We’re about to have a new Prime Minister. That now seems highly likely. And the reason couldn’t be clearer: there’s a consensus, across the board, that Keir Starmer has moved too slowly on too many things. So what needs to change under his successor? www.freewheeling.info/blog/how-to-...

Nowhere that does things like this ever regrets them

MONTREAL: “A total of 12 streets are being pedestrianized this year, encouraging local businesses and bringing outdoor festivities to the heart of the city and to some residential neighnourholds.” Via @cultmtl.com Another year of continent-leading street transformations trading cars for civic life.

This is fucking scary. White supremacism being normalised.

The Times here describing Restore’s “deport, detain” line on immigration as “robust”. This is how this stuff gets further and further normalised, the ratchet cranking ever rightwards.

trains - they're good! build more of them! in other cities too!

The point about London being “taken for granted” is spot on. London’s growth (which funds the whole country) has been sustained by an ongoing pipeline of transport investment. For the first time in my lifetime, the pipeline is completely empty. Meanwhile, Paris is building >100 miles of Metro. 🚨🔔

Imagine if £0.5bn had instead been invested in alternatives to car travel. That would have reduced demand during a supply crisis, as opposed to increasing it - while pump-priming future sustainable alternatives. It would still have shown Government "doing something" - just the right thing.

During the pandemic, Anna Filby was a young transport professional struggling to connect. So she created the Young Mobility Network. Roll forward six years, it’s been such a success that it’s now her full-time job. She joins me to discuss the challenges facing young people in our sector.

Great article. My TL;DR "In the UK, no one really knows how much money the Treasury will be willing to release, or when. In Switzerland, there’s a budget envelope. "

This is the best thing I have seen written on #HS2 - rail in Britain in general and grand projects.. (avoid them..)

a rare example of the "transport infrastructure as tearjerker" genre. I didn't cry, but I wanted to. Alternative reaction: my God, so this is why the Germans speak in awe of the Schweizerische Bundesbahn.

This is such a good post and echoes many of the points that Eddington made in his Transport Study for Brown. Start with what you're trying to achieve and work backwards from there. Dare I say it, but the same approach ought to apply to energy.

They just want to deny reality.

The UK's institutional reluctance to invest for the long term continues to hurt everyone (and treasury brain continues to damage the country and it's future prospects)...

Today feels a good day to repost my most popular blog of last year www.freewheeling.info/blog/swiss-hs2

This is the first “it doesn’t have to be full high speed” piece where I’m like, “OK, that version would make sense”.

Today feels a good day to repost my most popular blog of last year www.freewheeling.info/blog/swiss-hs2

If Labour had promised to spend £2.5 billion on public and active transport - which would disproportionately support poor and disabled people, and would be a long term investment rather than a short term sop - everyone would be demanding to know where the £2.5 billion is going to come from.

Trump’s plan to gift himself, his family, and his friends $1.8 billion is the single most corrupt act in our nation’s history—regardless of whether it is blocked by Congress or the courts. The attempt is a high crime and misdemeanor for which impeachment was created open.substack.com/pub/roberthu...

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote

If anyone would like a distraction from politics, he is today’s edition of @simoncalder.bsky.social’s travel podcast, featuring me talking about Mini Switzerland shows.acast.com/green-list-t...

If Starmer is challenged for the leadership & chooses to fight, something wholly new will happen. For the first time, the question of whether a prime minister is removed from power will be decided, not by MPs, not by voters at an election,but by party members. This is democratically indefensible.🧵

Disappointing, @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social that your resignation letter calling out Labour’s “historic responsibility for defeating racism” is published exclusively on X, a platform owned by Elon Musk, a proud and outspoken racist. You last posted here 27 days ago. Not a great, is it?

Voters just want a sense that the guys in charge have a plan. Labour's not sounded like it knows what it's trying to achieve. By trying to follow the crowd, Labour's scared the crowd. It makes people feel insecure if the leaders aren't leading. Farage and Polanski both sound like they've got a plan.

The problem for Blue "Labour" is that in destroying the economic base of the metropolitan elite it is also wrecking the economy. But not to worry, backyard pig iron furnaces should solve the problem.

Why do politicians do things like this? None of Trump, Farage or Boris - all far bigger liars - would have told *this* lie. They’d all have hinted at the truth with a glint of a twinkle in the eye.

“Incremental change won’t cut it”

One thing that puzzles me slightly is this drumbeat of people saying that being the Mayor of Greater Manchester hardly qualifies you for the big job. It implies that most successful Prime Ministers had more senior experience than Andy Burnham when they became leader. Is that right?

Disappointing, @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social, that you've just published your resignation letter exclusively on X. You say people are 'crying out for change' - part of that change should be to enable people to hear from their MPs without using a fascist-owned platform.

Genuinely, they SHOULD be the biggest issue on the PM's desk. Centre for Cities research is clear: the only UK city which achieves European benchmark level of transport connectivity is London. It's also the only one with European benchmark levels of productivity.

Reading the comments on this, I’m always amazed how little the change to the voting system within both parties to members choosing the leader is blamed for Britain’s governability challenges of the last decade. It’s at the root of this problem, as it is the root of so many others

At least three and maybe four years of the past decade have been spent with a PM grimly hanging to power having lost authority with their party. The opportunity cost is so high. We really need to find better ways to manage these transitions.

Angela Rayner issues a strong call for a change in approach. She does this exclusively on Elon Musk-owned X, where people who don’t wish to provide content for a fascist are unable to read it. Not the best indication of a change, to be honest… @stephenkb.bsky.social

5. I strongly believe there must be an orderly transition of leadership well before the local elections next year. Otherwise, we are conceding defeat to Farage before we have even started.

Lib Dems control more English councils than the Conservative Party, the Green Party and Reform UK. Not that you'd know this from yesterday's coverage. The media's lack of curiosity and imagination and its inability to explore beyond the populist noise is as depressing as it is boringly predictable.

I think we now have the answer

There are not many people in the world I can think of in my worst nightmares that would be as colossally awful for their country as Donald Trump has proven to be for his, if you made the huge mistake of giving them power. But this guy is definitely one of them. #Farage #Reform

If Labour react to this pattern by saying "we need to win back votes from Reform" they risk making a major misdiagnosis, one which could make their current troubles even worse.

Inexplicably, not only have the Conservatives won control of Westminster, but the incredible cabinet member for Streets @maxsullivan.bsky.social has lost his seat 😩 He had so many schemes planned, so many underway. It’s utterly devastating. I’d like to say a big thank you to Max. … 1/3

Local Election Results 2026: Morgan McSweeney’s ‘Blue Labour’ Legacy Lives On Keir Starmer's former adviser's strategy of focusing on Reform-sympathetic 'hero voters', whilst spurning Labour's natural supporters on the left, has led to a disastrous set of local election results for the party,…

The biggest mistake (and wasted opportunity) of the last two years has been Starmer and his advisers not predicting precisely this.

Pretty much an instant downgrade to a some-of-society approach, then

Disappointing article from the BBC. 1) It states that potholes are voters' number 1 issue. If you read the actual survey, the "roads" category includes traffic and congestion. Some of those people will be pedestrians without cars who care about traffic.

If the government wants to tackle the "online breeding ground of antisemitism" why on earth are Keir Starmer, the government and @heidialexander.bsky.social still posting on X? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

I for one do find them useful - sometimes challenging my thinking, practice, more often confirming - but always worth reading and pondering on after. FWIW I also do think they're valuable precisely because you're clearly both a thinker *and* doer - they come deep from experience. That IMO v useful.

If you're not signed up to @freewheeling.info's daily 'bitesize' emails, why not?! It's about 'managing' transport - planning, project management, change management etc. It's the best little set of pocket 'thoughts' I've ever read - that span far beyond active travel, transport or management...

It is important that the BBC have put this long, troubling saga together. The ongoing civil case appears to involve what also look like a number of acts of potential criminal conduct in public office in two forces.

I've written about the Government's new integrated national transport strategy. www.freewheeling.info/blog/better-...

Did you know that horny French boys kicked off the 1968 revolutions? This month's ride in A History of Europe in 75 Train Journeys is a ride through Eastern Europe just a decade after the end of the Cold War, exploring the different reactions to the turmoil on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain.