Streets Ahead Streets Ahead Podcast

A pre-budget announcement on HS2 last week revealed a £380m cut to cycling and walking funding. This represents a two-thirds reduction of funding in England, and leaves just £100m for active travel in the current financial year. 
Cycling and walking contributed £36.5bn to the UK economy in 2021, according to Sustrans. 
Ned, Laura and Adam convene to discuss what's happening and the impact it'll have.
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell

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In this episode, we have a special feature in which Ned travels to his spiritual home in Lewisham Shopping Centre to meet the folks at XO Bikes. Founder, Stef Jones, was mentoring in prison and noticed the same people kept coming back - not that they wanted to. These people were lacking opportunities; prison is 'full of entrepreneurs, shifting the wrong product,' he says.
Stef left his ad agency to set up XO bikes, to train, employ and inspire people and support them to change their lives, become bike mechanics, and it’s a gateway to the cycling industry. They take donated bikes, and donations. Police give thousands of bikes, which they refurbish and sell.
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell


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We speak to Mums For Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn to chat ULEZ, campaigning and the worrying and urgent need to clean up our dirty air.
Almost exactly ten years ago, nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died following an asthma attack, later becoming the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Ella lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham. 
In 2017 Jemima and a group of fellow mums, on parental leave in south London, decided to act after noticing how poor the air quality was as they walked with their babies. Research suggests kids experience 60% of their pollution exposure on their journey to, and in school. Early exposure to air pollution increases the risk of asthma and lung infections and can be fatal.
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell
Image courtesy AirQualityNews.com

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What is it really like being a Councillor, especially one who has implemented LTNs? Ned, Laura and Adam speak with Ian Barnes, formerly of Enfield Low Traffic Neighbourhood fame. As Deputy Leader of Labour-run Enfield council until 2022, Ian was among those responsible for delivering Low Traffic Neighbourhoods both before and during the pandemic.
We discuss: listening to resident concerns, Mini Hollands, road pricing, the abuse some Councillors face and more.
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell



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In this special episode Laura goes to the seaside. It may be pouring with rain but Brighton and Shoreham-by-Sea offer a warm welcome, showing us the good stuff happening for cycling in Brighton, and the latest (largely bad stuff) on the short-lived cycle lane on Upper Shoreham road. This ill-fated cycle lane in West Sussex was removed after a few short weeks, despite huge support and a tripling of cycle trips during its existence. What's next for the frankly terrifying road it once sat on, and for the many children and their families that navigate it every day? And what's the least likely transport combination you can think of?
All this and more, in this special episode of Streets Ahead.
Thanks to Adam Bronkhorst at campaign group Shoreham-by-Cycle, and to Mark Strong, of transport consultancy Transport Initiatives, for taking the time to show Laura round and sharing their considerable expertise.
Here's some background to the Upper Shoreham Road story, which road.cc covered from the start: https://road.cc/show/tags/upper-shoreham-road/189511
And more recently, the Argus:
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19877352.council-acted-illegally-removing-upper-shoreham-road-cycle-lane/
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/20293658.upper-shoreham-road-cycle-lane-not-ruled-out/
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell

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Ned, Laura and Adam discuss active travel and the economy. We know that cycling and walking are great for our health and the environment, but is the economic case sold strongly enough?
This episode was recorded before the UK Government Autumn Statement on 17/11/22 but talks generally about active travel's impact on the economy and the importance of cheap transport during a cost of living crisis.
We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead
If you're reading this, please can you take 1 minute to give us a rating and write a review? It helps us more than you probably think.
Episode edited by Clare Mansell

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.