Paved paradise
Baby you can ditch my car*
Tomorrow, 22 September, is World Car Free Day. We haven’t owned a car for over five years and manage with two kids (admittedly who don’t have hobbies involving large equipment - no canoeing around here!) We recognise that we’re lucky to be near good public transport and to be active enough to be able to cycle. However, the joy of World Car Free Day is to encourage everyone to give it a go - leave the car behind and see how it feels. We’re struck by the statistic about how much worse the air inside a car is to outside - estimated at 2-4 times worse - and this is even compared to bike users.
So what are the alternatives? Apart from the obvious bus, train, tube and cycling, we’ve been trying out other things when we have a particular need. An electric vehicle for a family holiday. An electric cargo bike for occasionally hauling heavy loads. Don’t be tempted to go for ride hailing though - a study showed that these services actually create more emissions than the cars they replace, due to the amount of time the drivers spend driving without passengers.
Playing out
In London we are being encouraged to set up play streets over the weekend, to give children the space to play safely. These don’t have to be limited to this weekend however - we found a nice write up of the history of play streets here. What we couldn’t find was a list of where they are! But residents will have been consulted so you should know if you have one. If not, why not apply for the future?
While play streets are more for fun, they follow the same idea as school streets which now number over 500 in London. There is a nice map here. This initiative - where streets outside schools are closed to traffic at drop off and pick up times - helps to encourage active travel, provide cleaner air for the children and make their journeys safer. We’ve talked about our experience of a school street locally. Our paved cities can still be paradise for our children.
Rainproof
We also realise active travel, especially cycling, is harder in the torrential rain conditions we’ve had recently. We have a Telraam sensor mounted in our window that monitors vehicle traffic in our street, and gives a breakdown of the different types of vehicle. It’s a fascinating report and one we’ll cover in a lot more detail in a future post. One thing we noticed this week is that there was a big drop-off in the number of bikes from Sunday onwards, and this coincided with very heavy rain.
One may think that cycling in rain is the Worst Thing Ever, but in Sacha’s experience as an all-year cycle commuter, with the right kit, it’s fine. Sacha’s must-haves for cold and wet weather are: waterproof trousers and a waterproof jacket with a hood (that goes over your helmet if you wear one), waterproof gloves (your hands can get quite chilly when it’s wet), a pair of boots to keep your feet warm and dry, and a set of lights for your bike to make sure you can be seen in bad weather. All the kit (apart from the lights) can be used when you’re not on a bike as well - and let’s face it, we have no shortage of wet days.
A car-gone conclusion
Why just an annual car free day? Louise used to live in Bogotá, Colombia - another capital with significant rainfall. The city is credited with having invented ‘ciclovías’, where roads are closed every Sunday morning. These have been going since the 1970s, so when Louise experienced them in 1999, they were well established. They had a lovely family atmosphere but Louise’s main memory was ending up on Colombian TV when a reporter asked to talk to her during an aerobics session in a roadside park. As far as we know, no footage exists…
*Our titles this week are even older than the ciclovías