Bike recommendations please! Looking for a step through unpowered bike, small adult size, reasonable gear range, rack & mudguard mounting points essential, dynamo lights nice. Would like an Islabike but… For Little Miss, for Xmas (shhhh!)- she has cracked 2-wheel riding! Current bike is a bit small…

Rumour has it I’m talking about my favourite infrastructure tomorrow. What am I going to choose?!? It’s all interesting! Sign up to the launch tomorrow or find the guide online now (shh!): #Accessibility #ActiveTravel #Disability wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/our-campaign...

CYCLE SPOTLIGHT: Van Raam Maxi Comfort Our Inclusive Cycling Advisor, Katie, recently popped down to our @peddlemywheels.bsky.social partners and took the time to explain a little bit about what makes each of our cycles unique.

When not championing policy, our C&P lead, @kayinckle.bsky.social, is a talented fiction author, releasing her debut sci-fi novel today! We think its the first to be authored by AND include a wheelchair using, handcycling protagonist! srlpublishing.co.uk/product/over... #RepresentationMatters

Good deed of the day: Cutting overhanging branches obstructing a busy path. Turns out a backful of steroids is all I need to be able to use light tools! Told off by 1 person, thanked by 2. #ActiveTravel #Maintenance #Access

We were delighted to be mentioned in this powerful Guardian article by George Monbiot about the state of British journalism. “You cannot speak truth to power if power controls your words… but perhaps the ground is shifting.” #wearealltheclarion www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fantastic to see what sounds like a sensible, positive proposal. Here’s hoping this becomes reality in the not-too-distant future

Anyone out in Bath today. If you spot this bike and tell me where it is I will pay you fuckin handsomely. Pop a lock on it I’ll literally give you £500.

I’m a bit overexcited about this: Our council have new bin lorries- and they’ve got low cabs! Wooo! Big win for road safety. Going to be much nicer walking/wheeling & cycling around these. Thanks Derby! #ActiveTravel #disability

We're thrilled that Dame Sarah Storey, Paralympian, and Phil Jones (PJA) will be joining us to speak about the Guide, along with our very own Kate Ball from the Campaigns and Policy Team. @phil-pja.bsky.social @tandemkate.bsky.social

Today, I have succeeded in raising the ghost of my 25-year-old, very loved pannier. New fabric, old hardware should last some more years. Tomorrow- full reanimation out of traditional ghostly Old Sheet - it’s going to be Pink! Really enjoying puzzling out how to end up with what I want for this!

How to tell if your bus driver in Manchester is definitely from before the Bee Network: 1. Doesn't lower bus to let you get pram on easily 2. Moves off before you've had a chance to park pram and put on brake 3. Does not brake for speed bumps 4. Close passes cyclists

Needed to go to big Asda. Baby too small for the trike still so we got the bus. Awful driver. Then we get off the bus and are greeted by this massive junction without signalled pedestrian crossings. No wonder people drive ten minute journeys.

Disappointment is… Hearing the bongs of Big Ben in real life for the first time… & finding out they’re much clearer & louder on the radio than on the street just by the tower. Little miss says Big Ben has got “too old” & needs replacing with a louder, younger bell. She brooks no argument on this.

“A landmark book”. John Harris in The Guardian

Hello; 1982? One of your junction designs has escaped again. What's that? Oh yes, guardrail all round the skinny staggered crossing islands. Say again? No, don't worry about mobility scooters because it's 1982. Why is TfL standing for this @willnorman.co.uk? #Havering

“Close Encounters of the Kerb Kind”? Symptom - mysterious regular bumping from rear wheel with worrying increasing size. Fortunately curable with a new tyre. Not really sure how this happened though - We’re not regular kerb-hoppers or vigorous riders. Wonder if it was a manufacturing defect.

Since July 2022, over 375,000 new homes have been built without meeting accessible or adaptable standards. For disabled and older people with changing mobility, this isn't just about housing — it's about basic rights, health and independence.

Even for an old hand there’s a first time for everything - quaxing my old-meets-new prosthesis home from the limb centre.

This is so incredibly ridiculously exciting - Mobility aid laws are going to be reviewed and made fit for purpose! Woo! (& yes, I do think this is *that* exciting!) #disability #ActiveTravel #MyCycleMyMobilityAid

Once again for those in the back: People who can’t drive because of: health conditions, age (too young!), finances (can’t afford a car), space (nowhere to park), environmental concerns, etc …. very often can cycle & need to cycle to make basic utility journeys! #MyCycleMyMobilityAid #disability

"My grandchildren will be learning in school about who did what in the worst crime of the 21st century.”

#disability stuff nobody tells you: If you live with someone who is physically affectionate with lots of people for lots more years than most people are… lovely as this can be, you will probably also all get headlice more times than is in any way reasonable. Thank goodness for Nitty Gritty combs!

🚨 RIGHT NOW opposite Labour Party HQ in London. We’ve turned their street into Jabaliya camp in Gaza. A genocide is happening, but the Labour government is supplying weapons, intelligence and diplomatic cover to the perpetrator. Protesting this is not terrorism.

Me, repeatedly including this morning: “there are no pens in my bag, I’d better remember to put one in.” Me, this afternoon: “What am I stabbing my fingers on? Why are there all these spiky things in here? Which fool managed to put 7 pens in one small bag side pocket without noticing?!” Oops.

Top notch accessibility content "7 Everyday Hacks You Wouldn’t Have Without Disabled People" youtube.com/shorts/_3fjq...

It’s the season for path maintenance. Local NCN route today - & it’s time for the regular reminder that the brambles & bushes need cutting back *as well as* the soft grass and herbaceous plants! Nobody wants to walk, wheel, cycle or run through thorns.

On the down side: Climate breakdown killing loads of people, harming many more, age of extinction, loss of biodiversity… On the up side: On track for amazing grapes this year. Sadly the second does not even close to make up for the first.

£500M over a decade for child poverty. Much better than £0. But compare: Derby A38 junctions “upgrade” was estimated at £250M years ago & just approved. Many big highway schemes have negative cost benefit & cause huge harms. A rethink on what we fund is needed. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“The efficacy of the measure can no longer be credibly questioned, so it’s time we started implementing them across London and at pace. With so many lives at stake we cannot afford not to.” #LTNsAreGoodActually Chapter 847

Great to see outputs from the NİHR LTNs in London project starting to be published. Huge public health benefits of LTNs. 'Across the LTNs as a whole, the authors said, an estimated 613 injuries were prevented, including 100 deaths or serious injuries' www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

💚 Greens have led the calls for a wealth tax. 🤝 Now former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and leading unions have joined us. ⚖️ Looking to balance the books on the backs of the poorest has backfired. It’s time for Labour to make our tax system fairer.

Let me be perfectly clear. If this were to be adopted, then that's it for building cycle tracks in the UK in most situations. Her amendment would force more people into cars which would perversely make it worse for bus reliability and of course be exclusionary itself. 6/n

From the article: “as Isabelle our CEO stated: “There is currently, bizarrely, no guidance for the police to say the police must not confiscate anybody's wheelchair.” There should be no argument about it. That must be corrected ASAP.” #DisabilityJustice #Accessibility

Summer in the city, back of our neck gettin' dirty and gritty! Our July newsletter is now out - full of insight, briefings, and news on our work in #InclusiveCycling #ActiveTravel. Subscribers will have it in their inboxes already, but you can also read it at: preview.mailerlite.io/preview/1038...

#Disabled people’s aids should never be confiscated unless essential to reduce an immediate risk: Removing aids is the same thing as forcible restraint. Police should never have taken Isra’s wheelchair. Mobility aid laws & guidance need updating urgently.

The Distance.

Kid just took this photo at a nearby building site. We’re feeling that “site team, please don’t be so incompetent you kill each other, ha ha ha” is a worrying either asa “funny” sign or as a bar to be setting for safety notices on a construction site?

Recent projects we’ve reviewed, we’ve been able to design out bus stop bypasses. But in places with frequent buses, we think well designed bypasses are the most #accessible option for #Disabled people using all modes of transport. Access frictions need co-design & collaboration, not bans & exclusion

Little miss has “behaviour charts” at school regularly. Feel this one encapsulates the sheer futility of charts/stickers etc with a person who doesn’t yet understand cause & effect except very concrete & immediate. Fortunately staff are great & provide lovely constant support. #disability #inclusion

Oh dear, Northern Rail let down by Rotherham staff who didn’t show to assist when I arrived… then on the way back 3 members of staff standing about told me there were no staff to assist me. But they had time to chase down a kid they’d decided was 16 using a child ticket. Nice train manager got ramp!

Look at the amount of flexible space on this train! And there are actual seats near the wheelchair spaces & more than one wheelchair space so I could- whisper it- travel with friends and family! Nice one Northern Rail

This is so common on UK roads. If you complained that they'd closed the pavement, they'd say they hadn't. If you're a wheelchair or mobility scooter user, it is effectively impassable. If you got hit by a car while trying to squeeze past on foot, they'd blame you for being in the road.

Free webinar this Thursday lunchtime 12.30-1.45 on residential street elements - I hear there are some *excellent* speakers 😁 #accessibility #disability #ActiveTravel cpre-london.eventcube.io/events/85988...

'Ten messages for a man who thinks children should stay off the roads and stick to the park'. [From my Diagram Club newsletter. Subscribe for more like this: diagramclub.substack.com ]

And this morning- yelled at by station staff as I wheeled on my bike to a place *agreed by assistance staff, in sight of Shouty Man* where I could separate my bike & wheelchair & wait for assistance. Still feeling shaky & tearful. #disability discrimination & rigid attitudes make travelling hard.

Then it all went so well until I was wheeling back to my room. Drunk bloke got “protective” (ie, creepy): “You alone love, are you alone? You got anyone with you…” Wheeled fast up road to where other people were about. He didn’t follow. Guys, don’t do that! It’s not friendly, it’s terrifying!

CripTax isn't just monetary, either. Society just assumes we can wait forever, or drop everything and do the thing right now. It assumes that we're fine with spending hours making arrangements for social functions when everyone else can just show up We don't get that time back.

Direct train to Oxford terminated at B’ham. Assistance staff got me off train to catch another to Oxford 30mins later. The twist: The second train was the same train as the first. But with a different driver. Ramp assist off…ramp assist on… do the Hokey Cokey, turn around… 🤣🤪🤦‍♀️

Apart from the direct train being cancelled half way, the station lift being broken, and the passenger assist I booked somehow being allocated to a non-existent train between the app and station staff paperwork, today’s trip is genuinely going well! Joys of #Disabled travel!