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Architecture, Art and design, Cities, Culture, Cycling, Design, Environment, Exhibitions, Life and style, World news - June 17, 2019

Build it and they will bike: the second Bicycle Architecture Biennale – in pictures

15 projects from nine countries have been selected for the second Bicycle Architecture Biennale, which launches on Monday in Amsterdam

• Guardian Cities is running a short series next week on urban cycling around the world – from Dublin to Johannesburg, Berlin to Karachi

The depressing lesson of west London's lost cycle route

Kensington and Chelsea council has blocked a flagship plan after a campaign based largely on myths

More or less every time a city orders a report into how expanding populations can be moved around in efficient ways that also improve liveability and sustainability, the same answer comes back: active travel – that is, more walking and cycling.

And yet in many of those same cities, when specific plans are introduced to make walking and cycling safer and more pleasant, they face a fierce backlash, which can be sufficiently noisy and disruptive to scupper the schemes.

Could the Cycle to Work scheme start an ebike revolution?

New guidance on £1,000 ‘cap’ means more expensive ebikes are available as part of scheme

Over the weekend, new guidance on the Cycle to Work scheme was announced by the Department for Transport (DfT), making it clear that ebikes are eligible for it. This clarification could encourage a new demographic on to two wheels, and provide huge benefits to disabled and elderly people.

The scheme is a complicated but well-used salary sacrifice scheme in which employees can get bikes, tax-free, via their employers. It starts with a year-long loan, which most people extend until the bike is worth so little they can “buy” it for a nominal sum or extend the hire for a percentage of the bike’s value. (After five or six years, HMRC considers a bike to have a negligible value).

Why the vitriol about my bike expenses won't stop me cycling for work – MP

Media criticism has actually kickstarted my drive to get commuters on to two wheels

Over the last few weeks, our schoolchildren have staged climate change strikes, while Extinction Rebellion locked down central London. Nearby, MPs (including myself) listened to Greta Thunberg and held debates on climate change.

So, at a time when most of the country is focused on the threats to our environment, the challenges we face in addressing them and the need for not just behavioural change but a transformation of our economy, what is more newsworthy to Fleet Street?

The UK's feral roads deter cycling – we need enforcement, not calls for respect

Our public space is increasingly out of reach for all but the fit, the brave, and those in motor vehicles

Almost 90% of cyclists experience a “close pass” – an overtake within 1.5m – at least weekly, and 70% say conditions on Britain’s roads haven’t improved in the last five years, according to a new damning survey from British Cycling.

Of 15,000 respondents, 66% said they were concerned about their safety while cycling on Britain’s roads, and almost 40% said they experienced a close pass daily.

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Build it and they will bike: the second Bicycle Architecture Biennale – in pictures

The depressing lesson of west London's lost cycle route

Could the Cycle to Work scheme start an ebike revolution?

Why the vitriol about my bike expenses won't stop me cycling for work – MP

The UK's feral roads deter cycling – we need enforcement, not calls for respect

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