Mature trees provide the shade and shelter required to make cities liveable during extreme heat. Given how long it takes for trees to grow enough canopy cover, cities should be urgently planting tens of thousands more of them. 📸 Thermal camera in Lisbon, showing 59.5°C ground.

Tech companies: Our pavement robots are safe for pedestrians and don't get in their way! The robots:

Why I’m Raging Against The Machines Every few years, a technology company promises to fix our cities, and every few years, we discover it has made them worse. open.substack.com/pub/bikeisbe...

Humans should not be forced off pavements by delivery robots, but that's exactly what's happening. The people who pay the price are those with the least room to give it up.

Britain's pavements are not for sale. Pavements are for people. It is not acceptable to prioritise private commercial interests over the needs of pedestrians, especially people using mobility aids. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Delivery robots are taking over UK pavements, causing chaos for pedestrians, despite having no laws allowing their use 🤖 Our Pavement Overload campaign is in the Guardian: https://bit.ly/4pdAuYx

You might have already seen them in some places, but a mass of autonomous pavement delivery robots could be coming after ministers signalled they are likely to support a change in the law formally allowing their use, prompting worry from campaigners. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This urban chicken has learned to cross a busy road during the green pedestrian phase.

It has always puzzled me that politicians on the right, who want a smaller state and less regulation, seem to want more bureaucracy and rules for cycling. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06...

Your regular reminder that cities aren’t loud. Cars are loud.

Traffic update: There is no congestion in the bike lane.

Bicycles are hugely space efficient, which is why they make a lot of sense in congested cities. This video demonstrates why there aren’t traffic jams in bike lanes. Just imagine the traffic queues if every bicycle here was a car.

How will the recent local election results affect active travel? @lauralaker.bsky.social and I have a go at explaining, with the help of guests @mrmjprice.bsky.social & @plaistovian.bsky.social.

This is the former Birmingham Labour Transport Cabinet member, responsible for declaring a “road safety emergency” and reducing 40mph urban main roads to 30mph, now immediately calling for his *own* policy to be reviewed. Deeply unserious and, worse, actually dangerous.

Well said @adamtranter.bsky.social. Longstanding, evidence-based policy has seemingly been abandoned for no apparent reason. Birmingham’s road safety emergency will not be resolved through enforcement alone.

Birmingham used to agree on road safety. What changed? By me, in @birminghamlive.bsky.social www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/news-op...

NEW Streets Ahead EPISODE! 🚨 Children and streets with @aliceferguson.bsky.social and Tim Gill. The impact of cars on children amounts to a 100-year pandemic hiding in plain sight, they say, following the launch of their new report. Listen here: shows.acast.com/5e8ee3bc4fc2...

Why don’t cyclist use the cycle lane? #405.

Finding out I was considered "radical" for wanting kids to be able to get school safely and independently was shocking and what motivated me to try and help change that perspective. Culture Shift developed with @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social

So disappointing to see the lack of political will now in Birmingham for safer streets. After questions from Babiker Yahia, whose 4-year-old daughter Mayar was killed by a driver in April 2024, only one candidate (after quite a pause) backed 20mph limits on all residential streets.

Make streets fun again. 🎼

This is the UK premiere of a new genre of video. Robotaxi companies will rush out excuses. There will be many, many more examples of this kind.

"Self-driving technology is game-changing. But boosters leave out the miserable record of the automotive industry keeping its past promises. That history puts the burden of proof on the people who are promoting this latest version of automotive utopia." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Portugal has one of the worst road safety records in Western Europe. You're 1.7x-2x more likely to die in a road crash in Portugal than in neighbouring Spain. Faced with rising deaths and growing anger, the Government is now victim-blaming vulnerable road users instead of tackling the danger.

This is exactly how this street should be. It is not a street designed for motor vehicles, which are guests. Already, people are demanding in these videos that the tech becomes more assertive against pedestrians and cyclists. This is the beginning of a slippery slope for human-scale cities.

If you are a Councillor, please watch this. It happened nearly 50 years ago in the Netherlands. The arguments against restricting traffic were the same as those made today and were proven to be wrong. Many cities would greatly benefit from a circulation plan. youtu.be/bgKokpZMFnU?...

Mohammed Ali killed one person and injured several others while speeding at 90mph in a 30mph zone. He’s been jailed for 7 years. Once released, he’ll be able to drive 4.5 years later. What would you need to do to get a lifetime driving ban? www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

These Tesla Full Self-Driving videos really do highlight how counterintuitive it is to drive a large motor vehicle in cities.

Deep in the Government’s new integrated transport strategy is a truth at odds with the rhetoric you hear in the media: driving a car has gotten cheaper in real terms, while public transport has gotten more expensive. The Government is also clear that this will mean more traffic and more congestion.

Good news for walking! The Government has confirmed in its new "Better Connected" strategy that it will enable new simplified zebra crossings. Many campaigners have, for many years, been advocating for this change. Here's the case I made in 2022.

The cheapest petrol is the petrol you don't use. As fuel prices rise once again, it could be a good time to consider switching to an e-bike, as these ads at pumps in Bristol suggested. (Campaign by Fusion for Specialized from a few years back)

NEW EPISODE! 🚨 London’s road danger reduction plan under the microscope. What will it take to achieve Vision Zero by 2041? With @willnorman.co.uk, @adamtranter.bsky.social & @lauralaker.bsky.social Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...

These four photos were taken from the same location in Manchester. We should make buildings beautiful again.

The city centre car park has had its day. There is now a significant opportunity to put the land previously used for car parking to much more productive use. Land that could be used for tens of thousands of homes in city centres. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The world would be a better place if journalists and lawmakers can distinguish an ebike from an electric motorcycle.

In England a driver can be speeding, using cannabis and a phone, overtake another vehicle, mount the pavement outside a school playground and kill a 4-year-old girl while uninsured — and receive just 3 years 10 months for causing death by careless driving. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In England a driver can be speeding, using cannabis and a phone, overtake another vehicle, mount the pavement outside a school playground and kill a 4-year-old girl while uninsured — and receive just 3 years 10 months for causing death by careless driving. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Vegas Loop carried 16,400 passengers per day during the expo. For context, London’s Elizabeth Line carries ~800,000 per day. Even Victorian steam trains in 1860s London moved 3–4× more people per hour than Elon. In case you didn’t already know: cars in tunnels aren’t the future of transit…

NEW POD EPISODE! 🚨Women protesting for safer cycle routes - Laura joins a protest and the opening of a new cycle lane, and meets some people along the way shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...

This is awful news for anyone not in one of these hideous machines. www.gbnews.com/lifestyle/ca...

This kind of car-centric infrastructure in a city centre is a relic of an experiment that went wrong. Big roads and mega junctions have no place in busy cities. A good step is making crossing them in one go much easier. But a better one is to remove them altogether. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Got something you'd like to ask Ned, Adam and Laura for a future podcast? They would love to (try to) answer them! Post said questions below, or you can email them to [email protected]. Get in touch!

NEW POD EPISODE! 🚨 2026: the Journey so Far. @adamtranter.bsky.social @nedboulting.bsky.social and @lauralaker.bsky.social discuss local politics in the run up to the May elections, Ned's trip to India, and learnings from New York mayor Zohran Mamdani (& other mayors) shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...

The only thing I would add to this debunking is to acknowledge that it is unusual to provide permits that can be used to bypass filters a certain number of times. It sends out an odd message. Would have been better to have normal bus gates and fully stand behind the decision.

Police in Birmingham held a roads policing operation, supported by volunteer Special Constables. In one evening on one road, they pulled over 166 vehicles and took action in a staggering 1 in 3 stops. Imagine if Roads Policing was properly funded!

Motonormativity is not clearing snow from the sidewalks and then doing an Instagram post telling pedestrians not to walk in the road.

According to David Frost, a road casualty toll which involves an average of 80+ people *every single day* either dying or suffering injuries which could change their life forever is an "utter non-problem".

“Nobody will cycle in bad weather.” The Netherlands:

The strategic road network is managed by a charity and relies on the goodwill of land owners for access. Some motorways will be muddy and flooded each winter. Also The strategic road network stops randomly at council boundaries and investment is where councils are willing. (UK edition).