Streets Ahead

For Episode 12, we thought we'd go for the lighthearted and totally uncontroversial topic of free hospital parking. Rather than get ourselves embroiled into a row with what seems like the entire population, we thought we'd invite Peter Walker to tell us why free hospital parking is often not a good idea. Peter is The Guardian's Political Correspondent and author of Bike Nation: How Cycling Can Save the World.

Because Peter explained the flaws of free hospital parking so wisely and succinctly, we spent the rest of the podcast talking about the politics of cycling, which we hope you find interesting.

Peter's New book, The Miracle Pill: Why A Sedentary World Is Getting It All Wrong, is out Jan 21: http://bit.ly/29xs4sa

We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active travel, liveable streets and people-focused urban design.

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 5-star rating and a review? It helps us hugely. If you leave your name on a review, we'll give you a shout out!

(Apologies for Adam's sound quality at the end, he had a mic fail)

Thanks for listening!

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Episode six and the Streets Ahead team have managed to infiltrate a significant part of the all-powerful motor lobby. It helped that Edmund King, President of The Automobile Association (now known as The AA), quite likes to ride a bike too.

King has recently called for the government to reconsider its £28.8bn road building programme, backed temporary walking and cycling infrastructure and called for "park and cycle" hubs outside cities to encourage active travel for longer journeys. It's not exactly what you'd expect from a motoring lobbyist. That said, in the interest of balance, we did go down a "cyclists could do themselves a favour by not always alienating drivers" rabbit hole, to even things out a bit.

We hope you enjoy this episode of Streets Ahead, a podcast dedicated to the world of active travel, liveable streets and people-focused urban design.

We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: http://www.twitter.com/podstreetsahead

Please rate and review us too!

Thanks for listening!

From Adam, Laura and Ned

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Ned and Laura go exploring on foot with Alderman Alison Gowman around the City of London's mid-century raised walkways. Known as Pedways, when they were conceived and built in the 1960s, their architects believed they would be the future of the urban pedestrian experience... except they didn't quite work. More than half a century later, many of them are slightly bleak and under-used spaces, because they failed to meet the needs of pedestrians who, it turns out, will stubbornly take the easiest route.

Streets Ahead wanders around the remains of the City of London's Roman walls to find out why a quirk of 1960's public realm design became a dead-end in pedestrian provision...almost. Come along for a journey through the good, the bad and the ugly of the intermittent trend of "getting people out of the way of cars" - and a new, improved addition to the Pedways that nods to the future.

Alderman Alison Gowman is the elected official for the City of London's Dowgate Ward. She is the chair of the London Road Safety Council and author of a book The City of London: Who, What, Why? https://shop.cityoflondon.gov.uk/products/the-city-of-london-who-what-why

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.

In a special emergency episode, Ned and Adam try to make sense of the Plan for Drivers announcement. What does it mean for active travel and public transport? Will it actually change anything? What are the politics behind the announcement?

You can read the Low Traffic Neighbourhood review here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-traffic-neighbourhood-review

In the episode, Adam mentioned there wasn't reference to air quality on boundary roads. The report actually said the view is mixed: "LTNs have succeeded in improving air quality on internal roads but this benefit has not always been shared with boundary locations which show a mix of minimal reductions, no reductions and some increases in emissions of air pollutants."

The fourth location for the LTN review was Wigan, in addition to London, Birmingham and York.

By the way, if you want ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers!

We’re also on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://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.

In the second of a two-part mini-series on online disinformation Laura, Ned and Adam talk to Shayoni Lynn, whose company specialises in the behavioural science of mis- and disinformation, and how to tackle it. After ministers admitted this autumn making decisions based on ‘online discussions’ that veered towards fringe conspiracy theories, around things like 15-minute cities, and as the climate conference COP28 approaches, our guest has some timely insight into the world of disinformation.

Shayoni Lynn is founder of Lynn Group, a ‘communications consultancy, powered by behavioural science’. They specialise in helping organisations avoid their work being the subject of disinformation, including those involved in vaccine rollout and mental health services. She authored an article on why sometimes, engaging with disinformation online is the last thing we should be doing, and explains to Streets Ahead other ways of ensuring measures to improve our health and reduce our impact on the environment, aren't foundered by falsehoods.

Lynn Global has worked with the Welsh government on the rollout of default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas, the biggest policy the Senedd has enacted so far, and one not without its share of disinformation. Shayoni Lynn explains how our very nature as humans make us susceptible to misinformation and what we can do about it as individuals, as organisations and as nations.

This blog discusses why sometimes, engaging with disinformation online is the last thing you want to do: https://lynn.global/the-dangers-of-debating-misinformation/

We’re on Twitter and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://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.