Cycling and Walking@Tea-time Webinar Series
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Previous episodes:
Walking@Tea-time – safety for women and girls
17th April 2023 – in person
This session was held in person where we were joined by Clare Qualmann who talked about Women walking at night: walking art, fear and the dark, and, Dr Ellie Cosgrave who shared her work focused on building capacity within the built environment sector around gender inclusive design.
Due to technical issues this session was not recorded however we do have a copy of the video presentation from Clare Qualmann which can be viewed online.
Cycling@Tea-time – focus on disabled cyclists
7th March 2023
In this session we discussed various aspects of cycling, disability, and the barriers faced by disabled cyclists. We were joined by two guests:
- Ellis Palmer Babe is a journalist who took up handcycling after watching London commuters on his way into work and wishing he could be like them. Well, now he is. He has amassed a wealth of experience as to what works well for cycling as a physically-disabled person, which he will highlight in this talk.
- Dr Harrie Larrington-Spencer (@TricycleMayor) is a Research Fellow in the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster, a disabled cyclist, and a trustee for the Wheels for Wellbeing charity. Here Harrie discusses why (physical) barrier removal on traffic-free walking and cycling routes is essential for equitable urban futures illustrated with a focus on the Greater Manchester area.
Click speaker names above to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time – Let’s get kidical
11th January 2023
We returned to the topic of cycling and young people and heard from two complementary perspectives:
- Saskia Heijltjes is the Bicycle Mayor of Bath and organiser of Kidical Mass in that city, as well as being part of the Cycle Sprog team. Kidical Mass rides are “fun, safe environments for families and friends to cycle together”.
- Kaze Stewart is Evaluation & Insight Manager at Cycling UK and she’ll tell us about research carried out for Transport Scotland on benefits to parents from their child(ren) cycling. There are some findings that you might expect and others that you might not – read the research (link)
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time – Children, bikes, parents, buses
13th December 2022
In this episode we were joined by two speakers who gave excellent insight into the intricacies of both facilitating children’s cycling and cycling with children.
Jo Wright set up the Shawlands Bicycle Bus in Glasgow with her husband and it has gone from strength to strength, with over 60 children regularly taking part each Friday morning. Jo will tell us about setting up the bicycle bus and how it has grown.
Dawn Rahman is currently a doctoral student in University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy. Dawn will be talking about her research into mothers who cycle with children, looking at some of the barriers they face such as the cost of bicycles and a lack of parking options, and at the types of infrastructure they prefer to use.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time – how far will we walk?
29th November 2022
Transport for London’s strategic walking analysis indicates that the average daily distance walked is 1.2 km (about 15 minutes). This is made up of 0.7 km walk-all-the-way trips and 0.5 km in walk stages (parts of trips made using other forms of transport). We need to do better. What will make people walk further?
Our first speaker, Dr Farzaneh Bahrami of the University of Groningen undertook a study of “frequent walkers” in the UK, who all frequently walked considerable distances, often but not always as part of a commute. She has since made a short film based on the research and will show and discuss some excerpts.
Our second speaker is John Murray, the policy lead for walking at Transport for London. John will provide an overview of walking in London and what we know about Londoners’ propensity to walk further.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time: Urban green corridors
7 July 2022
Supporters of green corridors argue that they increase active travel, improve health, enhance social interaction, protect pedestrians from pollution, mitigate the effects of climate change and provide a natural network for wildlife and increase biodiversity. This session aimed to delve into the detail and we were joined by two speakers:
Georgie Street, Head of Projects at Camden Town Unlimited, will talk about the proposals for the Camden Highline and the Camden Green Loop.
Christina Norton, architect, urbanist and founding director of Fluid, will talk about the Mayfair Green Route, for which Fluid has been appointed by Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum to develop the concept plan.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time: Data and analysis
27 June 2022
In this meeting we were delighted to welcome Ridhi Kalaria and Dene Stevens from Sustrans to tell us what they have found in their Walking and Cycling Index (formerly known as Bike Life). This ambitious and wide-ranging data-collection exercise is designed to shed new light on who does and who doesn’t walk/wheel/cycle across 18 urban areas, why and why not.
This was followed by Kaze Stewart of Cycling UK, who explained her investigation of the organisation’s Big Bike Revival. It’s a well established and successful initiative, but Kaze has studied it forensically to understand how it effects behaviour change; for that matter, how might it be even more effective?
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time: walking and creativity
11 May 2022
Our subject in this episode is walking and creativity and we’ll be ably assisted by two speakers who share their thoughts:
Matthew Beaumont is a Professor of English Literature and a Co-Director of UCL’s Urban Lab, where he is responsible for the Cities Imaginaries strand.
Eugene Quinn, a Brit living in Vienna, has created a series of tours focused on locals exploring their city from new perspectives, including smells, ugliness, midnight, smartness and feminism for men. He will speak here about the benefits of walking for developing your ideas, and present some key figures who used urban walking in their practice.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time: planning for inclusive active travel
25 March 2022
Here we explore the urgent and complex issue of planning to make cycling inclusive. We are joined by two people and delighted to be welcoming back Lucy, a long-time friend of Cycling@Tea–time. And it’s an honour to host John, whose lunchtime sessions at London South Bank University inspired the creation of Cycling@Mealtime:
Lucy Marstrand-Taussig talks about the state of the art in planning to make active travel inclusive, touching on legal duties, gaps in our knowledge, language (e.g. “vulnerable road user”) and what we are learning about the distributional impacts of different approaches to providing for active travel.
Professor John Parkin discusses mixing of cycle traffic with motor traffic and the threshold for protecting cycling infrastructure, recognising the different levels of attractiveness and comfort people are likely to willingly accept. Gaps in the research will be identified.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time: the development of a walking industry
20 January 2022
In this episode our subject is the development of a “walking industry”: i.e. who has a financial interest in promoting walking and creating a vision of a walkable city, and what they are doing. We hear from three speakers:
Anthea Harries is Head of Assets (King’s Cross) at Argent where her role is to direct the asset management of King’s Cross, London’s 67-acre mixed use, creative quarter, transformed and rejuvenated with new streets, squares and parks, homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, schools, and even a university. It is largely pedestrianised and includes Granary Square, Lewis Cubitt Square and Park and Gasholder Park.
Peter Heath has been Technical Director, Public Realm, at Atkins since 2001. He has delivered landmark London projects, such as in Covent Garden and Seven Dials, the World Squares For All Masterplan and its three phases of implementation from Trafalgar Square southwards.
Glenn Lyons is the Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility at UWE Bristol. In 2020, he published “Walking as a Service”, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856420305978, an important paper, which examines how apps can lead to improved navigation and certainty about journey time, which leads to more walking, and so a growth in the local economy and more investment in walking and the public realm.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time: rental bikes and e-scooters – “what gives?”
15 December 2021
*please note our apologies that this recording is incomplete due to technical errors – the recording begins part of the way through Richard’s talk
Certain cycle-hire schemes have gone through some rocky times lately – why? And where to from here? e-scooters, meanwhile, are everywhere, or so we are led to believe. With the English rental trials being extended, what do we know so far?
Shared micromobility: where we are and where we could go, By Richard Dilks
Richard is the Chief Executive of CoMoUK, which “is playing a leading role in the UK’s transition to integrated mobility solutions designed for the public good” (CoMoUK website). Richard was previously transport programme director at the business group London First, where he led policy and advocacy across all transport modes and across services and infrastructure and he has served on the board of London TravelWatch.
e-scooter rental trials: policy context and what we know so far, by Lorna Stevenson
Lorna Stevenson is a part-time doctoral student at Westminster’s Active Travel Academy. The title of her research project is Micromobile Futures and, as part of this, she is investigating the policy and governance structures surrounding the rental trials currently taking place in England. Alongside her studies, Lorna is very much involved in the e-scooter scene, sitting on Dott’s safety advisory group and taking part in meetings of the London Micromobility Alliance.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time: Walking with robots
11 October 2021
Our subject in this episode is walking with robots and we ask a) how we might want to share our footways with automated devices, if at all, and b) what this might mean for our pedestrian environments?
We are assisted by two speakers who are working in the field:
- Alanna Coombes’ (PhD candidate at Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California) talks on the rights to use of the pavement – differing interpretation of rights, who or what has such rights, how they are exercised and how are they enforced.
- Bern Grush (Chief Innovation Officer for Harmonize Mobility) describes a draft ISO standard that proposes to address mobile robot behaviour on the pavement, roadway and bike lanes. He has pedestrians in mind…
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Lunch-time: Bottom-up – the impact of grass-roots action
25 June 2021
With the opposition to many LTNs still ringing in our ears, we turn to the question of how things go when action starts in the community. And, in keeping with the bottom-up theme of the session, we welcomed two speakers who presented some insight from their community led projects:
George Coombs (Project Coordinator for Our Streets Chorlton)
“Our Streets Chorlton is a community-led project in the heart of South Manchester, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and supported by several partners who operate in Greater Manchester and understand its people. We are here to start a conversation, one centred on how local people can help to reduce carbon emissions by enabling Chorlton people to reduce local and short car journeys. We believe that a community-led approach, focusing on localised issues that directly affect our community but also contribute to the challenges facing our climate and environment, is fundamental to effective climate action.
Through several physical projects that provide opportunity for engagement in the community, we are facilitating space for local people to participate in conversation about car travel, walking & cycling, community-led solutions and localised energy to effect change. We have three flagship Streets mini-projects – the School Street, Residential Street and High Street. These will support temporary physical interventions and providing opportunity for inspiration. The project is currently funded for 12 months and as we are half-way through the calendar year. We are excited to present ‘where we are now’ whilst showcasing what is still to come.”
Celeste Hicks (Volunteer at Mums for Lungs)
“Mums for Lungs was founded in London in 2017 when a group of new mums met on maternity leave. Spending time walking the streets with sleeping babies, we became concerned about the high levels of traffic and air pollution. The more we learned the more we became frustrated that driving and vehicle use has become prioritised over safe streets for all of us to use. Air pollution causes severe health impacts, and children and babies are more susceptible because their lungs are smaller. Now our kids are older and at school, we’re focusing our efforts on awareness raising and behaviour change at school – campaigning for school streets, making walking and cycling easier, and hoping that parents will choose to leave the car at home. We would like to see concrete action from central government to tackle harmful air pollution, and a change in the way we move around our cities and make short journeys.”
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Cycling@Tea-time: Cycleways – UK perspectives from the last century
27th May 2021
In this episode, Cycling@Tea-time is getting historical on your saddlebags!
First, did you know that the Ministry of Transport in this country was trying to go Dutch as long ago as the 1930s? Transport writer Carlton Reid will tell us about the government’s programme of cycleways intended to emulate those in the Netherlands, and his campaign to revive them.
And Dr Rorie Parsons of Sheffield University will tell us about his research into the Tynebikes campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. Amongst other things, its members had reservations about cycleways, fearing that their advent might mean cycles being banned from the regular roads.
Click speaker names to jump to presentations on Vimeo
Walking@Tea-time: the vibrant high street and the pedestrian
26 April 2021
The hope is that, as we emerge from the pandemic, our high streets will return to the bustling places they were. But beneath the bustle an intense competition is taking place for access and space: walking, shopping, eating and drinking, parking, loading, sitting etc.
We’re deliberately seeking two distinct perspectives on this issue in order to illuminate it:
- Mário Alves is Secretary-General of the International Federation of Pedestrians and a long-time advocate of providing good facilities for walkers. Mário will draw on work he’s doing as part of the Horizon-2020 MORE project as well as his broader experience.
- John Crosk has been involved with Brewery Distribution for over 40 years. These days he is Vice Chairman of The Brewery Logistics Group (responsible for over 75% of London beer deliveries) and manages the Central London Freight Quality Partnership, which brings together London boroughs and freight operators.
Between them, our speakers know a lot about the subject under discussion and we look forward to a stimulating discussion, perhaps even a bit of a debate?
Cycling@Tea-time: the fine art of cycling with children
26 March 2021
Cycling in the UK with children is not straightforward. One might mention any or all of: inconsistent infrastructure, unpredictable driver behaviour, kit of highly variable price and quality, social norms… And that’s before worrying whether your pride and joy is going to check behind them before veering out into the traffic stream.
The good news is that there’s an increasing amount of sound advice out there. And we’ll be hearing from two of the leading sources (click names to jump to presentation on Vimeo website)
Karen Gee was recognised in 2019 as one of Cycling UK’s 100 Women in Cycling for Cycle Sprog (http://www.cyclesprog.co.uk/), a website she founded and edits, dedicated to promoting family cycling. For Karen, what started out as a couple of articles has grown over seven years into one of the leading resources for parents wanting advice on cycling with their children. Cycle Sprog has also gone from being a small hobby to the family business. Together with her husband Chris and their two sons, Karen reviews the latest kids’ bikes and shares their cycling adventures.
Ruth-Anna MacQueen was similarly recognised in 2019 by Cycling UK for encouraging and supporting parents to cycle with their children, both in her local London community and the wider world, via her Family Cycling UK Facebook page.
Cycling@Tea-time: enabling wider participation in cycling
4 March 2021
The socio-demographic profile of cycling in the UK is notoriously skewed in terms of gender and ethnicity, to name but two characteristics. But excellent work is being done to make cycling available and attractive to a wider population, and on 4th March we heard about some of that work from two leading practitioners.
Janet Hudson of Leicester City Council tells us about the Bike Aid scheme (providing bikes to key workers during Covid-19), pop-up cycle lanes and a social inclusion scheme helping to get more people on bikes.
Mariam Draaijer tells us about the JoyRiders project which has been running successfully in Waltham Forest since 2016. She will explain how JoyRiders has engaged with women, many of whom have never cycled before, helping them to overcome the barriers they faced to become confident and happy cyclists.
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Walking@Tea-Time – reimagining (or transforming) our streets
22 Feb 2021
Once London’s residential streets were places to walk, linger and play. Over the last century too many have become roads to drive through and park cars. This is changing. While some low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) have existed for decades, they have sprung up more recently first in Walthamstow and, in the last year, in many, especially inner, London boroughs. Having removed the through traffic, the next question is what should be done to create a greater sense of place so that people of all ages once again linger, chat and play. Children have been driven off the streets; do changes need to be made to bring them back?
This episode of Walking@Tea-time explored these issues, looking at how they have been addressed in Barcelona and the plans for a London-wide campaign, and what can be achieved.
David Harrison, London Living Streets, and transport historian, briefly explored the history of London’s streets, followed by our two main speakers:
Sílvia Casorrán, who works with the Superblocks Office in Barcelona City Council. Since July 2019 she has been the mobility councillor for Sant Martí District in Barcelona. Since 2003 she has been actively involved as an activist for the Association for the Promotion of Public Transport, for the Poblenou Neighbors Association, and for the Poblenou Superblock Association.
Brenda Puech, Hackney Living Streets and parklets activist, talks about a new grassroots London-wide parklets campaign that seeks to transform London’s streets, making applying for a community spot, or cafe spill-out space along our streets, as easy as obtaining a car parking permit.
Walking@Tea-Time – Maps and Apps
16 Nov 2020
In this episode of Walking at Tea-time we explored the potential of algorithms. In particular, the question of whether they can capture the human experience of walking?
In a few years, we’ve gone from a world in which people found their way using the AtoZ to one in which they rely on their smart-phones. But this is more than a change of medium: in addition to efficient route-finding, algorithms have the potential to provide us with highly customised options and to draw our attention to points of interest or opportunities of particular interest to us. Can this induce us to walk more? And is there something special about the paper map that we lose when we reach for our phones?
Two experts will assisted us with our enquiries (Click names below to jump to presentations):
- Ana Basiri, Professor of Geospatial Data Science at University of Glasgow, whose ground-breaking work with large datasets has included the creation of maps from crowd-sourced data
- Hana Sutch, Co-Founder and Chief Walker & Talker at Go Jauntly, the innovative app that both provides and gathers information about great walks
Cycling@Breakfast-time – Working with the unwilling
22nd Oct 2020
Much is said and written about the more go-ahead transport authorities and their work to promote and facilitate cycling. But what of the many others who are not showing the same zeal? How well are they understood and, perhaps more important, how can the cycling community engage positively and productively with them?
Two authoritative speakers from distinct backgrounds and, indeed, distinct hemispheres, offered their insights in a lively and engaging discussion. Alex Macmillan (University of Otago, New Zealand) presented a public-health lens on transport and discussed effective strategies for overcoming political barriers to change at local-government level. Adam Tranter (Fusion Media) continued the discussion by sharing his experiences of working with stakeholders in his role as Coventry’s Bicycle Mayor. Click names below to jump to presentations:
- Alex Macmillan (University of Otago, New Zealand)
- Adam Tranter (Fusion Media)
- Neil Guthrie – Regular cycling news section
Previous episodes:
Walking @Tea-time Episode #2 – The pedestrian pound, revisited
9th July 2020. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
Cycling @Tea-time – Prioritising new infrastructure in the pandemic
16th June 2020. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Will Bradley (GLA) – Streetspace for London
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Joey Talbot [and Robin Lovelace] – Where should we build new cycleways?
Walking @Tea-time Episode #1 – Why is walking the poor cousin of transport policy? And what can we do about it
28th May 2020. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Steve Gooding (Director of the RAC Foundation)
- Phil Jones (Chairman of Phil Jones Associates)
- Maria Vassilakou (former Deputy Mayor of Vienna) Rethink the Street: The Viennese Way
Cycling @Tea-time – Cycling under Lockdown – roadspace reallocation and bikeshare trends
6th May 2020. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Oliver O’Brien (Consumer Data Research Centre, UCL) – Lockdown and Bikeshare
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Laura Laker – Cycling under lockdown
Cycling @Tea-time – Election Time – cycling matters
4th December 2019. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Adam Coffman – Election Manifesto round-up
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Bryn Lockwood (Sustrans) – Sustrans Manifesto
Cycling @Tea-time – Micromobility – cool but dangerous?
15th October 2019. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Peter Jones (UCL) – Regulating street use – the challenge of micro-mobility
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Adrian Lord (PJA) – Are friends electric? – and other micro-mobility issues
Cycling @Tea-time – The governance of cycling
22nd July 2019. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Norman Baker, former Transport Minister (spoke without slides)
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Lucy Saunders – A new approach to cycling governance
Cycling @Tea-time – Cycling and older people. Detecting journeys in bike sharing systems
8th May 2019. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Ben Spencer (Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University) – Older people’s cycling. E-Bikes, brain power and microadventures
- Neil Guthrie – Latest cycling News
- James Todd (UCL) – Creating a Comprehensive Comparison of Bicycle Sharing System from around the World
Cycling @Tea-time – Interactions between cycle users and other modes
28th February 2019 [no recording available]
Speakers:
- Dr Robin Smith (Cardiff University) – “Close passes” and the categorical organization of space, mobility, and perception
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Keir Gallagher – Too Close for Comfort (Prezi link)
Cycling @Tea-time – Cycling Utopias
17th December 2018. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Dr Cosmin Popan (Manchester Metropolitan University) – Utopias of fast and slow cycling
- Mike Davies (Cycling Projects Team, Cambridgeshire County Council) – Delivering cycling projects in Greater Cambridge
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
Cycling @Tea-time – The Gender Balance of Cycling
20th November 2018. Watch and listen to the whole episode here.
Speakers:
- Sarah Murray/Tom Cohen (speaker) – Gender diversity in London commute cycling
- Neil Guthrie – Cycling News
- Ella Morrison – Women and Bike Share
- Helen Sharp (Head of Operational Business Development for Sponsored Services for TfL) – Women and Bike Share
Older archive episodes can be found here at Cycling@Tea-time’s previous home