Reasons to join a Bike Train #4

Boredom

Do you find that the days all look alike? Joining the bike train will not only improve your mood and stave off depression, it is a great way of getting to know your colleagues better and meeting new people! The bike trains event brings together people from all over Birmingham but also people from your area. It's easy to meet like-minded people and potentially find someone you could regularly go cycling with. Cycling is an incredibly sociable activity, and one you can get a lot out of, although if you want some time to yourself, it's easy to just focus on your surroundings and take in the excitement!

Organisation is the key...

Another thing is that instead of losing your free time through travelling by car or train, and going separately to the gym, you could neatly combine the two (thus saving time AND money!). Cycling on a regular basis gets you the exercise your body needs in order to stay youthful and alert. More likely than not, you'll find you'll also save time and money through not having to go to the doctor or chemist's; cyclists are definitely less likely to be struck down by illness, research has shown.

Did you know...? A study by academics at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands has found that the health and other benefits associated with cycling outweigh the potential risks such as being involved in a road traffic accident or exposure to air pollution.

Don't forget too, that you would be able to interact with your environment and experience Birmingham in a completely different way: seeing buildings, trees, sky, other people and shops up close and colourful. The benefits of stimulating both your mind and body in this way are immense. Cyclists frequently talk about the feeling of freedom, the energy boost it gives you, the feeling of being in the fresh air and seeing places you normally wouldn't when driving. Joining one of the bike trains would give you the chance to experience this for yourself and test out whether it could work for you on a day-to-day basis.

You as a person become far more interesting, perceptive and fulfilled, because you are constantly being stimulated in a positive way. (Of course, cycling isn't the only activity that can make you 'interesting', but it certainly is fun and easy to integrate into your everyday life!) There's a good reason people as diverse as Matt Damon, Albert Einstein, Kylie Minogue, Brad Pitt are (or were) into it.

Or, as a group of cyclists from Lancaster put it when asked the question “What's the best thing about cycling?" for a survey:

“Well, by nature I’m a couch potato. By making cycling my normal way of getting around I at least get some exercise in a normal day. Furthermore I like the way getting that exercise is integrated into something else I have to do anyway (getting to work) and then finally it’s just a fun thing to do in its own right. It feels good.”

“Waving at the motorists stuck on the Skerton Bridge! Also keeping fit and feeling full of energy.”

“Feeling of freedom.”

Exercise whilst commuting. Racing down a hillside.

Feeling of freedom. Keeps me fit.

Lots of things. I enjoy the fresh air and exercise and knowing that it is good for the environment

“Beautiful views.”

Reasons to join a bike train #1

Over the next few weeks, leading up to September 22nd, we're going to be posting reasons why joining our bike trains is a good idea, which also apply to increasing cycling in Birmingham overall.

Some of these will be more serious than others, but as the planet has now reached over 1 billion cars, there is an urgent need to start reducing our car use and In Town Without My Car Day or World Car Free Day is the perfect time to start.

Clean air: These days, the major threat to clean air is now posed by traffic emissions, so cycling on a mass scale can dramatically reduce air pollution, potentially making Birmingham a more pleasant and healthy place for both inhabitants and visitors. Given that the UK is also well behind on its NOx emissions targets, and facing fines from the European Union, we believe it would serve Birmingham – and Britain – well to act fast and effectively.

Please register on our website to join the cycling revolution and get on a bike train on September 22nd - it could be the start of something big.

Gergana Manassieva

Choo Choo! Here come the bikes!

This is the logo used by the group who have transformed commuting by bike along a busy road in Brighton by joining together for a safety in numbers approach, which also has the added benefit of getting to know some other cyclists.

It may not be as social as the Birmingham Critical Mass rides, which end up in the pub after work on a Friday evening, but they function to make people's journeys to work much nicer.

So, why am I telling you about this? Well, as you probably know many people think that the roads in Birmingham are a bit scary to cycle in to work along. Currently, nobody has set up a bike train anywhere in this city. We think it's time to rectify this situation and we want to make it a big story to encourage lots of people to do it.

For the last 2 years we've done high profile media work on In Town Without My Car Day, with our challenge to the power 50 and working with high profile businesses, as well as transforming a parking space into a park last year.

This year we want to do something more practical that might actually help more people out of their cars onto a more sustainable form of transport. In order for it to work, we need the help of experienced cyclists to lead the less confident, some volunteers to help with promoting it and doing the logistics of where/when the rides will happen and people to organise some kind of event at the end of it (possibly a breakfast for participants). We are in discussions with Pushbikes and Sustrans about collaborating with them already, but we can provide space in our office for a couple of people to work on this.

Fancy getting involved, then please contact us campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk or ring 0121 6326909 to get more information.

True Costs

Public transport is always being hit by the government when they need to save money and now is no exception, but if we think of the true costs of this over the past century, all those alleged savings from not keeping railways or bus services going would surely be cancelled out if we calculated the what the alternatives have cost the country.

Let's just think of a few things that are attributable to increased car use over walking, cycling or using public transport:

Congestion

It is hard to argue that our roads would be congested without lots of people each driving their own private vehicle. According to CBT, "the total cost of congestion is usually estimated at £20 billion a year".

Road accidents

Whilst some proportion of the accidents on our roads may involved buses, the vast majority are caused by cars. Again from CBT's 2008 report, "Last year there were 260,000 casualties on our roads, including 3,172 fatalities [1]. Using Government figures, the cost to the economy of these accidents was £12 billion."

Road-building

According to the Transport Select Committee, "Government spending on roads has almost doubled in real terms since 1999–2000." In 2005/6 it was £6.6 billion and we know that with all the damage caused by the freezing weather this winter many councils are struggling to keep roads repaired and in decent condition. With fewer cars, we could scrap all new road-building schemes and ensure that those we have suit the needs of buses, cyclists and pedestrians better.

Carbon Emissions

Passenger cars emitted 76.8 million tonnes of CO2 (or 20.9 million tonnes of carbon) in 2007, according to DEFRA. Using Stern’s figure of £190 per tonne of carbon, the carbon caused by these cars cost nearly £4 billion.

Obesity

The modern disease caused by sedentary lifestyles and over-eating costs the NHS £14 billion a year. It would be unfair to blame all of this on car use over more active forms of transport, but promoting walking and cycling could certainly help to fight it and reduce these costs.

In times when we are being told to look for ways of saving money, we should certainly not see spending money on public transport as anything other than a saving to the country as a whole when we see the costs of ever more cars on the road. It looks as if the distances that people are travelling have now peaked and are no longer going to keep on rising exponentially along with economic growth (although whether that will happen is also up for debate). To save money we need to invest in safer roads for cyclists and pedestrians and taking road space away from cars to make public transport work better. The benefits in savings and quality of life for all could be huge.

Let's start with showing how many cars we can take off the road for In Town Without My Car Day 2010.

Joe Peacock

[1] From Transport Statistics Great Britain 2007, published by the Department for Transport, November 2007

Section Eight, Transport Accidents and Casualties: Table 8.1

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2007edition/sectioneighttransportacciden.pdf

Following on from In Town Without My Car Day

Last Tuesday some of the Birmingham Post's Power 50 took up our challenge to show some leadership and give up their cars for the day on In Town Without My Car Day. Even senior figures at the council pledged their support for the idea and so we are hoping that next year there will be some officially sanctioned events, but, even more importantly, some drastic improvements in public transport provision in Birmingham and in safety measures for cyclists and pedestrians.

One of our volunteers went with councillor Salma Yaqoob as she did without her car for the day.


Pictured here walking children Mikael and Aslan to school, councillor Yaqoob said "Normally taking the children to school and travelling to work in the morning is a last minute rush. We lead such a packed life so we save time in the car. Today it felt good - not driving. I had to do this. We had extra time to chat. Walking is good exercise and it felt like the right thing to do."

Her eldest son, Hamza (not pictured) goes to school on the bus every day, which councillor Yaqoob thinks is important for teaching him independence. "Over-protecting our children doesn’t help them so it is good for him to go on the bus."


Salma Yaqoob herself confesses that she doesn't use public transport very often because it takes longer than going by car and she can't afford the time. She also conceded that it was time to take action to improve the situation "As a party, we need an integrated transport policy. The less people feel daunted at leaving cars behind the more they will use public transport because it is convenient and it saves time".

She also pledged to improve her own record in future "I hope that this time next year I will have a it more of a record of using public transport, refocusing my good intentions. The test is whether I can keep it up. I think it will be a slow and steady change for me".


Another of those who took up the challenge on the day was Professor David Bailey, who is very clear that it's the lack of decent public transport that keeps people in their cars and asked “Why not have road pricing like in London and put the money into public transport?”

From the business angle, Jerry Blackett from the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce also took part and was pictured with his folding bicycle on the fron page of the Birmingham Post. Of the experience, he said "The journey took 45 mins which is 20 mins longer than by car. However, being on the train for part of this, I could read my day’s meeting papers etc. for 30 mins, so gained time overall."

He also said that he would support having a good look at organising something more substantial for the day next year, although encouraging cycling in general should be the highest priority, "As a cyclist, I also want to see more provision of road space. This is difficult for Birmingham. We don’t have the wide streets some other cities enjoy. But I’d like to see what we think we might achieve".

Many of Friends of the Earth's members and supporters are car-owners, so we would agree with Mr Blackett when he says "I think it important we don’t demonise the car driver", but also that we need to "make alternatives to the car attractive so that drivers get more choice".

Our campaigns are not about taking all cars off the roads every day, but encouraging people to use other forms of transport when possible and recognise that roads are not only for cars, but for cyclists and pedestrians too. Pedestrianisation has made a huge difference to Birmingham city centre, but we sincerely hope that the Big City Plan will also make a difference to the accessibility of wider areas of the city by cycle or foot.

We will continue to push the council to improve public transport and facilities for walking and cycling. Our twenty's plenty e-petition can be signed here and there are also petitions for better bus services and re-opening rail stations.

Next year we would like Councillor Len Gregory to take In Town Without My Car Day seriously and organise some proper events for it, as other towns do. With such actions we can start looking at changing Birmingham's reputation as an overly car-friendly city that is not suitable for cycling or walking around.

Photographs: Jane Baker / www.greensnapperphotography.com

In Town Without My Car Day 2009

Every year we moan about the council not doing anything about In Town Without My Car Day and then leave it too late to organise a big event. But leaving your car at home shouldn't be such a big deal, should it?

Tens of thousands of people travel to work every day without using a car and over 30% of households in Birmingham don't actually own a car so are reliant on other means of transport to get around.

So, what happened when Birmingham Friends of the Earth challenged the 50 most powerful and influential people in the region (according to the Birmingham Post) to give up their cars for the day?

What did we expect? Polite refusals? To be completely ignored? For everyone to say yes?

I was not sure what would happen, but I thought that, in the current climate of individuals being seen to take a lead on being greener, it might just work. Over the past few weeks I have been collecting responses, prompting those who didn't reply, contacting the press and other media about the story and the interest has grown and grown to the extent that Birmingham City Council actually put up a message of support for it on their website.

If you want to know what the results of this challenge were person by person, then read on.

1)Paul Thandi: NEC Group – No reply, other than acknowledgements from his PA that she had passed on my emails to him.
2)Paul Kehoe: BIA – I was informed by his PA that as he was away on leave until just before it he could not do it.
3)Lord Digby Jones – I was informed by his PA that he is out of town and not able to participate.
4)David Bintley: Birmingham Royal Ballet – No response received at all.
5)Gary Taylor: Argent Group – Informed us that he cycles at least once a week to work now and will be away on Tuesday, but will cycle the day before.
6)Neil Rami: Marketing Birmingham – Will also be away on the day, but the rest of his company will be doing it, apparently.
7)Clive Dutton: Birmingham City Council Planning and Regeneration – Said he would certainly do it.
8)Professor David Bailey: Coventry University – Said he would be taking bus and/or train as usual.
9)Andris Nelsons: CBSO conductor – Is in Vienna on the day, so unable to take part.
10)Mike Whiby; Leader of Birmingham City Council – Has “long-standing commitments on the day in question which make it difficult to honour if he could not use a car”, although he will try to walk between meetings.
11)Christine Braddock: Birmingham Metropolitan College – No response
12)Julie Moore: CEO of local NHS – No response.
13)Andrew Mitchell: MP for Sutton Coldfield – Will be in London cycling to work as every day.
14)Glynn Purnell: Celebrity Chef – Unable to do it for “personal reasons”.
15)Paul Tylsley: Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council – Not in Birmingham on the day.
16)Liam Byrne: MP for Hodge Hill and cabinet member – No response.
17)Stephen Hughes: Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council – Will catch a train to the airport, which, unfortunately, is unavoidable to keep commitments. Always walks to work when in the city.
18)Suzie Norton: Screen West Midlands – Is on maternity leave.
19)Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya: Warwick Manufacturing Group – No response.
20)Ravi Kant: Head of Tata – Didn't attempt to contact him.
21)Randy Lerner: CEO, Aston Villa – Not in town on the day. I requested someone else high profile from the club, but got no response.
22)Anthony McCourt: Birmingham Development Company – Walks to work every day.
23)Jason Wouhra: East End Foods – No response.
24)Salma Yaqoob: Councillor – Will walk or use public transport instead of car for the day.
25)Stuart Griffiths: CEO, Birmingham Hippodrome – No response.
26)Phillip Singleton: City Design, Birmingham City Council – Will take the bus.
27)Professor Nick James: University of Birmingham – Cycles at least once a week and takes the train from Longbridge other days.
28)David Smith: Jaguar-Land Rover - Didn't attempt to contact him.
29)Dr Waldemar Bujalski: University of Birmingham – No response.
30)Justice Williams: Inner City Creative Media Group – Unable to contact.
31)Clare Edwards: Gigbeth – Works from home most days and says she'll take public transport if needed on the day.
32)Trevor Foster: Bigwood/Lockton – No response.
33)Paul Bassi: Bonde Wolfe – Unable to contact.
34)Tom Lawes: The Electric Cinema – No response.
35)Andeep Mangel: ICAEW – Unable to contact.
36)Paul Bradshaw: BCU – May well be working from home, but doesn't own a car for environmental reasons, anyway.
37)Helga Henry: Fierce Earth – No response.
38)Simon Wales: THSH – Was supportive and often takes the bus to work, but has to take equipment to the NEC for a stall on the day in his car.
39)James Yarker: Stan's Cafe Director – Always cycles around the city and takes the train when travelling to other towns.
40)Professor Julia King: Vice Chancellor, Aston University – Out of town on the day, but encouraged all staff at Aston to take part and leave their cars at home.
41)Kerry Thomas: Fused Magazine – Very supportive and would have done it if in town, but away on the day.
42)Steve Dyson: Editor, Birmingham Mail – Unable to do it due to meetings and commitments in several parts of the city.
43)Bennie Gray: Custard Factory – No response.
44)Mick Laverty: AWM – Unable to contact.
45)Stuart Rogers: Birmingham Rep – Happy to do it and will take the bus.
46)Paul Hadley – Rhubarb Radio – Works from home and says he always takes the train when travelling in and out of Birmingham.
47)Adrian Goldberg: The Stirrer – Will be in London on the day, where he will use public transport for all his journeys. Wishes the same was possible in this area.
48)Jerry Blackett: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce – Will take train and folding bike, as he often does.
49)Ian Austin: MP, Dudley North and regional minister – No response.
50)Martin Mullaney: Cabinet member, Birmingham City Council – Will be taking his scooter.

So, what can we see from this?

Well, apart from the lack of responses from 14 people – about a third, I was encouraged by the number of people who are very much aware of the issue and already use other forms of transport on a regular basis. Almost half of the “power 50” gave us such positive responses about their travelling habits and I would suggest that this means a minority of these people take their cars into town every day.

What about being without a car every day?

This is, of course, the most important point to be made. It's all very well doing a one-off attempt to be more sustainable, but if we're going to cut transport emissions and congestion and deal with the related health issues in this city we need to get more people out of cars and onto public transport, bikes or walking as a matter of course. This would enable us all to use the space we have in this city more usefully.
We are working hard on campaigns such as “20's plenty for Birmingham”, “Re-open Our Stations” and “Better Buses for Birmingham” to tackle the issues that prevent people feeling that they can get around the city without using a car. If you want to help us with any of the campaigns, please contact us on campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk to find out how.

Future events

By next year I sincerely hope that steps will have been made to improve the experience for people using public transport, walking or cycling in the city and that when the council launches its own In Town Without Your Car Day events, we'll see streets filled not with cars, but with people out there talking to one another and enjoying sharing the space together.
Does anyone else agree that it would be a good idea?

In Town Without My Car Day Birmingham Style

September 22nd is a day when all over Europe cities are holding events to promote sustainable forms of transport and the benefits of streets being car-free.

Birmingham, as usual, is not, but never fear your inventive campaigners at Birmingham Friends of the Earth have come up with a plan to try and get it on the agenda. We have challenged the Birmingham Post's Power 50 to participate on the day and not use their cars in order to show some leadership in the issue of environmental transport.

This has actually been well received by most and the responses from many of these influential people have been very positive. Unsurprisingly, the media have also been very interested in the story and the reaction of these high profile people to a challenge from environmentalists.

With three days to go before the day, there is still time for a few more to accept our challenge, so we won't be publishing the full results until then.

The big hope is that it will get enough attention for the council to put on a proper event themselves next year and show a real commitment to providing an integrated public transport system for all the people of Birmingham to be able to get around without a car every day.