Movement by Beryl Beryl

Originally named Mini-Hollands, Liveable Neighbourhoods was an ambitious project created under Boris Johnson's tenure to encourage active mobility in outer London. Mini-Hollands launched in 2012 as competition for outer London boroughs to win a grant in order to boost cycling and walking in their towns with ideas taken from the Dutch approach to urban design. Three boroughs were awarded £30 million each to transform their town centres and high streets into more livable places.

Transport expert and sociology professor Rachel Aldred, who has been researching the impact of the Mini-Hollands programme in one of the three awarded boroughs, Waltham Forest, tell us about the early impact of the scheme. In the second part of the episode, we talk to Sarah Cary, head of Place at Enfield Council, another Mini-Holland grant recipient, about what the programme is achieving for Enfield citizens and her learnings so far.

Bikes Up Knives Down is the hashtag of a grassroots movement taking over London on two wheels. Its aim: to fight crime through bike riding.

In the last four years, a group of kids from all backgrounds and neighbourhoods have been coming together creating a community where respect is gained by their skills on the bike and not their police record.

They symbolically gather at BikeStormz, a biannual ride-out that that last month saw 4,000 young people pulling tricks on the streets of London with a clear message: Pick your bikes up, put your knives down.

The wider movement, known as BikeLife, is earning support from local communities, councils and the police, and has inspired other cities, filmmakers and brands like Nike. We talk to Matt Dempsey, director of the new Knives Down, Bikes Up film for the Barbican, and to BikeStormz co-founder Jake100 about how the bike is getting kids together without fighting.

Bollards are seemingly humble and innocuous piece of urban infrastructure. However they have the potential to create serious shifts in the way people move around cities, offering one of the simplest and most effective cycling measures to shift motor traffic away from congested streets. We talk to LCC’s, Campaigns Coordinator Fran Graham about the positive knock-on effect bollards create in cities and how bollards can benefit all citizens far beyond the streets they occupy.

This episode is part of our series around simple concepts improving cycling in cities.

It’s early December, the midst of gifting season. What could you get for someone who rides a bike? For this festive podcast episode, we decided to create our very own Urban Cycling Gift Guide and help you find the ultimate present. However, this is a different guide. It is made of one gift only. We think it’s the best thing cyclists can give and receive this festive season and every day.

Copenhagenize’s founder Mikael Colville-Andersen appearance in our October episode was received with enthusiasm and left many of us wanting to know more. So much so that Mikael agreed to extend his appearance on Movement and answer some questions from our listeners.

In this episode, Mikael tells us what you can do to push your city to invest in cycling and what policy changes can make the most difference. He also talks about some of the recurrent urban cycling myths he constantly has to debunk, how cities can make urban cycling less macho and aggressive as well as how bikes, buses, pedestrians and tourists can all coexist.

-

Nicknamed the 'Pope of urban cycling', Mikael Colville-Andersen is the founder and CEO of studio Copenhagenize Design Co. and one of the world’s most influential figures getting more people in cities on bikes. Check out more on Movement episode '#5 Copenhagenize Your City'.

Bikes do get stolen, and people do get away with it, especially in big cities.

But what can you do about it and what should you absolutely not do? First things first, you need a bike lock. What type of lock should that be? Is there a best way to lock your bike and should you keep anything else in mind? And what if your bike gets stolen anyway?

In this episode, we answer these questions and more. We speak to Ben Smith, designer and co-founder of innovative UK-based lock brand Hiplok, about types of locks and bike locking best practice. Our host, Tom Slater, takes a tour of London Fixed Gear’s forum 'Ways Not to Lock Your Bike' gallery of horror.

In the second half of the episode, London commuter, racer and Transcontinental finisher William Dunk tells us about his incredible bike theft story, featuring an unexpected plot twist.