Sam Wakeling
@samwake.bsky.social
3.1K followers 390 following 530 posts
Loves streets. Make them safe. Set them free. Sheffield. Abolition. Works at Living Streets. Free free 🍉 🔗 sam.wakeling.me
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
samwake.bsky.social
What do you dream of your local streets being like?

For me it is making them welcoming public spaces for everyone to enjoy and move in without fear from traffic (including the remaining vehicles which are there).

I drew this of my local South Road, Sheffield.
Watercolour pen sketch of a street with people walking, sitting out, cars in side street and parked on the main street, people cycling and riding a tricycle and playing and trees and plants on the street.
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
bdsmovement.bsky.social
Nothing less than freedom, justice and self-determination!

Palestinian civil society reacts to the Trump-Netanyahu genocidal plan with 5 fundamental points.

Read more ⬇️ loom.ly/KStXm2A
Palestinian civil society reacts to the Trump-Netanyahu genocidal plan
Nothing less than freedom, justice and self-determination!
loom.ly
samwake.bsky.social
How would our aims for our streets and transport change if we needed over half of car use (and more in dense areas) to disappear? Within years?

How much extra space, time and money would we have to put to good uses?

Could the demands of real climate action help liberate us from a hopeless normal?
samwake.bsky.social
Bracing analysis:

- need to reduce car kms by “at least 50%”
- biggest chunk (69%) of passenger emissions are longer, mainly leisure, car trips (over 50km) not daily urban
- NL cycles lots but doesn’t limit its huge car use
- little gain from promoting public transport
- potential for e-bikes
sfrost.bsky.social
Latest paper from our upcoming Progressive Review issue.

An essential read by @jilliananable.bsky.social on our failing approach to transport decarbonisation, the scale of the challenge we face in the second half of the decade and where to focus efforts to achieve the UK's 2030 climate target👇
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
samwake.bsky.social
Bracing analysis:

- need to reduce car kms by “at least 50%”
- biggest chunk (69%) of passenger emissions are longer, mainly leisure, car trips (over 50km) not daily urban
- NL cycles lots but doesn’t limit its huge car use
- little gain from promoting public transport
- potential for e-bikes
sfrost.bsky.social
Latest paper from our upcoming Progressive Review issue.

An essential read by @jilliananable.bsky.social on our failing approach to transport decarbonisation, the scale of the challenge we face in the second half of the decade and where to focus efforts to achieve the UK's 2030 climate target👇
Decarbonisation pathways for UK transport
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
samwake.bsky.social
📕 With all that’s going on, I just want to share this act of craft and care.

A second-hand book seller seems to have made a one-off perfect easy-open wrapper by turning an old box of cat food pouches inside-out and shaping it around the book.
Brown card package the shape of a book, with a perforated opening The opening is folded back to show the inside surface has branding for cat food
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
ketanjoshi.co
I know Jane Goodall was revered by many in the environment movement, but it is pretty clear that she also harboured many seriously problematic colonial attitudes.

The 'overpopulation' stuff in particular was pretty bad, and as a concept the conduit of plenty of serious wrongdoing over the years
rishpardikar.bsky.social
This is from a very prominent conservationist from Kenya
samwake.bsky.social
Tyne folks, how is the closure of the flyover working out with traffic? I heard it was a worry before it happened but can’t see much comment since?

@carltonreid.com @tynetom.bsky.social @alisonstenning.bsky.social
samwake.bsky.social
Very few kids cycle to our school. Mine do, and they love it.

This morning another school parent said that seeing them riding each day brings her joy.

🥹
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
ianwalker.bsky.social
"The single most important behaviour, design or regulation for creating streets conducive to walking and cycling, was physical separation between the modes"

We've got a new study out, learning from a broad mixture of street users, planners and designers

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Highlights
    For marginalised street users mode separation is the key to human-scale movement.
    Streets conducive to walking and cycling have functional, safe and accessible design.
    Professionals must approach street design, regulation and user behaviour holistically.
    Combinations of influencing factors persuade people to either use or avoid a street.
    There are no easy fixes to the public realm that will work for all non-drivers.
samwake.bsky.social
Getting a 20mph limit on a road where someone has been killed would be a dramatic improvement on current policies.

People being killed with vehicles is most likely on roads where traffic speed is deemed too important to consider for 20mph safety treatment.
peterwalker99.bsky.social
In the Q&A, Holden is asked if 20mph zones should only be put on roads where there has been a fatality. Holden says he thinks it’s a bit much to expect someone to die before you get a 20 limit - but then complains a lot about their general use.
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
tessakhan.bsky.social
While the Tory party's energy & climate policy grows increasingly detached from reality, worth reflecting on a remarkable, under-reported event at Labour conference: the launch of Climate Jobs UK, a campaign by GMB, Prospect & other TUs focused on the creation of good jobs in the energy transition
🧵
samwake.bsky.social
Quite a contrast between the British walk to school and the one in Czech Republic.

What differences do you notice?
A child in blue school uniform walking on a pavement alongside a tarmac road, waiting by to cross a side road. Curving double yellow lines, trees, and a 30mph speed limit sign are behind them. An adult with them is asking “see anything?” They reply “Er, no” A child with long hair and school backpack walks on irregular cobble type paving in an open square area edged by buildings. There are other children  walking ahead and some cars parked on the square in the distance.
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
davidwearing.bsky.social
I'll say it again. Our horror at the Gaza genocide and at the atrocity in Manchester comes in both cases from the same, inherent part of our shared humanity. We need to assert that shared humanity in the face of both these evils as loudly as possible, and in as many practical ways as we can.
kevinschofied.bsky.social
NEW: Home secretary Shabana Mahmood urges pro-Palestine protesters to consider not taking part in marches this weekend.

"Imagine if you lost a loved one to a terror attack in this country ... sometimes a little unity, a little solidarity, some love to other people is required"
samwake.bsky.social
Aren’t they? Seems to be plenty of conflict points on carriageways, and people in cars are getting hurt a lot too.

Is there a part of motonormativity which encourages us to see vehicle harm as only applying to “other” users, while implying that using a car is safe as long as you’re inside?
samwake.bsky.social
Whose streets? Their streets.
Street with children riding scooters in the low sunlight abd green trees. another small child walks with an adult on the pavement. Row of cones in distance close the street for vehicles
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
samwake.bsky.social
Great interview on how little children’s needs and play are considered in govt.

I’m reminded of the council playgrounds near us having the swings removed during lockdown. Some didn’t return for months or years.

While car parking which obstructed social distancing was barely touched.
Two playground swing sets with the swing chains tied together. Frame of a swing in a park with the chains and swing removed
samwake.bsky.social
The bus companies challenge it, “However, the streets where those buses drive are where we have most problems with traffic safety.”

“Nowadays I think everybody is getting used to it. The buses will not even be a lot slower than they were…”
dutchcycling.nl
Tonight, 132 of Haarlem's streets will be slowed to 30km/h.

We sat down with experts at Gemeente Haarlem about why, how they made it happen and what challenges they faced.

READ THE INTERVIEW: buff.ly/vQEeYhs

#DCEnetwork
Sign with 30km/h warning sticker over the top Sign with 30km/h warning sticker over the top
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
katjadiehl.bsky.social
"The main objective of these changes is to make it safer for children to walk to school by limiting car traffic. “We want Paris to regain streets where it is possible to let go of a child's hand,” said Patrick Bloche (PS), deputy mayor, at the Fête des rues aux écoles (Street Festival at Schools)."
samwake.bsky.social
2024 road crash data is out and I looked at child injuries in Sheffield.

56 children were seriously injured on Sheffield roads last year, higher than other recent years.

maps.dft.gov.uk/road-casualt...
Chart with largely flat but rising line of serious injuries per year: since 2018, 50, 40, 44, 50, 46, 56
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
eyeyeopticians.bsky.social
Been coming to Paris the last weekend in September for about 8 years. The transformation in terms of the quality of the experience is mind blowing.

The air is not polluted, there are people on bikes everywhere. The streets have been reclaimed and sitting outside cafés is even nicer than before.
samwake.bsky.social
I wonder if there’s a potentially powerful social norm which this policy would echo: you don’t overtake a hearse.

When someone has been killed on a street, traffic getting slowed down should be a basic respectful response.
Emergencystreets.org
Emergency Streets
Emergencystreets.org
samwake.bsky.social
Yes in theory. Though don’t big orgs with lots of power have more complexity? Yes Minister was funny for a reason!
samwake.bsky.social
It seems the processes are often a result of the nature of the institutions.

Perhaps when they’ve been built around serving capital rather than people.
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
yairwallach.bsky.social
"But what can we do more?" ask UK pundits

Despite the various rhetorical dramas, the UK continues to maintain almost entirely normal relations with Netanyahu's government. Real measures are long overdue.

For some ideas, see below
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Myanmar sanctions: guidance
www.gov.uk