate Jelly is a researcher, specialising in gender, and is based in London.

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End of UK lockdown may mean a rise in bike thefts

UK police services to launch national cycle crime partnership while pushing theft prevention

Bike theft is a perennial problem – and a pandemic-induced cycling boom inevitably means more targets for thieves.

However, last year there was a 16.3% drop in cycle theft, according to police data from Opal (the serious organised crime unit), partly because more people and their cycles were at home. Across the transport network theft dropped by 60%. Perversely, the main exception seems to be thefts from key workers such as hospital staff.

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Cycling -

End of UK lockdown may mean a rise in bike thefts

UK police services to launch national cycle crime partnership while pushing theft prevention

Bike theft is a perennial problem – and a pandemic-induced cycling boom inevitably means more targets for thieves.

However, last year there was a 16.3% drop in cycle theft, according to police data from Opal (the serious organised crime unit), partly because more people and their cycles were at home. Across the transport network theft dropped by 60%. Perversely, the main exception seems to be thefts from key workers such as hospital staff.

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