Category Archives: Environment

Woods and Wildflowers

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Enjoying nature has always been one of the pleasures of cycling. This week we hear from two organisations working to protect and improve Britain’s natural places. Andy Byfield of the charity Plantlife explains his charity’s new campaign about road verges while Garfield Kennedy of the Woodland Trust, which manages hundreds of woods and forests across the country, explains why mountain-bikers and other cyclists are welcome in their woods.

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Is London Air Killing Us?

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Some people say that air pollution in big cities like London is a public health emergency, contributing to 4,300 premature deaths a year. But nobody seems to talk about it. Is the Government doing anything to deal with it? Are cyclists at risk more than other people?

Is the Mayor of London more concerned about avoiding fines from Brussels than cleaning up the air we breathe? And why is Boris trying to glue air pollution to the roads? Jack and Jen discuss the issue with experts Simon Birkett of the Campaign for Clean Air in London and environmental lawyer Alan Andrews of Client Earth.

More data and information including some amazing maps of air pollution in London are available from the London Air Quality Network.

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Road Danger Reduction with Dr Robert Davis

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Each year on the roads of this country upwards of 2,000 people are killed and many tens of thousands more are injured in road crashes. The perception of danger is one of the most common reasons people have for not riding a bicycle. Why do we, as a society, tolerate this level of carnage? What can be done? In the studio to help answer these questions is Dr Robert Davis, author of the acclaimed book Death on the Streets and currently serving as Chair of the Road Danger Reduction Forum. Some more reading.

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A Journey Into Tranquility

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Sustrans is the sustainable transportation charity and lobby group that pioneered the national cycle network. It is also one of the UK’s biggest commissioners of public art. Today’s show is devoted to one of Sustrans’s new Prospectives series, a handful of deliberately experimental projects that are more conceptual and investigative in nature than the more traditional kinds of public art you might find on the National Cycle Network.

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Entitled Tranquility is a State of Mind, the project was conceived and led by Liminal, the duo of architect Frances Crow and sound artist and composer David Prior. They brought together clinical audiology, computational neuroscience and acoustics in a quest to understand more about the relationship between our sonic environment and personal wellbeing.

The 2010 London Festival of Architecture features around 20 bicycle tours, including a Sonic London ride led by Jack Thurston.

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14 July 2008: Vive Le Tour // Civilised Streets

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Celebrating Bastille Day and the first week of Le Tour De France plus a discussion of civilised streets with Louise Duggan, streets advisor at the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). Just six days until this year’s Dunwich Dynamo….

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28 January 2008: Transition Town Bicycling

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Totnes in South Devon is where the rapidly growing ‘transition town’ movement all began. Transition towns are a response to the problem of resource depletion, peak oil and climate change and embrace the practical and more esoteric aspects of changing lifestyles and mindsets. Totnes and the surrounding countryside – like many rural areas – remain heavily reliant on car travel. What can be done to get more people on bicycles in the countryside? Is cycling a viable rural alternative to the internal combustion engine? For more on Transition Towns, listen to the latest episode of Resonance FM’s Low Carbon Show. Plus Eric Gauster of Cycle Training UK on some great value bike maintenance classes for Londoners. We give away a place on either a basic or intermediate class to the listener who best completes the following sentence:

“I want to go on a bicycle maintenance course because…..”

email to bikeshow@gmail.com

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17 December 2007: London Olympics 2012

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Olympics 2012Does the coming of Olympics in 2012 spell disaster for cycle sport in London or will it bring much needed regeneration of a neglected part of the city? A ride with Patrick Field around the perimeter fence of the construction site in north east London and an interview with Michael Humphreys, chair of the Eastway Users Group, on the destruction of the popular Eastway road, mountain bike and cyclo-cross circuits, the interim facilities and plans for the legacy Velopark on the Olympics site.

The Bike Show will be off air until Monday 7th January 2008, when Resonance FM resumes its live broadcast schedule after the Christmas break. Chapeau and Bonne Route for 2008!

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