# Clean Cities Campaign Day 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7aPRgiNDgM

[05:05] test one two.
[21:17] I'll turn it on.
[21:17] Hello everyone.
[21:19] A huge welcome to the second day of the Curious Cities Assembly.
[21:21] Please.
[21:24] Good morning everyone.
[21:24] I'm Oliver Lord.
[21:26] I'm the UK director for Clean Cities.
[21:29] If you're new to Clean Cities, we work here in the UK and across Europe to accelerate the transition to cleaner, healthier, and more livable cities.
[21:37] And we're a growing network, more than 150 organizations across 20 countries.
[21:42] And we're delighted to be joined by many of our partners here in the room today.
[21:46] And a huge part of our work is focused on securing policies that enable childfriendly cities.
[21:51] Put it simply, if we create healthier streets for kids, we create healthier streets for everyone.
[21:59] And we know we're not alone.
[22:00] And that's precisely why we spent the last 6 months producing the Curious Cities Assembly.
[22:05] and long may it continue.
[22:07] And we've done this to unite a movement.
[22:09] We want to unite a movement of local leaders, council officers, funders, campaigners, experts, academics, architects, civil
[22:19] society to put children's curiosity at the heart of city planning.
[22:23] And that's exactly the sorts of people that we've got in the room today.
[22:26] and also joining us on the live stream.
[22:29] A moment a movement wanting to give children an alternative to screens which is very much in the news at the minute by reshaping our cities so that kids have more ways to develop and play outdoors instead.
[22:42] So here you are as a sweltering first day took day place yesterday.
[22:47] The UK government was told by the climate change committee on the same day that is not moving fast enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
[22:53] Worse still, emissions from surface transport actually increased last year.
[22:59] And as we'll hear today, policies that enable children to move and play with independence rather than car dependence, as one of our partners eloquently puts it, are not only good enough for public health, but essential to tackling the climate emergency as well.
[23:14] And we know change is possible, and that's the running thread through the second day.
[23:18] We'll be getting into more detail around
[23:20] the barriers that children face in our cities and how to fix them.
[23:25] And we'll also be talking from with leaders from here in London, the UK government as well as Paris and New York to understand the political realities of getting improvements made as well as the ambition in these exciting cities in the years to come.
[23:37] I promise you today is going to be so captivating that you'll not just forget what time it is, but you'll also forget what temperature it is as well.
[23:46] [applause]
[23:48] So, seriously though, we know it's not been easy to get here.
[23:51] I've spoken to quite a few of you who've had some difficulties.
[23:54] It was it was literally hotter than the Bahamas yesterday.
[23:58] And we broke the record for the hottest day ever in June in the UK and not records we can be proud of unlike some other people's.
[24:02] This extreme heat is nowhere near normal and we must acknowledge that at every opportunity.
[24:07] So, for those who have had their travel disrupted and are tuning in on the live stream, hello and thanks to you too.
[24:13] You're joining lots of us making the most of this opportunity to hear from inspirational speakers and experts that are with us
[24:20] today. So, a tiny bit of housekeeping just before we kick off.
[24:25] Our staff are clothed in the visible tie-dye shirts.
[24:27] There's common sporting one at the back over there.
[24:32] They're here throughout the venue to make sure you have a fabulous time and you ensure you're kept safe.
[24:34] And if at any time, please, if you feel unwell, these this is difficult heat.
[24:38] Please let one of them know.
[24:41] There are first aiders in the building and we'll get them to you.
[24:43] On your seats, you'll also find some hand fans.
[24:45] They're there to help you out.
[24:48] There's industrial fans brought into the building.
[24:50] And you can make use of this quiet, cool room.
[24:52] Well, we're doing our best to call it uh next door if you need some um shade.
[24:57] So, sessions are here in the main room.
[24:58] This is the Max Nasa room named after an architect.
[25:00] You can look him up.
[25:02] He basically saved the Oxo tower from demolition as well as downstairs in the neighborhood room.
[25:07] Loads of water hanging around.
[25:09] Please also check out the fabulous bookshop downstairs that Mayo has set up specifically for this event.
[25:16] You'll find an amazing range of literature including some books written
[25:21] by the speakers speaking today as well.
[25:23] So there's a great opportunity to get them signed.
[25:24] So yesterday we got stuck into the mechanics of of childhood, the threat of toxic air, sedentary lifestyles.
[25:31] We discussed how children are the group most impacted by the way our streets and cities are planned.
[25:37] And we started to get into some of the politics of delivering that change as well.
[25:40] And we actually heard if we create a gap between the ambitions of national policy and the reality of local delivery.
[25:46] I quote, "This is where schemes go to die."
[25:48] So today we're going to talk even more in depth about the mobility systems in our cities, how and why they're failing children as well as all of us, frankly, and what we can do about it.
[25:59] And we're also not going to shy away from the fact that the car is uniquely responsible for the limitation of childhood freedoms that many of us enjoyed just a generation ago.
[26:10] Whether you're in a council, a design, a designer, a campaigner, a mom, whoever you are, there are key pieces of change that you can be part of that you'll hear today.
[26:17] We'll also be talking with leaders.
[26:19] Oh, I've already said that.
[26:20] So, you're in for a fantastic ride again for
[26:22] many of you.
[26:24] And we hope you have a wonderful time.
[26:26] This is very much a collaborative event.
[26:27] We've got a program of 50 speakers, but they're also here to be part of the audience as well and create connections.
[26:31] So to start the day, we are privileged to have the man responsible for taking forward a 4 and a half billion pound strategy to boost active travel in the UK and to get at least 60% of kids and young people to commute actively to school by 2035 in England.
[26:47] Please welcome former Golf Medal Olympian, Greater Manchester Transport Commissioner, and now National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Borman.
[26:54] THANKS VERY MUCH.
[27:01] THANK YOU, OLIVER.
[27:04] MORNING, EVERYBODY.
[27:04] UM, ACTUALLY, I don't think it's that warm yet.
[27:06] I've been saying this morning, I think we're pre-winding, really, aren't we?
[27:09] It's uh it's actually okay at the moment.
[27:11] Um, perhaps not later on, but I've had quite a nice walk around.
[27:17] Um, right.
[27:17] Um, some of you may have heard this story before.
[27:20] um because it's
[27:23] Quite a niche group this we all we're all here cuz cuz we get it.
[27:27] But I think this is the perfect time uh to to retell it in that I'm standing here because of a question my daughter asked me uh when she was 7 years old.
[27:35] The name is Aggie.
[27:38] Now I live in a very typical northern uh thank you a northern uh seaside town uh called West Kirby just not far from Liverpool.
[27:50] And she asked me a question that changed my working life or or to be more pedantic about it, it was my answer that changed it.
[27:56] She said, "Can we ride to the park?"
[28:01] Now, the park in question is uh 563 m away.
[28:03] I know cuz I actually measured it after the fact.
[28:07] That's the kind of geek that I am.
[28:08] 563 m away.
[28:13] So, for her age seven, a typically a 3minut journey.
[28:18] And my answer to her was no.
[28:22] And I didn't think I could keep my daughter
[28:23] safe on the road for 3 minutes.
[28:28] And that felt wrong.
[28:31] It felt absolutely awful.
[28:34] And so I decided to do something about it.
[28:37] And it wasn't it wasn't um it wasn't the fleeting disappointment in her eyes that was uh most disturbing.
[28:47] It was the acceptance.
[28:47] It was the acceptance that that space outside is not for you.
[28:53] Uh that is the new normal.
[28:53] That's what to expect.
[28:56] And so without even thinking about it, we've taken away uh easy access to health.
[29:01] We've taken away childhood freedoms that people of my age actually enjoyed.
[29:07] Uh and it isn't somewhere that she wanted to live.
[29:08] It isn't somewhere I wanted to live.
[29:10] And it's the reason that I'm standing here today.
[29:15] I I mean this particular day of this gathering is about exactly that.
[29:21] And I think what we want it's not a utopian vision.
[29:23] It's not pie in the sky stuff.
[29:26] think Finland uh average uh youngest age.
[29:29] transport independence is about 10.
[29:31] Some countries it's even younger.
[29:34] So it's actually happening already.
[29:37] Um, because they can pass the if you like the the Aggie test.
[29:42] It's it's it's something of a proxy, isn't it, for quality of life.
[29:47] And I think there's a lesson in there that if we focus on that, as I've just alluded to, we all get it.
[29:52] But we don't necessarily talk about everything at once.
[29:56] Let's focus on the bit that connects us.
[29:58] And it is historic moment.
[30:01] Um, as was just mentioned, the cycling walking investment strategy was launched just two weeks ago and it is4 billion pounds.
[30:10] It is a record amount when you pull it together a commitment this parliament and its goal is very uh very very precise you know 55% of all journeys uh of trips local trips uh cycled walked or wheeled that equates to 5.3 million people.
[30:28] one of the jobs we've got to do which we have been talking about this morning is start to translate that depending on the audience that we're speaking to so health professionals uh this is two nearly 2 million fewer GP visits that have become available for other people.
[30:45] Uh for the economy, this is nearly four, this is over 4 million fewer sick days.
[30:51] It's 2 and a half thousand deaths avoided.
[30:53] Uh it is um gives a household the opportunity to save up to £1,700.
[31:01] So taking what we do and we can authentically do it, translate it into what people are feeling today.
[31:06] and feelings already been mentioned.
[31:09] That's the trick that we've missed.
[31:11] We start so much of our work with the facts and the evidence.
[31:15] We've got mountains of that have done for a long time.
[31:17] We are clearly asking the wrong question.
[31:19] So we need to connect to the things that that people care about every day and we can do that.
[31:29] So I think probably and pertinent to today, one of the most consequential commitments in that document was 60% of uh ch uh children traveling to school uh under their own steam by 2035.
[31:44] And that's that's quite a biggie.
[31:46] It's also only 9 years away at the moment.
[31:49] Um nearly half of them are driven every day.
[31:51] And they're not doing that.
[31:53] They're not doing that because uh parents are lazy uh or can't see the value because it feels at the moment like the only sensible choice.
[32:05] So we've got money, we've got a mandate to actually do this stuff.
[32:09] What do we actually need to do?
[32:11] What does it look like?
[32:13] Well, this isn't the general audience, is it?
[32:15] Um and I didn't want to spend too long extolling the virtues because you already know it.
[32:18] We've got a room full of activists.
[32:21] We've got campaigners.
[32:22] We've got uh uh local counselors, politicians.
[32:24] We've got all
[32:30] of the people that need to make that happen.
[32:32] And the decisions of the people in this room are is this money to be spent or is it to be invested?
[32:40] And that's a horrible responsibility.
[32:43] It's extraordinary because spend it badly cave along the way with a design that just gets bits eaten out of it because it gets pushed into the too difficult barrier.
[32:53] Uh if we do uh green paint or our our bike lane stops at the roundabout then it does a lot more than just fail to attract people or keep them safe.
[33:03] It sets the scene for the next investment which gets which gets harder and harder to do.
[33:09] it makes the case for look this stuff doesn't work and so you've got to decide.
[33:16] I would I would I would challenge you to actually look at the work that you are campaigning for that you are planning um that you are signing off or not that you are prepared to fight for and say would
[33:30] I be able to say yes if I was asked the Aggie test and if the answer is no it's wasting money and it's wasting time and it's doing damage.
[33:41] I think the what I've seen this morning uh the school streets that we've just walked around um show that isn't isn't all your Copenhagens.
[33:49] Uh it isn't all your Denmarks and Holland.
[33:51] It's already here in pockets.
[33:53] You've got Wolf and Forest.
[33:55] You've got uh the stuff in Lambbeath that we've seen this morning.
[33:59] You've got uh Kezgrave just outside Ipswich where 63% of kids ride to school every day.
[34:04] 900 kids more than Holland.
[34:07] Um, you've got Cambridge hidden in plain sight forever where it is a normal way to get around.
[34:12] So, this is absolutely doable.
[34:14] Uh, and we have the examples to prove it.
[34:17] I know that we've got representation from abroad here.
[34:20] We've got other people's experiences, the experience from Paris, uh, where I went, uh, topically with with, uh, Andy.
[34:30] Bernham a few years ago to visit an Hidalgo and look at what they done and how they done it quickly and what the hurdles were.
[34:38] um has shown what can be done with courage and how quickly it can be done.
[34:43] It is really really key and tactically how an Olympic games was used to take territory in the full knowledge that we're not actually going to give it back.
[34:51] Really clever stuff.
[34:55] So, we have um to the politicians who are here, local counselors, and a lot of them I know and have done the hard yards.
[35:04] You've got um you've got a mandate and we've got a budget and you've shown how we can shape politics locally, which is something uh Oliver touched on that we can it needs to happen from the other end, from your end.
[35:20] Some of you will know that last year um I went to see all of our new metro merge.
[35:23] So, devolution is happening.
[35:24] It's happening at pace and if it's not coordinated, we'll have a patchwork of different levels of service
[35:31] across the country.
[35:33] It'll be fight after fight, success, failure and it will be uncoordinated.
[35:36] So I went to ask them what they were doing specifically around schools for children.
[35:39] And then I asked, "What would you like to do around those schools?"
[35:47] And then at Active Travel England, we sort of got that together and said, "Can we aggregate that?"
[35:51] And they said, "Yeah, okay."
[35:52] And it turned out to be a 3 and a half thousand miles of safe school network.
[35:57] And I said, "Would you sign up to deliver that?"
[35:59] And they said, "Yeah, we're already doing it in large part.
[36:01] What extra powers and things would you need?"
[36:04] Uh, so side road zebra crossings for the geeky just at the mouth of Side Road the desire.
[36:08] that was something they really wanted.
[36:10] So I took that took it back to my boss Heidi Alexander and said there you go a locally designed national network devolution in action.
[36:20] Um we don't have to do anything other than clap.
[36:23] And she said wow that's brilliant.
[36:26] You you've derisked it for me.
[36:29] And and then vice
[36:31] versa it becomes national policy and then local politicians have got air cover.
[36:36] And we we did that in one year.
[36:38] And most importantly, they were all the MRS from across the political spectrum.
[36:44] Uh Luke Jenkins, uh sorry, Luke Campbell, Andrea Jenkins were former Mers, Labor, Conservative, all signed up to deliver this thing.
[36:52] And it is now prominent in that cycling and walking investment strategy that I mentioned.
[36:58] And I think that's pretty bloody cool.
[37:00] And that happened from the bottom up, which is where this stuff starts, which is what we saw this morning.
[37:07] So this is our chance really to make sure those strategy documents don't sit on a shelf.
[37:12] They become real.
[37:15] We have a document to do it.
[37:16] We have an administration.
[37:19] We have um uh a PM pending who's just campaigned on the back of doing this.
[37:22] That's not a bad position to be in.
[37:25] We've got a secretary of state for transport at the moment who has done this in the capital, has done
[37:32] it here.
[37:35] We've got set of uh uh special advisers who are in the same place.
[37:37] We will actually never be in a better position than we are right now.
[37:41] U but we have to act quickly.
[37:44] Now is the moment of bravery for bravery and to take that territory.
[37:52] Thank you.
[37:54] It's no is not an acceptable answer for my daughter and it is not an acceptable answer uh for your daughter.
[38:03] So, we have a moment here to make things change.
[38:06] And by the time that she has kids, I want to be able to say, "Yes, we can uh we can ride to the park."
[38:15] So, go away and make that true.
[38:25] Thanks very much, Chris.
[38:27] It's definitely a rousing uh report on the UK government's position right now ahead of uh the rest
[38:33] of the day.
[38:37] Um so we're going to change the stage uh briefly so that we can uh enter into our panel discussion.
[38:41] Children as we know are the group most impacted by the way our streets and cities are planned.
[38:47] Yesterday we heard first from Nquille about how children's play and social lives are the foundation for a happy healthy childhood.
[38:55] Then we heard from Scarlet about how building their everyday mobility and spatial freedom is essential to their lifelong health in the NHS.
[39:03] But the number of children being killed by cars may be decreasing, but at what sort of cost is is a is a question there.
[39:08] And in their new paper, Tim Gil and Alice Ferguson show that the cost children bear for keeping their lives has come at the sacrifice of everyday freedoms to roam, wander around, and play.
[39:21] or to put it another way, children are stuck inside so that cards can move more freely.
[39:25] So that's what this panel is going to discuss and we'll just do a quick change over and then we'll welcome onto the stage Tim Gil Alice Ferguson and also Ian Walker uh professor of psychology
[39:35] from Swansea University who's going to give his perspective on motorormativity.
[39:40] all chaired topped off by Cat Woodhead.
[39:43] the chief executive uh of our partner.
[39:45] Living Streets who will chair discussion.
[39:47] and bring her expert advice.
[39:50] So bear with us a moment.
[39:53] [applause]
[39:56] Today our children have become active travel inspectors in in and around our school.
[40:00] Um they have taken the responsibility of looking at the road.
[40:03] looking at the pavements, um looking at the the routes that they walk to to school and back.
[40:11] [music] and ensuring that they're safe, looking out for any hazards.
[40:14] um and and giving [music] them that responsibility that they can then go to the council and tell them about what they can do to improve that journey to school.
[40:23] So getting young people interested in [music] their journeys to school, how they get to school every morning.
[40:30] We know that lots of people are jumping in cars for the school run and we think that there's huge opportunity to switch.
[40:37] those journeys to get more [music]
[40:38] people walking and cycling. And so with
[40:41] the junior active travel inspectors,
[40:44] it's great to have them looking at the
[40:46] roads, the pavements around their
[40:49] schools to make recommendations to the
[40:51] local [music] council about how we can
[40:53] make it safer uh for kids to get to
[40:56] school walking, cycling, and [music] you
[40:58] know, I think getting kids active as
[41:00] well is really important. Getting them
[41:02] interested in their local neighborhood
[41:03] is [music] great. So there's not really
[41:05] there's nothing not to like about this
[41:07] scheme. And I'd like to [music] say a
[41:09] very big thank you to Mode Shift um and
[41:11] Active Travel England for all the work
[41:13] that they're doing on this.
[41:15] What children can tell us that the
[41:18] grown-ups and the inspectors and the
[41:19] officials can't is what their experience
[41:22] is like. And they can look at what they
[41:24] need if what must be true for them to be
[41:27] able to walk and cycle and wield to
[41:29] school. And that perspective is
[41:32] critical. And it also teaches them about
[41:35] the world around them and makes them
[41:36] think about [music] it differently and
[41:37] realize that these things are choices
[41:39] and their voice is really powerful in
[41:41] this.
[41:42] Active travel inspectors is a free
[41:44] resource pack that consists of
[41:46] educational resources [music] for
[41:47] schools to deliver their own
[41:48] neighborhood inspections.
[41:51] The purpose of active travel inspectors
[41:53] is [music] to engage children in
[41:55] conversation about the streets outside
[41:56] of their school and to empower schools
[41:58] to advocate for better walking, cycling,
[42:00] [music] and wheeling infrastructure.
[42:02] The resources include everything a
[42:04] school needs to complete an inspection
[42:06] and this [music] will educate the pupils
[42:08] on the features that enable active and
[42:10] accessible travel in their neighborhood
[42:12] and enhance their school journeys. If
[42:14] you'd like to find out more, visit the
[42:16] motif website [music] for full details
[42:17] about active travel inspectors.
[43:31] I'm Katherine Woodhead. I'm the chief
[43:32] executive of Living Streets. For those
[43:35] of you who are visually impaired, I am
[43:37] 5'5 uh with not naturally red but is
[43:41] naturally curly, slightly frizzy hair
[43:42] today. Um and I'm wearing a blue and
[43:44] white dress. And I'll now introduce um
[43:46] our two speakers who are going to talk
[43:48] about a very important paper that
[43:50] hopefully most of you have already read
[43:51] um but definitely need to know the stats
[43:53] about. Thank you.
[43:56] [applause]
[43:57] Thanks, Cat.
[43:59] So, um, yeah, I'll just describe myself
[44:01] quickly as well. I have come dressed as
[44:03] the Curious City Podium.
[44:06] Um, and I'm a white 50some woman. Um, so
[44:13] shall I just kick off and then you can
[44:14] just describe yourself at the beginning
[44:16] of your or do you want to?
[44:19] Yeah. Okay. Uh, so just to
[44:24] just to sort of say a bit about um so
[44:26] Tim and I have just published this
[44:27] report uh called Streets for Play,
[44:31] Streets for Freedom and a bit of
[44:33] background about how this came about. Uh
[44:37] Tim and I have both been talking about
[44:40] children and streets and issues around
[44:42] that for about 60 years between us, not
[44:47] um and Tim began campaigning for home
[44:50] zones in the in the '9s. I used to work
[44:53] for Sustrans on the safe routes to
[44:55] schools project about 23 years ago. Then
[44:58] for the last 17 years through playing
[45:02] out I've been part of growing the
[45:04] national play street movement
[45:07] and the movement has grown. The movement
[45:09] for children's freedom has grown as we
[45:11] can see but the reality for children on
[45:14] the ground has not changed much in all
[45:17] that time. And if anything, I would say
[45:19] things have got even worse, especially
[45:22] for children facing inequality.
[45:25] Um, we've both felt increasingly angry
[45:28] and frustrated at the lack of action.
[45:31] Whole generations of children who are
[45:34] now grown up have missed out on the
[45:37] everyday freedom that they need and that
[45:40] we all enjoyed as children. So, this is
[45:43] kind of a play street. Um, play streets
[45:45] in themselves have had really great
[45:48] impact for thousands of children and
[45:50] communities, but perhaps more
[45:53] importantly than that, they've helped to
[45:55] make the case for bigger change for
[45:58] children. They have made children
[46:02] visible. They've made their need and
[46:04] their desire to use the streets where
[46:06] they live visible. Um, and they've also
[46:10] shown really clearly that the main
[46:12] barrier to that is traffic.
[46:15] So,
[46:17] as they say, a week is a long time in
[46:19] politics. Um, and also a PowerPoint can
[46:22] go out of date overnight, [laughter]
[46:23] apparently. So, um, last week's big news
[46:28] was that our soontobe ex prime minister
[46:31] um announced a social media ban for
[46:34] children under 16. And in doing so, he
[46:37] said he was not prepared to compromise
[46:40] on the safety and happiness of our
[46:42] children. Great. We now want to see the
[46:46] same ambition from our next prime
[46:48] minister when it comes to children's
[46:51] safety and well-being in the real world,
[46:53] in the streets and spaces where they
[46:55] live.
[46:57] So, what do we mean by a child lens? Um,
[47:01] well, in one way, we mean it literally
[47:04] in terms of street design. We want every
[47:06] highway engineer to be looking through
[47:08] the eyes of a child when they're
[47:10] designing streets and spaces [snorts]
[47:13] checking does this as Chris said
[47:17] brilliantly does this work for an 8 n
[47:19] 10year-old traveling independently
[47:23] but we also mean a child lens more
[47:25] figuratively so it's a way of
[47:28] prioritizing children's needs within
[47:31] policym within strategy within bigger
[47:34] picture decision-m
[47:36] currently. Amazingly, there is no legal
[47:40] obligation to even consider children as
[47:42] an equality group. So, it's left to
[47:46] forward-thinking local authorities like
[47:48] leads and hackne and a few others to
[47:52] implement child centered built
[47:54] environment policies as a first step
[47:57] towards any kind of social or spatial
[48:00] justice for children. That has to
[48:02] change.
[48:04] So this is oh this slide this is our
[48:09] argument for a child lens uh in a
[48:11] nutshell. We go into it in much more
[48:14] depth in the report. Um these are 10
[48:17] good reasons why we need a child lens on
[48:20] streets and transport policy. So I hope
[48:21] you'll read the report but we we'll pick
[48:24] out a few of these today.
[48:27] Um
[48:28] so to begin with one very strong of
[48:31] these 10 good reasons. Children
[48:34] themselves have been asking for change
[48:36] for decades. And all they are asking for
[48:40] is streets and spaces where they feel
[48:42] safe where they can play out with their
[48:44] friends where they can walk and cycle. A
[48:46] pretty reasonable ask.
[48:49] But has consulting children, asking them
[48:52] what they want, become a bit of an
[48:54] excuse for inaction?
[48:57] At a local level, as we heard yesterday,
[49:00] meaningful codees with children to get
[49:03] things right is really important and
[49:05] good, but at a macro level, we know what
[49:09] children want and need. And our paper is
[49:12] a kind of creed occur, excuse my French,
[49:16] uh, backed up by solid evidence for us,
[49:19] the adults in the room, to listen and to
[49:22] just get on with it. I'm just going to
[49:23] pass over to Tim now.
[49:27] Thanks, Alice. We're going to be
[49:28] switching backwards and forwards, so you
[49:30] can you can hold any feedback to the
[49:32] end. Uh so we're I'm going to give an
[49:35] overview uh of children and cars and how
[49:39] cars harm children. I'm going to flesh
[49:42] out the story a little and highlight
[49:45] some of the changes that we think are
[49:46] needed. And I'm going to show I hope why
[49:49] a child lens is such a powerful catalyst
[49:52] both for improving children's lives and
[49:55] for reimagining streets and
[49:56] neighborhoods.
[49:58] So
[50:00] um a car centric society and car
[50:03] dominated places not only kill and
[50:05] injure children, they also cast a long
[50:07] dark shadow over children's health and
[50:10] wellbeing and the most disadvantaged
[50:12] children are hurt the most. It's it's a
[50:14] perfect example of what uh Professor
[50:17] Nicl Chowry was talking yesterday about
[50:19] this um evolutionary mismatch. Uh, and I
[50:24] think the best place to start with this
[50:27] is on road danger.
[50:32] Ever since cars first appeared in urban
[50:35] streets, they have posed a mortal threat
[50:37] to children. As a the historian Peter
[50:40] Norton shows in his um indispensable
[50:43] book fighting traffic, there is nothing
[50:46] natural or inevitable about this.
[50:48] Rather, it's the result of a ruthless
[50:50] act of corporate capture that imposed a
[50:54] cruel and uh grossly unfair settlement
[50:58] on the relative roles and rights and
[51:00] responsibilities of children, of
[51:02] drivers, and of those who are in charge
[51:04] of overseeing and designing streets. So
[51:07] this chart shows you that right up until
[51:10] the 1980s,
[51:13] almost unimaginable numbers of children
[51:14] were dying while biking and walking in
[51:17] our streets. And moreover, the fall in
[51:20] the death rates since then, sometimes
[51:22] portrayed as a success in transport
[51:25] circles, has only come about, of course,
[51:28] because far fewer children are out and
[51:30] about in the first place. Now, it's
[51:32] almost impossible to make sense of these
[51:35] of the human loss that lies behind these
[51:37] figures.
[51:39] Each death is a personal tragedy.
[51:42] And yet, the bigger picture is of
[51:44] systemic failures underpinned by
[51:47] deep-seated cultural and political,
[51:50] indeed moral attitudes.
[51:55] Uh, this is Alice Williams. She was
[51:58] killed by a driver speeding through a
[52:00] red light on a pedestrian crossing. We
[52:03] asked Alice's mo mother mother, Claire
[52:05] Will Claire O'Neal, to help us with our
[52:08] report because we wanted to take proper
[52:11] account or at least better account of
[52:13] the views and concerns of the families
[52:16] of those who have lost the most, who've
[52:20] been worse affected by road danger. CLA
[52:22] pointed out that the graph graphs like
[52:24] the one I just showed you kind of gloss
[52:27] over that pain and loss because amongst
[52:30] other things they make these recent uh
[52:32] the recent numbers her own daughter
[52:35] that's lost look somehow negligible or
[52:37] tolerable. So we created this graph
[52:41] working with a designer to better
[52:43] reflect the ongoing reality of child
[52:45] road death in the UK and you can see
[52:47] that uh even today on average over 30
[52:51] children every year die while walking
[52:54] and biking in their streets. That's more
[52:56] than a classroom. It's a the implicit
[52:59] tolerance of this level of death is a
[53:02] moral outrage and we heard that from
[53:05] Scarlet yesterday. It's also proof, I
[53:08] think, of the size of the challenge in
[53:10] moving beyond a car dominated world.
[53:14] Now, um, Mayor Hillman and his
[53:17] colleagues in the 1980s in their classic
[53:20] one false move study highlighted the
[53:22] pivotal period in the 70s and 80s when
[53:25] everyday freedoms plummeted across the
[53:28] ages and stages of childhood. Uh, as you
[53:31] can see in this seinal chart.
[53:34] So
[53:36] after decades of designing streets,
[53:38] towns and cities around the car, the
[53:40] choices for children and families from
[53:44] then and today are stark. Either avoid
[53:48] the danger, which for some means
[53:50] everinccreasing parental taxi service.
[53:53] For others it simply means being stuck
[53:55] inside, sedentary and inactive and
[53:58] isolated or on the other hand risk death
[54:00] or injury.
[54:02] Now, this loss of freedom may not be
[54:06] quite so bad,
[54:08] may not matter so much if children were
[54:10] otherwise healthy and happy, but we know
[54:12] they're not. And again, we heard a lot
[54:14] about that yesterday. Their physical
[54:16] activity and mental health have been in
[54:19] relentless long-term decline way
[54:21] predating screens
[54:24] most acutely in those facing poverty and
[54:28] inequality.
[54:29] Traffic casualties and car created air
[54:33] pollution on the one hand and physical
[54:36] and mental ill health on the other are
[54:38] two sides of the same coin.
[54:40] The coin of car harm and car dominance.
[54:44] Let's be clear about this, has turned
[54:46] our human habitats into places that are
[54:49] irredeemably unhealthy for the young of
[54:52] our species.
[54:59] Thanks, Tim. So, um,
[55:02] what needs to change? Um, so we've
[55:07] clearly created environments
[55:09] [clears throat]
[55:10] collectively, the collective we that are
[55:13] far from child- friendly. So this
[55:16] happens to be my two nieces trying to
[55:18] get to their local park. But these are
[55:20] the kind of environments that most
[55:23] children have to contend with every day
[55:25] in order to get anywhere.
[55:27] Um Tim and I in the report go so far as
[55:30] to say that children are the group most
[55:33] impacted yet least considered in the the
[55:37] way that streets are currently planned
[55:40] and designed. And the the combination of
[55:44] lack of consideration for children and
[55:46] overconideration
[55:48] of motorists has kind of resulted in an
[55:50] environment that's bad for everyone.
[55:54] And despite our kind of nice bubble in
[55:56] this room, car centric thinking is still
[55:59] the dominant force within most highways
[56:02] departments. Um, amazingly this junction
[56:07] is after a safe routts to schools
[56:10] councilled safe roots to schools
[56:12] project. Um, and it's pretty clear that
[56:15] nobody was using a child lens when they
[56:17] were designing or signing off this this
[56:20] junction.
[56:22] So, as Tim said, um, Mayor Hillman was a
[56:26] leading light talking about all this
[56:28] stuff in the ' 70s. And another thing he
[56:31] said was that our approach to road
[56:34] safety, basically putting responsibility
[56:37] on children, could almost say victim
[56:40] blaming. Um,
[56:43] the effect of that was just to instill
[56:45] fear into parents and children and not
[56:47] deal with the problem. In a way, it was
[56:50] like a decoy to avoid dealing with the
[56:53] source of the problem, which was cars
[56:55] and road danger.
[56:57] But that was in the 70s. 50 years on,
[57:01] not much has changed in our mentality.
[57:04] Children are still being told to keep
[57:05] themselves safe. Whilst highways
[57:08] engineers, policy makers, drivers don't
[57:11] take that much responsibility for the
[57:14] dangerous environments that children
[57:16] have to deal with.
[57:18] cycle training, I can say this now
[57:20] because Chris is gone, has has won huge
[57:23] funding and attention recently, which
[57:26] I'm not knocking, but it won't change
[57:30] anything for children unless we address
[57:32] what Chris himself on BBC breakfast the
[57:35] other day called the biggie, which is
[57:38] road danger. Um, this street is around
[57:42] the corner from where I live. Two adult
[57:44] cyclists have been one was killed, one
[57:47] was very seriously injured just in the
[57:50] first couple of months of this year. It
[57:52] would take a very courageous parent to
[57:55] let any of these children, primary
[57:57] school children, cycle here
[57:59] independently, however well trained they
[58:01] are, we've got to deal with the road
[58:03] danger.
[58:05] So, a ch Oh, yeah. Sorry. A child lens
[58:09] is a strong argument for active travel
[58:12] and anyone who wants better streets for
[58:14] walking and cycling is really missing a
[58:17] trick if they're not leading with the
[58:20] benefits for children. But it is also
[58:23] not just another way to support active
[58:25] travel. Children have specific needs
[58:29] that we must consider when we're we're
[58:31] planning and designing streets. And a
[58:33] good example of this is doorstep space,
[58:35] which we heard a lot about yesterday.
[58:38] It's incredibly important for children
[58:40] for play and as their sort of first step
[58:42] into the world. So, a well-meaning
[58:46] active travel strategy that prioritizes
[58:49] efficiency, purposeful journeys could
[58:52] end up overlooking this really important
[58:54] thing for children. And that's just one
[58:56] example.
[58:57] We also need to remember that for
[59:00] children, active travel is the only way
[59:03] that they can be independently mobile.
[59:05] So, it's even more important for them.
[59:08] But creating
[59:10] uh better streets for children is not
[59:12] just about infrastructure
[59:14] or individual schemes. It requires a
[59:17] whole system approach. curbing vehicle
[59:19] size, which we're going to hear about
[59:21] this afternoon, reducing speed limits,
[59:23] reducing actual speed to what Jess Reed,
[59:27] a um traffic engineer, calls child mile
[59:30] per hour.
[59:32] Also, a criminal justice system that
[59:34] values children's lives over drivers
[59:37] rights and freedom. All of this could
[59:40] give children back the streets that they
[59:42] need to be safe, happy, and healthy.
[59:45] Back over to Tim.
[59:48] Right. The Denum. Um,
[59:53] so bringing a child lens to streets and
[59:56] transport is a foundational,
[59:58] transformational, and yet achievable
[01:00:01] move. It starts with local pilots.
[01:00:07] Yep. local pilots
[01:00:10] on the one hand and campaigning and uh
[01:00:14] uh topic based issues around air
[01:00:16] pollution, vehicles, neighborhood and
[01:00:19] community action on the other.
[01:00:23] Our report
[01:00:25] has a personal selection of compelling
[01:00:29] good news stories uh and and
[01:00:32] demonstrations of this lens. This image
[01:00:36] uh is from a a a place we don't hear
[01:00:38] about so much. This is the Cambridge
[01:00:40] District, a big district called Great
[01:00:42] Nighton, where creative transport, land
[01:00:45] use, and urban design have come together
[01:00:48] to create a place with safe, plentiful,
[01:00:52] well-connected,
[01:00:54] lively public space, and with streets
[01:00:56] where cars are notable by their absence.
[01:00:58] Uh the short drawing, you can see an
[01:01:01] image, I hope, tells its own story.
[01:01:04] However, as we keep saying, systemic
[01:01:06] problems need systemic solutions. We
[01:01:09] need to learn from schemes like these
[01:01:11] and constantly push to go to scale and
[01:01:15] to apply the lessons much more widely.
[01:01:18] And one problem here is inertia. Uh many
[01:01:21] highway engineers and transport
[01:01:22] professionals won't know about schemes
[01:01:25] like these or won't know about all of
[01:01:26] them. Practice change takes forever.
[01:01:29] It's glacial. Um, and the status quo is
[01:01:32] often shored up by poor policy and lack
[01:01:35] of investment. And, and I just briefly
[01:01:38] point to the sad story of the manual for
[01:01:41] streets, which some of you in this room
[01:01:42] will probably been involved with, which
[01:01:44] which had lofty ambitions when it first
[01:01:46] came out 20 years ago, and yet that has
[01:01:49] faltered in the face of official
[01:01:52] indifference.
[01:01:55] Deep breath.
[01:01:57] Parking.
[01:01:59] It's hard to pick a topic that is more
[01:02:03] emotive and more emblematic of a car
[01:02:06] culture. So, it's a perfect case study
[01:02:09] of how a child lens can help reframe
[01:02:12] uh and so uh and turn it into a story
[01:02:15] about spatial freedom. So, you what
[01:02:18] you're looking at here is an aerial view
[01:02:20] of two areas of housing. On the right,
[01:02:23] you've got Marmalade Lane, which is
[01:02:26] child-friendly by design. Uh and on the
[01:02:30] right, a conventional scheme literally
[01:02:32] next door. And you can see just the
[01:02:35] highlighting there and the numbers below
[01:02:37] show that reconfiguring parking and
[01:02:40] traffic
[01:02:42] creates
[01:02:43] such valuable public space in the form
[01:02:46] of a commill garden in this case and a
[01:02:48] shared car-free street. Or we could talk
[01:02:51] about uh Dina Borat, who you heard
[01:02:54] yesterday, and her work on heat maps
[01:02:56] that show how in design terms, it's
[01:02:59] really not that difficult to create
[01:03:01] playful, sociable, shared space in both
[01:03:05] existing and particularly in new
[01:03:07] residential areas.
[01:03:11] So to close we want to offer not a
[01:03:14] policy checklist
[01:03:16] would that it was so easy uh but instead
[01:03:20] a kind of hopeful reimagining
[01:03:22] reinvisioning.
[01:03:24] So what if doorstep play space was as
[01:03:27] important as biodiversity net game in
[01:03:30] planning? What if the burden of proof
[01:03:33] shifted to drivers whenever a child
[01:03:35] pedestrian was injured or killed, as is
[01:03:38] the case in the Netherlands? What if car
[01:03:41] designs were really strongly regulated
[01:03:44] to reduce the danger to those outside
[01:03:46] them? How much longer do we have to ask
[01:03:48] for that? What if boosting children's
[01:03:51] independent mobility, not just their
[01:03:53] active travel, was a strategic transport
[01:03:56] policy focus?
[01:03:58] So we know that moving be beyond the
[01:04:00] motor age will not be easy
[01:04:04] and will take political will and
[01:04:06] ambition
[01:04:07] and we know that that ambition is not
[01:04:09] just about children uh as we heard from
[01:04:11] Chris and as famously quoted by no not
[01:04:15] Tim Gil actually but Enrique Penulosa
[01:04:17] and before him UN Habitat the idea of
[01:04:20] the child as an indicator species.
[01:04:23] Nonetheless, we firmly believe that a
[01:04:26] child lens holds the key to radical
[01:04:28] change. Now, I'm going to go off script
[01:04:30] here because I had a nice final
[01:04:31] paragraph about the potential of a child
[01:04:34] lens, but I'm really conscious, and I'm
[01:04:35] sure you are, of the weird situation we
[01:04:39] are in right now in this place, in this
[01:04:41] city with this weather. And so,
[01:04:44] ultimately, I think what we're offering
[01:04:45] here is hope, right? We're offering a
[01:04:49] hopeful vision and a pathway towards a
[01:04:54] better place. A place that's better for
[01:04:57] children, a world that's tolerable, uh
[01:05:00] that's livable
[01:05:03] and and a goal and a compass point and a
[01:05:07] lighthouse and a direction of travel
[01:05:09] that we can all sign up to even though
[01:05:11] some of us will lose out because we know
[01:05:13] that future generations will see the
[01:05:16] benefits. THANK YOU.
[01:05:18] [applause]
[01:05:28] THANK YOU SO MUCH, ALICE AND TIM. THAT
[01:05:30] WAS absolutely superb. Um, so I've been
[01:05:33] asked to just share a few thoughts to
[01:05:35] build and amplify on what you've just
[01:05:37] heard. Um, I've been teaching in
[01:05:41] universities for more than 25 years. is
[01:05:43] it's probably hard to believe, but uh
[01:05:45] when you've been doing that, you learn
[01:05:47] some really good tricks for spinning out
[01:05:49] a lesson to fill two hours. And one of
[01:05:52] the best ones I've ever come across is
[01:05:55] asking students to brainstorm what is
[01:05:58] the purpose of a street because that can
[01:06:00] fill a good half hour. You get five
[01:06:03] minutes of well driving down and then
[01:06:07] silence as you make gesturing motions
[01:06:10] like this and eventually things start to
[01:06:13] appear. Oh actually I guess you also
[01:06:16] store cars in streets. Yeah. Yeah. But
[01:06:18] let's go further and and I get oh yeah
[01:06:20] and eventually people start to imagine
[01:06:22] they start to think oh yes streets do
[01:06:24] other things. They are places where you
[01:06:26] stop and have social interactions with
[01:06:28] people. They are places of commerce.
[01:06:31] They are places of play as we've been
[01:06:33] reminded today. And if you've if you're
[01:06:35] desperate enough to fill that two hours,
[01:06:38] you can easily get to 15 or 20 purposes
[01:06:41] that streets need to fill. The problem
[01:06:43] is for about 100red years, we have
[01:06:48] allowed one of those uses of streets to
[01:06:51] absolutely crowd out every other one.
[01:06:55] And one of the things that my colleagues
[01:06:57] and I have been trying to demonstrate
[01:06:59] very clearly in the past few years is
[01:07:01] just how much that has changed us all
[01:07:04] because we've allowed this one use of
[01:07:06] the streets to crowd out the rest or to
[01:07:09] bully the rest out if you want to put it
[01:07:12] that way. Uh it limits everybody's
[01:07:14] imagination. We're in a point where none
[01:07:18] of us can see the streets aresh because
[01:07:22] we've only ever known this world where
[01:07:25] motoring comes first even in completely
[01:07:27] inappropriate places and we've been
[01:07:29] studying that under this this rubric of
[01:07:32] moanormativity this shared difficulty in
[01:07:36] seeing these things aresh
[01:07:39] um a few years ago I I I was trying to I
[01:07:42] thought how can we move the dial on
[01:07:44] these things and a A few years ago, I
[01:07:46] thought maybe the key is to make this
[01:07:48] all about self-interest for parents. Um
[01:07:51] cuz if we had all the parents upset
[01:07:54] about school travel, maybe this would
[01:07:56] fix things. And they did. So we we found
[01:07:58] a data set with about 8,000 UK kids in
[01:08:01] it who'd been followed for years all the
[01:08:04] way from when they were seven up until
[01:08:06] they left school. And we thought, well,
[01:08:08] this is perfect. we could uh measure
[01:08:11] their GCSE results and show that the
[01:08:14] ones who were traveling actively earlier
[01:08:16] in their lives because we knew how they
[01:08:18] were getting to school at 7, 11, and 14.
[01:08:21] Uh maybe we'll be able to show that the
[01:08:22] ones who traveled actively uh were
[01:08:24] actually doing better in their exams.
[01:08:26] And I thought, oh, that'll be good.
[01:08:27] That'll convince everyone. And
[01:08:29] unfortunately, it turned out it doesn't
[01:08:30] work. So, uh, it's easy to get, but I
[01:08:34] think that was really good because it
[01:08:35] made us reflect and think, well, yeah,
[01:08:36] that's still quite an instrumental view
[01:08:39] of this. There's more to school. There's
[01:08:41] more to travel to school than just your
[01:08:44] exams. Uh, school is about other things
[01:08:46] than passing exams. It's also about the
[01:08:48] people you meet, the soft skills, the
[01:08:50] experiences that you build on the way.
[01:08:52] And even if unfortunately I can't
[01:08:56] demonstrate that letting your kid walks
[01:08:58] to school puts their GCSEs up 12 grades,
[01:09:01] uh it still obviously has those massive
[01:09:03] benefits.
[01:09:05] I know there's a lot of counselors and
[01:09:08] policy makers in the room and one of the
[01:09:09] things that I think is incredibly
[01:09:11] important and something that uh has
[01:09:14] really really struck me in the last
[01:09:15] couple of years is just how much
[01:09:17] evidence is growing. There's now a very
[01:09:20] solid body of evidence that I'd be very
[01:09:22] happy to point people at which all
[01:09:25] points in the same direction and it all
[01:09:28] says you cannot encourage people to
[01:09:32] change. You've got to enable that
[01:09:34] change. There is no poster you can come
[01:09:37] up with that will get people cycling if
[01:09:39] the street feels unsafe. There is no
[01:09:42] slogan. There is no cute reward scheme
[01:09:45] app that is going to get people cycling
[01:09:49] and walking if the street is hostile. Uh
[01:09:52] these will not work. There has to be the
[01:09:56] stick for the motorist as well as the
[01:09:59] carrot for the active traveler. It will
[01:10:02] not work without the stick. And that's
[01:10:06] going to be a tough cell in a world
[01:10:08] where motorists have had the streets to
[01:10:10] themselves for 100 years. But it will
[01:10:13] not work unless you address that. So I'm
[01:10:19] not just going to leave it there. I'm
[01:10:20] going to give you a suggestion how to do
[01:10:21] it. Um so I think first of all I want to
[01:10:27] give you some reassurance that the
[01:10:30] support is there. So we published a
[01:10:33] study last year where we assessed this
[01:10:36] phenomenon called pluralistic ignorance.
[01:10:39] If you go out, basically most of us are
[01:10:42] very bad at judging what everybody else
[01:10:45] thinks about an issue. When we're in a
[01:10:47] minority, we tend to assume we're the
[01:10:49] majority. And when we're in a majority,
[01:10:52] we tend to assume we're a minority. This
[01:10:54] is a really common phenomenon. And we
[01:10:56] demonstrated it in the context of
[01:10:58] traffic. So when we go out to measure
[01:11:01] carefully hundreds and hundreds of
[01:11:03] individual people, we found even in the
[01:11:06] USA, we found that most people thought
[01:11:10] it was more important to be able to
[01:11:12] travel without a car than with a car.
[01:11:15] Most people,
[01:11:17] you know, at pretty consistently 23 of
[01:11:21] the people we studied in each country we
[01:11:23] looked at uh thought it was more
[01:11:25] important to travel without a car than
[01:11:27] with a car. We then ask the same people,
[01:11:30] "What do you think everyone else
[01:11:32] thinks?" And they said, "Oh, no." They
[01:11:33] won't agree.
[01:11:35] Really, really consistently, people
[01:11:38] support non-car travel. They support the
[01:11:40] ability to get around actively, but they
[01:11:43] the majority of people support that and
[01:11:45] at the same time think they are the
[01:11:47] minority. Now, the message I'd be giving
[01:11:50] to some of you as policy makers is
[01:11:52] first, the support is there. People do
[01:11:55] want this, but we consult wrongly. When
[01:11:59] we're thinking of making changes to
[01:12:01] streets, what do we do? We invite
[01:12:05] people to comment.
[01:12:07] And inevitably, a relatively small
[01:12:11] number of loud voices tends to dominate
[01:12:14] that consultation process. The majority
[01:12:17] who support change are staying quiet
[01:12:20] because they believe they're the
[01:12:22] minority.
[01:12:23] They're not going to come forward and
[01:12:25] shout for change in the street when they
[01:12:27] believe they're the odd one. So, if
[01:12:30] you're going to consult, you've got to
[01:12:31] consult differently. You either do it
[01:12:33] properly and actually ask everybody, not
[01:12:37] just invite noisy voices to come
[01:12:39] forward, but you also need to recognize
[01:12:41] your own biases. You are the product of
[01:12:44] a moanormative world. You are. I am. So
[01:12:48] when the loud voice, when the angry
[01:12:50] butcher shouts about the parking space
[01:12:52] outside their shop, you are predisposed
[01:12:55] to give weight to that argument because
[01:12:58] we have all grown up in a world where of
[01:13:01] course you can dump your car outside the
[01:13:03] shop. So we need to consult differently
[01:13:06] and we need to question ourselves as we
[01:13:08] run those consultations.
[01:13:11] Finally, I think the other thing that we
[01:13:13] well sorry not we you can do is first of
[01:13:16] all uh frame this in terms of an urgent
[01:13:20] problem that needs to be solved. Uh I
[01:13:23] had a meeting a few years ago with Jesse
[01:13:24] Norman when he was the roads minister
[01:13:26] and he towards the end of that meeting
[01:13:27] he asked a very quite useful question of
[01:13:30] uh you it's that typical politicians
[01:13:31] thing of well if you were me what would
[01:13:33] you do and it's a question I think about
[01:13:35] a lot. Uh, you know, these days I've
[01:13:37] always got my big request ready and my
[01:13:40] request is not, oh, you know, this
[01:13:42] design guidance or this parking space or
[01:13:45] this cycle lane or anything like that.
[01:13:47] My my one request to policy makers is to
[01:13:50] say there is an urgent problem. If we
[01:13:54] agree there is an urgent problem, the
[01:13:56] solutions can be worked out locally, but
[01:13:59] we've got to agree there is a problem to
[01:14:01] be solved first and we've got to agree
[01:14:03] it's urgent. If we do that, we'll fix
[01:14:05] it. That's fine. But at the moment, we
[01:14:07] don't agree there is a problem. And the
[01:14:09] final thought I would give you is if you
[01:14:12] if you've bought this, if you agree
[01:14:14] there's a problem, and of course you
[01:14:15] have cuz you're here today, um, one of
[01:14:18] the biggest things we might do is
[01:14:20] utterly reverse the burden of proof in
[01:14:23] the decision-m process in local
[01:14:26] government especially, the burden of the
[01:14:28] proof is entirely placed onto the people
[01:14:30] advocating change. This is ridiculous.
[01:14:33] The default position needs to become our
[01:14:37] streets are going to radically change
[01:14:39] unless people who want to keep driving
[01:14:41] down them can provide evidence that that
[01:14:43] is the right choice. The burden of proof
[01:14:46] has to go on to the people advocating
[01:14:48] for the status quo, not on the people
[01:14:51] advocating for change. And if we all
[01:14:53] agree that change is vital and urgent,
[01:14:56] we can make that happen. Thank you very
[01:14:58] much. [applause]
[01:15:07] So, as the daughter of a butcher who was
[01:15:10] insistent that his parking space outside
[01:15:12] the shop was the most important thing,
[01:15:14] um I can tell you on Christmas Eve when
[01:15:16] everyone queued around the block and
[01:15:17] carried their turkey and meat home, it
[01:15:19] really wasn't. And I used to have that
[01:15:20] debate with my dad as a teenager and a
[01:15:22] youngster. Um so I love that. Um I
[01:15:26] before I open up the floor to questions
[01:15:28] from the audience, I'm fascinated by the
[01:15:32] fact that when we have a baby and that
[01:15:36] baby takes its first steps, we all take
[01:15:38] videos, we all get very excited, we tell
[01:15:40] the whole family about it, and then we
[01:15:42] just take it all for granted after that.
[01:15:44] And then we walk them to school. And if
[01:15:46] you live in an area like I do outside of
[01:15:48] London, as soon as you've got a buggy or
[01:15:50] a pram and there's a car parked on the
[01:15:52] pavement, you teach your child to walk
[01:15:54] into the road and move around the car
[01:15:56] because you can't go through on the
[01:15:57] safety of the pavement. So you walk them
[01:15:59] into oncoming traffic often in pe
[01:16:02] periods when it's dangerous. And then we
[01:16:05] suddenly go, oh, we want our children to
[01:16:06] walk to school and we want them to be
[01:16:07] safe. I wonder why parents are worried
[01:16:09] about this. This is, as you've heard
[01:16:11] from all of my colleagues on the panel
[01:16:13] here, this has got to change.
[01:16:16] And this audience is the group of people
[01:16:17] that can actually change this for a
[01:16:19] generation. I'm a 70s child. I grew up
[01:16:22] walking to school. I still dominate the
[01:16:24] streets as much as I can by walking
[01:16:26] wherever I want to go. I haven't driven
[01:16:27] a car for 8 years and I only drove a car
[01:16:29] for a year and a half when my dad was
[01:16:30] sick. We can use our streets if we
[01:16:34] advocate for change. So 50 years of
[01:16:37] campaigning against pavement parking
[01:16:39] living streets has been involved with
[01:16:40] and we know legislative change is coming
[01:16:43] and we know that is essential that local
[01:16:44] authorities take those changes when they
[01:16:46] come through later in the year. We've
[01:16:48] also heard this year for the minister
[01:16:50] Lydian Greenwood that we are now
[01:16:52] considering women and girls voices in
[01:16:54] the design of our streets because of
[01:16:56] women and girls safety. We've had a
[01:16:59] really demonstrated paper and lots of
[01:17:01] evidence about why we need to use a
[01:17:03] child's lens. So my question to the
[01:17:05] panel first and apologies I know I
[01:17:07] didn't give this to you before. Um but
[01:17:09] what would you choose? I know you've got
[01:17:11] a great manifesto 10 different thoughts
[01:17:13] of policy change. What would you
[01:17:15] prioritize that we collectively as a
[01:17:17] group that are passionate about this
[01:17:19] campaign for as the next policy change?
[01:17:24] Um, I mean, I could be specific about
[01:17:29] things, but I think the the big picture
[01:17:32] um thing that I would campaign for is
[01:17:34] for children to be explicitly
[01:17:38] mentioned and um considered prioritized
[01:17:42] within transport policy. I know that's
[01:17:45] quite a broad one. That's kind of
[01:17:47] basically what our paper's arguing for.
[01:17:49] Um, but it's just it needs to be said
[01:17:52] and said again because even like the new
[01:17:55] cycling walking strategy which I skim
[01:17:58] read on the train on the way here is is
[01:18:00] pretty good. You know, it's a lot of
[01:18:02] money and it does talk about children
[01:18:04] and it does talk about the need to
[01:18:07] address road danger, which is brilliant,
[01:18:10] but it there's still something missing.
[01:18:12] It's still um, as Ian said, it's still
[01:18:15] taking quite an instrumental approach.
[01:18:17] It's still really only talking about
[01:18:19] children's journey to school and it's
[01:18:22] still really only talking about the
[01:18:23] benefits of that in terms of children
[01:18:26] being ready to learn and children's
[01:18:28] physical activity levels a bit but not
[01:18:31] as you said you know the wider
[01:18:32] importance of children's independent
[01:18:35] mobility. So sorry that's a long answer
[01:18:37] but yeah yeah yeah just for that to be
[01:18:41] understood within policym
[01:18:45] I'm going to go for speed or rather less
[01:18:50] speed um it seems we you know Ian you've
[01:18:53] written about this what we know now know
[01:18:55] from the default 20 mph speed limit in
[01:18:58] Wales it's it's had an unbelievable
[01:19:01] effect in an incredibly short period of
[01:19:03] time that and but also the the politic
[01:19:06] it's shifted the politics I think in a
[01:19:07] way in a way that we need um so if you
[01:19:11] don't know I won't I won't summarize in
[01:19:13] a minute but just check what has
[01:19:14] actually happened in Wales and I was in
[01:19:17] Wales 2 weeks ago it actually feels
[01:19:19] different it feels different as a driver
[01:19:21] and and it uh I'm sure feels different
[01:19:24] as a non-driver so you um you're
[01:19:29] making a foundational change okay in and
[01:19:32] of itself I suspect it actually hasn't
[01:19:34] hasn't led to increases in children's
[01:19:37] independent mobility. It's not it's not
[01:19:39] enough, but it's it's it's a it's
[01:19:42] necessary. It's not sufficient, but it's
[01:19:45] absolutely necessary. It's basic
[01:19:47] physics, right? I think somebody
[01:19:50] yesterday talked about half MV squ. Um
[01:19:53] uh so that is what I would be looking
[01:19:57] for in England
[01:19:59] and I think it's the one massive well no
[01:20:02] there are several but it's one of the
[01:20:04] huge flaws in the current government's
[01:20:06] road safety strategy you know one and a
[01:20:08] half cheers they actually wrote a road
[01:20:10] safety strategy we hadn't had one in
[01:20:12] England for how long Ian 15 years well
[01:20:16] more or less so that's yeah real action
[01:20:19] to low to lower speeds uh and to link
[01:20:23] that to children's health and wellbeing.
[01:20:27] Yeah, Tim's right. England feels
[01:20:29] noticeably more hostile in the streets
[01:20:31] when I cross the border. Now, I can feel
[01:20:33] the difference as a pedestrian. Um my
[01:20:36] probably as well as this overarching
[01:20:38] thing of look, we just need to
[01:20:39] acknowledge there's a problem, which
[01:20:40] would my number one ask of policy
[01:20:42] makers, I would probably prioritize
[01:20:45] above all shifting the unit of analysis
[01:20:48] to the journey, not the mode. So even
[01:20:51] something like cycling and walking
[01:20:53] strategy is all well given people are
[01:20:55] cycling and walking. Um but actually I'd
[01:20:58] rather we talked about why do people
[01:21:00] leave their homes? You know we know why
[01:21:03] people leave their homes. The number one
[01:21:04] reason is to shop. Uh commuting is
[01:21:07] actually somewhat down the list. Taking
[01:21:09] kids to school is further down the list.
[01:21:10] Socializing. There's lots of reasons
[01:21:12] people leave home. And at the moment the
[01:21:14] problem is for a lot of people they only
[01:21:16] know one way of moving around when they
[01:21:18] do it. But if we were to focus on what
[01:21:21] are people trying to accomplish and give
[01:21:23] them a ra a menu of ways to accomplish
[01:21:27] those things then that would address a
[01:21:30] huge number of these issues. It's also
[01:21:32] potentially politically palatable across
[01:21:35] the political spectrum because of course
[01:21:37] if you if you've got more left-leaning
[01:21:39] authorities you might be thinking in
[01:21:41] terms of the social justice and the
[01:21:42] freedom for children. And at this end uh
[01:21:45] people like freedom of choice. People
[01:21:47] don't like being told they have to do
[01:21:49] something. So there, yeah, it works both
[01:21:51] ways.
[01:21:53] I think that's a really interesting
[01:21:54] point as well. Um, Susan Drifford is
[01:21:56] somebody I worked with in my last
[01:21:57] charity. She's got a son Joe who has
[01:22:00] muscular destrophy and uses a power
[01:22:02] chair and they moved from England to
[01:22:04] Scotland and she didn't realize until
[01:22:06] she moved to Scotland and then got in
[01:22:08] touch with me that every time they left
[01:22:10] the house they went straight to the car
[01:22:11] because it was the only way they could
[01:22:12] guarantee they could move around to
[01:22:14] access somewhere. And now having moved
[01:22:16] to Scotland where there is no pavement
[01:22:17] parking where she lives, she's realized
[01:22:19] how much it's opened up their lives and
[01:22:21] it was a fascinating story and I think
[01:22:23] you're right with the difference between
[01:22:24] Welsh and English roads already Scotland
[01:22:26] and English roads already we're seeing a
[01:22:28] difference. So I'm going to open up to
[01:22:29] the audience if anybody would like a qu
[01:22:31] to ask a question first hand in the
[01:22:34] middle.
[01:22:41] Hi thanks all. Um I'm Gemma Hyde. work
[01:22:43] for the town of country planning
[01:22:44] association. Um it's a question for Ian
[01:22:47] really. Um you talked about um urgency
[01:22:51] framing and it sort of made me a bit
[01:22:54] nervous actually because I I can already
[01:22:57] hear it but we've got a climate
[01:22:59] emergency but we've got this you know
[01:23:00] the economic crisis, we've got a cost of
[01:23:02] living crisis. So I was just wondering
[01:23:04] like if if that's a way to do it like
[01:23:08] how do you cut through all the different
[01:23:10] urgencies?
[01:23:13] probably I mean there's probably a lot
[01:23:15] of answers to that question. The one
[01:23:16] that comes to mind though and actually
[01:23:18] this tallies very much with something
[01:23:19] Oliver and I are talking about this
[01:23:20] morning. Um
[01:23:23] the problems of car dependency
[01:23:26] affect every aspect of government
[01:23:28] business. Um and the urgency is perhaps
[01:23:31] disguised to some extent that 20% of the
[01:23:35] problem falls in your transport
[01:23:36] department and 20% falls in your health
[01:23:38] and 20% falls in your policing and and
[01:23:41] the the problem is is um diluted uh and
[01:23:45] people don't see the urgency and maybe
[01:23:47] part of the issue is maybe one way to
[01:23:49] highlight the urgency is to show how
[01:23:51] this is affecting everybody's job. Uh so
[01:23:55] that's just that's maybe not the perfect
[01:23:56] answer but it's the one that comes to
[01:23:57] mind immediately.
[01:23:59] Um, just to add to that, I would say
[01:24:01] they're kind of the same emergency. You
[01:24:04] know, I think that needs to be
[01:24:06] recognized and this isn't in competition
[01:24:10] with tackling the climate emergency.
[01:24:12] It's really helpful. It's, you know, a
[01:24:14] child lens on streets is a really
[01:24:16] helpful thing in terms of making the
[01:24:18] case for more climate friendly streets
[01:24:21] and cities. So, yeah, they're not at
[01:24:24] odds with each other. They support each
[01:24:26] other. And um I heard a really
[01:24:28] interesting talk last week at another
[01:24:30] conference on feminist placemaking. They
[01:24:34] made the case um in Glasgow they're
[01:24:37] using multiple lenses like they use a
[01:24:39] feminist city lens and a child lens and
[01:24:41] a disability lens all kind of on top of
[01:24:44] each other or alongside each other and
[01:24:47] they all complement and support each
[01:24:49] other. So yeah, I think we've got to
[01:24:50] stop seeing these things as being in
[01:24:52] competition.
[01:24:53] Yeah, it's interesting. I've been in a
[01:24:55] few conversations particularly with
[01:24:56] Chris Borman and Active Travel England
[01:24:58] and the latest delivery plan tries to
[01:25:00] tackle that um issue that we find
[01:25:03] regularly which is we actually cross so
[01:25:05] many of the departments it is watered
[01:25:06] down and how do we make sure we
[01:25:08] galvanize those statistics and get
[01:25:10] people to work together. I've sat in one
[01:25:11] meeting with a minister of health and a
[01:25:13] minister of local um transport.
[01:25:15] Unfortunately neither of those people
[01:25:16] were still in those roles. Um but it was
[01:25:18] the first time I was told that those two
[01:25:20] ministers sat in a room together to try
[01:25:21] and tackle these issues. So I think we
[01:25:24] need to push the next prime minister to
[01:25:26] make sure there's that collective
[01:25:27] change. Um and if it is somebody who's
[01:25:29] been involved with the B network, we've
[01:25:30] got a really good opportunity to do
[01:25:32] that. Um gentlemen on this end
[01:25:36] please.
[01:25:39] Um hi. Yeah, Chris from Low Traffic
[01:25:41] Hackne. Um, God forbid if reform win the
[01:25:44] next election, how easy or difficult
[01:25:47] will it be for them to roll back all of
[01:25:49] the changes, the advances we've already
[01:25:51] had, let alone the things that we're
[01:25:52] talking about doing in the future?
[01:25:57] [laughter]
[01:26:02] Honestly, I have no idea, but I'm going
[01:26:03] to I'm going to suggest it might be
[01:26:05] harder than they think. Um, for two
[01:26:07] reasons. Certainly in London, we're
[01:26:10] seeing that the political attempts to
[01:26:12] roll back on low traffic neighborhoods
[01:26:14] so far have have come against come up
[01:26:16] against some fairly tricky to say the
[01:26:18] least legal issues. I mean money was
[01:26:20] spent given to local authorities by TfL
[01:26:24] and others to create these schemes. So
[01:26:27] that so that uh I mean it's complex. I'm
[01:26:30] looking resigner now who could probably
[01:26:31] say more. But I also think politically
[01:26:34] um it's I mean one way to put it is is
[01:26:37] that
[01:26:39] everybody or lots of people like low
[01:26:42] traffic schemes except for the one
[01:26:44] that's just coming up, right? Taking out
[01:26:47] measures that people have got used to
[01:26:50] and where they can see the benefits
[01:26:52] isn't going to go down very well. And
[01:26:54] we've we we've seen that. Uh I can't
[01:26:56] remember if it was Ian there are various
[01:26:58] ways of understanding this. One is is
[01:27:00] the hill of hysteria. Have we got a
[01:27:01] thing about the hill hill of hysteria
[01:27:03] later? Yeah. This um you know there's a
[01:27:06] fairly familiar pattern of when it comes
[01:27:08] to trying to introduce
[01:27:11] significant changes that affect lots of
[01:27:13] people's lives uh and a degree of panic
[01:27:15] that and uh such that that comes as the
[01:27:19] measure just begins and then gets
[01:27:22] implemented. We saw it in Wales. And
[01:27:24] then within a fairly short period you
[01:27:26] can reliably expect especially if you've
[01:27:28] got the evidence from previous versions
[01:27:30] that that will completely recede and
[01:27:33] actually people say what was all the
[01:27:34] fuss about and oh by the way actually I
[01:27:36] like this stuff. So I I think it will be
[01:27:39] more difficult if not politically
[01:27:42] unacceptable in many not all but in many
[01:27:45] circumstances.
[01:27:46] And just to add I think for the people
[01:27:49] that don't want to see things rolled
[01:27:51] back talking about children more you
[01:27:53] know really making that a prominent part
[01:27:55] of the story will help because it's a
[01:27:58] you know it's fairly politically neutral
[01:28:01] thing to think that children should be
[01:28:03] safe and you know have have
[01:28:05] [clears throat] good lives. So I think
[01:28:07] that is a strong weapon that we've got
[01:28:10] against the the forces that might want
[01:28:12] to undo some of the good work.
[01:28:14] Yeah. And just really briefly, I know
[01:28:16] it's a sh we live in the era of
[01:28:18] shamelessness, but it would be an act of
[01:28:21] utter hypocrisy for a party that
[01:28:22] espouses individual choice and personal
[01:28:24] liberty and all these things to maintain
[01:28:28] policies that utterly strip those away
[01:28:30] from I'm going back to my blowick
[01:28:32] ignorance thing here from the true will
[01:28:35] of the people.
[01:28:39] Uh last question I'm going to take uh
[01:28:41] sorry the gentleman over here purely so
[01:28:43] I've moved across the room if that's
[01:28:44] okay.
[01:28:46] There are three hands here.
[01:28:48] I started there and moved across. Sorry.
[01:28:52] Yeah.
[01:28:56] Thank you. Um I'm delighted to say I
[01:28:58] took some of your advice before I even
[01:29:00] heard it. I I I recently wrote a
[01:29:02] sustainable transport strategy for the
[01:29:04] the organization I work for and uh I
[01:29:07] asked my seven-year-old daughter what
[01:29:09] she would do and uh she came up with all
[01:29:11] the good ideas all the good stuff I'd
[01:29:13] put in and none of the problems and I
[01:29:16] think that this is a my question really
[01:29:18] is I then went around colleagues and
[01:29:21] said well what what's the problem and
[01:29:22] they were all adult problems and I think
[01:29:24] the one that is most pressing in
[01:29:28] practice for a lot of people is a part
[01:29:31] of the corporate c corporate capture and
[01:29:34] the car dependency that we don't talk
[01:29:36] about enough which is that when I say
[01:29:40] can we put a rain garden in here and
[01:29:42] extend the pavement my colleagues say
[01:29:44] well the council relies on the money
[01:29:47] from the parking to pay for the free
[01:29:50] school meals to pay for the social care
[01:29:53] and at the treasury level the amount of
[01:29:55] money they rake in from fuel duty is far
[01:29:58] too significant
[01:30:00] that without, you know, without an
[01:30:02] alternate plan, they will they will hit
[01:30:05] the buffers with Treasury just like I
[01:30:07] hit the buffers with my council finance
[01:30:09] officers saying, "But that's a million
[01:30:12] pounds a year you're costing me just on
[01:30:14] this street." And that's I just a I
[01:30:18] wanted to put that in people's heads,
[01:30:19] but also
[01:30:21] is there any sort of response or advice
[01:30:23] or thinking around how that works in the
[01:30:26] long run?
[01:30:27] You're undercharging. You know what is
[01:30:29] the cost of 10 square meters of land to
[01:30:31] hire it for a year? It is not what you
[01:30:33] are charging for those parking spaces.
[01:30:35] If you've got fewer parking spaces, the
[01:30:37] cost should be going up for each one of
[01:30:38] them anyway. So, problem solved. A
[01:30:41] multiplied by B gives you C. Uh you can
[01:30:43] change either A or B to keep C the same.
[01:30:50] Um I just want to say thank you to
[01:30:52] everyone. Thank you to our panelists.
[01:30:53] I'm just going to leave you with one
[01:30:55] thought and that is that we have an
[01:30:57] opportunity to change things and I don't
[01:30:59] think we should fear what may be coming
[01:31:01] down the line next. We need to act now.
[01:31:03] If we're not going to be bold for the
[01:31:05] safety of children, what on earth is
[01:31:06] going to get us and motivate us to get
[01:31:08] out of bed every day? So don't take the
[01:31:10] minority loud voice. If you need to know
[01:31:13] more about that, speak to Rosina who
[01:31:15] spoke very eloquently about it yesterday
[01:31:17] and has put um a Substack sort of um
[01:31:20] speech out. But please engage with
[01:31:23] children. We work with them on street
[01:31:24] route audits regularly and they change
[01:31:27] the streets and give us the ideas that
[01:31:29] actually work. But do not give up on
[01:31:32] this because actually this generation
[01:31:33] needs us to remember what it was like to
[01:31:35] have the freedom of the streets because
[01:31:37] if we're not careful, the generation
[01:31:38] that remembered that is going to be gone
[01:31:40] soon as we start to get towards
[01:31:41] retirement for some of us on this stage.
[01:31:44] So um please make connections, talk to
[01:31:47] people. [laughter]
[01:31:49] In fairness, none of us can afford to
[01:31:50] retire, so I don't know why I said it,
[01:31:51] but anyway, uh please talk to people in
[01:31:54] this room, make connections, but
[01:31:56] actually think about how you can make
[01:31:57] change and what you need from us to make
[01:31:59] that change. Thank you very much.
[01:32:02] [applause]
[01:32:06] Thank you. Round of applause to our
[01:32:08] panel. And just to let you know that uh
[01:32:11] after the break, we're going to be
[01:32:12] having a session up here called the
[01:32:14] route to active streets is in the air.
[01:32:16] So think about air pollution or if you
[01:32:18] want to go downstairs, it's from local
[01:32:20] to global mobilities of care. So you're
[01:32:23] going to remember that. It's a nice
[01:32:24] rhyme. Active Streets in the air
[01:32:27] upstairs, Mobilities of Care downstairs.
[01:32:30] If anyone would like a copy of their
[01:32:32] report, they've got them on hand here at
[01:32:34] the side. And the break is 15 minutes,
[01:32:37] so we'll be reconvening at quart 11.
[01:32:39] Refreshments are downstairs. Thank you.
[01:32:42] [applause]
[01:53:24] Welcome, welcome back everybody.
[01:53:27] Is this microphone working? Yes.
[01:53:30] Welcome. I am I am so close to this
[01:53:33] microphone. I'm almost kissing it.
[01:53:36] Right. Welcome back everybody. Are you
[01:53:39] staying? Are you going? Both are fine.
[01:53:44] Also, come to the front if you if you
[01:53:46] want to hear better.
[01:53:48] We had mostly okay audio up till now,
[01:53:51] but uh
[01:53:54] we have a fantastic panel ready to roll
[01:53:58] for you. Um and this is one of the
[01:54:01] parallel sessions. As you know, there's
[01:54:02] a parallel session happening in the
[01:54:04] neighborhood room as well. Um and this
[01:54:07] one is the route to active streets is in
[01:54:10] the air and we have some fantastic
[01:54:12] people who I will let Arthur introduce.
[01:54:15] But uh just to say that after this we're
[01:54:18] going to have uh an all planner panel as
[01:54:21] well and then we're going to break for
[01:54:23] lunch just so that you know what's uh
[01:54:25] what's waiting for you. But uh hopefully
[01:54:27] we're in for a blockbuster of a rest of
[01:54:30] the day. So with that I'm going to hand
[01:54:33] you over to Arthur.
[01:54:35] [applause]
[01:54:42] Good morning and thank you all very much
[01:54:44] for being here. I'm hoping we're going
[01:54:46] to speak very loudly and clearly so we
[01:54:48] can get over the AC.
[01:54:50] Lovely to meet you all. My name is
[01:54:52] Arthur K and I'm going to be moderating
[01:54:54] this session and we got some incredible
[01:54:57] panelists here uh that we'll be having
[01:54:59] conversation with. The big thing that we
[01:55:00] want to do today is to try and make it
[01:55:02] as much as a conversation as possible
[01:55:04] and to hear comments and questions from
[01:55:07] you guys as well because there's a huge
[01:55:09] amount of knowledge in the room. So what
[01:55:11] we don't want to say is that we're the
[01:55:12] people who know everything and you're
[01:55:13] not. This is a a conversation between
[01:55:16] all of us. Briefly to give some context
[01:55:18] as to who I am. My name is Arthur. I'm a
[01:55:21] professor of practice at UCL faculty for
[01:55:23] the built environment. I'm a board
[01:55:25] member of Transport for London to you
[01:55:27] know so either cheer me or boo me as you
[01:55:29] as you like. Um and also the author of a
[01:55:33] book called Roadkill unveiling the true
[01:55:35] cost of our toxic relationship with cars
[01:55:38] which is for sale in all good bookshops
[01:55:40] and downstairs in the lobby I should I
[01:55:42] should say as well. So don't be shy. The
[01:55:44] session today is called the route to
[01:55:46] access for the streets is in the air and
[01:55:49] I'm going to we're going to try and take
[01:55:51] there's as I said there's a huge amount
[01:55:53] of knowledge in the room already. So
[01:55:54] we're going to try and move beyond a lot
[01:55:57] of the existing evidence that I think a
[01:55:58] lot of people already know and try and
[01:56:00] make this as much as possible about
[01:56:01] practical and tactical solutions for how
[01:56:03] we can change our cities. And we're very
[01:56:05] lucky to have a brilliant set of
[01:56:07] panelists here today who are doing just
[01:56:09] that.
[01:56:11] First off, we well, we're going to be
[01:56:12] hearing kind of comments and and
[01:56:14] questions in some short pieces first.
[01:56:15] But firstly, um we got Jamaima Hart Sha,
[01:56:20] founder of Mums for Lungs. Let's have a
[01:56:22] round of round of applause as we go.
[01:56:24] [applause]
[01:56:28] Then Cecilia Vaka Jones is executive
[01:56:31] director of Breathe Cities.
[01:56:34] [applause]
[01:56:37] And finally, Maya Mila, who is
[01:56:39] [clears throat] co-director of our kids
[01:56:41] climate.
[01:56:43] [applause]
[01:56:46] So I want to start with a a question
[01:56:48] around so the some of the themes we're
[01:56:50] going to go through today around the
[01:56:52] politics of our streets in terms of how
[01:56:54] we get to these places around how we can
[01:56:55] make a voice for people who may be
[01:56:57] underrepresented and I think children
[01:56:59] may be one of those groups that we
[01:57:00] touched on today around power influence
[01:57:03] and permission and also around some of
[01:57:05] the backlash that um people are facing
[01:57:08] again tying that to some of our our
[01:57:10] politics as well. So maybe I can start
[01:57:13] with a a question to to to the panelists
[01:57:16] around how do people who don't have
[01:57:19] formal power that might be through
[01:57:20] positions of influence in their
[01:57:22] workplace that might be through voting
[01:57:24] that might be through other forms of
[01:57:25] power. So those people who don't have
[01:57:26] formal power how can activism and how
[01:57:29] can your actions help give power to
[01:57:31] those those people in the in the street.
[01:57:36] So how does it work like yes now you can
[01:57:40] hear me? Um I think when there is no
[01:57:43] formal power, activism is the main form
[01:57:46] of power and it embodies loads of
[01:57:50] different things. It can be letters. It
[01:57:52] can be meeting a policy maker. It can be
[01:57:55] a demonstration. It is colorful posters.
[01:57:58] It is postcard campaigns. And it's you
[01:58:01] know bringing many people together to
[01:58:03] hold politicians to account. Sometimes
[01:58:05] it is finding the opposition and making
[01:58:08] them hold the politicians to account if
[01:58:11] you align with them more strongly. So I
[01:58:13] think it's all these kind of things that
[01:58:16] we need to employ quite a lot in this
[01:58:18] field in this topic around active travel
[01:58:22] um active streets and air pollution. And
[01:58:24] I think what really stood out for me
[01:58:27] when I started campaigning and started
[01:58:30] Moms for Lungs was exactly actually what
[01:58:33] was raised on the panel so strongly
[01:58:34] before that children have no agency.
[01:58:37] They cannot even determine where they
[01:58:39] live. They cannot determine how they
[01:58:41] travel, how their parents travel and
[01:58:43] they don't have any kind of vote at the
[01:58:46] ballot either. So you know what we have
[01:58:49] to do as parents is we have to do what
[01:58:51] we have to do.
[01:58:55] So um I work for breed cities which is
[01:58:59] an initiative where basically we're
[01:59:00] trying to decrease the air pollution
[01:59:03] across different cities in the world.
[01:59:05] And what we've realized uh by working
[01:59:07] very closely with cities is that as far
[01:59:10] as you want to implement good policy and
[01:59:12] programs, you need to bring the
[01:59:14] community into the the way that you run
[01:59:16] the programs. So to your question of how
[01:59:19] you create that agency on the people is
[01:59:21] just make them be part of the solution,
[01:59:24] make them be and own the policies and
[01:59:25] the programs that you're testing in in
[01:59:27] the cities. And I think there are many
[01:59:29] different ways that we do that. And you
[01:59:30] you talked briefly about streets and I
[01:59:32] see a lot of familiar faces here. uh
[01:59:34] Simon, Tim, I see Sky there. And uh and
[01:59:38] I think this is also part of what we uh
[01:59:40] should be thinking about like it's
[01:59:42] giving voices to those people who
[01:59:44] usually don't have a voice. So children
[01:59:46] for sure are are those who need to be
[01:59:49] engaged into designing a street into
[01:59:52] being part of like putting a little uh
[01:59:54] design or a little piece of art or a
[01:59:57] little piece of uh creative thinking on
[01:59:59] the way that we design the street. And
[02:00:01] there are many different methodologies
[02:00:02] that allows us to do that. But I think
[02:00:05] sometimes we also need to consider which
[02:00:07] are the voices on the different places
[02:00:09] that we can involve and engage while
[02:00:12] we're doing an intervention, while we're
[02:00:13] testing a policy, while we're testing a
[02:00:16] program. And and I think that works
[02:00:18] differently in every context. But I'm
[02:00:20] I'm positive that uh that's the best way
[02:00:22] to do good policy because if you don't
[02:00:25] engage people into this programs then
[02:00:28] probably policy is not going to be
[02:00:29] sustainable in the long term.
[02:00:33] Sure. Can you hear me? Is that on?
[02:00:37] Can you hear me now? Yay. First hurdle
[02:00:40] overcome. Um I mean I fully agree with
[02:00:43] what um Jamaima and and have said.
[02:00:47] I mean what I I work with our kids
[02:00:49] climate and we support parent groups in
[02:00:51] many different countries and what we see
[02:00:53] is that parents, mothers, dads have
[02:00:56] influence through telling their stories
[02:00:58] and through their authenticity and being
[02:01:00] that trusted messenger that doesn't have
[02:01:03] a political agenda that's speaking about
[02:01:05] their kids' health that's having those
[02:01:08] conversations with their local
[02:01:09] counselors with their MPs you know on
[02:01:12] the um while they're doing the school
[02:01:15] run while uh watching their kid play
[02:01:18] play football. And given all of the
[02:01:20] polarization and fragmentation, I just
[02:01:23] think people are crying out to hear that
[02:01:24] authentic story. And there's nothing I
[02:01:28] think stronger than than parents coming
[02:01:29] together. And I'll just give you a very
[02:01:31] real world example.
[02:01:33] We know it's very hot. My children's
[02:01:35] school has closed. It's I think 32° they
[02:01:39] said um in my kids' classroom at 9:30
[02:01:42] a.m. and 50% humidity.
[02:01:46] um that's happening across the country.
[02:01:48] So kids aren't outside. They're not
[02:01:49] being active. They're they're at home
[02:01:51] watching TV eating crisps in the case of
[02:01:53] my children. But parents are banding
[02:01:55] together. So I've heard already of on
[02:01:58] the WhatsApp group I'm on of um parents
[02:02:00] coming together to pay for an air
[02:02:03] conditioning unit for their school to
[02:02:05] talk to the headmaster, talk to the
[02:02:07] local counselor about how to make their
[02:02:09] schools safe for learning again. So,
[02:02:11] it's happening in real time in response
[02:02:14] to the climate crisis and the health
[02:02:16] crisis that we're all feeling. People
[02:02:18] are acting because they know they can't
[02:02:19] wait. We can't wait for the politicians
[02:02:21] to act. We've got to take power into our
[02:02:23] own hands.
[02:02:26] Thank you. Um,
[02:02:26] wait, can I just say one thing? Because
[02:02:29] we always talk about needing to take the
[02:02:31] whole community with us, but actually
[02:02:33] that's deeply unfair because we are all
[02:02:36] paying for the tax on that is needed to
[02:02:39] be raised for potholes. We're all paying
[02:02:42] for the NHS that has loads of children
[02:02:44] in hospital because of air pollution. We
[02:02:47] never need to consult if neighbors buy
[02:02:49] car 2, three, and four and park it on
[02:02:52] the road. But if we need a bike hanger,
[02:02:54] that is costly and needs to be consulted
[02:02:57] on. And I also think there is very few
[02:02:59] other political realms where the state
[02:03:03] has so much power and would require much
[02:03:06] less consultation. So I don't get
[02:03:08] consulted on. Of course not. On issues
[02:03:11] of how to reorganize the NHS, I wouldn't
[02:03:13] have good things to say. Whether my GP
[02:03:16] should do certain things or not, but
[02:03:19] when it comes to the public realm, when
[02:03:21] it comes to our streets, when it comes
[02:03:22] to the children and their health, that
[02:03:25] suddenly is a matter that needs
[02:03:27] everyone's view, whether they have
[02:03:29] information or not. And that is really,
[02:03:32] really deeply unfair and I think
[02:03:34] actually wrong.
[02:03:37] [applause]
[02:03:40] I yeah I and this idea about kind of how
[02:03:43] much of this is structural in terms of
[02:03:45] the framing of how our system works and
[02:03:47] around the idea of kind of you know the
[02:03:49] car industrial complex or that the fact
[02:03:51] that we've become carb blind to a lot of
[02:03:53] the infrastructure that we're around
[02:03:55] day-to-day without drawing that to
[02:03:56] attent to to account I completely agree
[02:03:58] with. I think to kind of pick up each of
[02:04:00] you mentioned around how your work is by
[02:04:03] the sound of it a lot of ground up and
[02:04:05] and grassroots work but also at the same
[02:04:07] time looking to partner with influence
[02:04:10] um provide insight to formal power
[02:04:13] structures in the that might be in the
[02:04:14] form of local councilors and
[02:04:15] politicians. It might be in the form of
[02:04:17] large transport bureaucracies like TfL
[02:04:19] or equivalent in other cities. So
[02:04:21] perhaps you we if we could talk
[02:04:24] tactically a little bit. What ideas have
[02:04:27] you found successful or cut through to
[02:04:29] give I'm going to use the word bravery
[02:04:31] to politicians cuz often or or decision
[02:04:34] makers with formal power because often
[02:04:37] they may in the in the privacy of a room
[02:04:39] or indeed in conferences such as this
[02:04:42] won't talk to that but to turn that into
[02:04:44] into practical delivered policy and make
[02:04:46] some of those structural changes that
[02:04:47] you're touching on is much more
[02:04:49] challenging. So could we talk to some
[02:04:50] ideally with some examples of of the
[02:04:52] change you've you've made as well some
[02:04:54] of some how you've gone about that or
[02:04:56] maybe we start at the end.
[02:04:58] Yeah and so I can give some examples
[02:05:00] maybe from outside the UK because a lot
[02:05:02] of the work that I'm I'm doing is global
[02:05:04] and I think what um unites this example
[02:05:07] is
[02:05:09] talking to politicians and fellow
[02:05:11] parents in kind of very common sense
[02:05:13] accessible language and probably not
[02:05:15] using the word climate change or or
[02:05:17] mobility. So, I'll give you a great
[02:05:18] example. New York Climate Families,
[02:05:21] um, a group that we work with in New
[02:05:23] York. Obviously, the politics across the
[02:05:25] US are not very, um, conducive to this
[02:05:28] agenda right now, but they've been
[02:05:30] running a campaign for several months to
[02:05:33] get um, balcony solar and plug-in solar
[02:05:38] um, onto high-rise buildings. And this
[02:05:42] has been is potentially going to be a
[02:05:44] gamecher that will allow ordinary
[02:05:46] families to reduce their energy bills
[02:05:49] which are only going to get higher
[02:05:50] because of the need to cool our
[02:05:52] buildings and so on through um plug-in
[02:05:55] solar. But there were some obstacles
[02:05:57] around permitting and they worked with a
[02:06:00] whole coalition of um community groups
[02:06:04] and parent groups and got this
[02:06:05] legislation through at at the state
[02:06:08] level. Um, and I think sees this
[02:06:12] all the time that it's at the city and
[02:06:14] the state level that we're seeing we're
[02:06:15] really seeing that change even when at
[02:06:18] the national level the politics is
[02:06:20] outright hostile to what we're trying to
[02:06:21] do. And there's many other examples but
[02:06:24] I'll hand over to the other panelists.
[02:06:27] Yeah, maybe I'm going to talk about
[02:06:29] three examples. Uh, and one of them is
[02:06:32] uh Boota. So Boota has uh done like
[02:06:35] their own kind of a low emission zone
[02:06:38] which is called Suma and uh they're
[02:06:40] working in one of the most vulnerable
[02:06:42] areas of the city. So this is a program
[02:06:44] from the city. Uh and of course one of
[02:06:47] the main goals there is is to reduce uh
[02:06:50] air pollution. But uh one of the main uh
[02:06:53] targets there is to actually improve the
[02:06:56] quality of air of uh in order to improve
[02:06:59] the health of young children because a
[02:07:01] lot of the young children in that area
[02:07:03] are suffering of many like uh
[02:07:05] respiratory illnesses and uh and I think
[02:07:08] what has been really key there is uh and
[02:07:11] one of the things that we're doing
[02:07:13] across all of the breed cities is we
[02:07:15] have lowcost monitoring sensors that
[02:07:18] allow people to have good data on the
[02:07:20] air quality and with this uh I I think
[02:07:23] that bridging the divide that you might
[02:07:25] have with the city and and just working
[02:07:27] with the city in order to have this
[02:07:29] complimentary networks of air quality is
[02:07:32] what we really see is working across all
[02:07:35] the different cities. It's working in
[02:07:36] London but it's also working in a city
[02:07:38] like Bogotaa. It's working in Nairobi.
[02:07:40] It's working in Johannesburg. But it's
[02:07:42] also being adapted in many different
[02:07:44] ways. So in the case of Bogotaa, it's
[02:07:45] being adapted in a very vulnerable
[02:07:47] community that is working with a very
[02:07:50] specific early uh childhood center uh
[02:07:53] trying to deal and work uh with the
[02:07:56] parents of the of the daycare center but
[02:07:58] also with the grandparents of the
[02:08:00] daycare center who are usually the ones
[02:08:02] that are also going to be mostly
[02:08:04] affected by air quality. So the whole
[02:08:06] intervention becomes the city
[02:08:08] intervention that's supported by the
[02:08:09] people. So I'm I'm going back to my
[02:08:11] first argument as well. I also want to
[02:08:14] talk about the the case of Nairobi. Uh
[02:08:16] so again the case of Nairobi what we're
[02:08:18] working really hard is on um having uh
[02:08:22] community leaders learn about uh air
[02:08:25] quality data and uh in the case of Na
[02:08:29] Robi we work in a lot of uh slums and uh
[02:08:32] what has been super powerful is that
[02:08:34] again you have a lot of uh advocates
[02:08:36] that are women and uh for me what's
[02:08:38] always beautiful is that when it comes
[02:08:40] uh to women advocating for air quality
[02:08:43] uh what brings them together is usually
[02:08:45] health of their family and especially
[02:08:47] their young children. And uh when they
[02:08:50] understand that the effects that air
[02:08:52] quality is having in the well-being of
[02:08:54] their babies and children, they
[02:08:55] naturally become advocates for the
[02:08:56] cause, but they also want to be part of
[02:08:59] the solution. And I think this is super
[02:09:00] important. It's not always blaming the
[02:09:02] city for this is what should have been
[02:09:05] done. It's also like what can we do to
[02:09:07] support what you're doing. And the third
[02:09:09] example is is one other example that I
[02:09:11] really love is um and it's probably not
[02:09:13] just uh across children but I I think
[02:09:15] that's how you work with the whole
[02:09:16] ecosystem right for me it's not just
[02:09:18] working you know with community
[02:09:19] engagement or cities or academia or data
[02:09:23] is we need to work with the whole
[02:09:24] ecosystem if we want to have impact at
[02:09:26] scale and in the case of Johannesburg uh
[02:09:29] we work with an organization that's
[02:09:31] called urban betterers and um what they
[02:09:34] do is again they monitor the quality of
[02:09:37] air while running or cycling. And what's
[02:09:40] really special about this is that they
[02:09:42] usually work with uh uh young leaders.
[02:09:44] Uh but many of them are actually
[02:09:47] parents. So that's also really good
[02:09:48] because they start understanding how air
[02:09:51] quality is affecting their own health
[02:09:53] while running. But also when they get
[02:09:55] that at a personal level, they
[02:09:57] understand how this is affecting the
[02:09:59] rest of their family. I think that what
[02:10:01] I love about this project is the fact
[02:10:03] that they really do this themselves. So
[02:10:07] it becomes something it's like an
[02:10:08] advocacy that takes a concrete action on
[02:10:11] understanding oh this is the air I'm
[02:10:13] breathing and I can start seeing which
[02:10:15] are the streets that are less polluted
[02:10:17] where can I I breathe better air why am
[02:10:20] I living here and many times you don't
[02:10:22] have the option but you do have the
[02:10:24] option to make different choices to
[02:10:26] improve uh your behavior so you so you
[02:10:29] can basically be less exposed to air
[02:10:32] pollution but also to improve uh your
[02:10:35] position as a citizen in towards
[02:10:37] understanding the problem.
[02:10:42] I don't really have a lot to add, but I
[02:10:45] think the point I would like to make is
[02:10:47] that we still need data. Last year in
[02:10:49] March, Gary Fuller said there had been
[02:10:51] about 60,000 studies linking air
[02:10:53] pollution to negative health outcomes.
[02:10:56] So that clearly didn't make the UK adopt
[02:11:00] WH recommendations. So clearly we need
[02:11:03] more things and this is where the data
[02:11:05] still comes in. So what we do with moms
[02:11:08] for lungs is we do some you know we're
[02:11:11] very small team so it's limited what we
[02:11:12] can do on research but what we do do is
[02:11:15] FOI research and some of the FOI
[02:11:17] research that has helped support school
[02:11:19] streets being delivered across the
[02:11:22] country has been that we could show that
[02:11:24] they break even if they are delivered
[02:11:26] via an ANPR camera within about a year
[02:11:30] and that we could give local authorities
[02:11:32] and MPs very specific data on how many
[02:11:35] children had being hospitalized with
[02:11:38] breathing issues in their locality.
[02:11:40] That's research we do every year and you
[02:11:43] know I'm I'm a bit cynical. we shouldn't
[02:11:46] need this kind of detail but and on data
[02:11:49] but clearly we do need it and I think
[02:11:51] especially in the kind of detail where
[02:11:54] you do stuff around monitoring and
[02:11:56] school streets that's actually genuinely
[02:11:58] really interesting because we do need to
[02:12:00] make a case in times of questions about
[02:12:04] funding that the thing we're doing is
[02:12:06] really worth it that it is financially
[02:12:08] feasible and that it has a huge impact.
[02:12:12] Brilliant. Thank you. We have
[02:12:14] [clears throat] we have about 15 minutes
[02:12:16] left. So I hope that there's I want to
[02:12:17] see a bunch of you know twitching hands
[02:12:19] ready for your your your short and
[02:12:21] concise questions so that we can give to
[02:12:23] the the panelists. I want to bring this
[02:12:25] a bit to some of the the I guess
[02:12:27] challenges and backlash that some of
[02:12:28] these things have. And I think we have a
[02:12:30] a room here full of people who I I'm
[02:12:33] guessing agree with a lot of what you're
[02:12:35] hearing on stage that we need better
[02:12:36] evidence. We need to you know deliver
[02:12:38] stories. We need to tell those stories.
[02:12:39] We need to find community leaders and
[02:12:41] those sorts of things.
[02:12:43] um all over the world. However, there is
[02:12:45] a huge backlash to this and that's not
[02:12:48] because people are mad, bad, up to no
[02:12:51] good, scheming, all the rest of it.
[02:12:52] That's usually because they're telling a
[02:12:54] different story. Um you know, a lot of
[02:12:56] the research we did for our book
[02:12:58] Roadkill was around that these stories
[02:12:59] are around things like freedom, stories
[02:13:01] around what freedoms means to different
[02:13:03] groups and why and some of the
[02:13:05] challenges around that. These are often
[02:13:07] very very deeply held beliefs that are
[02:13:10] you know even if you bring phenomenally
[02:13:12] good data of what's happening to their
[02:13:14] children or indeed you know unborn
[02:13:16] fetuses and all sorts of shocking things
[02:13:18] that are happening throughout the world
[02:13:19] you can bring that data and the story is
[02:13:21] so deep that that may or may not work um
[02:13:23] within that. So I wanted and we're
[02:13:25] seeing that even in you know in a in a
[02:13:27] city like London the difference between
[02:13:28] inner London borrowers and out of London
[02:13:30] borrowers you see very different
[02:13:31] reactions and opinions about things you
[02:13:33] know some some of the solutions that we
[02:13:34] may be talking about. So if we take that
[02:13:38] as true that you can bring brilliant
[02:13:40] data but that doesn't work how can we
[02:13:42] think about telling better stories that
[02:13:45] kind of get that do try and change those
[02:13:47] hearts and minds of people who may tie
[02:13:50] their sense of freedom their sense of
[02:13:52] independence to you know what they see
[02:13:54] as economic prosperity what they say as
[02:13:56] living the good life what they see as
[02:13:58] their right to the road etc. So as a
[02:14:02] challenge as my last question before we
[02:14:04] move to the to the floor.
[02:14:08] [bell]
[02:14:09] I I can start. Um I mean I I I think
[02:14:12] that stories need to be more human and
[02:14:15] uh I I have done a lot of work on early
[02:14:18] childhood development. I see Patrick
[02:14:19] back there who's one of my ex-colagues
[02:14:23] and uh and you know um we realize that
[02:14:26] sometimes for example bringing babies
[02:14:28] when we are talking about air quality is
[02:14:32] uh it's something uh that's very
[02:14:34] powerful because uh in a way or another
[02:14:36] we all care about babies it's a it's
[02:14:39] almost uh you know they're probably the
[02:14:41] most vulnerable like uh a baby cannot
[02:14:43] just like many times raise their boys of
[02:14:46] like uh I don't want to breathe this
[02:14:48] there and and basically just if you
[02:14:50] think the first thing we do when we get
[02:14:51] to this earth is we breathe and if from
[02:14:54] day one you're exposed to bad air
[02:14:56] quality then this limits your
[02:14:57] possibilities of having a a a good
[02:15:00] development. So I I think that sometimes
[02:15:02] bringing this uh I and I think in London
[02:15:05] like we we always uh go back to the case
[02:15:07] of Ella which is very powerful. Uh but I
[02:15:10] think again many times and and for me
[02:15:12] working in many different cities across
[02:15:14] the world makes me realize is that you
[02:15:16] need to have this human stories that
[02:15:18] also adapt to your own culture to your
[02:15:20] own reality in some places is is also
[02:15:23] making visible some of these things
[02:15:25] affecting the most vulnerable
[02:15:26] populations. I I was talking this
[02:15:29] morning to somebody from Amnesty
[02:15:30] International and um we were talking
[02:15:32] about uh Rio de Janeiro uh which again
[02:15:35] is uh in the the position of the slums
[02:15:38] in Rio are are mostly affected by air
[02:15:41] quality because they're in the middle of
[02:15:43] the most congested roads and uh and we
[02:15:47] were talking how you know the people in
[02:15:49] the slums they don't even use cars like
[02:15:51] they they actually the slums are
[02:15:53] walkable. You don't you don't you don't
[02:15:55] even have the circulation of cars.
[02:15:57] Nevertheless, all of the air pollution
[02:15:58] of the city and the industries and the
[02:16:00] city and everything. It's affecting
[02:16:02] directly the slums. So, you know, in
[02:16:03] this case, it's not even them changing
[02:16:05] any behaviors because they're not
[02:16:07] responsible for the for for the cause of
[02:16:09] what's creating this problem. Um, so I I
[02:16:12] guess that then for me is like how can
[02:16:14] we find this good stories and and and
[02:16:17] she was referring to a lot of uh of
[02:16:19] black women living in this uh favllas
[02:16:22] and and really kind of like uh giving
[02:16:25] them the voices but also the data and
[02:16:28] and just backing these stories but not
[02:16:30] not just from an advocacy perspective
[02:16:32] because I also want to make sure that I
[02:16:34] I deal with this topic. Sometimes we're
[02:16:36] expecting people to just continue being
[02:16:38] activists and and advocates, but these
[02:16:41] people also need to take food to their
[02:16:42] to their families. So for me is also how
[02:16:45] can we find ways that this also becomes
[02:16:47] part of a movement that creates new
[02:16:49] green jobs that creates new
[02:16:51] possibilities and opportunities for
[02:16:52] these people to stand up doing this but
[02:16:55] also doing this as a as a work not just
[02:16:58] as an activation of a of uh of
[02:17:00] advocating for this cause.
[02:17:04] I feedback. Um I I totally agree on the
[02:17:09] the need for authentic human heartfelt
[02:17:12] stories and I think that's you know very
[02:17:14] well understood and um there's a lot of
[02:17:17] work being done in that area. But I I
[02:17:19] did want to bring in another point
[02:17:20] Arthur because this backlash isn't
[02:17:23] happening by accident. Um, this backlash
[02:17:28] is also being engineered by political
[02:17:30] forces who are weaponizing
[02:17:33] the conversation around the climate
[02:17:35] crisis, who are weaponizing the
[02:17:36] conversation around cars. And I think we
[02:17:39] really do need to have an honest and
[02:17:41] courageous conversation about that. Um,
[02:17:44] Reform UK is funded about twothirds by
[02:17:47] the oil and gas industry
[02:17:50] and our politics are being corrupted in
[02:17:53] the UK and in many other countries by an
[02:17:57] industry that is trying to block
[02:17:59] progress and they are taking people's
[02:18:03] very real concerns about the cost of
[02:18:05] living, about um, social services and
[02:18:09] they're weaponizing it. And we need to
[02:18:11] also reckon with that because it's not
[02:18:15] just about the authentic stories. It's
[02:18:16] also about understanding the where the
[02:18:18] politics is and where the money is and
[02:18:21] knowing that, you know, as parents and
[02:18:23] as community organizers, we can tell
[02:18:26] another story, but we need to have that
[02:18:28] honesty about some of the politics at
[02:18:30] play.
[02:18:32] [applause]
[02:18:39] Super. So, so we heard there a little
[02:18:41] bit about both the need for human
[02:18:43] stories, the need to make the people who
[02:18:46] may be disenfranchised or you know
[02:18:48] suffering some of the challenges part of
[02:18:49] the I guess the economic prosperity that
[02:18:52] could come from this in terms of jobs
[02:18:53] and being part of the solution of that
[02:18:54] and then also to what extent is some of
[02:18:56] this manufactured or engineered in terms
[02:18:58] of some of the um some of the interest
[02:19:00] groups at stake here. Can we get some we
[02:19:03] got 10 minutes can we get some a show of
[02:19:05] hands in terms of some questions? We'll
[02:19:06] try and take um a couple at a time um to
[02:19:09] go. So if we have here and then um to
[02:19:11] you there
[02:19:13] and if we can make the questions
[02:19:14] relatively concise that'd be brilliant.
[02:19:20] Hi, thank you all so much. Um my name is
[02:19:22] Kayla Schulty. I'm a researcher at
[02:19:24] Imperial and I deliver the Breed London
[02:19:26] community program. My questions are
[02:19:28] actually for you Arthur. Um and bringing
[02:19:30] it back to your points about power. Um
[02:19:32] so I work directly with communities um
[02:19:35] who are kind of at times feel at odds
[02:19:38] with their built environment and there
[02:19:40] are a lot of different intersecting um
[02:19:43] you know governance bureaucracies
[02:19:46] structures etc. Um, and
[02:19:50] I guess
[02:19:52] in instances where it feels like
[02:19:56] decisions are being kind of made for
[02:19:58] them specifically around like I'm
[02:20:01] talking more like red roots, highways,
[02:20:04] things that like maybe can't be moved.
[02:20:08] I I'm curious to hear your experience.
[02:20:10] I'm curious to hear the experiences of
[02:20:11] others where at least in the short term
[02:20:14] like
[02:20:15] we're not going to be able to bury a
[02:20:17] highway, you know, how do you have those
[02:20:19] conversations with with the people that
[02:20:22] you work with? And how do you like cuz I
[02:20:24] struggle like I want to empower them,
[02:20:26] but I also like, you know, I I feel
[02:20:30] badly because I know like it's not I'm
[02:20:31] we're not going to be able to bury this
[02:20:33] highway right now. So, how do we kind of
[02:20:35] keep that going?
[02:20:36] Brilliant question. Brilliant question.
[02:20:39] Thank you. Um, let's take another
[02:20:40] question here at the same time. We'll
[02:20:42] take we'll take two or three at a at a
[02:20:43] at a
[02:20:50] Thank you. Um, so I'm Mary. I work for
[02:20:52] an organization called Trees for Cities.
[02:20:55] So I think I just wanted to kind of
[02:20:58] bring trees and green infrastructure
[02:21:00] into the conversation really um in terms
[02:21:03] of holistic solutions because
[02:21:07] ultimately if you want to improve air
[02:21:09] pollution obviously we need to remove
[02:21:10] the pollution source and we're very
[02:21:12] clear on that but there is also a role
[02:21:15] to be played I think for um tree
[02:21:18] planting and ways of engaging the
[02:21:21] community with air pollution and ways to
[02:21:23] improve it. So we were involved last
[02:21:26] year in um creating a report uh in
[02:21:30] partnership with Tower Hamlet's Council
[02:21:32] and with um a researcher Dr. James
[02:21:34] Lavine from the University of Birmingham
[02:21:36] which uh it's called GI4AQ. So it's
[02:21:39] green infrastructure for air quality and
[02:21:41] it involved developing like a piece of
[02:21:43] open- source software that can be used
[02:21:45] by designers to model the impact of
[02:21:48] their greening on their air quality at
[02:21:51] the roadside.
[02:21:52] And then um
[02:21:54] uh looking at practical interventions
[02:21:57] that we can do on the street and you
[02:21:58] know if we put in trees here, if we put
[02:22:00] a hedge in here, how's that going to
[02:22:01] impact what people are breathing right
[02:22:04] here? Um we do a lot of work with
[02:22:06] schools and looking at school
[02:22:07] playgrounds as well and how we can
[02:22:09] improve the quality of the air children
[02:22:10] are breathing in the spaces that they
[02:22:12] have to be. So um so yeah I guess I just
[02:22:15] wanted to to bring that into the
[02:22:16] conversation and think about how how the
[02:22:20] role of trees in this in this
[02:22:21] conversation.
[02:22:23] Brilliant. Um why don't we start with
[02:22:26] and also feel free also to comment on on
[02:22:28] the question here as well. But why don't
[02:22:30] we start with a quick responses to to
[02:22:32] the brilliant work of trees for cities
[02:22:33] and then and then I'll come back to you
[02:22:34] as well.
[02:22:37] I'll I'll just say something because I I
[02:22:38] was with Annie Dalgo yesterday and and
[02:22:40] you know she's one of uh my favorite
[02:22:42] mayors on on one of the breed cities as
[02:22:44] well which is Paris and you know when
[02:22:47] there's the political will to dare to do
[02:22:50] those changes. I do think that some of
[02:22:52] those changes are possible. Like in
[02:22:53] Paris, nobody thought that the avenue
[02:22:56] that was across the could ever be a
[02:22:58] pedestrian avenue. But then it takes
[02:23:01] probably a woman with strong political
[02:23:03] will to wanting to do the things and
[02:23:06] also to have all the technical support
[02:23:07] that you need in order to then bring the
[02:23:10] right streets into the city where you
[02:23:12] have safe bike lanes where you have
[02:23:14] greenery where you have access to blue
[02:23:17] uh infrastructure where you have play
[02:23:19] along the way uh uh where you bring the
[02:23:23] streets back to people. So I I do
[02:23:25] believe that when you start thinking and
[02:23:27] and coming from from I'm working for air
[02:23:30] quality and many times the entry point
[02:23:32] is not going to be air quality. For me
[02:23:34] the entry point should be let's bring
[02:23:36] streets back to people.
[02:23:39] Um Kayla for L. Yeah that was great.
[02:23:42] THANK YOU
[02:23:45] um Kayla. So for London I would like to
[02:23:49] do do nod to the ULES that has had a
[02:23:51] massive impact on reducing air pollution
[02:23:53] on the main roads. When we started
[02:23:55] campaigning at Mums for lungs um which
[02:23:58] is 9 years ago the annual limit the
[02:24:01] annual legal average on nitrogen dioxide
[02:24:04] on Brixton Road was 108. It is now I
[02:24:08] think is is nodding 46.
[02:24:17] Exactly. So on the very high bridge
[02:24:19] breaches, it's gone from 800 breaches a
[02:24:22] year to zero high breaches. So I think
[02:24:26] what that means is that progress is
[02:24:28] possible and progress is possible in
[02:24:30] places like London and we need now need
[02:24:33] to see how and need to figure out how we
[02:24:36] can turn the tide which has been you
[02:24:39] know difficult recently for all the
[02:24:41] reasons that Maya mentioned into a huge
[02:24:44] progressive force at least across London
[02:24:46] and I think there are some great
[02:24:47] opportunities
[02:24:49] um you know but we do know that there
[02:24:52] are schemes that work. We also are
[02:24:54] incredibly lucky to know in London what
[02:24:56] the biggest contributors to air
[02:24:58] pollution are. It's diesel vans. They
[02:25:01] need to come off the roads. It's diesel
[02:25:03] cars. We're waiting for a judgment.
[02:25:05] You're all invited to protest with us.
[02:25:07] When the judgment comes, I'll let you
[02:25:08] know. Um you know, the the next steps
[02:25:11] are clear and I think that is what I
[02:25:13] would what I would do. everyone in the
[02:25:15] Breathe London network would be invited
[02:25:17] to join the protest to make sure that
[02:25:20] London becomes cleaner, that the mayor
[02:25:22] of London takes us back onto his topic
[02:25:24] because we know what works and that is
[02:25:26] getting the dirtiest cars off our roads.
[02:25:29] [applause]
[02:25:33] We'll be with you, Jamaima. Yes. Um, I
[02:25:35] just want to furiously agree that we
[02:25:38] love trees. I still remember planting
[02:25:40] trees as a kid. And I think it's not
[02:25:41] just that it cleans their air, it allows
[02:25:44] children to connect with nature and that
[02:25:46] has like a lasting legacy. And I just
[02:25:48] wanted to bring in one other
[02:25:50] perspective. So my uh collaborator from
[02:25:52] India, she's not here but she she's here
[02:25:54] in London Climate Week. Her big battle
[02:25:56] is stopping the trees from being cut
[02:25:58] down in the first place because of the
[02:26:00] road building. So it's also protecting
[02:26:02] those old trees. But yes, more trees,
[02:26:05] please.
[02:26:08] Brilliant. Thank you. Um just to respond
[02:26:10] very briefly to this point the I mean
[02:26:11] who here has read the power broker
[02:26:13] Robert car's great book about Robert
[02:26:15] Moses a few hands here. So this is about
[02:26:17] a person who who wielded vast political
[02:26:20] power for both great good and for great
[02:26:23] ill. And one of the things he's uh on
[02:26:25] the record having said is existing uh
[02:26:27] laws can be changed. It's very hard to
[02:26:29] tear down a bridge. And so to your point
[02:26:31] around the infrastructure then I think
[02:26:32] this does also reveal a dark side of
[02:26:34] some of this stuff that we think I think
[02:26:36] you know agree that doing things that
[02:26:39] you know enlightened people in this room
[02:26:42] should be doing to places with some
[02:26:45] level of consultation or more or less
[02:26:47] can be brilliant but it is exercising
[02:26:50] power on people who may or may not to
[02:26:52] different even if even if we think it's
[02:26:53] going to be brilliant for their kids or
[02:26:54] for them or the rest of it there is a
[02:26:56] tension there and I think we would be um
[02:26:59] wrong or missing something if we didn't
[02:27:00] acknowledge that tension. So, thank you
[02:27:02] very much for bringing that up in terms
[02:27:03] of the where things being done to
[02:27:05] communities even if there is an active
[02:27:07] group within those communities who are
[02:27:08] who are vocal for it. Um, we are out of
[02:27:11] time. Do we have time for very like one
[02:27:13] word? We're out of time guys. Thank you
[02:27:14] very much for your time and attention
[02:27:16] and to and a huge round of applause to
[02:27:17] our brilliant panel. [applause]
[02:27:31] Thank you so much for the wonderful
[02:27:32] panel. Just to say that we are on a
[02:27:34] 10-minute break. It's very short. We'll
[02:27:37] be back here at 12:05 with a full uh new
[02:27:41] panel on car spreading,
[02:27:45] not a parallel session.
[02:28:01] Yeah.
[02:28:02] Yeah.
[02:28:19] They're afraid.
[02:28:24] Are you are you able to stay for the
[02:28:26] rest?
[02:28:29] Oh, okay. Perfect. That's that's really
[02:28:31] good. Is that
[02:28:33] fun or is that a paradise?
[02:36:37] 40 minutes. Okay.
[02:36:39] So, and that's before lunch, right?
[02:36:41] Yeah.
[02:36:41] So, um
[02:36:43] yeah, he asked me how long he had. I
[02:36:44] said 25 minutes. So,
[02:36:46] so immediately after you finishing, I'll
[02:36:48] say thanks. I'll clear the stage. We'll
[02:36:51] bring the lect up and I'll just
[02:36:52] introduce. Okay. And it sounds like we
[02:36:55] just have to make that very fast. Okay.
[02:36:57] Uh
[02:36:59] all right, everybody.
[02:37:01] Are you ready for a bit more before
[02:37:03] lunch? YAY.
[02:37:08] [laughter]
[02:37:10] I would like to ask everybody to start
[02:37:13] settling.
[02:37:14] Uh if you already want to come up, come
[02:37:17] up. Our panel is already assembling.
[02:37:22] I'm sitting. Yeah, here
[02:37:31] is we're all here. It seems um welcome
[02:37:36] back everybody. I hope you all had a
[02:37:38] lovely time with this last parallel
[02:37:41] session. We certainly did in this room.
[02:37:43] Um and here we are. Uh this I have to
[02:37:47] say is one of Clean Cities's most
[02:37:50] favorite topics. When we started working
[02:37:52] on SUVs and the size of cars, we could
[02:37:56] not imagine the momentum that would be
[02:37:59] built within the space of about you know
[02:38:02] 12 to 18 months. So we're extremely
[02:38:04] excited to have this disting this
[02:38:07] distinguished panel on stage today. Um,
[02:38:10] but before we just go into it, I just
[02:38:13] wanted to draw your attention to a few
[02:38:15] facts. So, I guess that many of you know
[02:38:19] that cars in the last decade have grown
[02:38:23] 1.2 cm longer, half a cm taller, and
[02:38:28] half a cime wider every single year. And
[02:38:33] I'm sure that those of you that were
[02:38:34] here yesterday, we alluded to it in our
[02:38:36] opening as well, that it is absolutely
[02:38:39] crazy when you look at a Nissan Mikra.
[02:38:42] And I s I'm sorry I keep bringing up the
[02:38:43] Nissan Mikra, [laughter] but it is
[02:38:46] absolutely unbelievable how it has
[02:38:48] ballooned. And it's unacceptable what it
[02:38:51] does to our streets. It's unacceptable
[02:38:53] what it does to our climate, you know,
[02:38:56] the need for materials and more
[02:38:58] importantly our streets and our children
[02:39:00] and our safety. And it's deeply deeply
[02:39:03] cultural. In London, actually, we call
[02:39:05] these things the Chelsea tractors. Why
[02:39:07] would you? Why on earth in London would
[02:39:09] you need these things to get around? And
[02:39:11] then when I talk to these mummies, these
[02:39:13] yummy mummies in both So, they're like,
[02:39:14] "Well, they're kind of safer." And I'm
[02:39:16] like, "Sure, they're safer for you.
[02:39:19] They're not safer for all of us
[02:39:21] outside." and all the children, your
[02:39:23] children, your child's best friend is
[02:39:25] going to get is more likely to get
[02:39:27] killed by this thing because you want to
[02:39:30] be safer and you don't really need it.
[02:39:32] You do do you really have like five
[02:39:34] children and three dogs cuz maybe then
[02:39:37] it's justified, right? And also, how
[02:39:39] many times a week do you actually use
[02:39:40] this thing? Most of the time cars are
[02:39:43] parked outside on our streets or on our
[02:39:46] driveways, those of you who have it, you
[02:39:48] know, in London, not many of us. But it
[02:39:50] is absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, that
[02:39:53] is the passion that Cle Cities feels
[02:39:55] about car spreading.
[02:39:58] [applause]
[02:39:59] And so I'm extremely happy to be
[02:40:01] moderating this panel with our
[02:40:03] distinguished panelists today. So Alex
[02:40:05] Brem from Lab of Thought. Give it up to
[02:40:07] Alex. [applause]
[02:40:10] Um actually and I should have also gone
[02:40:12] to the ladies first. So Sophia Navas
[02:40:14] Koka from Transport and Environment,
[02:40:17] [applause]
[02:40:19] Anna Goodman from Transport for Quality
[02:40:22] of Life. Sorry, she's an academic and
[02:40:24] does a lot of things, but that
[02:40:25] [laughter]
[02:40:27] [applause]
[02:40:28] and finally of course James Ward from
[02:40:30] the SUV alliance. Welcome. [applause]
[02:40:35] So thank you so much for uh accepting to
[02:40:37] be here. As you know, Clean Cities is a
[02:40:39] big advocate for stopping car spreading.
[02:40:42] uh we need to do right sizing and um I
[02:40:45] don't even know which order we're going
[02:40:46] to go today but we're gonna have about
[02:40:48] five minutes from each speaker then I'm
[02:40:50] going to take a very quick question from
[02:40:52] the audience after each speaker and that
[02:40:54] is how we're going to run this session
[02:40:55] right now so um Sophia I would turn to
[02:40:59] you first yesterday transport and
[02:41:02] environment and I think a little bit of
[02:41:04] clean cities was all over the media
[02:41:05] because of your fabulous work tell us
[02:41:07] more about that
[02:41:10] right so Um, yesterday was the big day
[02:41:13] for the ever bigger report. I'm going to
[02:41:15] present this shortly and it was in the
[02:41:18] Guardian as well, so on BBC, so you can
[02:41:20] read about it. But basically, so I'm a
[02:41:22] data analyst at Transport Environment.
[02:41:24] This is a Brussels-based NGO and I work
[02:41:27] mainly on EU policies, but also together
[02:41:30] with clean cities on we have been
[02:41:32] criticizing uh the car spreading over
[02:41:35] the past years. So if we go to the next
[02:41:37] slide, I don't know whether uh so if I
[02:41:40] so 2024 we had a report called the ever
[02:41:43] wider report where we found that
[02:41:45] vehicles grow 0.5 cm wider every year
[02:41:49] like new vehicle registrations leaving
[02:41:51] less space for other road users. Then in
[02:41:55] 2025, we had a follow-up report called
[02:41:58] the bonnet height report or ever higher
[02:42:00] where we found that bonnets of new
[02:42:02] registrations grow taller every year by
[02:42:05] 0.5 cm every year as well which poses a
[02:42:09] threat to our safety and especially the
[02:42:11] safety of children. So just to picture
[02:42:15] this, why is it a threat for safety is
[02:42:18] the left image where I see that a low
[02:42:20] bonneted vehicle, if you have a
[02:42:22] collision with a low bonneted vehicle as
[02:42:23] an average height um adult, it's going
[02:42:27] to strike you at the legs. So you're
[02:42:29] going to fall onto the bonnet and being
[02:42:31] deflected to the side, which sounds
[02:42:34] quite dramatic, but the fatality risk is
[02:42:36] actually lower than if you have a taller
[02:42:39] bonnet, which strikes you at vital
[02:42:41] organs. you get knocked under the
[02:42:43] vehicle, your head falls onto the ground
[02:42:46] and the fatality risk is higher. And
[02:42:48] this higher the higher the bonnet, the
[02:42:50] higher the risk of fatality is
[02:42:52] especially acute for children. And
[02:42:55] another problem for children is visible
[02:42:57] on the right hand side, which is the
[02:42:59] visibility problem. So children, the big
[02:43:01] the bigger the bonnet, the bigger the
[02:43:03] blind spot, which is like one of the
[02:43:05] main reasons why children are um
[02:43:08] endangered by high bonneted vehicles. So
[02:43:11] now to the 2026 so yesterday our ever
[02:43:16] bigger report. So basically we have been
[02:43:18] following
[02:43:20] the past 25 years vehicles have been
[02:43:22] increasing and the question that we ask
[02:43:24] is where does it stop like when we're
[02:43:27] just have this there's no reason to
[02:43:29] believe that's going to slow down right
[02:43:31] now. It's just a linear increase and we
[02:43:33] wanted to predict until 2040 what could
[02:43:35] happen and basically two worlds are
[02:43:38] possible and we call the one world the
[02:43:40] current trends where we just until 2040
[02:43:43] we just continue with new regist vehicle
[02:43:46] registrations increasing so we have
[02:43:49] bonnets by 2040 that and over 90 cm high
[02:43:53] so I'm not even 160 so it's more than
[02:43:56] half of my body height so it's not only
[02:43:58] about children of course children are
[02:44:00] important but also mainly about women
[02:44:01] which are often smaller than men but
[02:44:04] also just adults in general um all
[02:44:06] vulnerable road users. And so this is
[02:44:09] the current trend scenario. And then we
[02:44:11] compared with a world where we go back
[02:44:13] to vehicle dimensions by 2040 which we
[02:44:16] had between 2010 and 2015
[02:44:19] and we call this the right sizing
[02:44:21] scenario. So basically we have these two
[02:44:23] scenarios, one linearly increasing
[02:44:27] dimensions and one curb the trend and
[02:44:29] now we assess the difference between
[02:44:31] these two trends in terms of safety
[02:44:33] which I'm going to cover in a couple of
[02:44:35] seconds. Then also in terms of oil and
[02:44:37] electricity consumption and um urban
[02:44:40] space but this I won't cover now.
[02:44:43] Okay. So what we found in terms of
[02:44:46] safety is that right sizing cars, so
[02:44:49] following the right sizing trend could
[02:44:51] save 2,000 or close to 2,600 lives of
[02:44:56] vulnerable road users of all age groups.
[02:44:59] This is cumulatively over the next 14
[02:45:01] years looking at Europe. And so 2,600
[02:45:06] avoidable lives that current trends will
[02:45:10] could lead to if we follow the trend
[02:45:12] because of higher bonnets posing a
[02:45:15] higher fatality risk increase.
[02:45:18] Now specifically about children right
[02:45:21] sizing could save nearly 80 more
[02:45:24] children until 2040. So 80 or nearly 80
[02:45:28] avoidable lives or just following
[02:45:30] current trends endangers 80 additional
[02:45:33] children that could die and this is
[02:45:36] quite um striking and important to note
[02:45:38] and this is why we ask so we have the
[02:45:40] following policy recommendations to curb
[02:45:43] ever bigger cars. So first we want to
[02:45:46] introduce a large vehicle levy. So a tax
[02:45:49] paid on purchase to um disencourage
[02:45:52] people from b buying heavy and large
[02:45:55] cars. Then we want to cap the bonnet
[02:45:57] height at 85 cm and introduce a cap
[02:46:01] limit at 1.92
[02:46:04] m. We want to rate the vision of
[02:46:06] children from the driver's seat of new
[02:46:08] cars and also this also affects a year
[02:46:11] end cup and want a child vision standard
[02:46:14] in law. Fourth, we want to vary parking
[02:46:17] charges by size or weight which is also
[02:46:19] being introduced in some cities across
[02:46:20] Europe. And last point, we want to grant
[02:46:24] advant advantages to small electric cars
[02:46:27] um in the UK. So there's already a
[02:46:29] proposal in the EU on wants to be also
[02:46:32] uh
[02:46:35] accepted in the UK. Yeah, that's it.
[02:46:38] Thank you.
[02:46:40] [applause]
[02:46:44] Thank you so much, Sophia. So many uh
[02:46:46] like mind-blowing facts there. Okay, so
[02:46:49] we have time for one question. So I'm
[02:46:51] going to go like this because I don't
[02:46:53] want to be biased. And when I open my
[02:46:55] eyes and I look at the first direction
[02:46:57] that you uh that's the person I'm going
[02:46:59] to take. So is my are my colleagues
[02:47:01] ready with the mic?
[02:47:03] Okay. Okay. Person in the green.
[02:47:15] Thank you. Uh fantastic presentations.
[02:47:18] My question is I understood that car
[02:47:20] manufacturers needed to meet regulations
[02:47:22] regarding pedestrians outside the
[02:47:24] vehicle. I seem to recall in the 1990s
[02:47:27] adverts from conventional cars as we
[02:47:30] would now call them not SUVs talking
[02:47:32] about how good they were uh in such uh
[02:47:35] situations.
[02:47:36] Do they not do those regulations not
[02:47:38] exist which has allowed this to grow and
[02:47:40] grow?
[02:47:42] So basically well there are regulations
[02:47:44] but basically they are not enough. So
[02:47:46] for example, one
[02:47:48] that's a bit so there is this individual
[02:47:50] vehicle approval which allows you even
[02:47:54] this kind of loophole to circumvent the
[02:47:57] regulations that are already in place
[02:47:59] which is the reason why you see some
[02:48:02] even um like some ram pickup trucks that
[02:48:05] are gigantic and that actually shouldn't
[02:48:07] be allowed. Then also the regulations
[02:48:10] right now are not um so the Euro end cup
[02:48:14] is just it's not [laughter]
[02:48:15] has nothing mandatory in place. I'm not
[02:48:17] the policy experts here but we want
[02:48:20] basically to be the more stringent and
[02:48:23] yeah I I refer also to clean cities for
[02:48:26] that because I'm a data analyst so I
[02:48:28] cannot give you specific details for now
[02:48:32] but maybe if you want to come in Ollie
[02:48:35] sorry yeah just to jump in. Um, so the
[02:48:37] there are vehicle dimensions, but you
[02:48:39] can currently build a car as wide as a
[02:48:41] truck. So it's all based around heavy
[02:48:42] duty vehicles, and that's why they're
[02:48:44] getting so wide. For the safety, there's
[02:48:46] no bonnet height regulation whatsoever.
[02:48:49] In fact, it's hardly measured. So that's
[02:48:52] why this report has actually been quite
[02:48:53] groundbreaking in that. And as for the
[02:48:55] safety uh Euro Encap policy and you know
[02:48:59] where they actually take it through a
[02:49:01] voluntary safety testing procedure which
[02:49:03] most manufacturers do, it doesn't have a
[02:49:05] forward vision test for children and
[02:49:08] that's why we're now seeing height and
[02:49:10] bonnets and then also lack of visibility
[02:49:13] also with the A-frame as well of the
[02:49:14] vehicle. There's a fantastic New York
[02:49:16] Times article out this week. Do Google
[02:49:18] it. It shows you visualizations of the
[02:49:20] of the issue as well.
[02:49:23] Thank you so much Ollie for that
[02:49:24] audition and thank you Sophia. And now
[02:49:26] moving on to Anna. Anna, so good to have
[02:49:29] you. Please tell us. Hey everyone.
[02:49:33] Lovely. So I'm I'm an academic and um I
[02:49:37] have done various bits of work in this
[02:49:39] space. Um if you where which one is it?
[02:49:45] Uh
[02:49:47] ah
[02:49:49] perfect. So just as a bit of context for
[02:49:52] why this is something which needs policy
[02:49:53] action. So as this is a different way of
[02:49:56] saying the same facts about cars are
[02:49:57] getting larger. This is looking at the
[02:49:59] share of SUVs over time. You can see a
[02:50:01] huge increase. So London from 3% 20 odd
[02:50:04] years ago to 30% of cars on the roads
[02:50:06] now SUVs. This is part of why I think
[02:50:09] action is needed because it's going fast
[02:50:10] in the wrong direction.
[02:50:13] You'll see here I work a lot with clean
[02:50:15] cities. I routinely steal their graphics
[02:50:17] which usually is fine but now they've
[02:50:18] often you these are the same ones you'll
[02:50:20] see from me as you've just seen from
[02:50:21] Sophia. So I think this is the same
[02:50:23] thing Sophia talked about just the the
[02:50:25] phrase which I always use is thinking
[02:50:27] about cars as magnifying externalizing
[02:50:29] road danger. So magnifying meaning a
[02:50:32] system with lots of large cars is
[02:50:34] overall more dangerous than a system
[02:50:35] with small cars. But the externalizing
[02:50:37] bit is it's not the people inside the
[02:50:39] vehicle at the greater risk gets pushed
[02:50:40] out onto everyone else. The one inside
[02:50:42] is slightly safer. And so I think this
[02:50:44] is exactly why you need policy action
[02:50:45] because we don't want magnification but
[02:50:47] also if it's externalized the consumers
[02:50:49] won't make that choice by themselves.
[02:50:53] And then this is just another way of
[02:50:54] showing the same thing. So it's the
[02:50:55] smaller you are the more the higher
[02:50:57] bonnet height kicks in as a mechanism
[02:50:59] which is why we expect see children at
[02:51:00] particular risk.
[02:51:03] We looked at this in UK data um last
[02:51:05] year. So when we looked at um road
[02:51:07] traffic crashes for the last 20 years or
[02:51:09] so in the UK and saying if all else
[02:51:11] equal you're hit by a regular passenger
[02:51:13] car versus an SUV, what happens? We we
[02:51:16] see the same thing we expected. So
[02:51:18] children at greater risks. So for adults
[02:51:20] if you're hit by an SUV, 15% chance
[02:51:23] greater chance you're killed if you're a
[02:51:24] pedestrian cyclist. For children as a
[02:51:26] whole, it was 44% greater. And then for
[02:51:29] the smallest children, so naught to 9
[02:51:30] years old, it was nearly three times
[02:51:32] greater. That's 182%.
[02:51:34] So again fitting in with this issue for
[02:51:36] everyone but particularly for children
[02:51:40] also we've you've just seen this slide
[02:51:41] before but in terms of indirect danger
[02:51:43] this crowding out other road users
[02:51:45] blocking space that might be used for um
[02:51:47] safer infrastructure
[02:51:49] and then there's an additional indirect
[02:51:51] way which um larger cars harm people but
[02:51:54] particularly children is also think
[02:51:56] about when you're trying to cross the
[02:51:57] road you need to see what traffic's
[02:51:59] coming. So for the 96% of time when
[02:52:01] these cars are not being used, they're
[02:52:03] being parked on the curb side.
[02:52:04] Traditional passenger car, kids can see
[02:52:06] over them. Both sexes, age of 11, the
[02:52:08] age where most kids are starting to go
[02:52:10] about by themselves. For your average
[02:52:12] SUV, a boy has to wait till 14 to be
[02:52:14] able to see over it. The average woman
[02:52:16] never gets there. So like you said, it's
[02:52:18] particularly kids, but also about women.
[02:52:20] And then for the new typical large SUVs
[02:52:22] we see more of, so Range Rover Sports,
[02:52:24] even the average UK man never can see
[02:52:26] over it. And it both increases road
[02:52:29] danger and just makes our streets feel
[02:52:30] much more car dominated. All you can see
[02:52:32] is a wall of cars.
[02:52:36] I think that was the last of my slide. I
[02:52:37] thought I might have a plug on the final
[02:52:39] page. We've done for anyone thinking of
[02:52:40] doing a policy in this space, we've
[02:52:41] written an SUV toolkit where this
[02:52:44] together with clean cities where we have
[02:52:45] a lots of kind of nitty-gritty technical
[02:52:47] questions. So you know which metric,
[02:52:49] height, size, what data sources you have
[02:52:52] in the UK, these sorts of things. So if
[02:52:54] anyone thinking of actually implementing
[02:52:55] this, you could have a look at that.
[02:52:56] Thank you.
[02:52:58] [applause]
[02:53:02] Thank you so much, Anna. So, as with the
[02:53:06] previous uh speaker, we have time for
[02:53:08] one question. So, I can I can do my
[02:53:12] equitable approach here as well. Any
[02:53:16] hands?
[02:53:18] Uh oh god. Uh [laughter] Ellis, I
[02:53:22] apologize.
[02:53:30] Hi there. I'm Meav from the Royal Town
[02:53:32] Planning Institute. Um, taking notes
[02:53:34] furiously. Um, I have a question. I
[02:53:37] don't know if this is like a sort of
[02:53:38] question the RTPI would ask, but I I
[02:53:40] have a background in campaigning and all
[02:53:42] sorts of things. I'm wondering, has
[02:53:43] anyone thought of trying to sue the
[02:53:45] motor industry? I can't believe that
[02:53:46] this is legal. Can we do a class action?
[02:53:49] I mean, they're just designing stuff.
[02:53:51] They know what the impacts are. The
[02:53:53] people who make these things always know
[02:53:55] more than anyone else. Why are they
[02:53:57] doing it? They just want to reduce
[02:54:02] the children of the women who are always
[02:54:03] getting in their way. You know what is
[02:54:04] it? You're just giving us a great idea
[02:54:07] there. I don't know if any of our
[02:54:10] friends from planet Earth are here, but
[02:54:11] if you are in the audience, um, yes,
[02:54:14] hello. Maybe we need to talk, [laughter]
[02:54:18] but yes, we do have friends who are
[02:54:19] specialized uh, you know, in legal
[02:54:21] matters much more so than we are. So
[02:54:23] perhaps you're g you've just you know
[02:54:25] started something
[02:54:28] and just as a a comment on the why I
[02:54:30] think it's it's been the kind of the
[02:54:32] upselling of a vehicle that used you you
[02:54:34] know you used to have an SUV if you
[02:54:35] lived if you had a field and you needed
[02:54:37] to drive across it it's now just a kind
[02:54:38] of new normal you see the same thing
[02:54:40] again with sevenseater vehicles where it
[02:54:42] used to be if you had four kids you
[02:54:43] might buy one now they're becoming just
[02:54:45] a normal luxury car so I think that's
[02:54:47] the why is they have higher profit
[02:54:48] margins and it's a type of upselling as
[02:54:51] to the you know good luck with the other
[02:54:52] Yeah, sounds sounds good.
[02:54:56] Thank you so much, Anna, and thank you
[02:54:57] for the question. Now, we're moving on
[02:54:59] to James from the SUV Alliance. And uh
[02:55:02] yeah, feel free to use one of those,
[02:55:04] otherwise we'll be leaning over each
[02:55:06] other here.
[02:55:12] Testing, testing.
[02:55:13] There we go.
[02:55:14] Uh well, hello everyone. Uh yeah, hello
[02:55:17] everyone. Is this working? I can't
[02:55:18] really tell. Hello everyone for the
[02:55:20] third time. Uh so yes uh so I'm here
[02:55:22] with kind of multiple hats on SUV
[02:55:24] Alliance and also Adfree Cities where I
[02:55:26] work. uh and I'm going to be speaking
[02:55:28] about a piece of research done very
[02:55:30] recently by myself uh Ian Walker who's
[02:55:33] here today and Jim Choy from the
[02:55:34] University of Swansea based on some Yugo
[02:55:37] polling that was done earlier this year
[02:55:39] and we were trying to understand
[02:55:42] what British drivers understand about
[02:55:45] SUVs and road danger where their
[02:55:48] knowledge comes from and how that
[02:55:50] impacts on their purchasing decisions.
[02:55:53] So I'm just going to give a kind of
[02:55:54] brief snapshot to that uh research now.
[02:55:57] So, we asked uh respondents in a survey
[02:56:01] uh do you agree that SUVs and pickup
[02:56:02] trucks pose a greater risk to other road
[02:56:04] users than smaller cars? Hint, yes, they
[02:56:06] do. However,
[02:56:09] 66% [laughter]
[02:56:10] so nearly 2/3 of license uh driver
[02:56:12] license holders in Britain do not know
[02:56:15] that, do not agree that SUVs are more
[02:56:17] dangerous. So, only a third gave the
[02:56:19] correct answer to that question. Amongst
[02:56:21] SUV owners, it rises to 86% who do not
[02:56:25] know that the vehicle they're driving is
[02:56:27] more dangerous.
[02:56:29] Uh just interestingly actually the
[02:56:31] younger drivers 18 to 24 showed a
[02:56:34] greater awareness of the danger. Nearly
[02:56:35] 50% of them agreed with the statement.
[02:56:37] Uh and older drivers were uh the least
[02:56:40] aware.
[02:56:43] We then asked, so thinking about your
[02:56:45] next vehicle, how likely is it that you
[02:56:47] would buy uh an SUV or a pickup truck?
[02:56:51] And again, quite interestingly, so the
[02:56:53] two leftmost bars here, that's
[02:56:55] nationwide. So only 24% of drivers
[02:56:59] actually said that they wanted to buy
[02:57:00] one of these cars. Uh Farmore said that
[02:57:03] they have no interest. In London, the
[02:57:05] two middle bars there, slightly lower,
[02:57:07] 20% of London drivers want an SUV or
[02:57:10] pickup for their next car. But when we
[02:57:12] look at when we look at the rightmost
[02:57:14] bars, the script is flipped. So this is
[02:57:16] SUV owners currently driving an SUV at
[02:57:19] 80% of them, five uh sorry, four out of
[02:57:22] five SUV owners want another one as
[02:57:24] their next car. So essentially, if you
[02:57:27] are driving an SUV, you're going to buy
[02:57:29] another one, and if you don't, then you
[02:57:31] won't.
[02:57:34] Respondents in the poll were then shown
[02:57:36] one of six kind of mock marketing
[02:57:39] images. Three of which were quite
[02:57:40] traditional marketing images like the
[02:57:42] one on the left and then the other half
[02:57:44] had these kind of mock tobacco style
[02:57:46] warning labels saying you know this car
[02:57:48] is more dangerous because of its size
[02:57:50] and weight.
[02:57:52] After showing respondents one of those
[02:57:53] me one of those um ad images, we then
[02:57:56] asked again having seen this do you
[02:57:58] agree that SUVs and pickups pose a
[02:58:00] greater danger? And this time there was
[02:58:03] an uplift in awareness. So a 28% in
[02:58:05] uplift in awareness overall
[02:58:08] kind of differentiated between uh
[02:58:11] non-SUV owners who were 31% more likely
[02:58:14] to agree that SUVs are more dangerous
[02:58:16] versus only 20% of SUV drivers. So again
[02:58:20] there's this quite significant
[02:58:21] difference in how drivers respond to
[02:58:24] that safety information depending on
[02:58:26] what kind of vehicle they themselves
[02:58:28] drive.
[02:58:30] We then again asked thinking about your
[02:58:32] next vehicle, how likely is it that you
[02:58:33] would buy an SUV or pickup?
[02:58:36] And so am so amongst drivers who said
[02:58:40] [snorts] that they would like an SUV or
[02:58:42] pickup for their next car and would then
[02:58:43] shown that safety information. So in
[02:58:45] full knowledge that they are more
[02:58:46] dangerous, 94%
[02:58:49] said that they wouldn't shift their
[02:58:50] buying intention. So even telling people
[02:58:53] that their vehicle is more dangerous
[02:58:55] will not stop them buying one. So there
[02:58:58] are a couple of implications here. First
[02:59:00] of all, there's a massive information
[02:59:01] deficit. Only a third of people know the
[02:59:04] you know facts of the matter on this on
[02:59:06] this issue. And the second one is that
[02:59:08] soft policies like those tobacco style
[02:59:11] warning labels will not shift people's
[02:59:13] buying intentions. Hard policies like
[02:59:16] vehicle tax, uh weight based parking
[02:59:18] levies, etc. are going to be required.
[02:59:22] [sighs and gasps] Now we've already
[02:59:23] heard a little bit about those hard
[02:59:24] policies. I think we're going to hear
[02:59:25] some more. So I'm actually just going to
[02:59:27] pick up on that first point which I
[02:59:28] think is quite interesting because I
[02:59:31] think we know from experience uh
[02:59:33] particularly thinking around like LTN's
[02:59:35] that when policy moves too far ahead of
[02:59:38] public knowledge or public awareness
[02:59:39] that is when you risk getting a
[02:59:41] backlash. So I think it's worth just
[02:59:42] pausing and reflecting on well where
[02:59:44] does public knowledge about SUVs come
[02:59:46] from? You know why are so many people in
[02:59:48] the dark about this? And you know I my
[02:59:51] job is challenging like the influence of
[02:59:53] advertising. So that's where I'm going
[02:59:54] to going to land on. I think advertising
[02:59:56] and marketing does have a big role uh
[02:59:58] does have a lot to answer for here. Um
[03:00:01] in terms of creating the image of the
[03:00:03] SUV as a kind of safe, comfortable
[03:00:06] family car like I mean this kind of very
[03:00:08] far from scientific survey of
[03:00:10] advertising. I mean I pulled this off
[03:00:11] the web in like 30 minutes of the way
[03:00:14] you know kid proof comfort or you know
[03:00:16] in the back of an SUV the kids are calm.
[03:00:18] Family SUVs uh your Instagram
[03:00:21] influencers. This is like a a mom
[03:00:23] influencer and she's talking about her
[03:00:24] new SUV, fully electric family car. The
[03:00:27] way that they are sold to us uh
[03:00:29] reinforces this idea that they are
[03:00:31] fundamentally safe for the people
[03:00:34] inside, but the people outside are
[03:00:36] forgotten about and just erase from the
[03:00:38] conversation completely. So yeah, I
[03:00:40] don't have time to go into sort of more
[03:00:42] detail on the solutions, but if you'd
[03:00:44] like to catch me later or drop me an
[03:00:45] email, I'd be very happy to chat. Thank
[03:00:47] you. [applause]
[03:00:53] Thank you so much, James. Wow, I cannot
[03:00:56] believe that 94% of those owners still
[03:00:59] want it after knowing the facts. So, we
[03:01:01] have a lot to do, guys. Um, and so,
[03:01:04] yeah, actually, we have one uh one uh
[03:01:06] question time and I already see lady in
[03:01:09] the pale blue.
[03:01:15] Hi. Um, if Curry from Glasgow City
[03:01:19] Council, um, it just struck me as you
[03:01:22] were talking about the advertising.
[03:01:24] Maybe we should bring back the the
[03:01:28] test crash dummy adverts that ran in the
[03:01:31] ' 70s. Um, and and update them to show
[03:01:35] the dangers of SUVs and larger vehicles.
[03:01:40] Um so along with suing the more the car
[03:01:43] companies um bring back more
[03:01:45] hard-hitting
[03:01:47] advertising.
[03:01:50] Yeah I I fully agree. I mean I think I
[03:01:53] mean again you know like the research
[03:01:54] shows kind of soft policy interventions
[03:01:56] are limited but there is that knowledge
[03:01:58] gap that needs to be filled and I think
[03:02:00] yeah public authorities have a
[03:02:01] responsibility. Be great to see you know
[03:02:04] the there's the think campaign the
[03:02:06] government think campaign. Could there
[03:02:07] be something there on car spreading? Um,
[03:02:09] local authorities do have actually have
[03:02:11] some some power here in terms of public
[03:02:13] space advertising to restrict the kinds
[03:02:16] of adverts that are seen on for instance
[03:02:17] bus shelters or some billboards as well.
[03:02:19] And Edinburgh back in 2024, I think it
[03:02:22] was, introduced restrictions on SUV
[03:02:24] advertising for precisely that reason.
[03:02:26] And we're kind of lobbying other
[03:02:27] councils to do the same. TfL
[03:02:29] [clears throat] could do that.
[03:02:33] [applause]
[03:02:37] Thank you so much, James. And now we're
[03:02:39] moving on to Alex from the Lab of
[03:02:41] Thought.
[03:02:43] At the Lab of Thought, we like to
[03:02:45] radically rethink things at times. And
[03:02:49] this spring we sat down together with
[03:02:52] our chief sort of rethinker professor
[03:02:54] Marco de Brato and the brilliant minds
[03:02:57] of the school run and also clean cities
[03:03:00] to question we care so much about the
[03:03:03] safety of our children but they have no
[03:03:06] voice in how we design cities, how we
[03:03:08] design our roads, how we design our
[03:03:11] vehicles. So we were like let's change
[03:03:14] that. Let's ask them how they actually
[03:03:16] feel on in our public space on our
[03:03:19] roads. So, children, are you are you
[03:03:22] here?
[03:03:25] How do you feel in public space?
[03:03:29] It makes me feel either really scared or
[03:03:32] really overwhelmed,
[03:03:34] especially the big SUVs.
[03:03:37] Okay. And what about what about you?
[03:03:41] It makes me feel a bit excited but also
[03:03:44] really scared at the same time. Kind of
[03:03:46] like, "Oh my gosh, there's a car next to
[03:03:48] me. Where? Oh my god, it's next to me.
[03:03:51] Oh, don't run me over."
[03:03:56] So, it seems to be the big SUVs that
[03:03:58] have a particular effect. What should we
[03:04:00] do about them?
[03:04:04] We should get rid of these types of cars
[03:04:06] because it's a lot of pollution and also
[03:04:09] they're too big and they might kill like
[03:04:12] four year olds or 5year-olds.
[03:04:16] And what's the biggest issue? Where do
[03:04:19] you see the biggest problem?
[03:04:22] They can't really see uh other little
[03:04:24] kids.
[03:04:26] Our children across Europe feel
[03:04:29] invisible on our roads.
[03:04:32] The monster is not under the bed. It's
[03:04:35] out on the street. And we as a species
[03:04:37] are putting it out on the street to keep
[03:04:40] our loved ones safe. And we've put so
[03:04:43] much effort as a society into creating
[03:04:46] vehicle safety ratings. And look, from
[03:04:49] the new Mini Cooper to the big new uh
[03:04:52] Land Rover Defender, everything gets a
[03:04:54] five-star top-notch safety ratings. Even
[03:04:57] the pickup. Have a look.
[03:05:01] And those vehicles are brilliant at
[03:05:04] keeping our children safe until our
[03:05:07] children step out of the car. And our
[03:05:10] safe cars are getting bigger and bigger
[03:05:12] and bigger, which is not just a problem
[03:05:14] for our children's friends and our
[03:05:16] neighbors children. But guess who's most
[03:05:18] likely to run around your big SUV? Your
[03:05:22] own child.
[03:05:24] And it's not just SUVs getting bigger
[03:05:27] and we buying more of them. The blind
[03:05:29] spots that we have while riding those
[03:05:31] SUVs, while driving in our cities is
[03:05:33] getting bigger and are getting bigger,
[03:05:36] bigger and bigger every year, making our
[03:05:38] children more invisible year by year by
[03:05:43] year.
[03:05:45] Our children were right in that they
[03:05:47] feel invisible and we are making it
[03:05:50] worse year by year by year. But wait,
[03:05:54] and I've already heard a comment about
[03:05:56] we have those crash test dummies, right?
[03:05:59] Those brave sort of heroes who crash
[03:06:02] cars all day long to keep us safe.
[03:06:07] But also, they get out of the car in the
[03:06:09] end. And what happens to them when they
[03:06:11] get out of the car? Looks like this.
[03:06:15] A leg and a head. That's what all of you
[03:06:18] are like to our best vehicle safety
[03:06:21] standard. And that's how you are
[03:06:23] represented.
[03:06:25] This
[03:06:27] should the safety of our CDs be defined
[03:06:30] by this. And by the way, these are two
[03:06:33] adults and two children. It might be a
[03:06:34] bit hard to say on this. We have created
[03:06:38] invisibility by design. A heartless
[03:06:42] process that creates many blind spots
[03:06:44] quite literally and literally.
[03:06:48] So the safety rating is designed from
[03:06:50] inside the car out.
[03:06:53] And we were like, "Yeah, but how about
[03:06:56] we zoom out and re-evaluate the entire
[03:06:59] story?" So we ran a thought experiment
[03:07:01] with university students from some of
[03:07:04] the best universities all over Europe,
[03:07:06] students from many different
[03:07:08] disciplines. And we asked them, okay,
[03:07:10] imagine there is a road like here, uh,
[03:07:14] but the car was never invented. Somebody
[03:07:17] comes up and it's like, I've this new
[03:07:19] invention. Uh, it's a bit big, but it's
[03:07:22] really quick and can get you everywhere.
[03:07:25] And it's your and your and your decision
[03:07:28] if we allow it on our streets and under
[03:07:30] what conditions. And the students came
[03:07:33] up with a new scoreboard of nine
[03:07:36] categories, all somewhat similar
[03:07:38] important on what that should look like.
[03:07:42] And let me walk you through this real
[03:07:44] quick. On the top left, we have the
[03:07:46] collision safety outside and inside the
[03:07:48] vehicle and the crash avoidance. Quite
[03:07:51] similar to what we are already doing
[03:07:53] today to some degree, but they're
[03:07:55] equally important. Their weights are
[03:07:57] equally important. On top of that, the
[03:08:00] students identified the speed profile.
[03:08:02] How fast can the car actually go by uh
[03:08:06] our citizens, you and me, in every city.
[03:08:10] the sightelines as we've heard so often
[03:08:12] today already the blind spots from the
[03:08:15] driver's seat as we've seen on that
[03:08:16] picture earlier but also in general how
[03:08:19] much of sort of our view in the city is
[03:08:22] blocked by those cars noise pollution
[03:08:26] air pollution are really important and
[03:08:28] as we've heard in that new brilliant
[03:08:30] study also the space demand how much
[03:08:32] space do cars actually take up in our
[03:08:35] cities um
[03:08:38] well and how different is that for
[03:08:39] example to a bike. And the last bit
[03:08:42] which was really interesting to me is
[03:08:44] the secondary societal cost of putting
[03:08:47] that vehicle on the road. How does that
[03:08:50] impact our health, our loneliness? How
[03:08:52] does it impact the quality of life in
[03:08:55] our cities?
[03:08:57] And after this exploratory study that we
[03:09:00] have run, I would like to invite all of
[03:09:03] you now and the swarm intelligence that
[03:09:06] we have those brilliant ideas in this
[03:09:09] room
[03:09:10] to rethink together on how we should
[03:09:12] actually re-evaluate
[03:09:15] safety. Create a safety rating that is
[03:09:17] not focusing on the people inside the
[03:09:21] car mainly, but focus on everyone the
[03:09:25] car meets. Whether that is you having a
[03:09:28] cup of coffee outside, whether those are
[03:09:31] the construction workers in public,
[03:09:33] those of us who play on the street, or
[03:09:37] yeah, also those inside the vehicles, of
[03:09:39] course.
[03:09:41] So, safety and the city. How about we
[03:09:45] design that in a way that cares deeply
[03:09:47] about everybody the car meets?
[03:09:52] [applause]
[03:09:58] Thank you so much, Alex. Uh,
[03:10:00] mind-blowing. Uh, we have time for one
[03:10:03] question. Uh, and the lady here in black
[03:10:06] or navy.
[03:10:08] Thank you. Um, I'm just wondering if,
[03:10:10] uh, I mean, thank you for all of the
[03:10:12] great work. I'm just wondering if any of
[03:10:14] you has worked with the driving DVLA
[03:10:17] basically because they're responsible
[03:10:20] for um you know bringing the new
[03:10:23] generation of drivers and licensing um
[03:10:26] these people. So I think people study
[03:10:28] for the theory test read and when I did
[03:10:32] mine I didn't see anything about SUVs
[03:10:33] but I think there's a chance of like
[03:10:35] speaking to new drivers who are coming
[03:10:37] into the road. Um so just a thought
[03:10:39] there.
[03:10:41] Really good. Do you want to take that?
[03:10:43] I had a bit of trouble understanding it
[03:10:44] with all the noise. Could you summarize
[03:10:45] that question for me real quick?
[03:10:47] Do any of us work with the DVLA
[03:10:50] and the DVLA being the No, [laughter]
[03:10:53] the road safety
[03:10:54] driving
[03:10:55] or the driving training.
[03:11:00] Yes.
[03:11:01] um the the re sort of teaching people
[03:11:06] more about the negative effects and
[03:11:09] whether that is now I think you've
[03:11:11] summed it up quite beautifully about
[03:11:12] SUVs but research also shows about speed
[03:11:15] limits
[03:11:17] has almost no impact and there was a
[03:11:19] speed um vehicle safety conference in
[03:11:22] the states I think it was the '7s of the
[03:11:25] most the brilliant most brilliant safety
[03:11:27] experts on the road lowering speed
[03:11:29] limits thinking about speed limits and
[03:11:31] they did a survey uh stand stood outside
[03:11:34] the conference center with a radar gun
[03:11:36] and checked how quickly those safety
[03:11:38] experts are driving compared to everyone
[03:11:40] else. And turns out the people who know
[03:11:42] most about vehicle safety drove the
[03:11:44] quickest.
[03:11:47] Okay. Well, [laughter]
[03:11:50] I I think I can take one more question
[03:11:52] from the audience and that can be to any
[03:11:54] of the panelists of course. Uh,
[03:12:00] I'm trying to pick someone who's not
[03:12:01] been on the stage today. [laughter]
[03:12:04] Um,
[03:12:04] I was going to say it's a bit of an
[03:12:06] abstract question like what is an SUV?
[03:12:09] Because the the term SUV has been kind
[03:12:12] of changed so much that like small cars
[03:12:15] are now called SUVs. So like like what
[03:12:17] would we say an SUV is? And is there a
[03:12:19] risk that smaller cars becoming SUV type
[03:12:23] cars? Is that also a big risk as well?
[03:12:26] There's no definition of what is an SUV.
[03:12:29] Uh it seemed to it came where it cames
[03:12:32] it comes from sort of uh the movement in
[03:12:34] United States to build big cars that
[03:12:37] can't actually do any rough stuff but
[03:12:39] just have a high driving position. And
[03:12:42] now we have those city SUVs which are a
[03:12:44] bit smaller but equally high. And there
[03:12:47] is I think a big risk in terms of also
[03:12:49] electrification and cars becoming
[03:12:51] slightly taller because of the battery
[03:12:53] pack at the bottom that more and more
[03:12:55] cars are SUV like but there's no
[03:12:58] definition and even if you look at how
[03:13:00] NCAP the organization who really looks
[03:13:03] into the safety of all of those vehicles
[03:13:05] with lots of blind spots um are defining
[03:13:09] SUVs and it's wild. It's a mess really.
[03:13:12] It's like a marketing term because
[03:13:14] people want
[03:13:16] to sell to you or everything
[03:13:19] from a research perspective. How does
[03:13:21] that work?
[03:13:25] Sorry.
[03:13:33] So I think I mean you're right. It's a
[03:13:34] it's an industry term. So any of you
[03:13:36] planning your policy, you can't say
[03:13:37] we're going to tax SUVs. That's the
[03:13:38] reason you use it so coms people
[03:13:40] understand what an SUV is for
[03:13:42] communications. At the moment when we
[03:13:44] looked it's height is overwhelmingly
[03:13:46] what distinguishes them and actually
[03:13:47] there is currently a clear gap. So it's
[03:13:49] higher wheelbase off the road and
[03:13:51] current cars the ones called SUVs do sit
[03:13:53] you know notably higher than the shorter
[03:13:55] ones. But of course as soon as you I
[03:13:57] mean the you know you have to define
[03:13:59] your policy in terms of something
[03:14:00] objective like height or bonnet height
[03:14:02] if you had it. I think in terms of all
[03:14:05] the cars becoming bigger, there's a
[03:14:08] really important population health
[03:14:09] concept of it's not any shift in the
[03:14:12] average. So everyone, you know, 2
[03:14:14] minutes shift exercise at the population
[03:14:16] or whatever has very big effects. So I
[03:14:19] think it's it's true. It's it's about
[03:14:20] all the cars becoming bigger and the way
[03:14:21] this feeds through. It's not just that
[03:14:23] there's a few cars that are enormous.
[03:14:24] And I think that is exactly the problem.
[03:14:26] All the cars are becoming bigger. The
[03:14:27] ones that aren't called SUVs are still
[03:14:29] becoming big. The ones called SUVs are
[03:14:30] becoming bigger. It's a full shift of
[03:14:32] the distribution and I think recognizing
[03:14:35] that using SUVs or coms but using weight
[03:14:37] or height or something objective to
[03:14:39] bring it down is the way to deal with it
[03:14:41] and that's what we call car spreading.
[03:14:44] Uh thank you everybody. Thank you to our
[03:14:46] wonderful panel. [applause]
[03:14:52] So before we break for lunch, you you
[03:14:55] are going to I know I'm about to say
[03:14:58] that we are going to hear from uh Mike
[03:15:01] Flynn, but we are going to reorganize
[03:15:04] the stage for a little bit. Just bear
[03:15:06] with us for 30 seconds.
[03:15:15] Interesting.
[03:15:19] Instead of smoke, strawberries come out.
[03:15:23] But can you tell me why strawberries are
[03:15:25] better than exhaust fumes?
[03:15:27] Because they're tasty. That is a bubble
[03:15:30] to
[03:15:32] video.
[03:15:33] Yeah. Do you like this?
[03:15:35] It's a dog. So instead of
[03:15:40] sleeping
[03:15:42] and cash
[03:15:44] there's a so there I like the idea of
[03:15:48] car space no gas would come out cuz it's
[03:15:51] new and the gas will the gas will like
[03:15:55] um be made to be um like fresher like
[03:16:01] fresher.
[03:16:05] I take the tube
[03:16:09] quite far away.
[03:16:11] Appreciate you holding the mic to your
[03:16:13] mouth. Is that all right?
[03:16:16] Because I don't
[03:16:22] I
[03:16:26] probably want to go.
[03:16:28] What do you like about the scooter?
[03:16:31] Go down hills.
[03:16:33] Is it nice being outside?
[03:16:42] It just makes you feel free because you
[03:16:45] go downhill so
[03:16:50] it feels like
[03:16:53] it's amazing.
[03:16:57] These jeeps also um they can't they
[03:17:01] can't really see uh other little kids
[03:17:03] who were on the bike. So they can't hit
[03:17:07] those kids and make it all bad. But my
[03:17:11] sister, she used to have problems with
[03:17:14] her lungs.
[03:17:16] Um like a swallowing problem, but also
[03:17:18] she used to get infections in her lungs.
[03:17:21] Um, and any time that we would walk
[03:17:25] past,
[03:17:27] um, I would always think, doesn't this
[03:17:30] make it worse? And I would just really
[03:17:32] hope that it doesn't happen to um, the
[03:17:35] people of our future.
[03:17:43] Okay. Okay, everyone. Hopefully you can
[03:17:46] hear me. Have a bit of quiet, please.
[03:17:49] So, just before we break for lunch,
[03:17:51] we're really privileged to have with us
[03:17:53] the commissioner for New York's
[03:17:55] transportation department, Mike Flynn.
[03:17:57] And over to you, Mike. And we'll have
[03:17:58] some questions at the end of his
[03:17:59] presentation as well. Thank you very
[03:18:01] much. Sounds great. HEY, [applause]
[03:18:06] that's some good energy considering I'm
[03:18:08] coming between you and lunch. So, uh,
[03:18:10] I'm going to I'll try to be efficient
[03:18:12] and I want to make sure we have time for
[03:18:14] questions. I have slides, but maybe I'll
[03:18:16] rush through them. happy to talk more
[03:18:18] about anything. Uh yeah, so really a
[03:18:21] pleasure to be here. Really appreciate
[03:18:23] the invite. Big uh kudos to that last
[03:18:25] session that was so uh so much great
[03:18:28] research, so timely. Obviously, we
[03:18:31] struggle with the same issue times 10 in
[03:18:34] the US uh to the point that was raised
[03:18:36] by one of the panelists because it
[03:18:38] should the truck should just be bigger
[03:18:40] for no reason. Even if I'm driving in
[03:18:42] the city, it makes no sense. Uh okay. So
[03:18:45] I'm going to talk a little bit about um
[03:18:48] our vision for transportation under
[03:18:50] Mayor Mandani. Uh but I given the sort
[03:18:53] of theme of uh today's event. Yeah.
[03:18:56] Well, the last two days event, uh I'm
[03:18:57] going to focus a little more on some of
[03:18:59] the things we're doing around uh kids
[03:19:02] and schools and rethinking our streets
[03:19:04] for health, for learning, and all the
[03:19:07] warm and fuzzy stuff.
[03:19:11] But just kind of at a high level um and
[03:19:14] I guess maybe real quick a little about
[03:19:15] me. I started as an environmental and
[03:19:17] social activist. I stumbled into urban
[03:19:20] planning. I realized government was a
[03:19:22] place I could have an impact. I worked
[03:19:24] at New York City Department of
[03:19:25] Transportation uh under Janette
[03:19:27] Sadakhan, Mayor Bloomberg and others. I
[03:19:30] was in the private sector consulting and
[03:19:32] came back uh to lead the DOT. Um at a
[03:19:37] high level uh the mayor it's I feel very
[03:19:40] lucky and privileged to work for a mayor
[03:19:42] who really understands the fundamental
[03:19:44] connection between transportation the
[03:19:46] built environment and our lives and
[03:19:49] especially affordability and the lives
[03:19:51] of working people and the people
[03:19:52] struggling the most and and really take
[03:19:55] seriously the uh both the potential but
[03:19:58] the responsibility of the work I do and
[03:20:00] my agency does to move the needle in
[03:20:02] that regard. um our priorities uh we'll
[03:20:06] be putting out kind of a vision in the
[03:20:08] coming months but uh I think it's safe
[03:20:11] to say a few of them are the mayor
[03:20:12] campaign one of his three key planks
[03:20:14] fast and free buses I'm also
[03:20:17] interpreting that a little bit liberally
[03:20:18] to say anything we can do to make
[03:20:20] affordable modes of transportation which
[03:20:23] also happen to be the most efficient and
[03:20:24] clean right uh and safe uh uh you know
[03:20:28] more accessible uh that supports
[03:20:30] affordability obviously free buses will
[03:20:32] help with afford affordability. That's
[03:20:34] not under my control. Uh but I'm happy
[03:20:36] to support it. Um the mayor is also very
[03:20:39] keen on um continuing and expanding our
[03:20:42] efforts to have a real citywide safe all
[03:20:45] ages bike network and has been pushing
[03:20:48] us hard on that and gave us additional
[03:20:49] funding as part of our recent budget as
[03:20:52] well as for the buses. public realm and
[03:20:54] just sort of the the using our streets
[03:20:57] to um create a more vibrant city to
[03:21:00] create more public space is is a
[03:21:03] priority um and a lot of what I'll talk
[03:21:06] about today. Continuing and doubling
[03:21:08] down on our vision zero efforts and to
[03:21:10] me a lot of that means it's redesigning
[03:21:12] streets. We're already doing a lot of
[03:21:13] that, but it's also a lot more on the
[03:21:15] policy and regulatory side like some of
[03:21:17] what we heard in the last session. More
[03:21:19] automated enforcement, higher penalties.
[03:21:22] our penalties are a joke uh in the US.
[03:21:25] Um and uh just generally across the
[03:21:28] board focusing on the most vulnerable,
[03:21:30] focusing on the needs of working New
[03:21:31] Yorkers. And also what I really love
[03:21:33] because I share this, it's a priority
[03:21:35] for me is what he calls excellence in
[03:21:37] government or I would just call sort of
[03:21:39] organizational excellence,
[03:21:41] efficiency,
[03:21:43] less red tape, which lets us have more
[03:21:46] impact ultimately, right? um and just
[03:21:49] kind of disrupting a little bit
[03:21:52] government which does tend to sort of
[03:21:53] accrete over time and become a little
[03:21:56] unwieldy. So that's another focus area.
[03:21:58] He keeps saying we're going to make our
[03:22:00] streets the envy of the world. I say
[03:22:02] that's a tall order, but we're we're
[03:22:03] ready to meet that challenge. Uh but
[03:22:05] it's like uh
[03:22:07] the advocates, you know, keep repeating
[03:22:09] that back to me. I'm like, "All right,
[03:22:10] hold hold my feet to the fire. We're I
[03:22:13] come to London, I go to Paris, I'm
[03:22:15] looking at your streets. I'm like,
[03:22:17] they're pretty nice, but all right,
[03:22:18] we're going to do our best.
[03:22:21] So, our first few months have been busy
[03:22:24] just basically unpausing, restarting,
[03:22:26] accelerating projects that have already
[03:22:28] been in planning. Our prior
[03:22:30] administration uh had a habit of
[03:22:32] stopping or pausing or cancelling
[03:22:34] projects due to politics and the
[03:22:36] squeakiest wheels. We've completely
[03:22:38] reversed that. And it's incredible to
[03:22:40] have a mayor who says, "Do the right
[03:22:42] thing and let me worry about the
[03:22:43] politics." And that's what we've been
[03:22:45] doing.
[03:22:48] I might have to pinch myself a little
[03:22:50] bit. [applause]
[03:22:52] We're only 6 months in. So, but you
[03:22:54] know, [laughter] we're we got the
[03:22:57] momentum now. All right. So, a little
[03:22:59] bit more substantively. Um, we we do
[03:23:02] have a history of looking at streets for
[03:23:04] play in New York. Actually, the police
[03:23:07] department historically did these things
[03:23:09] uh called play streets. And uh there
[03:23:12] were quite a few of them, especially in
[03:23:14] lower income neighborhoods that had less
[03:23:15] open space. It kind of dwindled over
[03:23:18] time, especially in that post-war car
[03:23:22] era. Um and really since co there's been
[03:23:25] this blossoming and and bringing back
[03:23:28] this idea that you can use your streets
[03:23:30] differently and and think in terms of
[03:23:32] the software, right? How you program
[03:23:34] them, how you maintain and operate and
[03:23:36] partner with community groups to use
[03:23:38] them.
[03:23:41] So, we have a whole bunch of different
[03:23:42] programs related to um schools in
[03:23:45] particular and kids and families. Uh
[03:23:48] it's not concentrated in one department,
[03:23:50] although we're looking at kind of
[03:23:51] putting them all under one programmatic
[03:23:54] umbrella uh during this administration.
[03:23:57] Talk through a few of them. Um, I wanted
[03:23:59] to acknowledge safety first and
[03:24:01] foremost, but mostly what I'm going to
[03:24:02] talk about today is is like I said,
[03:24:05] maybe the the more kind of um
[03:24:07] programmatic health education. Safety is
[03:24:10] obviously a big priority. We had state
[03:24:13] um authority, state law passed that gave
[03:24:16] us the authority to further reduce our
[03:24:17] speed limits uh to 15 m an hour. That
[03:24:21] was that like 20 km, a little over,
[03:24:23] which I think is kind of your standard.
[03:24:25] So, not saying we're ahead of the curve
[03:24:27] here, but for us, you know, it's a
[03:24:29] pretty big deal. That's quite a bit
[03:24:30] slower. You know, even just um 10 years
[03:24:33] ago, our citywide speed limit was 30
[03:24:35] mph. So, this is half of that around
[03:24:38] schools. It was called Sammy's law,
[03:24:40] named after a uh child who was killed by
[03:24:43] a car. And we're now using that
[03:24:44] authority to basically put in lower
[03:24:46] speed limits um around the thousands of
[03:24:50] schools across the city.
[03:24:55] [clears throat]
[03:24:58] Now, we do open streets, right, where we
[03:25:00] uh close it to vehicles, open it to
[03:25:02] pedestrians, and we have one flavor of
[03:25:04] that, which is open street schools or
[03:25:06] school streets. Uh, and we've been doing
[03:25:08] a lot of kind of evolution there. About
[03:25:11] a quarter of our schools don't have a
[03:25:13] playground or yard. Um, a smaller
[03:25:16] percent don't even have a gym. Sometimes
[03:25:18] there's construction, so maybe they
[03:25:20] don't have use of their yard or their
[03:25:21] gym. So we try to prioritize those kinds
[03:25:23] of schools. Um then you have pickup and
[03:25:26] drop off where some parents are doing it
[03:25:29] by car and it turns into utter chaos. Um
[03:25:32] and uh we have like a lot of places um
[03:25:36] you know an obesity and asthma epidemic
[03:25:40] especially among uh lower income uh and
[03:25:43] people of color. Um, and almost all of
[03:25:48] our students don't get like most
[03:25:49] Americans don't get the recommended
[03:25:51] exercise. So obviously all good reasons
[03:25:53] to try to do everything we can to create
[03:25:55] more space around our schools and
[03:25:58] actively program it to um you know to to
[03:26:03] give people more opportunities and
[03:26:05] invitations to be uh outside to be
[03:26:09] active and even in some cases you know
[03:26:12] to uh around pickup and drop off times
[03:26:14] for the wider community to come and
[03:26:17] participate and get involved.
[03:26:20] We partner in New York with an
[03:26:22] organization. It's basically a nonprofit
[03:26:24] um but like uh consulting or you know
[03:26:26] they they um it's a nonprofit uh called
[03:26:29] Street Lab and we have a contract with
[03:26:32] them where it's kind of open-ended but
[03:26:33] we basically co-create ideas about new
[03:26:36] forms of programming we can do. Um and
[03:26:40] uh we we also have a citywide
[03:26:43] transportation equity framework called
[03:26:45] priority investment areas um which I
[03:26:48] helped develop when I was a consultant
[03:26:49] for the uh DOT and uh we have basically
[03:26:53] three tiers. So we use that in all of
[03:26:55] our programs to prioritize our
[03:26:56] investments and our efforts where
[03:26:58] they're most needed and can have the
[03:26:59] most impact. Uh street lab does
[03:27:02] programming. uh we help them with the
[03:27:04] permits, logistics, staffing, and then
[03:27:07] um the programming can be really at any
[03:27:09] time whether it's during or after school
[03:27:11] or if there's summer programs.
[03:27:15] Just a few examples of those where we
[03:27:17] may have educational programming. This
[03:27:19] is in the Bronx, an elementary school.
[03:27:23] Um one of our real signature open
[03:27:25] streets that crosses seven schools is
[03:27:28] called PO Park. It's 34th Avenue in
[03:27:30] Jackson Heights in Queens.
[03:27:32] uh where my dad's from. And uh it's a
[03:27:35] real mixed neighborhood, mixed income,
[03:27:36] mixed demographics. Um and this has been
[03:27:39] such a success uh that we're now looking
[03:27:41] at making it permanent with a capital
[03:27:43] project um and uh kind of tying in the
[03:27:46] educational programming.
[03:27:49] We also work with a uh uh NGO, the uh
[03:27:53] New York Horicultural Society. We have a
[03:27:56] large contract with them to supplement
[03:27:58] our maintenance because we don't have
[03:28:00] high enough taxes to actually maintain
[03:28:04] wonderful streets and public spaces as
[03:28:06] well as we would like to, especially in
[03:28:08] lower resource neighborhoods. That's
[03:28:10] pretty frustrating, but at least we have
[03:28:12] some workarounds. So, basically, we
[03:28:14] partner with groups like this. They
[03:28:16] supplement our maintenance. They make
[03:28:17] sure every neighborhood can benefit from
[03:28:19] highquality public spaces. It doesn't
[03:28:22] rely on having a business improvement
[03:28:23] district or some well-resourced
[03:28:25] neighborhood group. And we want to
[03:28:27] expand this model. Although ideally, I
[03:28:29] think we'd like to insource more of that
[03:28:31] and just say, "Hey, this is a basic
[03:28:33] function of government. We should be
[03:28:34] able to do this all across the city." So
[03:28:37] that's what we're working towards in the
[03:28:39] long run.
[03:28:42] Uh a couple quick notes on the health
[03:28:44] side. Um there was great work done by
[03:28:46] the design trust for public space.
[03:28:48] That's a a a think tank uh in New York
[03:28:52] uh looking at how we can design streets
[03:28:53] and public spaces to take into account
[03:28:56] the needs and and challenges uh of uh
[03:28:59] neurodeiverse people.
[03:29:02] And we're also looking at physical
[03:29:03] health. We have our own study looking at
[03:29:05] the health effects of open streets.
[03:29:07] Also, our sister agency, the Department
[03:29:09] of Health, is doing a study looking at
[03:29:11] the impact of open streets specifically
[03:29:13] on physical activity and social
[03:29:16] interaction.
[03:29:18] Uh, a couple um, okay, good. I think I'm
[03:29:21] on I'm on track here. I'm kind of flying
[03:29:23] through. Talk a little about our World
[03:29:25] Cup. We've had a whole range of watch
[03:29:27] parties. If you've heard the mayor talk
[03:29:29] about it, and if you've heard, our
[03:29:30] tickets are insane. The prices, the
[03:29:33] whole thing's crazy. Uh, FIFA is nuts.
[03:29:36] There's no media here, right? All right.
[03:29:38] Uh, it's wild. But, you know, look, as
[03:29:40] the mayor says, this is a once in a
[03:29:42] generation opportunity for our region to
[03:29:44] put our best foot forward, to make the
[03:29:46] most of it, to make sure that all New
[03:29:48] Yorkers feel that they are part of this
[03:29:51] and are part of it and have a seat at
[03:29:53] the table, have a seat at the matches,
[03:29:55] sometimes literally, but if not, then at
[03:29:57] least through all these watch parties
[03:29:58] and programming that we're doing. some
[03:30:00] of the big ones like at Central Park,
[03:30:02] but what my agency is doing is smaller
[03:30:04] scale on plazas, streets, uh smaller
[03:30:08] public spaces out in the neighborhoods,
[03:30:10] the predominantly immigrant
[03:30:11] neighborhoods where you see actually
[03:30:13] some of the greatest fervent, you know,
[03:30:15] interest and and excitement about the
[03:30:18] World Cup. Uh and so that's really been
[03:30:20] our priority is to bring the World Cup
[03:30:22] to New Yorkers.
[03:30:24] Um and also, uh we're doing what we're
[03:30:27] calling our soccer streets. So these are
[03:30:29] those school streets uh but we're then
[03:30:32] partnering with street lab to program
[03:30:34] them and that's with soccer matches uh
[03:30:37] soccer drills but also uh arts and
[03:30:40] crafts a library you know for whatever
[03:30:43] kids are interested in just to really uh
[03:30:46] be a part of the magic and the
[03:30:47] excitement of the World Cup.
[03:30:50] Uh our our mayor is a fantastic soccer
[03:30:53] player. I'm not I tried I thought we
[03:30:56] were going to let the kids win but he
[03:30:57] he's serious man.
[03:30:59] [laughter]
[03:30:59] It was intense. I My head almost got
[03:31:02] taken off.
[03:31:03] Um, so just some photos showing the uh
[03:31:06] the kinds of uh activities we're doing
[03:31:08] at these.
[03:31:12] We're also doing I mentioned the watch
[03:31:14] party. So, just a few quick photos of
[03:31:16] those. This is one I went to up in
[03:31:18] Williamsburg.
[03:31:19] Um,
[03:31:23] I forget where that is.
[03:31:25] That's the one on the 34th Avenue, PO
[03:31:28] Park one in Jackson Heights. Our first
[03:31:30] one.
[03:31:31] It's really been wonderful. All right.
[03:31:33] So, I'll finish up just talking a little
[03:31:35] more broadly. you know, the the things
[03:31:37] that we really the the the template that
[03:31:40] Janette saw a concept, my predecessor,
[03:31:43] mentor Idol, uh a former New York City
[03:31:45] traffic uh DOT commissioner, was to
[03:31:48] build stuff quickly, see how it works,
[03:31:51] scale it up, and then eventually get the
[03:31:53] money, come back and make it permanent.
[03:31:55] And we've only expanded that since her
[03:31:57] tenure. We're we're going to be doing, I
[03:31:59] think, around 150 what we call street
[03:32:01] improvement projects this year of all
[03:32:03] stripes. Um, just showing an example
[03:32:06] from what we call like a bike boulevard
[03:32:07] or like a neighborhood bike way, lower
[03:32:09] traffic streets in Atoria. Um, complex
[03:32:13] intersection doing this fun design, but
[03:32:15] it really um it's a major east west
[03:32:17] connection across that neighborhood of
[03:32:19] Queens. Um, you know, and and there's
[03:32:22] always uh it's as Janette would say,
[03:32:25] when you push on the status quo, the
[03:32:27] status quo pushes back, right? So that's
[03:32:29] always a thing. There was such a hubbub
[03:32:31] when we did Times Square. Now, New
[03:32:33] Yorkers can't remember what it was like
[03:32:35] before that. One of my first assignments
[03:32:37] when I was an intern at DOT was to go to
[03:32:40] Times Square in its old form and count
[03:32:42] pedestrians, which if you've been to
[03:32:44] Time Square in its former form with 15t
[03:32:47] sidewalks and the crowds and imagine
[03:32:49] trying to count pedestrians, you're just
[03:32:51] kind of like 50, 100, more or less. It
[03:32:56] wasn't very accurate. But um the other
[03:32:59] famous one from that time was one of our
[03:33:01] first really nice protected bikeways on
[03:33:03] Prospect Park West, a very she-y
[03:33:05] neighborhood. Um and uh you know what
[03:33:08] it's it was not the the the overwhelming
[03:33:10] majority of folks supported it, but you
[03:33:12] don't hear as much from the supporters,
[03:33:14] right? You hear the loud voices, you
[03:33:16] hear the special interests, you hear the
[03:33:17] strong opinions, and that's just the
[03:33:19] nature of what we do. So that was 2011.
[03:33:22] Here we are in 2026 doing a really key
[03:33:26] project this year on the Upper West Side
[03:33:28] which is home to both a lot of wealthy
[03:33:30] supporters of Livable Streets as well as
[03:33:33] a lot of wealthy opponents of Livable
[03:33:35] Streets. Um luckily I think there really
[03:33:37] was a majority of support though it
[03:33:39] wasn't the loudest and the community
[03:33:41] board. Um so it's way basically
[03:33:43] converted from four travel lanes for
[03:33:46] vehicles and two parking lanes. It's a
[03:33:48] pretty important bus route, too. Um to
[03:33:51] the two-way bikeway that would connect
[03:33:52] all the way river to river across
[03:33:54] Manhattan, East River Park, Central
[03:33:56] Park, Hudson River Park, and the
[03:33:58] community board did approve it. Uh after
[03:34:00] a very lively public meeting,
[03:34:04] um in a story, uh we got sued about
[03:34:07] process. We went through the process
[03:34:09] again and came back with uh even
[03:34:11] basically double as long of a bikeway
[03:34:14] and safety improvement project. And uh
[03:34:16] that also got approved by the community
[03:34:18] board. [applause]
[03:34:22] And it's not just to tout it. I do think
[03:34:24] there's a usable lesson there, which is
[03:34:25] that when you change the tone and you
[03:34:27] change the expectations at the top,
[03:34:29] which is what the mayor's doing, it it
[03:34:31] you head off, right? You head off some
[03:34:33] of those loudest voices and you don't
[03:34:36] set the expectation that if only I
[03:34:38] complain because I'm being a little bit
[03:34:40] inconvenienced, you know, that I can
[03:34:42] change things here. like you have your
[03:34:44] democratic discourse, but it's not just
[03:34:46] those loud voices that are always going
[03:34:48] to carry the day.
[03:34:52] All right, this is our bike to work day.
[03:34:54] Uh that's about I think we had around
[03:34:56] 200 folks which is our biggest ever
[03:34:58] though it's a 6,000 person agency. So um
[03:35:01] I'll stop there and I'm happy to answer
[03:35:03] some questions. We have a little time.
[03:35:05] We've got time. Thanks so much Mike.
[03:35:07] Thank you.
[03:35:09] [applause]
[03:35:11] We've got time for questions. I mean, at
[03:35:13] Clean Cities, we love a bit of healthy
[03:35:14] competition between cities. So, it's
[03:35:16] great to have New York talking and when
[03:35:18] you came up with Soccer Streets, I
[03:35:19] remember messaging City Hall here and
[03:35:21] they were like, "The mayor's going to be
[03:35:22] seething. We didn't think of that." But
[03:35:24] anyway, um, so we'll do this quite short
[03:35:27] and sharp. If you could if you could say
[03:35:28] who you are, where you're from, and then
[03:35:30] straight into the question, that'll be
[03:35:32] fantastic. And we'll take a couple at a
[03:35:33] time. So, I've got Tom here in the
[03:35:35] corner, please. And then over here,
[03:35:37] please. Thank you.
[03:35:39] Hi, thanks Paul from London Cycling.
[03:35:44] uh Tom from London cycling campaign. I
[03:35:46] mean amaz the biggest difference I took
[03:35:48] from that is the personal championing of
[03:35:50] the issues by Mayor Mandani. Sadi Khan's
[03:35:53] good on policy doesn't personally
[03:35:55] champion anything in anything like that
[03:35:57] scale. Any tips for us on how you do get
[03:35:59] that personal support from such a high
[03:36:02] level?
[03:36:04] Oh that's a great question. I mean, I
[03:36:06] want to give you a useful answer other
[03:36:08] than that. I think the mayor is just
[03:36:10] genuinely passionate about this stuff
[03:36:12] and obviously he's an excellent
[03:36:14] communicator and it's about sort of
[03:36:16] capturing imaginations. I do think, you
[03:36:18] know, we try to give him the the data
[03:36:21] and we sort of tee up the ideas. He
[03:36:24] really, I'm gonna say this delicately,
[03:36:26] you know, I mean, every politician,
[03:36:28] right, loves to go to a ribbon cutting
[03:36:32] and and, you know, and and announce
[03:36:33] things and celebrate things, rightly.
[03:36:35] That's their job. Like they're the
[03:36:36] figurehead. Um, and so I think, you
[03:36:39] know, as Janette would say, you have to
[03:36:41] kind of feed your principal, right? And
[03:36:44] and so a lot of what we try to do is
[03:36:46] like we we we give the big ideas, we
[03:36:50] give the data, you know, we give him the
[03:36:52] info he needs in order to be an
[03:36:54] effective champion. Um I think tying it
[03:36:57] to more salient issues as someone who's
[03:37:00] been fighting for sustainable
[03:37:01] transportation for 25 years and started
[03:37:04] as an environmental advocate. You know,
[03:37:06] a lot of times what captures a lot of
[03:37:08] folks imagination is more like what we
[03:37:09] would call kitchen table issues, right?
[03:37:11] So I think like hitching it to
[03:37:13] affordability or hitching it to saving
[03:37:16] lives from reducing traffic crashes,
[03:37:18] those kinds of things I think end up
[03:37:20] being packing more punch probably than
[03:37:22] environmental arguments for example, as
[03:37:25] much as I would like it to be the case.
[03:37:27] That's great advice. Okay, we've got one
[03:37:29] question here and then I'll take one
[03:37:31] from a gentleman with the glasses on
[03:37:32] there.
[03:37:34] Hi uh Mary from Trees for Cities. Um
[03:37:37] thank you. It's really inspirational.
[03:37:38] It's really interesting. I think I'm
[03:37:40] just interested in exploring a bit how
[03:37:42] you see reconciling like the different
[03:37:45] needs of different groups within that
[03:37:46] kind of active travel community. So I
[03:37:49] saw on one of your um open streets
[03:37:52] photos there was a sign saying like
[03:37:54] thoughtful cycling, welcome or slow down
[03:37:56] slow cycling. Um there's been a bit of
[03:37:59] talk in the UK recently about um
[03:38:02] dangerous cycling and cycling cycling
[03:38:05] and pedestrians being in the same space.
[03:38:07] We've got a proposal for pedestrianizing
[03:38:09] Oxford Street which is going to exclude
[03:38:11] cyclists. So it's pedestrians only and
[03:38:14] obviously that's controversial. So yeah,
[03:38:16] I'm just interested to hear your views
[03:38:17] on that.
[03:38:18] And we'll come to that in a sec. We'll
[03:38:19] just take one more question.
[03:38:23] Hi uh Muhammad from places for
[03:38:26] nonforprofit place in Dublin Island.
[03:38:28] Partnership is the key for change and
[03:38:30] development. I love in your amazing uh
[03:38:33] talk uh you mentioned partner with
[03:38:35] partner with. So what is your advice for
[03:38:40] u uh how this like for not for profofit
[03:38:43] or or non uh charity like how to work
[03:38:47] with department of transport around
[03:38:50] lower? So from your experience how you
[03:38:53] uh work with the people is it a contract
[03:38:56] or an application?
[03:38:58] Thank you.
[03:38:58] Great. Um, so I'll start with that one
[03:39:01] and come back to yours. Um, I think, you
[03:39:04] know, as someone who's worked in
[03:39:06] government and outside government with
[03:39:08] government, I think, you know, it can be
[03:39:10] frustrating, but when you're in
[03:39:12] government, what you see is government
[03:39:14] is set up to do things a certain way and
[03:39:16] it can be hard to change it. So the most
[03:39:18] successful partnerships I've seen are
[03:39:21] when outside entities, nonprofits are
[03:39:24] partnering with government on very
[03:39:25] specific things that government needs at
[03:39:29] that time. You know what I mean? Like
[03:39:31] through mechanisms that already exist
[03:39:33] usually. Uh otherwise you take the long
[03:39:36] game. But um you know I'm sure the
[03:39:38] actual contracting and things are
[03:39:40] probably not apples to apples here so
[03:39:43] it's hard for me to say specifically but
[03:39:46] you know I think like with Street Lab or
[03:39:48] others it was like we had a very
[03:39:49] specific need. We're like boy there's
[03:39:51] not enough maintenance capacity in in
[03:39:53] these other neighborhoods. Uh if only
[03:39:55] there were a partner who could actually
[03:39:57] help develop that stuff. We have some
[03:39:59] money. We just need someone who can do
[03:40:01] that. And they're like hey we can do
[03:40:03] that. We will do that. And same with the
[03:40:05] horicultural. They didn't do streets as
[03:40:06] much. They did parks, but through
[03:40:08] discussions like they realized this was
[03:40:10] a huge need for us. Who's going to
[03:40:12] maintain all that landscaping? Who's
[03:40:14] going to help put the tables and chairs
[03:40:15] away at the end of the day? They're
[03:40:17] like, "You know what? We already kind of
[03:40:18] do that, but in parks, we could do that
[03:40:20] on streets. If you can do a contract
[03:40:22] with us, we'll expand our capacity." And
[03:40:24] that's exactly what we needed.
[03:40:27] Um, so I think like two parts to your
[03:40:30] question. Uh there's like different
[03:40:32] constituencies, which is true, you know,
[03:40:35] and even with us, like a lot of the most
[03:40:37] [clears throat] the the loudest
[03:40:38] advocates for livable streets tend to be
[03:40:40] certain
[03:40:42] groups and demographics and
[03:40:43] neighborhoods and then the neighborhoods
[03:40:45] actually in some ways that might benefit
[03:40:47] the most. You don't hear from them as
[03:40:48] much and sometimes they're even opposed.
[03:40:50] Uh because at least in the US there's
[03:40:52] this aspirational idea of owning a car,
[03:40:54] right? It's like you've really made it.
[03:40:56] So there's a lot of cultural things to
[03:40:58] navigate. I think like having strong
[03:41:01] partnerships with different grassroots
[03:41:02] organizations is helpful there who can
[03:41:05] kind of be like what we would call the
[03:41:06] grass tops, right? As opposed to the
[03:41:08] grassroots who can help bridge that um
[03:41:11] around the safety stuff. That's that's
[03:41:14] very timely for us. I I look at the
[03:41:16] crash data every day. Vehicle pad even
[03:41:20] traditional bike have been kind of on
[03:41:22] the same trajectory. The numbers that
[03:41:24] have been going up for us are the
[03:41:25] ebikes, the scooters, things like that.
[03:41:27] some of which are legal but in New York
[03:41:29] as here probably we have a huge
[03:41:31] proliferation of illegal really fast
[03:41:33] ones and it's tricky you know so I have
[03:41:36] my talking points like my response is
[03:41:38] always yes and like we want to support
[03:41:41] the most sustainable and efficient modes
[03:41:43] and legal microobility devices are that
[03:41:47] and we recognize there's this real
[03:41:50] feeling and to some extent data mostly
[03:41:53] feelings uh compared to people killed by
[03:41:55] cars but you know people feel it So
[03:41:57] that's real um about all these other
[03:42:00] devices and we're doing that too. But
[03:42:02] that's mostly our police department
[03:42:04] because honestly most of them are
[03:42:05] already illegal. So it's about
[03:42:07] confiscation. It's about cracking down
[03:42:09] on businesses, selling them. It's
[03:42:11] educating consumers.
[03:42:14] I don't know what else. Like we have to
[03:42:15] just keep doing that until there's a bit
[03:42:17] of a shift.
[03:42:18] Great. We've got time for one more. I
[03:42:19] suppose someone over here with the
[03:42:21] bandanna. Uh and I can't help myself. So
[03:42:24] I'm going to ask a final question as
[03:42:25] well.
[03:42:25] It's fine. I'll make it. I This is I go
[03:42:28] on at length. Sorry.
[03:42:29] Is car spreading going to make it over
[03:42:31] the pond? And is it on the radar of
[03:42:33] Mandami? The fact that cars are getting
[03:42:35] bigger and bigger and bigger. Is it
[03:42:36] something maybe the transportation
[03:42:38] department will look into? And then
[03:42:39] we've got a final question over here.
[03:42:42] Hi. Uh Kayla, um fellow New Yorker, um
[03:42:45] but based at Imperial College London
[03:42:47] now, been here nine years. Um I'm
[03:42:50] curious. Uh
[03:42:52] you spoke a little bit about kind of tax
[03:42:56] disproportionate like disproportionate
[03:42:58] income and you know there there
[03:43:00] obviously parts of the city pockets that
[03:43:02] that um struggle financially more than
[03:43:04] others. I was curious how um NYC DOT
[03:43:09] interacts with Uber with um kind of
[03:43:13] delivery based organizations. I mean is
[03:43:16] there any work on on that front? And I'm
[03:43:18] thinking more in the direction of like
[03:43:20] corporate kind of like
[03:43:23] corporate collaboration slashtaxation
[03:43:25] slash how do you kind of intervene on on
[03:43:28] those fronts?
[03:43:30] Yeah, that's a great question. There's
[03:43:31] so much to say. I'll try to be short.
[03:43:34] You know, there's certain things that
[03:43:35] are not under the city's control and so
[03:43:38] we kind of we're a little bit at the
[03:43:40] mercy, but for higher vehicles is under
[03:43:43] our control. Um, so I have a
[03:43:45] counterpart, the Taxi and Limousine
[03:43:46] Commission that regulates them. The city
[03:43:48] really got caught off guard when Uber
[03:43:50] and Lift first came onto the scene and
[03:43:52] it we had a huge crisis in our yellow
[03:43:54] cab industry. Right.
[03:43:55] In London. Yeah.
[03:43:56] Yeah. Yeah. Um and uh um we've really
[03:43:59] tried to learn from that with like the
[03:44:01] driverless vehicles and get ahead of it.
[03:44:04] And we have power there unless we and we
[03:44:07] could be um overridden by the federal
[03:44:09] government. there's been legislation and
[03:44:11] the only thing that's kept it from
[03:44:12] passing is organized labor uh because of
[03:44:15] the fear of what it would do for jobs
[03:44:18] and um you know which is great uh that
[03:44:21] that has been kept at bay and that we're
[03:44:23] retaining our ability to regulate it
[03:44:25] which again is only because the state
[03:44:27] has given us that that's our federal
[03:44:29] system the states have all the power
[03:44:30] they give the cities our power so
[03:44:32] there's a lot of going to beg to the
[03:44:33] state but um that said we want to have
[03:44:36] productive relationships with any of
[03:44:37] these companies and so it's not like
[03:44:39] we're shunning them. We want to try to
[03:44:41] figure out, you know, how to
[03:44:44] do the right thing from a policy
[03:44:46] standpoint. And that can be working
[03:44:48] together or it can also just be saying
[03:44:50] like hard no. Sometimes the delivery,
[03:44:53] same thing. I think we've had a lot of
[03:44:55] progress there in moving towards and
[03:44:56] I've seen them here too, micro freight,
[03:44:58] micro distribution, you know, getting
[03:45:00] things out of trucks. Um, and uh, yeah,
[03:45:05] I mean, I'll stop there. We try to be
[03:45:06] productive, but sometimes you just have
[03:45:08] to put your foot down. And that's a
[03:45:09] short story. The size of vehicles is
[03:45:11] something that's almost entirely out of
[03:45:13] our control and is pretty much purely
[03:45:15] federal. However, um one thing we're
[03:45:18] looking at and I saw it in some of the
[03:45:20] recommendations uh earlier is for me a
[03:45:24] big priority is what we're calling curb
[03:45:25] management or parking reform and being
[03:45:28] much smarter about how we manage our
[03:45:29] curb and price it. And um part of that
[03:45:32] is can we vary parking pricing based on
[03:45:34] vehicle well as I like to say based on
[03:45:37] the safety of the vehicle which happens
[03:45:39] to correlate to the size right safer
[03:45:41] vehicles pay less also maybe things like
[03:45:44] fines um I'd love to see it graduated to
[03:45:47] income I know some places do that it's
[03:45:49] tricky to implement but at the very
[03:45:51] least can we graduate it to uh can we
[03:45:54] base it on the vehicle size when you get
[03:45:56] a parking ticket when you get a speeding
[03:45:58] ticket or red light ticket So absolutely
[03:46:01] we want to do what we can with the
[03:46:02] levers that we have
[03:46:04] getting there before London then we got
[03:46:05] some competition on it. I I think it's
[03:46:08] great. I mean it's you know as I said
[03:46:09] earlier uh to some folks like
[03:46:12] when I come here all I see is the great
[03:46:15] stuff you're doing and I'm jealous but
[03:46:18] I'm sure you know that's just kind of
[03:46:19] like that's our nature right? So I think
[03:46:21] some friendly competition is great. We
[03:46:24] certainly look to London and Paris and
[03:46:25] others as like our peers uh and and try
[03:46:28] to learn from what you're doing. And if
[03:46:31] there's something we're doing that
[03:46:32] inspires you, then uh I think that's
[03:46:34] wonderful. Thank you, Mike. Mike M's got
[03:46:36] to rush for a plane now. So, a round of
[03:46:38] applause. [applause]
[03:46:40] Thank you.
[03:46:47] [applause]
[03:46:48] Okay, we're breaking for lunch. We We're
[03:46:50] back here at 2:00. Thank you. Enjoy.
[03:46:54] Take a break.
[04:37:07] Wonderful.
[04:41:03] Hello everybody.
[04:41:05] [laughter]
[04:41:06] You have heard the bell.
[04:41:10] We hope you had a lovely lunch and we
[04:41:13] hope you enjoyed forming even more
[04:41:16] connections and relationships downstairs
[04:41:18] and up here alike. This is also what
[04:41:21] Curious Cities is about. We want lots of
[04:41:23] friendships. We want you to go home not
[04:41:25] only being inspired but with lots new
[04:41:27] friends and like tons of emails to
[04:41:29] follow up, you know. Um anyway, I am
[04:41:32] only here for a brief moment and that is
[04:41:34] to introduce our first speakers and I
[04:41:36] have to tell you guys a story and I was
[04:41:38] insisting uh to my colleagues. I have to
[04:41:40] sell tell this story. You can tell me
[04:41:42] how bad it was afterwards. So anyway, 10
[04:41:44] years ago I got into air pollution
[04:41:46] campaigning. Uh I was uh pretty obsessed
[04:41:49] with getting diesel off our roads across
[04:41:51] Europe as well as eventually the
[04:41:52] internal combustion engine. We at the
[04:41:55] time with my organization, we mapped
[04:41:56] pollution levels around schools. This
[04:41:58] was in Brussels and we got on prime time
[04:42:00] TV 8:00 news. What was fascinating was
[04:42:04] that this architect lady happened to
[04:42:07] watch TV that night. Her name is Anna
[04:42:09] Katrin and she watched TV and she saw
[04:42:12] that the the very school that three of
[04:42:14] her kids were attending was way beyond
[04:42:17] pollution uh limit values that the WHO
[04:42:20] says. She got really really angry. What
[04:42:23] then happened was nothing short of a
[04:42:25] miracle. So she got in touch with us uh
[04:42:28] and she basically started a movement in
[04:42:30] Belgium and Brussels. This within weeks
[04:42:34] grew into hundreds of protests every
[04:42:36] Friday morning in front of multiple
[04:42:39] Brussels schools. And what was amazing
[04:42:41] was that this then went well beyond
[04:42:43] Belgium. It spilled over to the UK. It
[04:42:46] inspired other mom's groups as well to
[04:42:49] form and it basically went
[04:42:51] continentwide. Fast forward about a
[04:42:53] couple of years. Uh, at this point I'm
[04:42:56] at Clean Cities and there is a a
[04:42:58] wonderful Italian partner of ours,
[04:43:00] Chitaadini, and the lady who runs it,
[04:43:02] she says, "You must talk to this woman.
[04:43:04] You must talk to you and her. You would
[04:43:06] be amazing. You must talk to this
[04:43:08] woman." I'm like, "Okay, fine.
[04:43:09] Whatevers." You know, at this point, we
[04:43:10] were like three people at Clees. I'm
[04:43:12] like, I'm open. You know, why not? So, I
[04:43:15] have this Zoom call with this amazing
[04:43:16] lady and she blows my mind. I know I
[04:43:19] keep using that form. I mean, imagine
[04:43:21] what it's like to be in my brain. It
[04:43:23] gets blown a lot but [laughter]
[04:43:26] but honestly this lady the energy the
[04:43:29] power and then she tells me that oh and
[04:43:31] I have a solution is school streets I'm
[04:43:32] like what wait a second in Brussels and
[04:43:35] up till now in my campaigning we were
[04:43:37] asking for bigger things and that's not
[04:43:39] that you know not because we don't want
[04:43:40] big things but actually I realized then
[04:43:43] and there that school streets can be the
[04:43:46] small tangible solution to so many of
[04:43:49] our bigger problems getting diesel off
[04:43:51] the streets you know reducing traffic
[04:43:53] and eventually getting rid of the
[04:43:55] internal combustion engine and cuz I'm
[04:43:57] cuz at first I was like what is a school
[04:43:59] street? So she tells me all about it and
[04:44:01] there it was a magical relationship
[04:44:04] friendship and you know was formed and
[04:44:07] we are now privileged to have this
[04:44:09] magnificent lady with us at Clean
[04:44:10] Cities. We've now been working together
[04:44:12] for 5 years and she built what we what
[04:44:15] is now a huge movement called Streets
[04:44:17] for Kids. Many of you have been engaged,
[04:44:20] know what it's like, and I'm here to
[04:44:22] introduce Anna Becky, who will tell you
[04:44:24] all about it.
[04:44:26] [applause]
[04:44:33] Hello, my name is Anna Becki and I lead
[04:44:36] this resources campaign at Clean Cities.
[04:44:38] As Barbara just said, today I will talk
[04:44:41] about Oh, I need this. I think how
[04:44:46] um we mobilize parents for childfriendly
[04:44:49] cities.
[04:44:56] Thank you. Parents are the greatest
[04:44:59] allies of our campaign
[04:45:02] that um together we build streets and
[04:45:05] cities where care, well-being and
[04:45:07] relationship come first. They want safe
[04:45:11] streets. They want clean air. They want
[04:45:14] more freedom for their children. Every
[04:45:17] day they experience the problem of
[04:45:19] traffic, pollution, and unsafe roads
[04:45:22] outside their schools. That is why they
[04:45:24] are the first people ready to ask for
[04:45:27] change. And in our campaign, they're not
[04:45:30] just supporters, they take the lead.
[04:45:37] Together, we have achieved a lot over
[04:45:39] the the last five years. We have
[04:45:43] organized more than 4,000 actions
[04:45:46] involving around 400,000 people. More
[04:45:51] than 1,000 groups of parents and
[04:45:53] activists took part in our days of
[04:45:56] action. And this action helped create
[04:46:00] more than 400 school streets all over
[04:46:03] Europe. [cheering] THIS
[04:46:06] [applause]
[04:46:08] THIS SHOWS HOW local action can create
[04:46:11] real political change.
[04:46:16] And what is a school street? It's a
[04:46:19] space around the school where the space
[04:46:22] is redesigned to reduce traffic. It
[04:46:25] creates a safer and healthier
[04:46:27] environment for children. It encourages
[04:46:30] people to walk, cycle, and use public
[04:46:33] transport instead of of driving.
[04:46:37] It promotes outdoor play, social
[04:46:40] connection, and children independence.
[04:46:42] And it is the perfect starting point to
[04:46:45] reimagine a city as a place that put
[04:46:48] children and people first.
[04:46:52] There are different ways to do a school
[04:46:55] street. The first one is the time
[04:46:57] limited. The street is carf free only at
[04:47:00] drop off and pickup times. Is a quick
[04:47:03] solution ready to launch
[04:47:06] uh and it makes the street safer exactly
[04:47:08] when it matters most. But outside those
[04:47:11] hours the street goes back to normal. So
[04:47:14] the benefits are limited as you can see.
[04:47:19] The second solution is the partially
[04:47:22] pedestrianized or traffic calming
[04:47:24] solution here. The street is redesigned
[04:47:27] to lower speeds with safer crossings,
[04:47:30] wider sidewalks, and less chaos. It
[04:47:34] improves safety, but only in that
[04:47:37] specific area. There are many more
[04:47:40] benefits as you can see, but still
[04:47:43] limited.
[04:47:45] The third and most ambitious solution is
[04:47:49] the pedestrian always.
[04:47:54] There are no cars outside the school
[04:47:56] gates ever. So, more space, more safety,
[04:48:02] and a better street life. All the
[04:48:05] benefits of a school street every day
[04:48:08] for good.
[04:48:10] Our recommendation is simple. Make
[04:48:14] School Street the norm, not an
[04:48:16] exception. and use school street as a
[04:48:19] gateway. The first step that opens the
[04:48:22] door to safer school routes, to active
[04:48:25] mobility, and to greater independence
[04:48:28] for children, and ultimately to cities
[04:48:31] that truly put children first. Because
[04:48:35] as we all know, when a city works for
[04:48:38] children, it works better for everyone.
[04:48:41] Thank you very much for your attention.
[04:48:47] [applause]
[04:48:48] Thanks so much Moto Ben. Graci
[04:48:52] um that's the best I got so far. I was
[04:48:54] just showing off. I've got to be able to
[04:48:56] communicate with my international
[04:48:57] colleagues. Um so, uh as we were
[04:49:00] devising the program for this event, I
[04:49:01] was absolutely keen to make sure we get
[04:49:04] into a bit of a nittygritty conversation
[04:49:07] panel discussion with those who are
[04:49:09] actually delivering things on the ground
[04:49:10] and have been for many years. So, uh,
[04:49:13] we've invited Will Norman, the mayor's
[04:49:15] London walking, uh, and cycling
[04:49:17] commissioner. We've invited Sarah
[04:49:19] Warren, the deputy leader of Bath
[04:49:20] Council. And we've also invited Rosina
[04:49:22] Charie back again today to talk us
[04:49:24] through some of the struggle over the
[04:49:26] past few years and the u amazing things
[04:49:29] you put into uh, Lambbeirth as well. And
[04:49:31] who better to share this conversation
[04:49:33] than Laura Leaker uh, journalist and
[04:49:35] writer. So, I'm going to hand straight
[04:49:36] over so we can get stuck into the
[04:49:38] conversation and have some questions
[04:49:39] afterwards. Thanks. Thank you.
[04:49:41] [applause]
[04:49:50] Great.
[04:49:53] Nice to see everyone and your fans. Um,
[04:49:57] got my highlighter pens, so we're okay.
[04:49:59] Um, so I'm going to try and keep us to
[04:50:01] time. Oh, got big pieces of paper. So,
[04:50:04] we've got 50 minutes uh for this talk.
[04:50:06] Oh, and um we're going to talk for about
[04:50:08] 35 and we might actually have a bit more
[04:50:11] cuz we're starting a little bit early.
[04:50:13] So um we'll see. I think Will has to get
[04:50:15] away um afterwards. So So yes, um I've
[04:50:19] been asked to do a description of
[04:50:20] myself. So I'm Laura Laker. I'm about 5'
[04:50:22] 6. I've got a white dress with a green
[04:50:25] leaves on it and um and a curly bob. Um
[04:50:29] and then we have um three people today
[04:50:31] who are going to talk to us about
[04:50:34] today's topic which is getting kids
[04:50:36] moving lessons from active travel
[04:50:38] leaders and we've got people who are
[04:50:40] really experienced in this so it's going
[04:50:42] to be a great session I think um
[04:50:44] [snorts] so um
[04:50:46] today's talk is about discussion is very
[04:50:49] much about everyone's work delivering
[04:50:51] for children and even though you might
[04:50:52] have heard from these um speakers today
[04:50:55] before this is a particular focus for
[04:50:58] us. So there was a recent report which
[04:51:01] uh by Alice Ferguson and Tim Gil who's
[04:51:04] here um about how children's voices are
[04:51:06] often left out of conversations in terms
[04:51:08] of how we deliver our our you know
[04:51:10] changes on our streets and when their
[04:51:12] voices are heard often those changes
[04:51:14] aren't delivered on the ground.
[04:51:17] So we're going to hear today from how
[04:51:20] about how our three speakers think about
[04:51:22] children in their everyday work, how
[04:51:24] they overcome challenges and along the
[04:51:27] way and whether a new national focus on
[04:51:29] children's journeys which announced
[04:51:31] recently moves the dial or not. So um
[04:51:35] we're going to so without further ado,
[04:51:36] welcome to the stage. We've got uh
[04:51:38] nearest to me we have Sarah Warren who
[04:51:41] is cabinet member for sustainable bath
[04:51:44] and northeast Somerset. We have Rosina
[04:51:47] Chowry who was for who was deputy leader
[04:51:49] of Lambbeath council delivering on
[04:51:51] sustainable Lambeath uh and clean air
[04:51:54] and we have London's walking and cycling
[04:51:56] commissioner Will Norman. So hi EVERYONE
[04:52:00] [applause]
[04:52:03] and yeah so we're going to talk for
[04:52:04] about 35 minutes and then we're going to
[04:52:06] have some questions. So um I always
[04:52:07] think it's a good idea to think of
[04:52:09] questions as we go um because sometime
[04:52:11] otherwise you get to the end and uh you
[04:52:14] draw a blank. So if something comes up,
[04:52:16] just make a mental note of it and then
[04:52:17] we'll try and stick to brief questions
[04:52:19] and not long statements, the usual.
[04:52:22] So I wanted to kick off because there's
[04:52:24] been two big national announcements
[04:52:26] relating to children uh children's
[04:52:28] well-being recently. First of all, there
[04:52:30] was a social media ban uh recently for
[04:52:32] children and I thought this striking. In
[04:52:35] fact, um, somebody else has said this
[04:52:37] and it got me thinking that the biggest
[04:52:40] risk to children actually is from, um,
[04:52:42] from motor traffic, from dangerous road
[04:52:45] design, from excess speed. And and I
[04:52:47] wondered if we were going to do a social
[04:52:49] media ban style intervention for
[04:52:52] streets, what would that look like? And
[04:52:54] do we need to do it? And maybe I'll
[04:52:56] start with you, Sarah.
[04:52:58] Can you hear me?
[04:52:59] No, I need to press on.
[04:53:01] Yeah. Okay. Hello. Okay. Um,
[04:53:06] well, I suppose the thing about the
[04:53:08] social media ban is it's one simple
[04:53:11] thing. And so I was trying to think what
[04:53:13] one simple thing you could do for um for
[04:53:18] children's um active travel. And I guess
[04:53:22] the simple thing um that you probably
[04:53:24] could do is you could make 20 mph the
[04:53:26] standard as they did in Wales in builtup
[04:53:29] areas. And actually in Bath, we're not
[04:53:33] that far from it. So we haven't
[04:53:35] approached it in that way. We've just
[04:53:37] said any community that wants can apply
[04:53:40] and can have 20 mph. But one of my
[04:53:43] activists has told me this morning that
[04:53:45] we're only 8 miles away from having a
[04:53:48] completely 20 mph bath city.
[04:53:52] Well, congratulations. Might need to
[04:53:54] turn the the butter on till it's green.
[04:53:57] [applause]
[04:53:58] Yeah, that deserves a round of applause.
[04:54:00] And and uh Rosina, what what are your
[04:54:02] thoughts on this?
[04:54:04] So yes, [clears throat] uh social media
[04:54:06] ban um so addressing the harms directly
[04:54:11] uh when it comes to um our children, but
[04:54:15] as you quite rightly say and as other
[04:54:16] speakers have said over the last couple
[04:54:18] of days is that actually traffic and
[04:54:21] road danger is is a harm. So I'm no
[04:54:25] longer a counselor. I'm no longer deputy
[04:54:27] leader, so I feel I can say this. I'd
[04:54:29] say we get to the cause. We make it
[04:54:31] harder and harder for people to drive
[04:54:33] cars, and that means more [applause]
[04:54:37] I can say this. I can say this now. I'm
[04:54:39] unleashed, will um but yeah, we we you
[04:54:42] know, we need to do so much more about
[04:54:45] making sure that drivers pay the true
[04:54:48] price of what it costs to our
[04:54:50] environment and to our children to be
[04:54:52] driving around. We have have to name the
[04:54:54] harm. And I don't think we've named the
[04:54:56] harm enough.
[04:54:58] Yeah. Thank you. [applause]
[04:55:02] Uh so I'm not convinced that the ban is
[04:55:05] going to be as easy as everybody says it
[04:55:07] is. Yeah. And I'm not sure that's going
[04:55:09] to be the single solution that is going
[04:55:10] to totally transform our kids' mental
[04:55:12] health to begin with. And I have a
[04:55:14] sneaking suspicion that social media
[04:55:16] challenges will be as complex as uh road
[04:55:19] traffic uh challenges and collisions. So
[04:55:23] I'm all for single silver bullets when
[04:55:25] they exist, but sadly I don't think in
[04:55:28] the real world that is the way it works.
[04:55:30] And so I think that what is really
[04:55:32] needed is one a changing conversation.
[04:55:35] It should not be acceptable. It should
[04:55:37] not be uh in any way seen as a
[04:55:41] consequence of freedom of travel that
[04:55:43] people die on our roads. And I think
[04:55:45] fundamentally that shift needs to
[04:55:47] happen. uh and that plan pans out for
[04:55:49] children, older people, anybody quite
[04:55:51] frankly. That conversation change is not
[04:55:54] happening in the UK. It is still seen as
[04:55:56] an an acceptable price to pay for having
[04:55:59] movement in our cities and frankly that
[04:56:02] it it shouldn't be. So I think there is
[04:56:04] a bigger piece around the conversation
[04:56:06] that needs to change. Uh and I I I
[04:56:08] really hope there's a silver bullet for
[04:56:10] this and social media and well-being,
[04:56:11] but I'm not sure there is.
[04:56:13] Okay. Thank you. So strong feeling all
[04:56:15] around. It's a good place, always a good
[04:56:17] place to start. And the other the other
[04:56:19] big announcement we might get into,
[04:56:21] we'll get into the sort of nuts and
[04:56:22] bolts um as we go along. But the other
[04:56:24] big announcement of course um which has
[04:56:26] happened recently is the cycling and
[04:56:28] walking investment strategy for England
[04:56:30] which doesn't sound very exciting um but
[04:56:32] is important in terms of setting the
[04:56:34] direction of travel and specifically the
[04:56:36] focus is on children
[04:56:39] and it sets a a target that 60% of all
[04:56:42] school journeys are done by cycling,
[04:56:44] walking and wheeling by 2035. So it's
[04:56:47] less than a decade away and at the
[04:56:49] moment just 51% of primary school
[04:56:52] commutes are active and for secondary
[04:56:54] it's down to 37%.
[04:56:56] So it's a big leap and given the
[04:56:59] distances traveled to secondary schools
[04:57:01] are longer and there's the catchment
[04:57:03] area is more complicated if there is
[04:57:05] one. Um is this target achievable and if
[04:57:08] so um how do we get there? Do you want
[04:57:11] to start Sarah?
[04:57:14] Okay. Um I would say that it's hugely
[04:57:18] challenging. Um so thinking about Bath
[04:57:21] City, I don't know whether you know
[04:57:22] Bath. Um it's very hilly. Um a lot of
[04:57:26] people go to secondary school on the
[04:57:28] other side of the city because of the
[04:57:30] choice that people have over schools. Um
[04:57:34] I think our 20 mph limit everywhere
[04:57:37] would help and active travel
[04:57:39] infrastructure everywhere would help. Um
[04:57:43] I mean one of the reasons I got
[04:57:44] involved, one of the reasons I became a
[04:57:47] counselor was because I wanted to create
[04:57:50] school buses and the moment I arrived I
[04:57:52] mean we're cutting buses we you know
[04:57:55] that is just given the financial
[04:57:57] situation that is completely beyond the
[04:57:59] pale. So, um,
[04:58:03] maybe the answer in a city like Bath is
[04:58:05] ebikes accessible for for certainly for
[04:58:09] older kids. And I discovered that my
[04:58:11] daughter used to commute by bus across
[04:58:13] the city. Um, and in after co, she said,
[04:58:16] "Mom, I can't I can't take the bus
[04:58:18] anymore. I can't stand it. It's too hot.
[04:58:21] It's horrible." So, we got her in an
[04:58:23] electric bike. Luckily, she was in year
[04:58:25] 10, I think. So, she was just old
[04:58:27] enough. and she was the first one
[04:58:29] cycling up the hill to her school by
[04:58:31] electric bike. And I I asked the school,
[04:58:33] "Is there anywhere we can park this
[04:58:35] bike?" Um because, you know, it's quite
[04:58:37] valuable and we don't want it to be
[04:58:39] rained on. And they said, "Well, maybe
[04:58:40] she could park in the staff bike park."
[04:58:42] And she after the first day, she said,
[04:58:44] "No, I'm not doing that. It's too
[04:58:46] embarrassing." Anyway, I visited the
[04:58:48] school last week and they've now got a
[04:58:50] covered locked bike park and there are
[04:58:52] kids ebiking to school. So maybe that
[04:58:54] way.
[04:58:56] [applause] Amazing. and and of course in
[04:58:58] in in Bath, you're part of the West of
[04:59:02] England combined authority and you've
[04:59:04] got Helen Godwin as your mayor and I
[04:59:06] know that Helen has been a big
[04:59:07] cheerleader of this focus on children
[04:59:09] and the big cycling walking investment
[04:59:10] strategy. Um but you were saying to us
[04:59:13] before that funding, you know, in London
[04:59:15] is so different from most other places
[04:59:18] in the country, not at least in the
[04:59:19] southwest. So, it's going to be quite a
[04:59:21] challenge to get those those numbers in.
[04:59:23] I mean, bike racks are one thing. Uh
[04:59:25] yes, I mean through the transport for
[04:59:27] city regions. We do have an allocation
[04:59:29] in the west of England combined
[04:59:31] authority. So uh you know I I I
[04:59:33] shouldn't be chish but it's not as much
[04:59:36] as some places and um I think what we
[04:59:39] have to do in the west of England we've
[04:59:40] been in um lo combined authority special
[04:59:44] measures. So we have to achieve we have
[04:59:46] to be good enough to achieve established
[04:59:48] combined authority status and then
[04:59:51] apparently we may get a larger
[04:59:53] allocation. So, we have to work hard and
[04:59:55] play nicely together and we might get
[04:59:57] more money. [laughter] Okay. And
[05:00:00] actually, we should we should say that
[05:00:02] bike racks do make a big difference.
[05:00:03] Actually, they help get people places
[05:00:04] and lock their bike cuz if that bike
[05:00:06] rack hadn't turned up, who knows, she
[05:00:07] might not have um she might not have um
[05:00:10] kept cycling. So, do you do you want to
[05:00:13] Yes. So, um your question was, if I
[05:00:16] recall, it was about percentage whether
[05:00:18] we're going to achieve it.
[05:00:18] I think the growth is possible.
[05:00:20] Yeah. So I was really excited when I saw
[05:00:22] the new strategy and um but I and at the
[05:00:26] risk of repeating what I said yesterday
[05:00:28] I think these policies and strategies
[05:00:30] are great but if they don't come with
[05:00:34] the relevant you know funding
[05:00:38] administrative support and the legal
[05:00:40] support then you know councils are on a
[05:00:43] hiding to nothing because they won't be
[05:00:44] able to deliver when it becomes really
[05:00:47] contentious. So I think the ambition is
[05:00:50] really good but I think you know there
[05:00:53] there needs to be more support for for
[05:00:56] local councils to deliver these.
[05:00:58] Yeah,
[05:01:01] [applause]
[05:01:01] there's some counselors in the room.
[05:01:05] [laughter]
[05:01:06] Very important job to be doubt. Um yeah
[05:01:08] will what do you think? I mean obviously
[05:01:10] London's in a very privileged position
[05:01:11] in that it has a lot more money. I think
[05:01:14] I I think you need to be ambitious in in
[05:01:16] strategies. Otherwise, if you don't set
[05:01:18] bold targets, you don't get bold
[05:01:19] actions. Um in London, we I remember we
[05:01:23] did we did our first walking strategy
[05:01:25] and we set the target to shift uh the
[05:01:27] walk to school from 53% of journeys to I
[05:01:31] think the target we had was 20 uh to to
[05:01:34] 57% of journeys by and I think it was
[05:01:37] over about four or five years. we um
[05:01:40] with with all the work that was going on
[05:01:42] by brilliant people like Rosina and all
[05:01:44] the councils we hit that target uh and
[05:01:46] then we had to refilm a new target uh to
[05:01:49] so we hit we went exceeded 57% uh by
[05:01:52] within 4 years I think or 3 years then
[05:01:55] we had to raise it to 60% and it's now
[05:01:58] at 63% of all people walking now that's
[05:02:01] not walking and cycling that's just
[05:02:02] walking in London recognize that the
[05:02:05] capital is different but I think that if
[05:02:08] active traveling England and the
[05:02:09] government want to hit that target. They
[05:02:11] need to slightly broaden uh the uh the
[05:02:13] remit of what they're actually talking
[05:02:15] about here. Walking, wheeling and
[05:02:16] cycling is very very important in this.
[05:02:19] But it should also include public
[05:02:20] transport because I regard public
[05:02:22] transport as a form of active travel.
[05:02:24] 50% of all walking journeys in London
[05:02:27] are to or to the bus. Yeah. So we should
[05:02:30] be looking at stages. If you live in
[05:02:32] Bath or if you live in Bristol or if you
[05:02:34] live in Birmingham, you live in
[05:02:35] Manchester, you know, there are there
[05:02:37] are hills. the schools are not quite as
[05:02:39] dense maybe as some parts of inner
[05:02:41] London. Uh public transport should be
[05:02:43] part of that picture. It should be
[05:02:45] considered active travel because you
[05:02:46] have to be active to get there. And I
[05:02:49] think that when you look at it a bit
[05:02:50] more holistically as stages of journeys.
[05:02:52] It broadens the ambition. It broadens
[05:02:55] the the the reach. It makes it more
[05:02:57] accessible for everybody. And I think
[05:03:00] therefore it would be a deliverable
[05:03:03] given the caveats that both Sarah and
[05:03:05] Rosine have said about funding and the
[05:03:08] giving councils the ability to hit those
[05:03:11] ambitious targets. But London did it. I
[05:03:13] don't see why anyone else can't too.
[05:03:15] Yeah. And actually the national uh
[05:03:18] national statistics aren't as good as in
[05:03:19] London. Um around a quarter of secondary
[05:03:22] school journeys since the millennium
[05:03:23] have involved buses and it's sort of
[05:03:25] remained very static. actually it hasn't
[05:03:27] increased which you'd hope it would um I
[05:03:30] guess if you're hoping to get more
[05:03:31] people walking um but this has more
[05:03:33] recently dropped to 18%.
[05:03:36] And I was going to say my next question
[05:03:37] was given there's usually a walking
[05:03:39] stage in uh bus journey do we know
[05:03:43] what's happening and how how can we
[05:03:44] reverse this trend outside of London
[05:03:47] because obviously London's very
[05:03:48] successful with its public transport.
[05:03:50] Yeah.
[05:03:52] I can't I'm not going to speak on but
[05:03:53] other people outside London.
[05:03:55] Okay. Well okay. Yeah. But I can talk
[05:03:56] about, you know, certainly in London, I
[05:03:58] think about half of secondary school
[05:04:00] pupils use the bus to get to school. Um,
[05:04:03] which is which is great.
[05:04:05] There are I think there a couple of
[05:04:07] really there three reasons for that.
[05:04:09] One, we have a really good bus service.
[05:04:11] Yeah. And we're fortunate to have that.
[05:04:12] It's subsidized by the mayor and we're
[05:04:15] lucky to have the financial ability to
[05:04:17] do that. Yeah. But that is the
[05:04:18] fundamental piece. We have a bus
[05:04:20] service. Uh secondly, we provide free
[05:04:23] travel for anyone under 15 using the zip
[05:04:26] card and heavily subsidized travel for
[05:04:28] all everyone else in education. So that
[05:04:30] removes a massive barrier and allows
[05:04:33] everybody to use it. And thirdly, we
[05:04:35] also have a program that operates in all
[05:04:37] schools managing the transition from
[05:04:39] year six to year 7. So that is a key
[05:04:42] drop off point. If you look at all the
[05:04:44] graphs of active travel and public
[05:04:46] transport use, that transition is
[05:04:48] absolutely vital where you move from
[05:04:50] what is largely a dependent journey as a
[05:04:52] primary school kid to an independent
[05:04:55] journey as a secondary school kid. And
[05:04:57] so the travel for life program that TfL
[05:04:59] operates reaches all year six kids in
[05:05:02] London to actually help them manage that
[05:05:05] transition of how to use the public
[05:05:06] transport network, what behaviors we
[05:05:09] expect of them while they're using a zip
[05:05:11] card, etc., etc. So there is actual
[05:05:14] outreach not to parents, not to
[05:05:15] teachers, but to the kids themselves to
[05:05:18] help make that transition because
[05:05:20] ultimately if kids aren't walking,
[05:05:22] cycling, and using public transport, we
[05:05:24] aren't going to have people walking,
[05:05:26] cycling, and public transport users in
[05:05:28] the future because the kids set that
[05:05:30] norm. If you if you think it's normal to
[05:05:33] get to school by walking, cycling,
[05:05:35] scooting, public transport, that fixes
[05:05:37] in your mind as a norm. Yeah. that well
[05:05:40] for the rest of your life you will
[05:05:42] always think oh actually that's a pretty
[05:05:43] normal way to travel around if you were
[05:05:45] just chauffeered around in a large air
[05:05:47] conditioned SUV y then that will set the
[05:05:50] norm of what you think transport is and
[05:05:52] how you perceive your your space and so
[05:05:55] I think it's a fundamental to get it
[05:05:57] right for kids at that early age
[05:05:59] yeah so getting in to the schools to the
[05:06:02] children and helping them make those
[05:06:03] decisions which are going to
[05:06:06] absolutely my kids would never listen to
[05:06:07] me after the age of about And even then
[05:06:10] that was doubtful. So me telling them
[05:06:12] that walking and cycling is good didn't
[05:06:14] really have much of an impact.
[05:06:15] Okay. Interesting Sarah.
[05:06:18] So the question was about why are few
[05:06:20] fewer kids using buses to go.
[05:06:22] Well yeah and and and sort of how to
[05:06:24] reverse the trend.
[05:06:26] I mean so the financial aspect is a
[05:06:29] serious one. Um I mean our buses are
[05:06:33] privatized. We have funding for
[05:06:36] supported buses. so-called supported,
[05:06:37] that means subsidized. And the last time
[05:06:40] we went out to tender uh for our
[05:06:43] supported buses, the um price per
[05:06:46] service had literally doubled. So, we
[05:06:49] had to cut this the routes we had in
[05:06:51] half. And I've sat in a room with our
[05:06:53] local bus company, who I won't name for
[05:06:55] this particular anecdote. [gasps] And
[05:06:57] I've said to them, what we really want
[05:06:59] is um buses to get all our kids to
[05:07:02] secondary school. You know, can you do
[05:07:04] that for us? And I'm afraid the chap I
[05:07:06] was spoken speaking to his response was
[05:07:10] you're asking me to put a bus on morning
[05:07:12] and evening full of half fair paying
[05:07:16] passengers. Why would I do that?
[05:07:18] Um so I mean that's where we at the west
[05:07:20] of England combined authority need to
[05:07:22] learn through our enhanced partnership
[05:07:25] to work out how to manage that better
[05:07:27] and we are on a learning curve. Um, as I
[05:07:29] said, the combined authorities had some
[05:07:31] difficulties, but hopefully now turning
[05:07:34] a corner. And there's another cultural
[05:07:37] question that um that I wanted to raise
[05:07:40] if that's okay. When my daughter was at
[05:07:43] secondary school, we had a session there
[05:07:45] with their parents forum
[05:07:48] um with an academic and she was asking
[05:07:51] about what the meaning for people is of
[05:07:55] being a parent and what we by discussing
[05:07:57] in a room full of about 20 parents, we
[05:08:00] discovered there are some very different
[05:08:02] meanings.
[05:08:04] So for me at the time, my daughter
[05:08:06] traveled by uh bus um and she walked
[05:08:10] nearly a mile to the bus stop and then
[05:08:12] caught the bus up to school. And for me
[05:08:15] it was about building her independence.
[05:08:17] You know I traveled to school by public
[05:08:19] transport from the age of nine. Um you
[05:08:22] know why wouldn't she why wouldn't she
[05:08:24] want that independence? That was the
[05:08:25] meaning for me as a parent. But what we
[05:08:28] discovered by speaking in that room was
[05:08:31] other parents perceived their role in a
[05:08:33] very different way. So some of them
[05:08:35] said, "Oh, but life is so tough for
[05:08:39] these kids now. These exams, there is so
[05:08:42] much pressure. As a parent, my role is
[05:08:45] to take away the pressure that I can
[05:08:48] take away. So for me, what I do is I
[05:08:51] don't make them get on that bus that's
[05:08:53] so stressful and hot and smelly and you
[05:08:56] know, I what I can do for them is I go
[05:08:58] and collect them from school.
[05:09:00] Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, interesting take
[05:09:04] and it it just goes to show how
[05:09:05] different people's perspectives are and
[05:09:07] how we can't assume that one person is
[05:09:08] is is another. Will you wanted to add
[05:09:11] something? Yeah, I just think but it I I
[05:09:13] totally agree with what what Sarah's
[05:09:15] saying, but this is a seismic shift that
[05:09:17] has happened in society in in a very
[05:09:19] short period of time. So, if you look
[05:09:22] back to when I was born in the 1970s in
[05:09:25] a hot summer in the 1970s,
[05:09:28] um some of you can do the math. Um
[05:09:31] uh the num the percentage of kids in the
[05:09:34] UK now know this is not London this is
[05:09:36] UK that traveled independently to school
[05:09:39] was 85%.
[05:09:41] Yeah. So 85% across the entire UK
[05:09:44] traveled independently to school. Now by
[05:09:47] definition traveling by independently is
[05:09:49] either walking, cycling, scooting. There
[05:09:51] weren't many scooters then but uh or or
[05:09:53] public transport. Today that figure is
[05:09:57] 25%.
[05:09:58] Yeah. So 85% to 25% in my lifetime.
[05:10:03] Yeah. Is an astonishing transformation
[05:10:07] in terms of uh in term it's a seismic
[05:10:10] shift on how our kids move in society
[05:10:13] and I go back there isn't a single
[05:10:15] solution to this. This is this is so
[05:10:17] this is such a big deal and the
[05:10:19] consequences of this are only just
[05:10:21] beginning to emerge. Uh and and we have
[05:10:24] to act on it.
[05:10:26] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a really
[05:10:27] interesting point and I wanted to and I
[05:10:29] I wanted to ask and it's really helpful
[05:10:31] to have these stats and just to realize
[05:10:33] how much things have changed and I think
[05:10:35] the one thing that um Lambbeath did
[05:10:37] during your term um in the council
[05:10:40] Rosena was was the the curbside
[05:10:42] strategy. And I know it wasn't focused
[05:10:44] on children, but I was just thinking
[05:10:46] about the small intervention of the bike
[05:10:48] racks and and I didn't want to dismiss
[05:10:49] it earlier because actually these small
[05:10:51] interventions,
[05:10:53] thinking on a on a large scale, but
[05:10:54] actually making these small
[05:10:56] interventions to how the streets are
[05:10:58] used and who gets to access them um can
[05:11:00] make a difference. And I'm not sure if
[05:11:01] that links up with school journeys and
[05:11:04] access to public transport, but perhaps
[05:11:06] you could speak to to some of that. Yes.
[05:11:09] So, um, the the curbside strategy, I
[05:11:12] mean, it's a it's a it's a very broad
[05:11:14] strategy, but it covers lots of specific
[05:11:17] policies and and yes, it does link into
[05:11:21] making it easier for kids to be able to
[05:11:23] walk, cycle, scoot to school because the
[05:11:26] the simple element of taking cars off
[05:11:28] the road, when you take away parking
[05:11:30] spaces, you're taking away cars and your
[05:11:33] roads immediately become more spacious
[05:11:37] and and filling it with planters and
[05:11:40] parklets. uh cycle hangers and the cycle
[05:11:43] hangers now this is a really interesting
[05:11:44] thing um that previously uh cycle
[05:11:48] hangers used to be put in um and they
[05:11:50] were demandled so people used to contact
[05:11:54] the council and say I need a cycle
[05:11:55] hanger put one in please and they'd go
[05:11:58] onto a list and what we were finding was
[05:12:00] that it was people in particular parts
[05:12:02] of the burough where um there was lower
[05:12:05] car ownership anyway and people were
[05:12:07] cycling more so you were you were almost
[05:12:10] like feeding into somewhere where there
[05:12:11] was already demand. And in in order to
[05:12:14] change behavior, in order to make
[05:12:17] cycling more normal and uh more everyday
[05:12:20] for people, we thought well actually we
[05:12:22] need to go where there isn't yet demand
[05:12:25] but where we can anticipate some. And so
[05:12:28] that's why we had a much more kind of um
[05:12:31] sort of democratic approach to uh
[05:12:34] putting in the cycle hangers. Looking at
[05:12:36] where we had um HMOs where people were
[05:12:39] living in flats where they couldn't
[05:12:41] store their bikes securely and safely.
[05:12:44] Putting those cycle hangers in meant
[05:12:46] that people could actually think about
[05:12:48] getting a bike and um and cycling more
[05:12:51] as well. So it's little things like that
[05:12:52] that
[05:12:53] plenty of people store their store
[05:12:54] children's bikes in them, don't they? I
[05:12:56] mean, you see I see them walking past
[05:12:57] little bikes in there.
[05:12:58] Yeah.
[05:12:59] Yeah.
[05:13:00] But I think this is uh true with bike
[05:13:03] hangers as well as school streets if I'm
[05:13:05] completely honest that um both
[05:13:07] excellent. Yeah.
[05:13:08] I was going to move on to school streets
[05:13:09] actually.
[05:13:10] But you you do need the ability to get
[05:13:13] to that bike hanger. Yeah. Or the
[05:13:15] ability to get to that school street. Um
[05:13:18] and that's why I think uh you know
[05:13:20] there's a good really good example. Go
[05:13:22] to Mossbornne Primary School Banks. I
[05:13:24] think it's called Canal Side in in
[05:13:25] Hackne. Yeah. Where they've got they've
[05:13:27] got um it's a they've got a school
[05:13:29] street. Yeah. And uh and they've got and
[05:13:32] they've al now got some bike lanes
[05:13:33] nearby and and X Y and Zed. They they
[05:13:36] they started putting in some bike
[05:13:38] parking and it filled up. Yeah. And then
[05:13:41] the bike parking wanted more more bike
[05:13:43] parking. So they put more bike parking.
[05:13:44] Then it then it wouldn't fit in the
[05:13:46] playground. So then it had to sit
[05:13:47] outside the school and then it's ended
[05:13:49] up more outside the school. And if you
[05:13:50] go past it now during a school day, it's
[05:13:53] astonishing. You know, literally you
[05:13:54] can't move for the number of kids bikes
[05:13:56] in in that area. That wasn't the case
[05:13:59] before the school street went in and it
[05:14:00] wasn't the case before you had the safer
[05:14:02] bike lanes getting to the school street.
[05:14:04] Yeah. So I think um we you we need to
[05:14:07] look at this holistically uh in terms of
[05:14:10] actually not just those again not just
[05:14:13] I'm going to bang the drum but not just
[05:14:14] a single in in in intervention. There is
[05:14:19] a sort of systemic way of thinking on
[05:14:21] doing that and as soon as systemic gets
[05:14:23] raised in any public policy base it's
[05:14:26] like oh god that's far too difficult or
[05:14:28] that's far too expensive we can't do
[05:14:29] that systemic you know systemic is a way
[05:14:31] of thinking it doesn't need a
[05:14:33] systemically large budget to deliver
[05:14:35] that it's an approach it's a mechanism
[05:14:37] it's a plan that you begin to fill in in
[05:14:40] that way which I think Lambeath have
[05:14:41] done and certainly other burrows in
[05:14:42] London have done quite successfully
[05:14:45] yeah yeah that's that's a really good
[05:14:47] point and and it's like this with so
[05:14:48] much of um street space change things
[05:14:50] are done individually. I mean banning
[05:14:53] pavement parking is going to have to be
[05:14:54] done on a case- by case basis which is
[05:14:56] very very timeconuming and it seems to
[05:14:58] be how we um how we deliver and and I
[05:15:01] know that in um I know that Bath has um
[05:15:04] four school streets now um you recently
[05:15:06] doubled but I did notice and from um
[05:15:09] Lambbeath looking at the kind of roll
[05:15:11] out that they happen in in sort of
[05:15:13] clusters and I guess it makes sense in
[05:15:16] terms of the logistics but it does seem
[05:15:19] like it's a very slow process. you're
[05:15:20] doing sort of five or 10 or you know
[05:15:23] possibly slightly more a year but it's
[05:15:25] not much more than that if you're
[05:15:26] looking at a city then there's a very
[05:15:29] long roll out and is there is there a
[05:15:32] case to is there is it possible to roll
[05:15:34] out any faster um I don't know if you
[05:15:37] want to speak about Bath or because
[05:15:38] you're in the early stage of this
[05:15:40] journey now with
[05:15:41] yeah um I was elected seven years ago
[05:15:45] and it's taken until this month to open
[05:15:48] our first four school streets So, it's
[05:15:51] taken us a long time. I mean, partly
[05:15:53] that's about waiting until you've got
[05:15:55] the money available. You know, we don't
[05:15:57] these days have council officers who can
[05:16:00] just pick up a project. You've got to
[05:16:01] wait until you can allocate money in the
[05:16:04] budget to pay for their salaries. And
[05:16:06] so, we're at the very early stages. It's
[05:16:08] super exciting. They are just parent
[05:16:11] powered. They're not um A&PR yet. Maybe
[05:16:15] that will be for the next manifesto or
[05:16:17] something like that. Um and there are
[05:16:19] just four of them but um really exciting
[05:16:21] that we've got there.
[05:16:23] Yeah, it is exciting. Yeah,
[05:16:25] congratulations. It sounds like there's
[05:16:26] a lot of work to do. Okay. Um Okay. Um
[05:16:30] but I would push back on the speed. I
[05:16:32] think school streets is something that
[05:16:33] can get rolled out once up and running.
[05:16:35] And I it'll be interesting to see what
[05:16:36] happens in Bath cuz in London we had one
[05:16:38] our first one was 2017. Yeah. Then we
[05:16:41] had a cluster more in 2018. Yeah. we've
[05:16:44] now got 800 and another 200 in the
[05:16:47] pipeline. Uh and so um what we are
[05:16:51] finding and what I'm finding is that the
[05:16:54] conversation has changed or is changing
[05:16:57] where where you measure the air quality
[05:16:59] in the schools or the or the danger
[05:17:01] around the schools. Parents saying well
[05:17:02] it's not fair why are my kids not able
[05:17:04] to breathe clear clean air throughout
[05:17:06] the whole school day. It's not fair. Why
[05:17:08] are those kids able to get to school
[05:17:10] safely? Yeah. Now, that is a very very
[05:17:13] different conversation to be had, but it
[05:17:15] takes time to get there and and and I
[05:17:17] think that you that that that that
[05:17:18] thing, but it is I'd push back on the
[05:17:20] speed on that one because I think it it
[05:17:22] can happen quickly.
[05:17:23] Okay. Okay. It can happen. Go. Okay.
[05:17:25] That's good news. And it's good news for
[05:17:26] people who might be new in this, who
[05:17:27] might be newly elected or newly imposed
[05:17:30] delivering. And I know that um Rosina,
[05:17:32] you you had quite a well [clears throat]
[05:17:35] around a year ago, Lambbeath West Dulich
[05:17:37] low traffic neighborhood had to be
[05:17:38] removed following an order by the high
[05:17:40] court. Um the council was told the way
[05:17:43] the LTN had been implemented was
[05:17:44] unlawful. um it wasn't in relation to
[05:17:47] the effectiveness or the impact of the
[05:17:49] scheme, but obviously um a very
[05:17:51] difficult time for you as a counselor
[05:17:53] and someone leading on this and I think
[05:17:56] some of it got quite personal. I wonder
[05:17:57] I'm wondering how you how you what you
[05:18:00] learned from from this experience and
[05:18:02] what you could share in terms of perhaps
[05:18:04] avoiding this. Yeah. Well, on on that
[05:18:07] particular one, um I obviously have to
[05:18:10] be very careful what I say. Um, even
[05:18:12] though I'm no longer a counselor, um, I
[05:18:15] would I would say that was u more of an
[05:18:18] u a technicality. Uh, so it it was about
[05:18:24] uh a particular piece of evidence or
[05:18:27] report a submission that hadn't been
[05:18:29] included in the report.
[05:18:31] And this is how it usually kind of get
[05:18:33] things usually get tripped up, isn't it?
[05:18:34] It's it's the process. It's not the
[05:18:36] scheme. Because I mean, as far as I saw
[05:18:38] and I traveled to the area, it seemed
[05:18:39] like it was fairly popular. obviously
[05:18:41] very controversial for some people, but
[05:18:43] it was
[05:18:43] Yeah,
[05:18:44] it was controversial for some people.
[05:18:46] Um, but not everyone is is going to be
[05:18:49] in favor of these things, but what we
[05:18:51] did have, we had a silent majority
[05:18:55] um who were later not so silent. Um,
[05:18:57] they did come out and support it. Um,
[05:19:01] it was it was it was loved, it was used,
[05:19:04] and it made a huge difference. It's It's
[05:19:07] just so sad that it had to be taken out,
[05:19:09] but it it it did what it was, you know,
[05:19:13] was aiming to do. Um, and yeah, now I I
[05:19:17] I don't know when um what what will
[05:19:20] happen next, but um I'm pleased to say
[05:19:23] that uh I mean I lost my seat on the 8th
[05:19:26] of May and on the 10th of May a new
[05:19:29] cycle lane went in again which was um at
[05:19:33] at risk of uh legal action but uh it's
[05:19:36] it's gone in succeeded.
[05:19:38] Yeah. Okay.
[05:19:39] Let's be honest doing ambitious stuff
[05:19:41] will create some backlash. I'd say to
[05:19:43] the team if we're doing meaningful
[05:19:45] change like the Rosina delivered in in
[05:19:47] Lambbeath by definition not everybody is
[05:19:50] going to be happy all the time and I
[05:19:52] think that's got to you know everybody's
[05:19:54] got to go into this with their eyes open
[05:19:56] that schemes that are deliver meaningful
[05:19:59] change and will address that seismic
[05:20:01] shift that we've seen in society will
[05:20:04] create a backlash and we will be
[05:20:05] controversial and that's why we all have
[05:20:07] to work together to make sure that vocal
[05:20:10] minor the the quiet minority
[05:20:13] become more vocal and we have the data
[05:20:15] to slap down the people who maybe use uh
[05:20:18] who who don't do this but it's it's
[05:20:19] based on anecdote and and
[05:20:21] misinformation.
[05:20:22] Yeah. And perhaps that's why you know to
[05:20:25] end on a on a positive note perhaps
[05:20:26] that's why uh focusing on children um is
[05:20:29] is so positive. One because it's the
[05:20:32] right thing to do but also two because
[05:20:34] people can understand change if you see
[05:20:36] it through a a child's eyes. if you
[05:20:38] nobody could argue against children's
[05:20:40] safety and and their right to be able to
[05:20:43] breathe clean air or or to be able to
[05:20:44] get to school independently and I'm sure
[05:20:46] nobody enjoys the school run um who
[05:20:48] lives in a city and drives it. Um so
[05:20:50] there's there's probably a lot to be
[05:20:52] said for for that focus as well. I mean
[05:20:54] I had other questions but I'm I'm sure
[05:20:56] we've got lots of good questions. We've
[05:20:57] got um I hear we've got a great audience
[05:20:59] today, engaged audience um and so I'm
[05:21:02] hoping there's going to be some good
[05:21:04] good questions or any questions but
[05:21:06] questions not statements. So, um, yeah.
[05:21:09] Should we should we open it up to the
[05:21:10] floor? Who gets to choose? Okay, Will's
[05:21:12] pointing at someone. Okay.
[05:21:14] And don't be shy.
[05:21:19] Hi, thanks. This is Puya from Home Run
[05:21:21] and I'm very glad to hear the school run
[05:21:23] being called what it is, which is a
[05:21:25] complex issue, systemic, cutting across
[05:21:28] many different sectors. Um, you know, it
[05:21:31] starts with admissions, cuts across
[05:21:32] public health, uh, planning, so many
[05:21:35] sectors. I guess the question is um and
[05:21:38] we work with local authorities given
[05:21:40] that the current structures of local
[05:21:41] authorities are so siloed and in our
[05:21:44] experience those different actual
[05:21:47] sectors and departments who are working
[05:21:49] across this don't talk to each other or
[05:21:51] walk or kind of work with each other. Um
[05:21:54] what do you think are the things that
[05:21:55] have to happen to enable joined up work
[05:21:58] and planning?
[05:21:59] That's a good question. Um who would
[05:22:01] like to answer this Rosena? Um I will
[05:22:05] try to answer that question. Um so I
[05:22:10] what I found was that actually setting
[05:22:13] out your vision so as a as a cabinet
[05:22:16] member you set out your vision clearly
[05:22:19] to senior officers to corporate
[05:22:21] directors and you tell them what you
[05:22:23] want to achieve
[05:22:25] and um and you leave it to them to
[05:22:28] achieve it and then you keep chasing
[05:22:30] them to make sure. Um and also you
[05:22:35] you know if there if there are delays,
[05:22:37] if there are blocks, if things aren't
[05:22:39] happening
[05:22:41] soon or quick enough for you, uh you
[05:22:45] speak to the different corporate
[05:22:47] directors in charge and ask them what's
[05:22:50] going on. Um so that that's how I did
[05:22:53] it.
[05:22:55] Yeah, Sarah.
[05:22:57] So I I may be coming from a outside
[05:23:00] London perspective. So good. [laughter]
[05:23:04] So um so Bath and Northeast Somerset is
[05:23:07] a small local authority and um before
[05:23:12] the Lib Dems were elected 7 years ago,
[05:23:14] it had always swung um every election.
[05:23:17] Um so the officers who were there they
[05:23:21] thought they were there to protect the
[05:23:23] organization from these politicians who
[05:23:25] come they say a few things then they'll
[05:23:27] be gone in a minute there'll be another
[05:23:28] one along with a different idea so uh I
[05:23:32] would say I mean same as Rosina but I
[05:23:34] would say that over the seven years
[05:23:36] we've had to do a lot of cultural change
[05:23:38] through the organization a lot of change
[05:23:40] of senior personnel and and and then you
[05:23:44] know you have to work down through the
[05:23:45] layers of the organization
[05:23:47] And I think we're now starting to get
[05:23:49] there. We have quite a new chief
[05:23:51] executive and we've got massive
[05:23:54] financial savings still to make again
[05:23:56] this year,12 million to make. But she
[05:23:59] speaks in terms of transformation and
[05:24:01] she speaks in terms of working across
[05:24:04] the public sector. So it remains to be
[05:24:07] seen how effective and how possible it
[05:24:10] is to to save 12 million pounds that way
[05:24:13] rather than by cutting. But uh certainly
[05:24:17] we now have an organization that feels
[05:24:18] as though it's ready to try to take on
[05:24:21] that challenge.
[05:24:23] Thank you. And will you've had to work
[05:24:24] across with 33 different burers and a
[05:24:27] mayor. So it's quite a different
[05:24:29] um that's that's great. Um [laughter]
[05:24:32] no, what I was actually going to say was
[05:24:34] slightly different perspective on from a
[05:24:35] strategic authority perspective rather
[05:24:37] than maybe a council perspective. And
[05:24:40] what I was going to say is that these
[05:24:41] things don't happen by accident. Yeah.
[05:24:45] that I think actually trying to drive
[05:24:47] systemic change and you know one of the
[05:24:49] beautiful things about the work that we
[05:24:51] do it impacts every area of social
[05:24:53] policy if you're interested in health
[05:24:55] the environment the economy the uh
[05:24:58] mental health um education you name it
[05:25:01] it brings benefits and so therefore you
[05:25:04] can embed what we've done in London is
[05:25:06] embed our healthy streets policy which
[05:25:08] is at one mo you know is most
[05:25:10] predominant in transport but you can see
[05:25:12] the same policy in the environment
[05:25:14] strategy. You can see it in the housing
[05:25:16] strategy. You can see it in the planning
[05:25:18] strategy. You can see it in the culture
[05:25:20] strategy. You can see it in the policing
[05:25:22] practices. So, ensuring at a strategic
[05:25:25] level like government or strategic
[05:25:27] authorities, ensuring that those
[05:25:29] policies are thought of systemic
[05:25:31] systematically and systemically from the
[05:25:34] outset allows people to then have those
[05:25:37] conversations that Sarah and Rosina will
[05:25:39] have. Well, actually this is in your uh
[05:25:41] this is in your statutory strategy. This
[05:25:44] is an expectation we have on you. It
[05:25:46] allows people to have that interrogate
[05:25:49] the different departments because it is
[05:25:51] thought of and it is designed as a
[05:25:53] systematic intervention.
[05:25:56] Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. That was
[05:25:58] a good question. Thank you P. We've got
[05:26:00] um time for one more question I'm being
[05:26:01] told. Oh um be nice to have someone
[05:26:05] female. I don't know. Do you want Go on.
[05:26:08] Don't be shy.
[05:26:09] [laughter]
[05:26:11] Hi, it's really a question for Sarah.
[05:26:13] Um, so Bath has recently, I think,
[05:26:17] passed a motion for children's kind of
[05:26:21] freedom to play and safer streets. Um, I
[05:26:24] think it might be called a playing out
[05:26:26] motion or something like that, which
[05:26:28] obviously is um a statement of intent
[05:26:31] and I think it passed unanimously, which
[05:26:33] is amazing. um and it kind of leads the
[05:26:36] way for other councils to follow. But
[05:26:39] what do you think needs to happen now to
[05:26:41] actually implement that and make it real
[05:26:46] and make it have an impact?
[05:26:49] Well, I think we're back to systemic
[05:26:51] things, aren't we? I mean, one of the
[05:26:53] things that is going to go to our
[05:26:54] cabinet this week is our movement
[05:26:57] strategy which aims to set out a 10-year
[05:27:00] vision and again in a very systemic and
[05:27:03] joined up way listing off you know 15
[05:27:06] different levers that we can use to
[05:27:08] reduce congestion, make nicer spaces
[05:27:12] um so I suppose it's just about looking
[05:27:14] at things in a very systemic way. um
[05:27:18] small changes in lots of places. Uh
[05:27:20] always bully pushing in the same
[05:27:22] direction. Um absolutely. I mean that
[05:27:25] goes along with our we've also um passed
[05:27:27] a motion some years ago about vision
[05:27:29] zero which is about zero road deaths and
[05:27:32] got an ambitious target for that. I
[05:27:34] suppose all of these are just about um
[05:27:38] putting in place those um changes little
[05:27:41] by little every little thing. So every
[05:27:43] little single livable neighborhood,
[05:27:45] school street, um you know, our clean
[05:27:48] air zone, um what we can do in our parks
[05:27:50] as well, things we're doing in our
[05:27:51] parks, move that them towards, you know,
[05:27:54] having safe places to play for
[05:27:56] teenagers. Um so it's just about, I
[05:27:58] suppose, setting out that vision and
[05:28:00] making sure everything you do moves in
[05:28:02] the same direction.
[05:28:04] Okay. And I that was quite a specific
[05:28:05] one. Maybe I can just ask a quick know
[05:28:07] just a very quick one to both unless
[05:28:10] someone has a specific question for one
[05:28:11] or one or other. Um I might just ask um
[05:28:16] do you have a favorite um what's the
[05:28:18] kind of best child-friendly um
[05:28:20] intervention that you've seen on in your
[05:28:22] kind of cuz you have that fantastic
[05:28:24] curbside strategy.
[05:28:25] Is there any competition with Kennington
[05:28:27] Oval School Street?
[05:28:28] Okay. [laughter]
[05:28:31] [gasps] So, um, some of you will have,
[05:28:33] uh, visited this morning. We have two
[05:28:36] school streets outside the Kia Oval
[05:28:40] Cricket Straight Stadium. And when you
[05:28:42] think about it, it's it's quite a feat
[05:28:45] to have uh, play streets, cool streets
[05:28:49] outside a major international sports
[05:28:51] stadium. Um, and which we were able to
[05:28:55] achieve with the help of uh, Surrey
[05:28:57] Cricket Club. Um, and yes, two schools
[05:29:00] are covered there and it's just a joyous
[05:29:04] place. Um, you know, cars are blocked. I
[05:29:08] mean, there's there's bits where cars
[05:29:09] can come in, but the roads are narrowed.
[05:29:11] We've got seating. We've got logs. We've
[05:29:13] got table tennis tables. Um, there's
[05:29:16] kind of um, you know, tactical kind of
[05:29:20] painting on the ground. It it just makes
[05:29:22] it clear that cars aren't welcome and
[05:29:24] it's for kids. And we actually have
[05:29:26] signs on the floor that say ball games
[05:29:29] allowed. Amazing. [laughter] Because so
[05:29:32] often it's the opposite. Um will my
[05:29:34] other final question which we haven't
[05:29:35] really we haven't really talked about
[05:29:36] was um what about sort of teenagers when
[05:29:39] you get to get to college? Are there any
[05:29:41] sort of good interventions that you've
[05:29:42] seen? It's not something we don't often
[05:29:43] talk about sort of that transition into
[05:29:45] adulthood and how how young adults can
[05:29:48] stay active. Well, I think that I
[05:29:50] thinking of it as a trans transition is
[05:29:52] very important and hence the engagement
[05:29:54] of kids is is really important. But I
[05:29:56] think when as you get closer to uh later
[05:29:59] teens, the difference between what's
[05:30:01] required for adults to be uh to be
[05:30:04] active and to be moving is not that far
[05:30:07] off from what it takes for teenagers and
[05:30:10] sick formers and college kids to be
[05:30:12] active. and thing, you know, that
[05:30:13] requires safe routes, that requires
[05:30:16] accessibility to bikes, somewhere your
[05:30:18] bike's not going to get stolen. Um, it
[05:30:20] requires uh things. But, you know, one
[05:30:22] of the things that gives me great hope
[05:30:24] is that there has been, you know, the
[05:30:27] Sante Cycles featured in in a number one
[05:30:30] single video. Yeah. You've [laughter]
[05:30:32] got in, you know, you got Timothy
[05:30:34] Shamlet rocking up at the what the
[05:30:36] bafters on anime bike on on a car park.
[05:30:39] you know that actually my experience is
[05:30:42] that teenagers and particularly the two
[05:30:44] teenagers closest to me do not listen to
[05:30:46] me as a father or as a public official.
[05:30:48] Yeah. However, if you've got these sort
[05:30:51] of people, you know, Stormsy Resling
[05:30:54] around and various other people and
[05:30:56] artists and uh and and and really really
[05:31:00] sort of significant popular culture
[05:31:02] people showing, you know, celebrating
[05:31:04] this. My kids listen to that far more
[05:31:07] than me. And so I think we need to, you
[05:31:09] know, unless there's anyone
[05:31:10] significantly famous in the room, yeah,
[05:31:12] [clears throat] we all need to make a
[05:31:14] conscious effort to extend who's
[05:31:16] actually talking about this, who's
[05:31:18] celebrating it because frankly, I don't
[05:31:20] think many teenagers will listen to all
[05:31:22] of us. Yeah. But they will listen to
[05:31:24] other sources. So how do we reach beyond
[05:31:26] the usual suspects to champion this?
[05:31:29] Because ultimately we need to change
[05:31:30] that conversation to cut through.
[05:31:32] Brilliant. Thank you. That's a great
[05:31:34] positive note to finish. So, if you'll
[05:31:36] just say say thank you to our panel.
[05:31:38] Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, REGINA.
[05:31:41] [applause]
[05:31:44] I thought you were going to be more of a
[05:31:46] now with your new found sense of
[05:31:48] freedom. I was living a fear of that.
[05:31:50] And I'm 17.
[05:31:52] Alexander Silk and I'm 17 years old.
[05:31:55] I'm Tega Strange and my age is 17.
[05:31:58] I am Harrison Kennet and I'm 17 years
[05:32:00] old.
[05:32:04] Um I walked to the train station from my
[05:32:06] house and then got on the train which
[05:32:08] was about 15minute journey and then
[05:32:10] walked to college which is another 15
[05:32:12] minutes.
[05:32:13] Today I came in on my moped
[05:32:15] bought a car at the train station and
[05:32:17] got the uh train from Rainom to
[05:32:20] Canterbury East.
[05:32:21] I walked by [snorts] foot.
[05:32:27] That's incredibly important to me
[05:32:30] because I feel like climate change a few
[05:32:33] years ago it was the most important
[05:32:34] thing and everybody was talking about it
[05:32:35] but now people have calmed down and
[05:32:37] talking about it and I think that
[05:32:39] shouldn't be the case. I think we should
[05:32:40] be talking about this a lot more and
[05:32:42] I think if you can walk or you can cycle
[05:32:44] or if you can like jog or whatever you
[05:32:47] should because there's no harm in it,
[05:32:49] especially if it's a short journey
[05:32:51] because it helps the environment and it
[05:32:53] it helps you kind of feel like you're
[05:32:56] doing something. I think climate change
[05:32:58] is very important because the more money
[05:33:01] that we can start spending to make this
[05:33:04] world a better place rather than pouring
[05:33:07] loads into war, uh we're going to see
[05:33:10] sooner changes in people's lifestyles
[05:33:14] and how the economy really treats
[05:33:18] people.
[05:33:22] My favorite mode of transport is trains.
[05:33:25] Um, I grew up getting the train all the
[05:33:27] time with my dad and I really like being
[05:33:30] relaxed on a train, just putting my
[05:33:32] headphones on, listening to music.
[05:33:34] In public sense, I'd probably say a bus.
[05:33:36] The vibrations are quite soothing.
[05:33:42] Make rail cards. Uh, like you get more
[05:33:45] of a discount if you're a student.
[05:33:47] I'd try sorting out the pricing scheme.
[05:33:52] I think a lot of awareness is important
[05:33:55] for me like awareness of different modes
[05:33:57] of transportation that students can have
[05:33:59] and people can have.
[05:35:30] Okay, great.
[05:35:32] [snorts]
[05:35:36] Thank you everyone. We're trying to run
[05:35:38] to time so we can get out to our
[05:35:40] reception.
[05:35:42] A little bit more silence, please.
[05:35:49] It is fun after all.
[05:35:51] Okay. Yeah. Not quite doing that for the
[05:35:53] fun. I've been doing it for two days
[05:35:54] now. [laughter]
[05:35:55] Okay. So, uh we're trying to stick to
[05:35:57] time because we've got a fabulous
[05:35:59] reception to take you to in the South
[05:36:01] Bank Roof Garden. If you've not
[05:36:03] registered, then let us know. Um we've
[05:36:05] been talking today quite a bit about the
[05:36:06] backlash um that um a lot of the
[05:36:08] politicians began to feel and a lot of
[05:36:10] the campaigners frankly feel as well.
[05:36:12] And certainly don't we know it. So, I'm
[05:36:14] pleased to introduce Alex, who's going
[05:36:16] to be talking about the whole premise of
[05:36:18] The Hill of Hysteria. Thank you.
[05:36:27] [laughter]
[05:36:28] Today, I will take you on a little bit
[05:36:30] of a hike
[05:36:32] up a cool mountain. So, don't worries,
[05:36:34] we won't sweat too much. You will be
[05:36:36] right. And during our hike today up on
[05:36:40] what seems to be a pretty legendary
[05:36:43] mountain, the hill of hysteria, I'll
[05:36:46] tell you a story about 13 cities who
[05:36:50] manage to get across and how they've
[05:36:53] done it. I'll reveal a little magic
[05:36:56] trick, how you can fundamentally change
[05:36:59] the solutions you see in your head with
[05:37:01] just a single word. But be careful.
[05:37:04] There are many dangers today on our way.
[05:37:07] If you look around carefully, we might
[05:37:09] come across the lakes of don't do it,
[05:37:12] it's political suicide. Stay away from
[05:37:15] those.
[05:37:17] And I would say uh let's let's start.
[05:37:20] Let's begin. And we begin here in
[05:37:22] London. I would like to invite you to
[05:37:24] close your eyes real quick and imagine.
[05:37:26] Let's use our imagination. You walk
[05:37:29] outside,
[05:37:30] the sun on your on your skin, a little
[05:37:33] breeze. You walk along an 8-year-old
[05:37:35] holding your hand. And that 8-year-old
[05:37:38] looks up to you and asks,
[05:37:42] "Why are there cars everywhere? Why is
[05:37:44] it so hot here? And why can't I move the
[05:37:48] way I would like to move?" How would you
[05:37:51] answer that question?
[05:37:55] And indeed, we all know, and I think
[05:37:56] it's quite ironic that uh we're talking
[05:37:59] here this week, our cities are getting
[05:38:01] hotter. There are more and more heavy
[05:38:03] rainfalls. The independence of our
[05:38:05] children is getting lower and lower and
[05:38:07] lower. Road traffic is the global number
[05:38:09] one cause of death for uh our children
[05:38:12] and teenagers.
[05:38:15] The need for change is really big and at
[05:38:18] the same time nothing is really moving
[05:38:22] forward. If we look at the big picture,
[05:38:25] the reason might be resistance like
[05:38:29] here.
[05:38:30] Um, okay. Maybe not like here, cuz that
[05:38:34] actually looks quite nice. But if we go
[05:38:36] back in time on that beautiful square 2
[05:38:38] years earlier, this was a massive car
[05:38:40] park. And I don't need to tell you what
[05:38:43] kind of voices were around when they
[05:38:45] announced that they will remove it. But
[05:38:48] today, nobody nobody here would like to
[05:38:52] go back to this being a car park. So, it
[05:38:57] seems like the need for change is really
[05:38:59] big. And once we've gone through the
[05:39:02] change, everybody is really happy. We
[05:39:04] see mayors being reelected who dared to
[05:39:07] approach these bold changes.
[05:39:10] So
[05:39:12] why why aren't we moving quicker towards
[05:39:17] a more livable future, towards more
[05:39:19] livable cities? And before we actually
[05:39:22] get climbing on our mountain, we need to
[05:39:24] look back in history to understand why
[05:39:28] exactly it is so hard to change. So
[05:39:31] going back about a 100red years, our
[05:39:33] streets had lots of different functions.
[05:39:36] Commerce, children were playing, a
[05:39:38] social space to interact with our
[05:39:40] neighbors, with our friends. And then
[05:39:43] the car came along. The mass production
[05:39:45] of the car came along and we were able
[05:39:47] to move much quicker and many many
[05:39:50] children on the road which were playing
[05:39:52] were surprised by those quick cars. The
[05:39:56] result, let's not talk about that
[05:39:58] result. But we knew we needed to change
[05:40:01] and we came up with an idea. Okay, if we
[05:40:04] give cars more space, we can drive
[05:40:07] quicker and then we're quicker at home
[05:40:09] to be able to spend more time with our
[05:40:11] loved ones.
[05:40:12] And that's a pretty good idea. Everybody
[05:40:14] wants to spend more time with their
[05:40:15] loved ones, be on the road less. So, we
[05:40:19] took that to the goal. That was our
[05:40:21] goal. And we optimized for that traffic
[05:40:24] flow. Let's add a lane, be home even
[05:40:27] quicker. Every minute counts. We really
[05:40:29] want to do that. And over the last 70
[05:40:32] years, we have achieved time savings
[05:40:35] with that of being home quicker of
[05:40:37] exactly zero minutes.
[05:40:40] So we've given the entirety of public
[05:40:42] space to mobility in order to have no
[05:40:46] real benefit. And if we look at the
[05:40:48] graph here, we see how far we travel on
[05:40:51] a daily basis. And that distance that
[05:40:54] has changed dramatically, but we spend
[05:40:57] the same amount of time on our roads to
[05:41:00] the detriment of the independence of our
[05:41:02] children, the temperatures in our city,
[05:41:04] and so on.
[05:41:08] So if we want to change or actually
[05:41:12] let's go back to that one real quick.
[05:41:14] Now we have to travel so far that lots
[05:41:16] of people are dependent on also going
[05:41:18] that far. The supermarkets are at the
[05:41:20] edge of town. Um schools are far away,
[05:41:23] your friends live far away, work is
[05:41:25] further away. So humans are becoming
[05:41:27] dependent on going that far. And if we
[05:41:29] remove something of which people are
[05:41:33] dependent on, it feels like withdrawal.
[05:41:36] Of course, people are going to resist
[05:41:38] that change.
[05:41:40] So, we know there is always resistance
[05:41:43] in that when we do. And so,
[05:41:47] I went out and I asked 13 mayors who
[05:41:50] went through successful projects, speed
[05:41:53] limit reduction, low traffic
[05:41:54] neighborhoods,
[05:41:56] um different policies which fight the
[05:41:58] car dominance on how they've actually
[05:42:00] done it. and they have told me a
[05:42:03] remarkably similar story.
[05:42:07] We know that if we want to go from today
[05:42:10] until a better future, there will be
[05:42:14] a slight obstacle in the way. There will
[05:42:16] be some people which are disadvantaged
[05:42:18] by that. Okay?
[05:42:21] There will be negative headlines in the
[05:42:24] newspaper cuz that's sort of how our
[05:42:25] media landscape works. There will be
[05:42:27] storms on social media. There will
[05:42:29] be petitions that are signed by people.
[05:42:31] There will be court cases. And there
[05:42:33] will be death threats in almost all
[05:42:35] cases.
[05:42:40] And suddenly what looked like a quick
[05:42:42] jump could get us across looks like an
[05:42:46] enormous obstacle in the way. And that
[05:42:49] is the hill ofia. And that's the one
[05:42:52] we're going to climb together. Now
[05:42:57] the first part of our climb is quite
[05:43:00] foggy.
[05:43:01] After 80 years of car dependent or car
[05:43:04] centric planning, almost nobody
[05:43:07] remembers how it was actually like when
[05:43:10] that was not the case. The future is
[05:43:13] quite uncertain of what it actually
[05:43:15] feels like and we have lots of facts on
[05:43:18] that. But the feeling of will I actually
[05:43:20] be okay in the future that is quite
[05:43:23] distant to many people. A council uh
[05:43:27] head here in London has told me that
[05:43:29] they've analyzed it. They've asked
[05:43:31] people 60% were for the change but 95%
[05:43:35] of his inbox was just full of hate.
[05:43:39] A very loud minority fighting the
[05:43:41] change. People feel like it's their
[05:43:43] birthright to park their car outside the
[05:43:46] street. If you put your couch there,
[05:43:48] you'll get into trouble. But the car is
[05:43:50] fine. So, we need to keep going. We need
[05:43:53] to keep pushing until we reach the peak.
[05:43:59] But I need to disappoint you and I'm so
[05:44:01] sorry about that. But that's just a
[05:44:03] lovely vacation picture from last summer
[05:44:05] for me because our peak looks like this.
[05:44:09] [laughter]
[05:44:10] Construction works. It's loud. People
[05:44:13] need to adapt. Somebody will be late.
[05:44:16] Some bakery will close. Whatever. But
[05:44:19] some bakery will definitely close and
[05:44:22] there will be headlines everywhere
[05:44:24] saying the world will end. That was it.
[05:44:27] Political suicide.
[05:44:31] Oh,
[05:44:35] was that me?
[05:44:40] So things don't work out at that stage,
[05:44:42] right?
[05:44:43] But then something interesting happens
[05:44:47] after that period. We humans are
[05:44:50] incredibly good at adapting.
[05:44:54] That's what has benefited us so often
[05:44:57] across time. So what then actually
[05:45:00] happens is there is a decline in
[05:45:03] resistance. Many of the worries that
[05:45:05] citizens had turn out to be unjustified
[05:45:09] and many benefits arise which nobody has
[05:45:13] really thought about being like ah okay
[05:45:15] this is way calmer way nicer
[05:45:20] than it was before I actually prefer it
[05:45:23] that way and nobody wants to go back and
[05:45:27] we call it the hill of hysteria
[05:45:30] and resistance is a very natural part of
[05:45:34] any transition of any ambitious
[05:45:36] transition and it is temporary. It
[05:45:39] always fades away.
[05:45:43] Okay.
[05:45:45] But I was talking about emotions earlier
[05:45:49] and that might be a problem.
[05:45:52] Mayors and political leaders having a
[05:45:55] certain fear of not being reelected.
[05:45:58] Their popularity sort of dropping. They
[05:46:00] seeming out of touch of what the wider
[05:46:04] society actually wants.
[05:46:07] And to understand what happens there,
[05:46:09] we'll need to look at the city of Katz
[05:46:11] real quick. What you see here is public
[05:46:14] support over time. Back in the 80s, and
[05:46:17] the pattern is the same whether we look
[05:46:19] at project at the 70s or today, Grat
[05:46:22] introduced a lower speed limit of 30
[05:46:24] km/h, 20 mph
[05:46:27] all over the city. and they did lots of
[05:46:30] research and realized okay the majority
[05:46:32] of people is for this let's do it and at
[05:46:36] the day of the implementation they did a
[05:46:38] survey and they found out it's only 44%
[05:46:41] of people who is actually for it and
[05:46:43] they did everything right regarding
[05:46:45] communication strategies regarding how
[05:46:47] to um present it to the public how to
[05:46:50] implement it there was nothing wrong
[05:46:52] with it and nevertheless it dropped to
[05:46:55] 44%.
[05:46:56] And the opposition was furious being
[05:46:58] like, "You can't do this. The majority
[05:46:59] is against this. The world will end."
[05:47:02] And a month later, we were back at 60%.
[05:47:06] 6 months later, we were back at 72%, 77%
[05:47:10] after about a year. This has been way
[05:47:12] more popular than anybody would have
[05:47:14] thought and has become a role model for
[05:47:16] all of Europe.
[05:47:19] So why
[05:47:21] do we only hear these people? Why do we
[05:47:24] only hear the loud minority who's really
[05:47:27] against the change?
[05:47:30] And where's everyone else?
[05:47:32] Because when we look at it and when we
[05:47:34] ask the right questions, we realize
[05:47:36] there is a large majority who has better
[05:47:39] things to do in order uh other than
[05:47:41] talking about how they exactly want the
[05:47:43] street to look like. They are worried
[05:47:45] about their next uh stressful day at
[05:47:47] work. They think about what to cook the
[05:47:49] children for dinner tonight and they
[05:47:51] don't have time to really engage in a
[05:47:55] conversation. They will enjoy it once
[05:47:57] it's different but uh they won't be part
[05:48:00] of that conversation. Okay.
[05:48:04] But what happens is that these people
[05:48:06] listen very carefully to the public
[05:48:08] discourse. It's a fact we call
[05:48:10] pluralistic ignorance where the majority
[05:48:13] of people are quite progressive and for
[05:48:15] the change but they think they in a
[05:48:18] minority so they don't dare to speak up
[05:48:21] because honestly I I'm not up for
[05:48:24] receiving all that storm then and
[05:48:26] so there's a perception that is biased
[05:48:29] toward the status quo where actually ma
[05:48:32] most people would really like to like
[05:48:36] like to change like a better more
[05:48:38] livable future.
[05:48:40] And what happened in most of these 13
[05:48:42] cities were that those mayors who were
[05:48:44] brave enough to push through were not
[05:48:46] just reelected but reelected again and
[05:48:48] again and again with added and boosts in
[05:48:52] popularity.
[05:48:54] Okay,
[05:48:55] nice. But how have they done it? Is
[05:48:58] there a special secret sauce in how to
[05:49:00] get over the hill of hysteria?
[05:49:03] There are four main categories that came
[05:49:05] up again and again and again in how
[05:49:09] successful leaders have gone through
[05:49:12] this very difficult time. The first one
[05:49:14] is resilience. The mayor of Ponteria in
[05:49:18] Spain has shared with me that he needed
[05:49:22] to stand behind his principles and his
[05:49:24] principle for creating a more livable
[05:49:26] safe city for children and he cannot
[05:49:29] stand back. And if it costs him his job,
[05:49:31] it cost him his job. But those are his
[05:49:33] values. And this is what he was elected
[05:49:35] for. And he's been reelected six times
[05:49:39] now. It was quite popular.
[05:49:42] It doesn't work without broad
[05:49:44] coalitions. We know that roughly 80% of
[05:49:47] people are really in favor of those
[05:49:49] changes and getting them on board and
[05:49:51] letting them know that this will be a
[05:49:53] difficult time. But if you create a
[05:49:55] movement together, not for low-traffic
[05:49:58] neighborhoods, but for more just, more
[05:50:01] livable neighborhoods in terms of
[05:50:04] narrative, then we might be able to
[05:50:07] create a big enough movement to
[05:50:08] counteract that very loud minority.
[05:50:11] Public participation is always important
[05:50:14] in order to address the concerns, but
[05:50:17] not let get but don't let that be
[05:50:20] hijacked by those people who never want
[05:50:22] to be persuaded in any case. And that's
[05:50:25] a bit of the golden sauce in addressing
[05:50:27] concerns, but staying on course, staying
[05:50:30] on track with what you actually want to
[05:50:32] achieve.
[05:50:33] And then it's about language. It's about
[05:50:36] the narrative. And who can let me know
[05:50:39] on what's usually written on that sign
[05:50:41] here? You see them everywhere around
[05:50:43] town.
[05:50:44] Road closed. Exactly. And if you think
[05:50:47] about it, what images do you have in
[05:50:49] your head when you say road closed?
[05:50:52] And what images do you have in your head
[05:50:53] when we say road open?
[05:50:59] The language we use defines the problems
[05:51:02] we see and the solutions we enable. And
[05:51:05] we can only build solution based on what
[05:51:07] we to some degree also measure. And as
[05:51:10] long as we define that street by traffic
[05:51:13] flow and miles instead of smiles of the
[05:51:17] people who live there, we will optimize
[05:51:19] it in order for flow and not for miles.
[05:51:23] And the language is a really really
[05:51:25] powerful tool to get there. Okay.
[05:51:30] So I'm really sorry that you can't unsee
[05:51:32] this now. And every time you walk around
[05:51:33] London now and you see road closed sign,
[05:51:35] it will pop up in your head. But there
[05:51:37] is one thing which all cities I talked
[05:51:40] to had in common.
[05:51:43] And that was this.
[05:51:46] Somebody told me that, yeah, Alex, nice
[05:51:48] story. Okay, you did the research. Good,
[05:51:50] good. But it doesn't work here. We're
[05:51:52] not Paris. We're not Amsterdam. It No,
[05:51:56] this doesn't work here.
[05:51:59] A couple uh years ago, I was talking
[05:52:00] with the city council in Helsinki in
[05:52:02] Finland, a city known for its
[05:52:04] six-monthlong super icy, super dark
[05:52:08] winters. And they had the ambition of
[05:52:10] vision zero as so many others. And
[05:52:13] people were saying, "Yeah, that doesn't
[05:52:14] work in Helsinki. We have ice. We have
[05:52:17] snow. Nobody else can do it. We
[05:52:19] definitely can't do it." Last year,
[05:52:22] they've done it. zero traffic deaths in
[05:52:25] the entire city of Helsinki. it can be
[05:52:28] done because the second thing that
[05:52:30] everybody had in common was that
[05:52:32] somebody said it can't be done and then
[05:52:35] it was done
[05:52:37] and we've transformed places where that
[05:52:40] used to be for cars for people and it
[05:52:43] could be done and unless you're Berlin
[05:52:45] doesn't work in Berlin for some reason
[05:52:47] again and again
[05:52:49] but unless you're Berlin it works
[05:52:54] and that's what we call a
[05:52:55] hilophististeria and it is a bit of a
[05:52:58] hike. You need to be sort of well
[05:53:01] prepared for it. And I'm really excited
[05:53:04] to hear your stories about how you have
[05:53:08] already encountered the hill of
[05:53:10] hysteria. Please come up to us, please
[05:53:12] chat with us in order uh to build sort
[05:53:14] of the broadest coalition, the broadest
[05:53:17] alliance in how to deal with the hill of
[05:53:20] hysteria because resistance is real, but
[05:53:23] it is temporary and people will be
[05:53:26] really happy for that change that we
[05:53:28] create. If you want to read more,
[05:53:31] there's a QR code. There are QR codes
[05:53:33] all over our flyers here and there is a
[05:53:35] publication online you can download. And
[05:53:37] then um I would say thank you very much
[05:53:39] for joining me on that hike.
[05:53:43] [applause] Thanks very much, Alex.
[05:53:48] As Alex says, you can check out the uh
[05:53:51] report. There's some fire starting
[05:53:52] around and there's other people from Lab
[05:53:53] of Fort here as well, isn't there? So
[05:53:55] Matt's over there and I think your
[05:53:56] colleagues over somewhere else. We're
[05:53:58] going to run straight into our next
[05:53:59] speaker if you don't mind, Alex, but I
[05:54:00] know you're hanging around so people can
[05:54:02] ask you questions. Uh I'm going to
[05:54:04] invite onto the stage Areli who I had
[05:54:07] the pleasure of meeting uh at the end of
[05:54:09] March uh this year and I was so excited
[05:54:12] to hear more about the amazing work that
[05:54:15] has been doing in Mexico as a former
[05:54:18] bicycle mayor of Mexico City and now uh
[05:54:21] the founder and the leader of the Mexico
[05:54:23] road safety coalition. So over to you.
[05:54:26] Thanks for coming all the way over here.
[05:54:28] Thank you so much. [applause]
[05:54:34] Hello. Is it Is it Is it working? Is it
[05:54:37] working? Check. Check. Check. Let me see
[05:54:40] if this works. Uh hello everyone. Uh for
[05:54:43] those who cannot see, I'm a small woman,
[05:54:47] 56 years old with a flower dress.
[05:54:51] Louder. Louder. Okay. Uh and I want to
[05:54:54] talk to you a little story about what we
[05:54:56] have done in Mexico to build a movement
[05:55:00] for cycling. when anything was there uh
[05:55:04] almost 30 years ago. Thank you.
[05:55:08] Uh this is a picture of Mexico City.
[05:55:11] This is how we everyone sees Mexico City
[05:55:14] is one of the uh cities that has the
[05:55:17] year after year the worst traffic, the
[05:55:19] worst quality of air. Maybe not with
[05:55:22] Delhi, right Babim? It doesn't you know
[05:55:25] uh doesn't win to Delhi but it is a very
[05:55:29] chaotic city. And every time we talked
[05:55:32] about cycling,
[05:55:34] uh, when we began doing this as young
[05:55:37] people, 24, 20 something, they were
[05:55:40] laughing at us. They were saying this is
[05:55:43] something that you cannot do in Mexico.
[05:55:46] Just as uh my the previous speaker was
[05:55:49] talking about this is something that
[05:55:51] this is not Amsterdam. They said this is
[05:55:54] something that would never be a thing in
[05:55:56] Mexico City. This can't be done here.
[05:56:00] No, stop it. This is you are a kami kasi
[05:56:02] crew. You are suicidal. You won't do
[05:56:05] this.
[05:56:07] And uh in the 80s uh the first bicycle
[05:56:12] movement that existed back then invented
[05:56:15] these stunts uh to create some sort of
[05:56:19] fun uh and attention to cycling. Uh they
[05:56:23] created this uh there there was a a doll
[05:56:25] there uh with a a red painting
[05:56:30] simulating as somebody that has crashed
[05:56:32] and is lying dead or very seriously
[05:56:35] injured in the street. And then the
[05:56:37] police came over and said what happened
[05:56:39] to what is going on? And it's like you
[05:56:41] need to uh arrange uh this the sewage,
[05:56:45] you need to do this and and everyone was
[05:56:48] very really upset because of what they
[05:56:51] were being deceived by the cycling
[05:56:53] movement and the the cyclist people to
[05:56:55] pretend to have somebody injured uh like
[05:56:58] that in order to have attention.
[05:57:03] uh and I remember there's the legend
[05:57:04] says uh that in those days uh they
[05:57:08] brought over a bicycle and they intended
[05:57:11] to give away this bicycle to the then
[05:57:14] mayor of Mex Mexico City and he never
[05:57:17] came out obviously he never you know
[05:57:20] really cared about a bunch of kids that
[05:57:22] were giving away a bicycle but this guy
[05:57:25] very gray unknown people came over and
[05:57:28] remember him because I'm going to tell
[05:57:30] you why later This guy not only took the
[05:57:34] bicycle but also said, "Oh, this is so
[05:57:36] nice." Uh uh and and and agreed to give
[05:57:40] a first round uh cycling around soalos,
[05:57:44] Mexico City with a bunch of kids that
[05:57:46] were giving away this bicycle.
[05:57:50] And then we came the Bitecas uh were
[05:57:53] born as a group in the '9s. This is our
[05:57:56] was our very first erh manifestation in
[05:58:00] the soalo uh saying no no no to cars
[05:58:04] like we have it very clear what we what
[05:58:06] we wanted from the beginning and
[05:58:08] everyone was like what are you doing
[05:58:10] here what is this for and we were you
[05:58:13] know just a bunch of kids saying why not
[05:58:16] why not is it very it's very easy and
[05:58:19] it's healthy and it's good why not
[05:58:25] And we began to do fun stuff like uh we
[05:58:29] call ourselves the Bitecas
[05:58:31] uh which is a game of words that is we
[05:58:34] the Aztecs on bicycles and we portrayed
[05:58:38] somebody like an ancient Aztec saying
[05:58:41] this is the very best vehicle for the
[05:58:44] city. this is what we need in in the
[05:58:46] city. And we began, you know, drawing
[05:58:49] attention to what we were saying, doing
[05:58:51] these sort of fun uh stupid things.
[05:58:56] We did uh we began to do um uh bike
[05:59:00] rides as long as and and we don't have
[05:59:04] pictures of that because everything that
[05:59:06] we tried to do we uh talked to
[05:59:09] politicians we asked them to receive us
[05:59:12] we wrote letters we did all our due
[05:59:15] diligence to be heard and nothing
[05:59:17] helped. Nothing. No, nobody was paying
[05:59:20] attention to us for 10 years.
[05:59:24] But we managed uh and and I remember
[05:59:26] this very clearly. One of our member or
[05:59:28] founder members said well instead of
[05:59:31] just being frustrated because we don't
[05:59:33] have anybody's any politician attention,
[05:59:35] why don't we do fun stuff? Let's let's
[05:59:38] make a ride. So we began making rides
[05:59:41] just like that in the middle of the week
[05:59:44] in the middle the you can maybe you
[05:59:46] cannot see this but this is the anel de
[05:59:48] independencia where all the the football
[05:59:51] victories are are celebrated. Uh so we
[05:59:54] began to gather there to say this is
[05:59:56] something that the city needs
[06:00:00] and we began doing this at night
[06:00:02] precisely in the middle of the week
[06:00:04] because all the time the politicians
[06:00:06] said this is impossible. This is
[06:00:08] something cycling is something that you
[06:00:10] do on Sundays only on parks only for the
[06:00:13] sport only for recreation. And we and
[06:00:16] and you could see how they how their
[06:00:18] minds were blowing saying can you really
[06:00:21] not afford a car? Why would you want to
[06:00:25] cycle in Mexico City? But then we
[06:00:28] invented this um this uh uh ride night
[06:00:32] ride that has happened for 30 years.
[06:00:35] every Wednesday night at the Anala
[06:00:38] Independencia. It was only cancelled
[06:00:40] during CO. Uh but this ride was very
[06:00:44] important. Not only because it was fun,
[06:00:46] which is, you know, one of the main
[06:00:48] things that why we did it, we began
[06:00:50] doing this, but the great thing about
[06:00:53] this PCA
[06:00:55] is that it began to create a critical
[06:00:58] mass of users. Like people came over and
[06:01:00] people were looking in their windows
[06:01:02] saying, "Where are you going? invite me
[06:01:05] at what time you go, from where? And is
[06:01:08] this a race? Is this are you going on
[06:01:10] pilgrimage or what are you doing with
[06:01:12] your bicycle? And this began to draw the
[06:01:15] attention and people wanted to come to
[06:01:17] cycle every night. And this was very
[06:01:21] important because it created this set
[06:01:24] only ride night ride created 60
[06:01:27] different ones that then became
[06:01:30] self-organized like people began doing
[06:01:33] this on their neighborhoods by their own
[06:01:36] and it created everyday cyclists and a
[06:01:40] critical mass of users that were
[06:01:42] demanding cycling to the politicians.
[06:01:46] We invented then congresses because
[06:01:48] nobody was still not paying attention to
[06:01:50] what we were asking. So let's get
[06:01:53] organized. And what we did, we began to
[06:01:56] have some attention from other people's
[06:01:59] uh in other states. So what we invented
[06:02:01] is to create a national network of
[06:02:04] cycling organizations in all Mexico.
[06:02:07] That happened in 2008. And we've kind of
[06:02:10] all the time invented new activities to
[06:02:14] uh to draw attention and to have fun.
[06:02:16] This is something that was created in
[06:02:18] Mexico City that is very nice. H this is
[06:02:21] the pas a blind ride. The person that
[06:02:25] can see is in the front of the bicycle
[06:02:27] and a person that cannot see or is
[06:02:30] visually impaired goes in the in the in
[06:02:33] the back uh seat. So like that we kind
[06:02:36] of said this is for everybody. This is
[06:02:38] something and and cycling is something
[06:02:40] that can be enjoyed by everyone. It's
[06:02:42] not only for for uh young people or for
[06:02:46] very sportive persons. It can be um uh
[06:02:50] enjoyed by everyone. And I'm happy to
[06:02:51] say that after this uh was began doing
[06:02:54] in Mexico City, it just became uh uh
[06:02:58] something that was uh created in other
[06:03:01] states in Mexico and then later on was
[06:03:04] created in other Latin American
[06:03:06] countries. So from Mexico to the world
[06:03:08] this thing was you know becoming popular
[06:03:11] uh uh presenting and and providing an
[06:03:14] opportunity for people to enjoy.
[06:03:18] And then we did a lot of other things
[06:03:19] like uh we also did manifestations and
[06:03:23] we were like you know outraging
[06:03:25] authorities because this is the second
[06:03:28] floor inauguration like people were uh
[06:03:31] there waiting to be the first ones to
[06:03:33] ride in this huge second floor uh uh
[06:03:37] highways and we managed to be there in
[06:03:39] the same day of inauguration to blockade
[06:03:42] with our bodies and it was a huge
[06:03:44] scandal in Mexico saying how come
[06:03:46] there's people that don't want to do
[06:03:48] this that don't want this. No. Uh and
[06:03:51] also the park parking days as you can
[06:03:54] see there in some of this picture. This
[06:03:56] was also very popular and was shocking
[06:03:59] for many of our colleagues in the United
[06:04:01] States that we painted hand painted uh a
[06:04:04] bike path on our own in the front of our
[06:04:06] congress and the police came over and
[06:04:09] said, "What are you doing?" [laughter]
[06:04:10] And we are what are you just painting?
[06:04:12] Oh, okay. and nobody, you know, like we
[06:04:14] were we were doing this this self-made
[06:04:18] do-it-yourself bike path in front of the
[06:04:21] Congress to demand uh a political action
[06:04:24] and this that you there's other picture
[06:04:26] here you can see we use every
[06:04:29] opportunity that we have to talk about
[06:04:31] the importance of cycling and once a big
[06:04:34] u uh earthquake hit Mexico City we
[06:04:38] created and invented a very huge and
[06:04:41] very um um efficient system to to bring
[06:04:46] help to the collapsed buildings and to
[06:04:48] rescue people that was lying beneath the
[06:04:51] rubble. So all the people that was all
[06:04:54] the time saying get away cyclist you are
[06:04:56] such a bothersome. They were kind of yes
[06:04:58] cyclists are so good because they are
[06:05:00] helping the people that is in need. So
[06:05:02] we use every opportunity to be part of
[06:05:05] the c city's conversation.
[06:05:08] Uh and we also did other ma massive we
[06:05:12] because we were growing uh we began
[06:05:15] doing massive things like this uh night
[06:05:17] ride taking over the the bike the the
[06:05:21] huge second floor uh highway and maybe
[06:05:24] you cannot see uh because it's so small
[06:05:27] but all those people is naked on their
[06:05:30] bicycle and many of them were in their
[06:05:33] body say now you can see me do you see
[06:05:36] me now
[06:05:42] and then we kind after all this work and
[06:05:45] all this uh um being a stubborn like
[06:05:48] foolishly stubborn and and and don't uh
[06:05:53] accept a no for an answer. We saw our
[06:05:56] first victory. We managed to have the
[06:05:59] permission to get the our bicycles into
[06:06:01] the metro and this thing which is very
[06:06:05] you know very maybe basic very very
[06:06:08] small what did for for the movement in
[06:06:12] Mexico was to say yes this is some is
[06:06:15] fruitful this is something let's keep on
[06:06:18] doing what we do because we can make a
[06:06:21] difference so this is a small basic
[06:06:24] victory created greater ones
[06:06:28] And remember the guy that I told you
[06:06:30] that nobody knew that was the help of
[06:06:32] the help of the help of the mayor that
[06:06:35] didn't want take the bicycle. This is
[06:06:38] Mayor Ebra
[06:06:40] 10 days 10 years later on. We never knew
[06:06:45] that back in the day when nobody was
[06:06:48] paying attention. We were talking with
[06:06:50] the guy that was to become the mayor of
[06:06:53] the city of Mexico and the one that
[06:06:55] actually opened up the public policy to
[06:06:59] cycling not only in Mexico City but in
[06:07:01] the country because he got is the one
[06:07:04] that said yes we're going to do the
[06:07:05] first uh travel everyday travel bike
[06:07:08] path in the city and he is the one that
[06:07:11] inaugurated our first uh bike share
[06:07:14] system echoes in Mexico City. Oh, I have
[06:07:17] little time. Uh, but after that um win,
[06:07:22] we managed to win as well the first uh
[06:07:26] transit law of Mexico City designed by
[06:07:30] the people and with the focus on road
[06:07:33] safety
[06:07:35] first ever. And we managed to get the
[06:07:37] mayor in the middle of there, Mayor
[06:07:39] Mansera to join the zero vision
[06:07:43] movement. So being a stubborn pace.
[06:07:47] Uh this is all the thing that we did
[06:07:49] during the coid. People uh on the on the
[06:07:52] doctors and nurses were being um um uh
[06:07:56] kicked out of the public transit out of
[06:07:59] fear. Uh so what we did is to uh even
[06:08:02] with our mask on we kind of gather
[06:08:05] pieces and bits and pieces of bicycles
[06:08:07] to give away to all that uh health
[06:08:11] personnel. And again, that was an
[06:08:13] opportunity for us to say, hey, cycling
[06:08:15] is something that has responses for the
[06:08:18] city and we deserve to be noticed and
[06:08:21] deserve to be taken into account.
[06:08:24] Then I got the chance because I'm a mom,
[06:08:27] I'm a proud mom of of Pablo, which is
[06:08:29] lying over there seeing his his cellular
[06:08:32] phone. Um, I was invited as a as a
[06:08:36] bicycle mayor of Mexico City uh to join
[06:08:39] a mana a press the first press
[06:08:42] conference of President
[06:08:44] um Lopez Orador.
[06:08:47] Uh and I got the opportunity they say do
[06:08:49] does do does anybody want to talk? And I
[06:08:51] say yes I need to talk. And what I did
[06:08:55] here was to talk about the road safety
[06:08:58] crisis in Mexico. Mexico has a 60,000
[06:09:03] people that is losing their lives
[06:09:05] because of road road crashes that are
[06:09:07] preventable. And during this day of the
[06:09:09] mothers, I said for all the moms that
[06:09:12] lack their children, we need to act upon
[06:09:15] this. This five three minutes discourse
[06:09:18] that I was able to address just like
[06:09:20] that because I got the opportunity made
[06:09:23] a huge different in our country because
[06:09:26] everyone saw me there. Even they stopped
[06:09:28] me in the street. He's like, "I saw you
[06:09:30] with the president. Is it you?" And I
[06:09:33] was like, "Yes, it is me." [laughter]
[06:09:35] Uh and then I well got a chance to go
[06:09:38] with actor um Garcia Bernal talking
[06:09:42] about the importance of uh road safety
[06:09:46] and created or you can see here everyone
[06:09:49] working on road safety in Latin America
[06:09:52] because of the uh along with the people
[06:09:54] of the Bloomberg initiative that we come
[06:09:58] across to say this is something that we
[06:10:00] need to address because the the the uh
[06:10:03] first and only most important barrier to
[06:10:06] cycling in Mexico is because there's no
[06:10:08] road safety because mothers and fathers
[06:10:11] and everyone is scared of being in a
[06:10:14] crash or losing the life or or being
[06:10:16] seriously injured because of of a road
[06:10:19] crash. So we got involved in this road
[06:10:22] uh uh safety work along with many people
[06:10:26] in Mexico. Uh we had to do maybe it is
[06:10:29] very difficult to convey everything that
[06:10:31] we had to do. We worked 10 years to
[06:10:35] being able to create and to have
[06:10:37] recognized what we are now the only
[06:10:40] country that has recognized the human
[06:10:43] right to safe mobility, accessible
[06:10:46] mobility, sustainable mobility as a
[06:10:49] human right in our constitution.
[06:10:53] [cheering and applause]
[06:10:57] You can see here some of the work that
[06:10:59] we had to do being mobilized and
[06:11:01] organized nationally to achieve this.
[06:11:04] And because of that right, we also
[06:11:06] gather uh were able to uh have passed
[06:11:10] and approved the first ever Mexican law
[06:11:13] on mobility and road safety that now is
[06:11:16] into force since 2022.
[06:11:19] So because of that work, we were uh
[06:11:22] named and received the Prince Michael
[06:11:25] International Road Safety Prize in 2022
[06:11:29] because I I'm proudly here to say that
[06:11:32] [clears throat] we did all this as
[06:11:34] citizens. There was no any partisan, any
[06:11:37] political, nobody was [applause] caring
[06:11:40] about this and we did this on our own.
[06:11:43] So well, we are now keep on organizing.
[06:11:46] We have uh chapters in 28 out of 32
[06:11:50] states in Mexico working both in
[06:11:52] mobility and in safe in road safety
[06:11:55] sorry. Uh and we are keep on this this
[06:11:59] was the first uh encounter and this is
[06:12:01] the second one growing strong and I just
[06:12:04] want to say please do have fun please be
[06:12:08] stubborn please be creative you will
[06:12:12] win.
[06:12:14] [cheering]
[06:12:17] [applause]
[06:12:19] Thank you so much, Aureli.
[06:12:22] Thank you so much for coming. Um, we're
[06:12:24] going to take a 5m minute break. Aelli's
[06:12:25] going to be around. So, do ask her
[06:12:26] questions. Be stubborn. Be creative.
[06:12:29] You're going to win. And you've got
[06:12:30] breakout session choices. Now, you've
[06:12:33] got downstairs multimodal school run.
[06:12:35] You got upstairs making change happen
[06:12:37] through partnerships. All the speakers
[06:12:39] are amazing. Check out the board out
[06:12:41] there. It will tell you all about it.
[06:12:42] And there are some refreshments
[06:12:43] downstairs to grab and come back up or
[06:12:45] vice versa. We'll see you soon.
[06:13:07] So, we keep this on, right?
[06:13:09] Yeah. Keep it on. Caroline just
[06:13:14] fit it on with five chairs and then we
[06:13:16] can we can just take it off again.
[06:13:19] Yeah. But what we don't want to do is do
[06:13:21] a sudden change of bringing in the front
[06:13:24] chairs maybe.
[06:13:25] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
[06:13:30] cut in
[06:13:48] all
[06:13:56] this.
[06:14:25] throw you.
[06:14:51] What are you know?
[06:14:58] Oh yeah.
[06:15:02] And then
[06:15:25] you were you
[06:15:34] Just switch it off for a few minutes.
[06:15:36] [laughter]
[06:15:55] Thank you.
[06:20:50] [clears throat]
[06:20:54] Green
[06:20:55] green.
[06:20:56] Okay.
[06:20:58] Is
[06:26:08] Right. Hello everybody.
[06:26:12] WELCOME BACK. Is anybody still coming?
[06:26:16] Keep that door open. We are welcoming
[06:26:18] everybody.
[06:26:20] Very good. Very good. Congratulations
[06:26:22] for still being alive. [laughter] This
[06:26:25] is a very hot day, but you've you're
[06:26:27] still here. We're doing our parallel
[06:26:29] session and uh I'm pleased to introduce
[06:26:32] Cass who is going to moderate this
[06:26:34] session and I will only say that what is
[06:26:37] between you and the evening reception on
[06:26:39] the rooftop of the South Bank Center is
[06:26:42] two more sessions after this one. One is
[06:26:45] a is a plenary panel with um local
[06:26:49] leaders from Milan from uh London and
[06:26:52] Paris and then the deputy mayor for
[06:26:54] Paris will close today. So, we don't
[06:26:57] have long to go, but well done everybody
[06:26:58] for withstanding the heat. And with
[06:27:01] that, I'm gonna hand over to Cass.
[06:27:03] Thank you.
[06:27:04] Thank you, Barbara. [applause]
[06:27:07] Hello everybody. I'm Cass Canela. I work
[06:27:09] on the UK team here at Clean Cities. And
[06:27:12] I think when we were planning uh all the
[06:27:15] speakers uh and planning this conference
[06:27:17] back in freezing cold February, we
[06:27:19] didn't quite expect to be sitting here
[06:27:21] in a heat wave now in June. Um, but this
[06:27:23] session is about partnerships and
[06:27:25] campaigning and making change happen.
[06:27:27] And I just wonder if you can raise your
[06:27:29] hand if that's what you're here to do,
[06:27:31] make change happen to make our cities
[06:27:33] better for children and uh, yeah, safer
[06:27:37] and better for children. Exactly. So,
[06:27:39] that's what we're going to really get to
[06:27:40] the heart of today. Um, this conference
[06:27:42] is all about connecting with people,
[06:27:44] learning how do we all work better
[06:27:45] together. and we have four amazing
[06:27:48] panelists who are doing fantastic things
[06:27:50] from different sectors um from politics,
[06:27:53] from campaigning, uh from the public
[06:27:55] sector, and we're going to really learn
[06:27:56] about their successes and their
[06:27:58] challenges and how we can all work
[06:28:00] better together. So, it's my great
[06:28:02] pleasure to welcome Caroline Russell to
[06:28:05] the stage, leader of the City Hall Green
[06:28:07] Group, who's going to kick us off with a
[06:28:09] keynote.
[06:28:12] [applause]
[06:28:13] Thank you very much.
[06:28:15] Hold on. Just get myself organized.
[06:28:20] Oops.
[06:28:22] And I've got 10 minutes. Yeah.
[06:28:26] And this clock there.
[06:28:29] Excellent. Okay. Hello everyone.
[06:28:33] Oh my god, it is so incredibly hot.
[06:28:36] [laughter]
[06:28:38] I'm Caroline Russell. I'm an older white
[06:28:41] woman about 5'4 with gray hair cut in a
[06:28:44] bob, dark framed glasses. I'm wearing
[06:28:48] white trousers, a blue shirt, silver
[06:28:50] sandals, and I am probably looking more
[06:28:54] than a little bit crumpled after my
[06:28:57] journey on the uh Jubilee line to get
[06:28:59] here.
[06:29:01] Now in the context of the potential for
[06:29:03] campaigners, policy makers and the
[06:29:06] public sector to work together shaping
[06:29:10] priorities for um political
[06:29:12] administrations and turning ambition to
[06:29:14] action. I'm going to briefly share a bit
[06:29:18] about my background because I've I've
[06:29:20] been I've done all the different steps
[06:29:22] over the years. Um, I started out as an
[06:29:26] artist in the 1980s and early 90s with a
[06:29:30] brief stint as a cycle career. By the
[06:29:33] end of the '9s, I had retrained as a
[06:29:36] civil engineer. I never practiced, but I
[06:29:39] did get that degree. But by that time, I
[06:29:43] had three small children and a growing
[06:29:46] sense of urgency about the dangers that
[06:29:50] were posed by rising traffic levels.
[06:29:53] even then in the early '9s. So, I joined
[06:29:56] the Islington branch of the pedestrians
[06:29:59] association, now Living Streets, and
[06:30:02] campaigned locally, as I'm sure many
[06:30:04] people in this room have done, for
[06:30:06] things like zebra crossings where
[06:30:07] they're needed, uh 20 mph speed limits
[06:30:11] and safer bike routes. I also realized
[06:30:15] then that having done all of that work
[06:30:18] with fellow campaigners, with residents,
[06:30:21] and with council officers that actually
[06:30:24] I wanted to have a say on policy. So I
[06:30:27] joined a political party and by 2014 I
[06:30:30] was the only opposition counselor on
[06:30:32] Islington Council to 47 Labour
[06:30:35] counselors in Islington. And in 2016, I
[06:30:40] also got elected to the London Assembly
[06:30:43] where with Shan Berry where our job is
[06:30:46] to check the mayor's progress against
[06:30:50] his policy strategy targets to bring
[06:30:54] Londoner's voices into city hall and to
[06:30:57] expose gaps in the mayor's policies to
[06:31:00] him to make sure that he takes the
[06:31:03] action to fix those gaps. Um, so I've
[06:31:07] been a local campaigner and a policy
[06:31:09] influencer since the 1990s
[06:31:13] and I'm currently a London assembly
[06:31:16] member and chair of the transport
[06:31:18] committee which I'll come to at the very
[06:31:19] end. So, I wanted to use an example of
[06:31:25] all the campaigning that has happened
[06:31:27] over the years in London on air
[06:31:30] pollution as a bit of an example of how
[06:31:33] so many different people make a
[06:31:35] contribution and um and can really build
[06:31:40] to the influence of actually making
[06:31:42] change like getting something like the
[06:31:44] ultra low emission zone brought in
[06:31:46] across the whole of London. Now, back in
[06:31:49] the early days, sort of 2010ish,
[06:31:53] think back. Boris Johnson was mayor. We
[06:31:56] were preparing for the 2012 Olympics.
[06:31:59] Um, Boris Johnson was gluing pollution
[06:32:03] to the ground by the monitors on
[06:32:05] Marillean Road uh so that he could prove
[06:32:08] that the air was clean enough for all
[06:32:09] the athletes to come and run around and
[06:32:11] do all the sort of hefty um athleting
[06:32:14] that they were up to. Um
[06:32:17] and uh so with in that context I got
[06:32:21] invited to as a campaigner to a meeting
[06:32:23] at city hall organized by a Green London
[06:32:26] assembly member Darren Johnson and he
[06:32:28] brought together Simon Burkett from
[06:32:30] Clean Air London, Frank Kelly who is an
[06:32:33] academic at Kings, Ian Mudwway an
[06:32:36] academic at Imperial and a woman called
[06:32:38] Louise Francis from an organization
[06:32:40] called Mapping for Change which was
[06:32:42] about doing community air pollution
[06:32:45] monitoring. ing and this meeting was an
[06:32:49] absolute eyeopener for me because
[06:32:51] suddenly I was seeing academics putting
[06:32:54] together medical evidence, politicians
[06:32:58] kind of thinking, oh, how can we help
[06:32:59] with this? So that was the assembly. Um,
[06:33:03] but also this amazing woman, Louise
[06:33:06] Francis, who was empowering communities
[06:33:10] to measure air pollution in their local
[06:33:12] area to start telling stories to their
[06:33:16] lo in their local community, to start
[06:33:19] building a real understanding and
[06:33:21] acceptance of the fact that what came
[06:33:24] out of the tailpipe of cars was harming
[06:33:28] everyone's health, harming everyone's
[06:33:30] lung and heart health. and leading to
[06:33:32] lots of children having asthma. My kids
[06:33:34] had asthma and so I really cared about
[06:33:37] this stuff.
[06:33:40] And in that context of doing all of
[06:33:43] that, we um there were there were also
[06:33:46] sort of random bits of campaigning going
[06:33:49] on. I remember dressing up in a pinhor
[06:33:51] and a 1950s head cover um with feather
[06:33:55] dusters and we were campaigning outside
[06:33:57] the department for transport wanting
[06:33:59] action on clean air
[06:34:03] and then Jenny Jones on the assembly
[06:34:06] produced maps identifying all the
[06:34:08] schools that were located on main roads
[06:34:10] across the whole of London. She did it
[06:34:12] by burough and this was like a tool for
[06:34:15] all the campaigners in bur all across
[06:34:17] London to start using that information
[06:34:21] to make the case for action whether it
[06:34:23] was at London assembly level or local
[06:34:26] council level.
[06:34:28] And at that point I was doing um the
[06:34:31] community pollution monitoring with
[06:34:32] mapping for change. And we put up
[06:34:35] monitors outside the library, near the
[06:34:38] local parade of shops, at a bus stop
[06:34:40] where people waited and queued, near
[06:34:42] school entrances. Um and uh and and even
[06:34:47] in the park because we wanted people in
[06:34:51] our area partly to see us climbing up
[06:34:53] lamp posts and installing the nitrogen
[06:34:56] dioxide measuring tubes, but also so
[06:34:58] that we could make a massive fuss in the
[06:35:00] local paper to actually get more people
[06:35:03] understanding that air pollution is a
[06:35:06] thing and that it's harmful.
[06:35:11] So the other piece that was going on at
[06:35:13] this point was actually meeting up with
[06:35:15] council officers and people like Elliot
[06:35:18] Tran who is now incredibly senior in air
[06:35:21] pollution at city hall. But in those
[06:35:23] days he came out to Islington council
[06:35:25] one night and contributed to a scrutiny
[06:35:28] meeting into air pollution and what the
[06:35:31] council could do. And it has been
[06:35:32] amazing seeing Elliot from being a very
[06:35:34] junior officer sort of back in like 2011
[06:35:39] um uh to now kind of having an awful lot
[06:35:41] more influence within city hall. [gasps]
[06:35:44] But I think the so then the piece so
[06:35:48] that was all that sort of very
[06:35:49] grassrootsy type campaigning. Once I got
[06:35:52] elected to the assembly, I was able to
[06:35:54] work with groups of residents all across
[06:35:57] London, people in outer London,
[06:35:59] desperate not to be left out of the
[06:36:02] mayor's clean air zones that were being
[06:36:04] proposed at the time. Um and then all
[06:36:07] the groups like um Moms for Lungs, uh
[06:36:10] Rosund, the mother of elicacy, Deborah,
[06:36:13] all these people started campaigning and
[06:36:16] building the voices that were giving the
[06:36:19] mayor the confidence to keep moving on
[06:36:22] with the ULES with the ultra low
[06:36:24] emission zone.
[06:36:26] And there's even sort of an academic,
[06:36:28] someone, professor Andrea Cellar, who
[06:36:30] invites me to go to um talk to his first
[06:36:34] year chemistry students at UCL every
[06:36:36] year to talk about the political context
[06:36:40] of the work they do to measure air
[06:36:43] pollution. And he gets them doing a
[06:36:45] first year chemistry project where they
[06:36:47] make and build their own pollution
[06:36:49] monitoring kit. But he also sends them
[06:36:51] out to work in schools and then to
[06:36:53] engage with all the parents in those
[06:36:55] schools as a way him as an academic just
[06:36:58] trying to push the um the agenda of kind
[06:37:02] of getting more and more communities to
[06:37:04] understand the seriousness of air
[06:37:06] pollution and the harm it causes to our
[06:37:08] health.
[06:37:10] So, and then as the um as as the ultra
[06:37:15] low emission zone roll out sort of got,
[06:37:18] you know, it went from being a T-charge,
[06:37:20] then a very central little minimal zone,
[06:37:22] it then went out to the north and south
[06:37:24] circular. And we kept pushing for it to
[06:37:26] be Londonwide. And that final push
[06:37:29] needed a real push on equalities and
[06:37:32] thinking about what it meant for people
[06:37:35] with small businesses and making sure
[06:37:37] that the mayor was providing them with
[06:37:39] enough um funding and support to be able
[06:37:42] to change their business model so they
[06:37:44] had cleaner vehicles. Although I
[06:37:46] understand now that there's far too many
[06:37:48] compliant diesel vehicles in London
[06:37:51] which is very worrying. Um, but I
[06:37:53] suppose what I've tried to share with
[06:37:55] all of that is just this sense that
[06:37:58] every single voice in the political
[06:38:01] space is incredibly important. sharing
[06:38:04] information in every space that you're
[06:38:06] in. Whether it's you know your next door
[06:38:09] group or different WhatsApp groups with
[06:38:11] your street or whether it is you know
[06:38:14] any kind of group that you're involved
[06:38:16] in. It's your voice speaking up and
[06:38:20] talking about how important clean air is
[06:38:24] helps to change the political narrative
[06:38:26] and helps the politicians to stand up
[06:38:29] when they come up against the war on the
[06:38:32] motorist and and people pushing back
[06:38:34] against doing the right thing. So I
[06:38:38] think the recent CLA clean air results
[06:38:40] are a complete testimony to all the work
[06:38:42] that so many people and I can see people
[06:38:44] in this room who've been involved in
[06:38:45] that work over the years have have
[06:38:48] contributed and I hope that just makes
[06:38:51] provides a context of how change can
[06:38:53] come about.
[06:38:56] We could have done exactly the same talk
[06:38:57] for SUVs and road danger but that'll
[06:39:00] have to be another day. And then just
[06:39:01] finally as chair of the transport
[06:39:03] committee I just wanted to very briefly
[06:39:05] explain what that role involves and the
[06:39:09] biggest challenge of it is working
[06:39:11] crossparty with reform conservative
[06:39:15] labor libm and green um within the
[06:39:18] London assembly to come to joint cross
[06:39:22] party positions on transport issues on
[06:39:24] behalf of Londoners and with the current
[06:39:28] division in politics that is really
[06:39:30] challenging. ing. [gasps]
[06:39:32] I have managed to get agreement that the
[06:39:35] lens for our scrutiny for this year is
[06:39:38] through the mayor's transport strategy.
[06:39:40] How the mayor is doing with meeting the
[06:39:42] strategy goals in particular vision zero
[06:39:45] and accessibility of our transport
[06:39:47] system and transport networks for
[06:39:49] children, older and disabled people. Um,
[06:39:52] one tiny final thing and then I'm going
[06:39:54] to stop. Um, our current investigation
[06:39:57] is looking into autonomous passenger
[06:39:59] vehicles which are being imposed on
[06:40:01] London. We're trying to work out whether
[06:40:04] the TFL even has any opportunity to push
[06:40:06] back on it. One of the things that in
[06:40:09] relation to this conference that is
[06:40:12] really worrying that we've discovered is
[06:40:14] that the current autonomous vehicle
[06:40:17] technology
[06:40:18] is 20% less likely to recognize a child
[06:40:23] as a person in the street compared to
[06:40:26] the ability to recognize adults as
[06:40:29] people in the street. So just that piece
[06:40:33] of information alone about the
[06:40:35] disproportionality in this technology
[06:40:38] that is being imposed on London has is
[06:40:41] absolutely um incredibly worrying and we
[06:40:44] are going to be obviously be making some
[06:40:46] very very strong recommendations on that
[06:40:49] um when we finish off our report. But I
[06:40:51] think I've done just over 10 minutes so
[06:40:53] I'm sorry. [snorts]
[06:40:55] [applause]
[06:41:01] Do I hold on to one of these?
[06:41:16] Brilliant. Thank you very much,
[06:41:18] Caroline. And I feel like that meeting
[06:41:21] that you all had with Jenny Jones and
[06:41:23] various people where you're saying
[06:41:24] that's kind of where the magic happened
[06:41:26] and everyone started to understand other
[06:41:28] people's jobs, other people's stories.
[06:41:30] And I think that's the kind of thing
[06:41:32] we're going to talk about today is like
[06:41:33] how do we create those moments and how
[06:41:35] do we bring people in from all sorts of
[06:41:38] different backgrounds and communities to
[06:41:40] make sure that the things that we're
[06:41:41] doing for our cities and our places are
[06:41:44] actually working for people. Um, and I
[06:41:47] think you touched on road danger and
[06:41:48] vision zero, which I think is something
[06:41:50] very close to all of our hearts. Um, so
[06:41:53] I just want to I'm going to introduce
[06:41:55] our three other panelists. First of all,
[06:41:57] um, so we have Nicola Pastori,
[06:41:59] co-founder of Sol the School Run. Uh, we
[06:42:02] have Harry Gray who is on the steering
[06:42:05] group for Walk Ride Greater Manchester.
[06:42:09] And we have Eti Curry who is a senior
[06:42:12] planner from Glasgow City Council.
[06:42:17] [applause]
[06:42:19] So I'm first going to ask if anyone has
[06:42:22] any burning reflections, anything from
[06:42:25] Caroline's talk, something about this
[06:42:28] way of working, any current
[06:42:29] opportunities that you want to jump in
[06:42:33] with.
[06:42:34] Sure. Hi everyone. Um yeah, really happy
[06:42:36] to start with that. So, um, at Solve the
[06:42:39] School Run, we are really focused on
[06:42:41] trying to enable families to have
[06:42:44] primarily safer, but also greener, um,
[06:42:46] and cleaner journeys to school. And what
[06:42:49] really resonated with me with what
[06:42:51] Caroline was saying about generating
[06:42:54] that public demand and and and having
[06:42:56] visible demand, loud demand um that
[06:43:00] politicians hear so they makes it easier
[06:43:02] for them to take those difficult
[06:43:04] decisions um is is absolutely critical.
[06:43:07] And um just going to touch on the latest
[06:43:10] election campaign that we ran our
[06:43:11] streets for kids campaign around the
[06:43:14] London elections where we together with
[06:43:16] um clean cities. We targeted four of the
[06:43:19] most progressive London burers um and
[06:43:21] ran a grassroots campaign around safer
[06:43:24] streets for kids. And the manifesto was
[06:43:27] around um effective school streets for
[06:43:30] all schools, primary and secondary. It
[06:43:32] was around say access to cargo bikes and
[06:43:35] a child-friendly curbside. And every
[06:43:38] single politician or political candidate
[06:43:41] in those very progressive burs that we
[06:43:43] spoke to said we we want to do this and
[06:43:46] you know we probably will commit to it
[06:43:48] but we have to hear the public demand.
[06:43:51] We have to hear it and we have to see
[06:43:53] it. Um because otherwise it's so hard.
[06:43:56] And you know, you think those are the
[06:43:57] people who are weathered by this, who
[06:43:59] are already doing it and have been
[06:44:01] through it and making the change. So I
[06:44:04] think that that lens of absolutely as
[06:44:08] kind of campaigners or community
[06:44:10] organizers ensuring that you build that
[06:44:13] trust with politicians and you have that
[06:44:16] dance where you are publicly but
[06:44:18] constructively calling for the change
[06:44:20] you want to see um is is really
[06:44:23] essential.
[06:44:24] Absolutely. Harry, I was going to come
[06:44:25] to you next because I know that you have
[06:44:28] um done some great partnership work
[06:44:29] which has led to a big success for Wride
[06:44:32] GM. So, please tell us a little bit more
[06:44:34] about that. Yeah, so we um were
[06:44:37] successful in bidding for the active
[06:44:38] traveling England innovation fund uh
[06:44:41] which meant we've we've got uh £100,000
[06:44:43] to deliver uh a paid coordinator to
[06:44:46] deliver a network of walking and cycling
[06:44:48] buses across uh Trafford and Manchester.
[06:44:50] And the the big uh re one of the main
[06:44:53] reasons that we we got that is because
[06:44:55] we've spent years developing really
[06:44:58] close relationships with those two
[06:45:00] councils. Um you know we've been
[06:45:02] reassuring uh counselors and and leaders
[06:45:06] executive members around you know
[06:45:08] schemes that they've been implementing
[06:45:09] and cheerleading them. Uh, as Alexander
[06:45:11] was saying, we've our jobs to flatten
[06:45:14] the hill of hysteria and like be the,
[06:45:16] you know, for instance, like on Facebook
[06:45:19] groups, we we we like coordinate people
[06:45:21] to just, you know, like posts and
[06:45:23] comment saying good work, you know, it's
[06:45:25] simple things like that that politicians
[06:45:28] just like, you know, and it's quite
[06:45:29] simple, but it works and it's effective.
[06:45:31] So because of that hard work we put in
[06:45:33] the background um to sort of get to know
[06:45:36] counselors, understand what they want
[06:45:38] first because it's not about what we
[06:45:40] want like councilors about what they
[06:45:42] want and learn about what their what
[06:45:44] they want from their community and how
[06:45:45] that can sort of we can sort of fit into
[06:45:47] that a bit as well. Um cuz different
[06:45:49] areas of the city are going to be
[06:45:50] different and we've just spent a few
[06:45:51] years doing that building up. Yeah.
[06:45:53] Yeah. And it got to the point where
[06:45:54] we've got such a good relationship with
[06:45:55] with council's officers that we were
[06:45:57] able to put this bid in with the full
[06:45:59] confidence from, you know, these as
[06:46:01] delivery partners as well as being
[06:46:04] critical friend by the way. So that's
[06:46:06] like a real tough cell to say that we're
[06:46:08] now going to be a delivery partner with
[06:46:09] the council, but also we get to
[06:46:11] criticize you on other issues or you
[06:46:13] know and that's you know that that line
[06:46:16] that we have to straddle that that is a
[06:46:18] it's a tough game but that's the game we
[06:46:20] have to play to get to get stuff to
[06:46:21] happen you know otherwise nothing will
[06:46:23] happen.
[06:46:24] Absolutely. And do you think that a key
[06:46:27] reason why you won that bid was having
[06:46:29] that unity of the local council joining
[06:46:33] with you and just showing that you're
[06:46:34] working in partnership?
[06:46:35] Well, other than the fact that
[06:46:36] Manchester just seems to be like in
[06:46:38] fashion at the moment as you see
[06:46:39] [laughter]
[06:46:41] the moment.
[06:46:42] Obviously, I'm going to claim it as our
[06:46:43] success, not just Manchester's in
[06:46:45] fashion. Um yeah I it was it was that
[06:46:48] really because I think as a campaign
[06:46:50] group like we've this is our first like
[06:46:52] big project like this and you know we
[06:46:54] are a volunteer group and just to say
[06:46:56] also it wasn't just the counselors it
[06:46:58] was actually building relationships with
[06:47:00] active travel England as well you know
[06:47:02] and so they trust us you know so we're
[06:47:04] not just an unknown uh entity you know
[06:47:07] especially when I know they're in York
[06:47:09] Active Travel England but a lot of the
[06:47:10] campaigning world is very Londoncentric
[06:47:13] and as a you know I would like walk cry
[06:47:17] greater in Manchester, you know, it's
[06:47:18] quite hard um outside of London to be a
[06:47:22] big campaign group cuz a lot of stuff
[06:47:23] happens here. So, we've had to really
[06:47:25] like try to like put ourselves on the
[06:47:27] map a bit I'd say with the national
[06:47:28] stuff too as well of proving ourselves
[06:47:31] locally. Yeah.
[06:47:31] Yeah. And congratulations. And we're
[06:47:33] expecting to see loads of amazing bike
[06:47:35] buses throughout Greater Man. really
[06:47:37] pushing forward that movement which has
[06:47:38] a natural build but if we can build it
[06:47:40] and help push it even more to enable
[06:47:42] more kids to safe cycle safely to
[06:47:45] school. Um, Eti, I'm going to come to
[06:47:47] you now and uh, I'd love you to tell us
[06:47:49] a bit more about the work you're doing
[06:47:51] in Glasgow um, with the play sufficiency
[06:47:54] standard and I and maybe a little bit
[06:47:57] about your partnerships and how you're
[06:47:59] working with communities to ensure that
[06:48:01] what you're doing actually works for the
[06:48:04] different people, the different children
[06:48:05] who you're providing it for. Okay,
[06:48:07] thanks. Um yeah, play sufficiency is now
[06:48:12] m assessments are now mandatory in
[06:48:15] Scotland. So every local authority has
[06:48:17] to do one. And um I was asked to do the
[06:48:21] one in Glasgow and um if I tell you my
[06:48:24] mantra is doing things with people, not
[06:48:29] to them, but with people. And um I
[06:48:33] decided right from the get- go that um
[06:48:36] my main partner would be the children.
[06:48:40] So I worked with education um colleagues
[06:48:43] to do primary nursery and primary school
[06:48:47] um and we came up with um just a word
[06:48:49] cloud that said you know can I run jump
[06:48:52] swing play you know wherever and the
[06:48:56] teachers took the children out of school
[06:48:58] and demonstrated where they went when
[06:49:01] they weren't in school. So they told the
[06:49:03] teachers where they played what they
[06:49:04] did. Um, and then my final question to
[06:49:09] the primary school kids was, "If you had
[06:49:12] a magic wand, what would your ideal play
[06:49:15] space look like?" And I got a load of
[06:49:18] absolutely amazing drawings and
[06:49:20] pictures.
[06:49:21] So then comes the teenagers. Not so easy
[06:49:25] a crowd to please. Um, so yeah, the
[06:49:29] teenagers, we I worked with colleagues.
[06:49:32] We have a a group in our council that's
[06:49:35] called the Center for Civic Innovation
[06:49:38] and they work with citizenship involving
[06:49:41] people in engagement. Um so I said to
[06:49:45] them, look, I'm looking for a school.
[06:49:47] Can you help me out? So we did um St.
[06:49:50] Paul's High School school in the south
[06:49:53] of the city all also quite a deprived
[06:49:56] area and we went out and we said,
[06:49:58] "Right, okay, what what does play mean
[06:50:01] to you?" and we went out over a course
[06:50:04] of I think it was about 10 12 weeks um
[06:50:08] the adults in the room just posed the
[06:50:10] questions sat back and listened then
[06:50:13] reflected back what they'd heard and
[06:50:16] said okay how do we move this forward
[06:50:18] how do we come up with a methodology
[06:50:20] that we can send across all our high
[06:50:22] schools in the city and that included
[06:50:26] our assisted learning schools as well um
[06:50:30] so what we did was we came up with this.
[06:50:34] It's a 10minute easy menty meter. Um
[06:50:38] they ask some questions and then the
[06:50:40] pupils host what we call a design jam
[06:50:43] and they talk about not just play where
[06:50:46] they go to hang out. They talk about
[06:50:48] barriers to being able to hang out with
[06:50:50] their friends. Um and they also talk
[06:50:53] about place and placem. Um, and now that
[06:50:57] we've done all that and we've mapped it
[06:50:59] out and if anybody wants our story map,
[06:51:01] I can I'm quite happy to share that with
[06:51:03] you. And so now we've taken all of the
[06:51:07] stuff that we've um
[06:51:10] uh got from the children. So what have
[06:51:12] they told us about where they go, what
[06:51:14] they do, what's it like to be young in
[06:51:16] Glasgow. And we've just produced our
[06:51:19] places for play handbook for um
[06:51:23] developers and communities. so that we
[06:51:26] are demonstrating what the children have
[06:51:28] said. Um, and we're reflecting that back
[06:51:31] and we're saying to developers, no, you
[06:51:34] can't just come along and put off a
[06:51:36] fenced area and call it a play. We want
[06:51:39] the children involved in the design
[06:51:41] process. We want the children to take
[06:51:44] you to the site and tell you how they
[06:51:46] want to see things changed. And that is
[06:51:49] getting traction in our planning
[06:51:50] applications. Um I've had been involved
[06:51:53] in a lot of discussions. Um we also won
[06:51:57] the RTPI award RTPI award in Scotland
[06:52:01] for our methodology for the PSA
[06:52:04] um which I was totally surprised about
[06:52:06] but um I think it's about the
[06:52:09] partnerships.
[06:52:10] I don't tend to be usual partnerships or
[06:52:14] the usual suspects. Um, so council I
[06:52:17] have loads of hills of hysteria in the
[06:52:19] council cuz we are a very hierarchical
[06:52:22] organization.
[06:52:24] Um, so I describe myself as a quiet
[06:52:28] influencer.
[06:52:30] So I tend to seek out the people that I
[06:52:33] know will fight the cause and argue our
[06:52:36] case. So I go um I've had help from
[06:52:39] Inspiring Scotland um which is a a third
[06:52:44] sector organization. I've had help um
[06:52:47] just people that you know constantly
[06:52:49] give the message that you were wanting
[06:52:51] to hear. [snorts] Um and now uh we're
[06:52:54] now looking towards how do we humanize
[06:52:58] our public spaces. So I like a bit of
[06:53:01] riot and rebellion. Um, so that's our
[06:53:05] next challenge.
[06:53:06] Brilliant. Thank you. Yes.
[06:53:08] Yeah. Jump in. [applause]
[06:53:12] Just going to come in on what you're
[06:53:13] saying there. And we in Greater
[06:53:16] Manchester there's 10 10 councils, which
[06:53:17] is a little easier than London. Um, but
[06:53:20] it's interesting when you work across 10
[06:53:22] councils and get to understand how
[06:53:24] different councils work, you realize
[06:53:26] that the decision-m and the power and
[06:53:28] how things work is so different in each
[06:53:30] council. So like sometimes it's led by
[06:53:31] the politicians, sometimes it's more
[06:53:33] officerled, but then sometimes it's
[06:53:35] different departments like the officers
[06:53:37] in active travel let's say are leading
[06:53:38] something. But then actually sometimes
[06:53:40] it's public health or you know parks for
[06:53:42] instance have been a big driver of
[06:53:43] removing barriers the parks team. So
[06:53:46] when I say barriers I mean like the
[06:53:48] access control barriers. So it's just
[06:53:50] about find you know understanding almost
[06:53:52] the net the how councils work and how
[06:53:55] the where the people are in them and
[06:53:57] getting a bit of a sense and and I know
[06:53:58] councils from the outside they seem like
[06:54:01] an impenetrable wall of like most people
[06:54:03] don't understand how councils work and I
[06:54:05] guess our job and I was saying this
[06:54:06] earlier is our job is to be like the
[06:54:08] bridge from councils to the general
[06:54:11] public cuz we have the resources and
[06:54:13] knowledge to understand how councils
[06:54:15] work but we're also better than like
[06:54:18] better than councils w with the
[06:54:20] community and understanding what
[06:54:21] communities want and need and it's about
[06:54:23] you know bridging the two so that the
[06:54:25] councils can feel confident in what
[06:54:27] they're trying to deliver. Um, so for
[06:54:29] instance on school streets like you know
[06:54:31] school streets I can't believe are
[06:54:33] contentious. Like it sounds crazy. Um,
[06:54:35] but they are and like we you know at the
[06:54:37] start of the school streets program and
[06:54:38] it's incredible to hear that there's was
[06:54:39] it 800 in London. I mean Andy Bernham
[06:54:42] who's going to be the prime minister. He
[06:54:43] announced 100 in in Greater Manchester
[06:54:46] and that caused the panic the idea of
[06:54:48] having a hundred. Uh so um yeah it's
[06:54:52] just we're that bridge and it's just you
[06:54:54] know understanding
[06:54:56] that it's like a triangulation and we
[06:54:58] without us like sometimes that
[06:55:00] communication between councils and the
[06:55:01] public can falter as we've seen with
[06:55:03] botched like consultations and all this
[06:55:05] kind of stuff. Yeah.
[06:55:06] And I think Nicola, you've had
[06:55:07] experience of that and Lambeath Council
[06:55:09] particularly have said we need you all
[06:55:12] the work that you have done to mobilize
[06:55:14] the residents and you can push harder
[06:55:17] and you can say different things and you
[06:55:18] did push harder for Lambbeath to get all
[06:55:21] these wonderful um fantastic
[06:55:23] comprehensive school streets and how did
[06:55:25] you find that push and pull and was it
[06:55:27] you know always a good relationship or
[06:55:29] was it sometimes difficult to kind of
[06:55:31] say those things that need to be said?
[06:55:33] Yeah. So, we um sort of had had a
[06:55:37] transformational school journey, if you
[06:55:39] will. And I would say in when my five
[06:55:42] years ago, six years ago, when my eldest
[06:55:44] son was in reception, our journey to
[06:55:46] school was an absolute hellscape. Um as
[06:55:49] I still think it is for most London
[06:55:50] parents. But in the course of those 5
[06:55:52] years, we have had um a 2 km bike lane
[06:55:56] go in on the road that the school is on.
[06:55:58] We have had 12 zebra crossings go in
[06:56:01] around the area. Um we've had a
[06:56:03] controlled parking zone which you know
[06:56:05] absolute hill of hysteria on that one
[06:56:07] like um residents weeping. Um but uh and
[06:56:10] then the seismic piece was a um
[06:56:13] incredible school street that went in on
[06:56:16] what was a very is is a very busy road
[06:56:19] but was certainly a very busy road
[06:56:20] between 8 and 9. Uh 800 cars per hour.
[06:56:23] Um, so it's one of the most ambitious
[06:56:25] school streets in London in terms of the
[06:56:29] extent of road space that it filters to
[06:56:31] prioritize walking and cycling as well
[06:56:33] as the volume of traffic it addressed.
[06:56:36] Um, and the bike lane I mentioned was
[06:56:39] the one that Rosina has been mentioning
[06:56:40] a lot which had the legal challenge. Uh,
[06:56:43] so we have been right in the hill of
[06:56:44] hysteria and the center of a lot of
[06:56:46] campaigning on this. Um I think there's
[06:56:49] three sort of like things and I know
[06:56:50] we're short for time so I'll just
[06:56:51] quickly reel them off but when I was
[06:56:53] reflecting on this session I think have
[06:56:56] been so valuable for us and the first
[06:56:57] one is obviously around engaging your
[06:57:00] counselors. There's a lot of new
[06:57:02] counselors in London. Um there's a lot
[06:57:04] of young counselors which is amazing to
[06:57:05] see but they may not have the child lens
[06:57:08] if they don't have children or haven't
[06:57:10] been around those places. So we call it
[06:57:12] a show and tell like get your counselor
[06:57:14] to see the space um and get them to see
[06:57:17] the support for change and I think we
[06:57:20] have to be a bit more creative about
[06:57:22] doing that because you know schools are
[06:57:24] very easy to mobilize parents around. We
[06:57:27] see it demand all the time. Like you can
[06:57:30] you can I've seen WhatsApp groups open
[06:57:32] in school communities and 100 parents
[06:57:34] join in 15 minutes because it's about
[06:57:37] improving a crossing outside their
[06:57:39] school. Like parents care, but we have
[06:57:41] to make it easier for their voices to
[06:57:43] come through. When our bike lane was
[06:57:45] consulted on, it was like a 700 p.m.
[06:57:48] meeting on a Monday night in the nearby
[06:57:50] community hall. Like, sorry, you know,
[06:57:52] I'm in a dark room putting my kids to
[06:57:53] bed, right? So um you know bringing it
[06:57:56] to the school gates like bike buses
[06:57:59] before school protestes protests just
[06:58:01] make it what the parents doing already
[06:58:03] and then they can get involved. So
[06:58:04] showing and telling um I'll just be kick
[06:58:07] the second piece is actually all around
[06:58:10] the the personal motivations of your
[06:58:14] politicians and your counselors because
[06:58:16] sometimes the evidence and the stories
[06:58:18] like isn't enough. So you have to listen
[06:58:21] carefully to what their hesitencies are
[06:58:23] and what their blockers are. And for us
[06:58:26] when we stopped kind of feeling so angry
[06:58:29] about the situation and forthright and
[06:58:32] really listened to their hesitancies, it
[06:58:34] really was that they didn't want to face
[06:58:36] going and talking to residents on the
[06:58:38] surrounding roads about the idea of this
[06:58:42] big program because they just didn't
[06:58:44] want to take that on. Um so we went and
[06:58:47] got loads of supporters around those
[06:58:48] surrounding roads so that they were
[06:58:50] asking them for the school street too.
[06:58:51] So we kind of removed that barrier and
[06:58:54] then they were very motivated to um to
[06:58:57] move forward. And I think the third part
[06:59:00] that I will just talk through very
[06:59:02] briefly and you'll definitely talk more
[06:59:03] about this is is celebrating the
[06:59:06] successes. You know you can't just call
[06:59:08] for something and call for something.
[06:59:10] You have to celebrate what's happened
[06:59:12] and celebrate the wins. um and and thank
[06:59:16] them for it, but give them the
[06:59:18] opportunity to like emotionally engage
[06:59:20] with the change they've created. So,
[06:59:23] because that we're all, you know,
[06:59:24] fundamentally motivated by emotional,
[06:59:27] you know, emotions, aren't we? So, we
[06:59:29] use bike buses. Um, we run them once a
[06:59:32] term, but we are using them to celebrate
[06:59:34] our school street and our bike lane and
[06:59:36] give Rosina and Will Norman and people
[06:59:39] that do take the flack the chance to see
[06:59:41] like the happy faces and the impact that
[06:59:44] it's making.
[06:59:45] Brilliant.
[06:59:45] So, those are my three thoughts.
[06:59:49] [applause]
[06:59:50] And Caroline, um, you said that you're
[06:59:53] kind of bridging the gap, telling the
[06:59:56] mayor what he's missing and and and I've
[06:59:58] seen you do that so amazingly. Is there
[07:00:00] any advice that you have for us
[07:00:01] campaigners working in the public public
[07:00:03] sector? What else can we be doing to
[07:00:06] bring those voices to the front to
[07:00:07] ensure the politicians are really
[07:00:09] hearing what we're saying?
[07:00:12] I think the most important thing is to
[07:00:15] do everything you can to understand how
[07:00:17] councils work, which is what has come
[07:00:19] across on this panel, and to respect the
[07:00:23] council officers because council
[07:00:25] officers have got a really, really
[07:00:28] difficult job to do. Um, sounds like
[07:00:30] you've had an amazing situation. I mean,
[07:00:33] I love the sound of all that work
[07:00:34] talking to the young people. um the
[07:00:37] number of complaints you get as a local
[07:00:39] counselor about young people and
[07:00:41] antisocial behavior and it actually
[07:00:43] turns out to be a few young people
[07:00:45] sitting on a bench being a bit annoying.
[07:00:48] And um and it's like having a good
[07:00:51] relationship with council officers can
[07:00:54] actually help the council to navigate
[07:00:57] when there's a bit of noise about
[07:00:59] something like that in a way that comes
[07:01:02] up with much much better outcomes for
[07:01:04] everyone. So I think know your get to
[07:01:06] know council officers really respect
[07:01:09] them and understand the pressures that
[07:01:11] they're under and and and kind of also
[07:01:15] understand that when you've got newly
[07:01:17] elected counselors
[07:01:19] they may be you explained some of them
[07:01:21] being very very young. You know they may
[07:01:23] not be very experienced. they may be at
[07:01:24] the beginning of their political journey
[07:01:26] and really take the time to talk them
[07:01:29] through why things matter and try and
[07:01:31] understand what it is that motivated
[07:01:32] them to stand and represent their
[07:01:35] community. So I think it's yeah listen
[07:01:37] to everyone.
[07:01:38] I was just going to come in there and
[07:01:40] say that in Glasgow we have amazing
[07:01:43] political support. The counselors are
[07:01:45] super supportive. Senior officers not so
[07:01:49] much. Um, but I I kind of tend to
[07:01:52] circumvent them to say, well, actually,
[07:01:55] I find the people that have the passion,
[07:01:58] the resilience and want to deliver. Now,
[07:02:02] we had over 5,000 children respond um
[07:02:07] across nearly all of our schools. Um,
[07:02:10] and it was an increase, and I still
[07:02:12] can't get my head around this figure,
[07:02:14] but it was an increase of 1,754%
[07:02:20] participation rates.
[07:02:21] Wow. Awesome. Amazing.
[07:02:24] [applause]
[07:02:25] So, circumnavigating problem officers is
[07:02:27] is a lot of what we do. [laughter]
[07:02:30] Um, I was just going to touch on some
[07:02:32] innovations that we've done to like help
[07:02:34] support councils. Uh, one of them is
[07:02:37] that we started an awards night. And
[07:02:39] it's I guess that's not an innovation in
[07:02:41] itself, but the purpose of the awards
[07:02:43] night was just to give councils a moment
[07:02:48] to celebrate themselves, you know, give
[07:02:50] them an award, say well done cuz most of
[07:02:52] the time no one's saying that to them at
[07:02:53] all throughout the year. So, and in a
[07:02:55] sense actually that created um it
[07:02:58] created competition amongst councils. So
[07:03:00] we see that officers are really
[07:03:01] competitive and they want to win it this
[07:03:03] year and then the exec for transport
[07:03:05] Manchester is like this year we're going
[07:03:06] to take that take it back you know when
[07:03:08] they lost it to Trafford. So that a bit
[07:03:10] of competition too doesn't go miss
[07:03:11] especially you know in some places you
[07:03:13] get like rival councils like different
[07:03:15] dynamics. which is quite funny uh
[07:03:17] amusing from the outside. And then
[07:03:19] another one another innovation is um we
[07:03:21] use a Discord server and actually we
[07:03:24] found that Discord's been really useful
[07:03:25] because on social media actually
[07:03:27] counselors have started retreating cuz
[07:03:29] they don't want any of the flack and
[07:03:30] they it's just too much and we've been
[07:03:33] able to get a lot of them over onto a
[07:03:34] Discord server that's about 500 people
[07:03:36] we have in there and it's campaigners,
[07:03:38] officers, you know, counselors. It's a
[07:03:40] big mix of people and it's a real like
[07:03:42] working space where people behind the
[07:03:44] scenes get stuff done quietly. We're not
[07:03:46] talking about it loudly. We're not
[07:03:47] creating a hill of hysteria, but we're
[07:03:49] actually squashing it because we
[07:03:51] coordinate on the Discord. So like for
[07:03:53] instance, when there is hysteria, we
[07:03:55] coordinate. We say, "Okay, we need to
[07:03:56] get this many people comment this, do
[07:03:58] that, say this, and it and it all it
[07:04:00] just like it works. It's a magic."
[07:04:02] Fantastic. So collaboration,
[07:04:04] understanding each other, being nice to
[07:04:06] each other, helping each other, I think
[07:04:08] like is so key. So, we have only got
[07:04:10] about four minutes left. So, we're now
[07:04:11] going to turn to some questions from the
[07:04:13] audience. Please raise your hand if you
[07:04:15] have a question for any of our
[07:04:16] panelists.
[07:04:19] Got a very big mic. Yeah. Excellent.
[07:04:24] Good evening and thank you very much for
[07:04:25] your contributions. My name is Gabriella
[07:04:28] and I work for Green School Runs. We are
[07:04:30] a charity based in Camden. I have a
[07:04:33] question for Caroline Russell. Um so
[07:04:36] we've been leading a community campaign
[07:04:39] um to improve a school bus in North
[07:04:42] London which will connect Yes. Yes.
[07:04:46] [laughter]
[07:04:47] Yes. So which will last night.
[07:04:50] Yes. Uh which will connect over 20
[07:04:52] schools and two communities which are
[07:04:56] not well linked by public transport. Um
[07:04:59] so we think we have all the right
[07:05:02] ingredients. Uh we are backed by our
[07:05:04] communities. We are backed by essential
[07:05:07] workers, counselors from all parties, MP
[07:05:10] the ads of all schools and uh yet uh we
[07:05:15] cannot achieve any change. We feel we
[07:05:18] kind of meet all the right objectives
[07:05:20] air pollution working towards vision
[07:05:22] zero, reduce car journeys, improve
[07:05:25] independence. So, do you have any advice
[07:05:28] for us on how we can make sure that
[07:05:29] decision makers are actively engaging
[07:05:32] with us campaigners? Thank you. You're
[07:05:35] in a really difficult situation because
[07:05:37] TfL is changing bus routes and and
[07:05:41] making these changes all over London and
[07:05:46] uh not necessarily communicating those
[07:05:48] changes brilliantly. And also um
[07:05:53] if you live near a tube station, that
[07:05:56] tube station never moves. It's like you
[07:05:58] always have access to a service that you
[07:06:01] can use to get around London. If you
[07:06:04] live near a bus station and your bus
[07:06:06] route changes, then you might know or a
[07:06:08] bus stop, you might no longer live quite
[07:06:11] so close to a bus stop or that bus not
[07:06:14] stop may not be served by the same bus.
[07:06:17] This is something that I have loads and
[07:06:20] loads of con uh case work on. Andre,
[07:06:22] who's sitting in front of you, um works
[07:06:25] with me at city hall. Um I literally
[07:06:28] have we've literally only just passed
[07:06:31] your thing on to TfL to get a kind of a
[07:06:34] a response, but I was absolutely
[07:06:35] planning to come back to you with some
[07:06:37] thoughts about how best to campaign to
[07:06:39] take that forward because I think the
[07:06:41] case you've made is really strong. But
[07:06:43] it's it's a complicated situation at the
[07:06:45] moment because we've still got so much
[07:06:47] congestion in London. The buses are
[07:06:50] getting congested, not working
[07:06:52] efficiently, which is why they're making
[07:06:54] so many changes and which aren't
[07:06:56] necessarily helping. But this sounds
[07:06:58] like a great suggestion and um we'll see
[07:07:01] what TfL come back with and then we can
[07:07:04] have a conversation to uh make a plan.
[07:07:08] Great. Thank you. Um so we have got one
[07:07:11] we can do one more question. uh over
[07:07:13] there. Yes. [laughter]
[07:07:14] Um my question is probably mostly to
[07:07:16] Nicola. Um but as a local school mom and
[07:07:20] school governor, how do we get rid of
[07:07:22] the stigma around cargo bikes? I have
[07:07:26] one mother that turns up in her 4x4 and
[07:07:29] parks basically on the zebra crossing
[07:07:31] who gets far more tolerance and respect
[07:07:33] than the moms who turn up on cargo bikes
[07:07:35] who get looked down their noses and
[07:07:37] referred to as the yummy mummies.
[07:07:39] Although they're not, but it's just
[07:07:40] [clears throat] this has it come from
[07:07:41] the car industry? Where has this total
[07:07:45] reverse snobbery towards cargo bikes
[07:07:47] come from?
[07:07:48] Interesting.
[07:07:50] Yeah, I mean
[07:07:54] it might be out pressure.
[07:07:55] Um, so great question. Obviously, I'm
[07:07:58] obviously a Londoner. I have a cargo
[07:07:59] bike. Fully understand the context. Um,
[07:08:02] we are really trying to address this. We
[07:08:05] just did some research um with clean
[07:08:08] cities. um on the fact that using a
[07:08:11] cargo bike, buying a cargo bike and
[07:08:13] traveling with your family by cargo
[07:08:15] bike, including public transport um
[07:08:18] versus buying a car to get your family
[07:08:21] around and maybe other public transport
[07:08:23] around that lifestyle. But the cargo
[07:08:25] bike lifestyle is £4,000 a year cheaper
[07:08:29] uh than buying an a car and getting
[07:08:31] around by car is your primary form of
[07:08:33] transport. So we have to get much more
[07:08:36] information out there on the savings
[07:08:38] that you can make by um you know having
[07:08:41] a cargo bike and and not a car. And I
[07:08:44] also think that there's something around
[07:08:46] capturing the new generation of parents
[07:08:48] coming through because it's difficult to
[07:08:50] get the SUV driver to switch to the
[07:08:52] cargo bike, but actually capturing those
[07:08:55] families, you know, just had a baby or
[07:08:58] or you know, first second child where
[07:09:00] they haven't made that choice yet and
[07:09:01] it's like, do we get a cargo bike, do we
[07:09:03] get a car, like that's where we need the
[07:09:05] info campaign to really, you know,
[07:09:07] resonate, I think.
[07:09:10] Brilliant. Thank you. Um I think that is
[07:09:12] all we have time for today. So um thank
[07:09:15] you very much to our brilliant panelists
[07:09:17] and um please give everyone a round of
[07:09:19] applause.
[07:09:21] [applause]
[07:09:25] So we now have a 10-minute break. So go
[07:09:27] and try and cool down and get a nice
[07:09:29] cold glass of water and we will see you
[07:09:31] back here everyone back here for the
[07:09:32] final session. Thank you.
[07:18:11] Hello everybody.
[07:18:13] Is Is this actually working?
[07:18:15] Not on.
[07:18:15] Not on.
[07:18:16] It is.
[07:18:20] Hello.
[07:18:22] Is this on?
[07:18:24] Is this thing on? Woohoo.
[07:18:27] Yes. Is it working? Is it kind of
[07:18:30] working? Is it not working? All right.
[07:18:32] It's very big noise. It is encouraging
[07:18:36] to see the buzz in the room. Keep it up,
[07:18:39] guys. We're very close to the end now.
[07:18:41] Not that we want it to ever end.
[07:18:46] Yeah, it is. There we go. Thank you.
[07:18:48] Thank you for those of you that helps
[07:18:50] with this. Wonderful. Then I can now
[07:18:53] hand over to Elliot to open the final
[07:18:56] bit of today.
[07:18:58] Hello. Hello. Hello. Hopefully that's as
[07:19:01] good as it gets. Okay. Excellent. Well,
[07:19:03] it's fantastic to be here. For those of
[07:19:05] you who don't know me, my name's Elliot
[07:19:06] Tran and I work at City Hall where I
[07:19:10] lead on transport and infrastructure and
[07:19:12] air quality. So, lots of really
[07:19:14] interesting and important things for
[07:19:16] this uh assembly over the last few days.
[07:19:19] I'm really really pleased to be
[07:19:21] presenting this session and what we are
[07:19:23] going to be talking about is resilient
[07:19:25] streets for kids. So trying to look at
[07:19:26] streets through the perspective of kids
[07:19:28] and some of the activities that we as
[07:19:31] cities and we've got two fantastic
[07:19:33] representatives one from Milan and one
[07:19:34] from Paris and a little bit of me from
[07:19:36] London can do to improve, protect and
[07:19:40] promote active travel by kids including
[07:19:42] things like school streets. So, we're
[07:19:44] going to have two relatively short
[07:19:46] presentations and then we're going to
[07:19:47] have a bit of a discussion. Uh, and so I
[07:19:50] would just also like to introduce
[07:19:52] although they'll come on stage in a
[07:19:53] moment do their presentations, the two
[07:19:55] kind of guest uh speakers that we've got
[07:19:58] today. The first is Demetrios Scopali uh
[07:20:02] from Milan who will be uh presenting
[07:20:04] first and then we've got Kiara Molina
[07:20:06] from Paris uh who will present second.
[07:20:09] So without further ado, I'll hand over
[07:20:11] to Demetrio.
[07:20:19] Thank you very much. And
[07:20:23] I'm sorry Mike is not here anymore, but
[07:20:25] in the words of Nessa Mandela that then
[07:20:26] became the words of Zoran Mandani, it
[07:20:29] always seems impossible until it's done.
[07:20:32] What was impossible for me? It was
[07:20:33] impossible to think, believe 8 years ago
[07:20:37] that we would have been able to
[07:20:38] establish a tactical urbanism program in
[07:20:41] Milan, a collaborative one that was able
[07:20:43] to reclaim more than 60 public spaces
[07:20:45] and offer them next to schools.
[07:20:48] But when we talk about something that is
[07:20:51] not possible,
[07:20:52] it looks that it is because change has
[07:20:56] to overcome resistances, the peaks of
[07:20:58] hysteria. As Alexander was telling
[07:21:01] before, I didn't know his fantastic uh
[07:21:05] curve, but I use a formula which is in
[07:21:08] order to overcome resistance which is of
[07:21:10] course uh just a peak. We need three
[07:21:13] factors. One is the satisfaction for how
[07:21:15] things are now. The second one is vision
[07:21:17] for a better future and the third the
[07:21:19] more important one that we always
[07:21:21] forget. The first step initiative
[07:21:24] dissatisfaction is evident. I mean, we
[07:21:26] won't be here if we were not sat were if
[07:21:29] we were satisfied about how our streets
[07:21:31] and how our streets are for kids. This
[07:21:34] is my kid and bringing him to school
[07:21:36] every day is a nightmare and should be
[07:21:38] the best moment of our day. The vision
[07:21:42] well you will look you will find it in
[07:21:44] any document from from any city is very
[07:21:47] easy to write. We need better cities,
[07:21:50] greener one, more sustainable, more
[07:21:52] resilient for kids. But how we can
[07:21:55] really put that into action with
[07:21:58] instruments like public works which are
[07:22:01] incredibly slow if you're not Paris
[07:22:03] which are incredibly frustrating because
[07:22:06] they cost a they cost a lot. they're not
[07:22:09] um flexible
[07:22:11] and we need other instruments like
[07:22:13] tactical urbanism that can uh help us
[07:22:18] transforming places in a light week,
[07:22:19] quick and cheap way uh in just weeks
[07:22:22] with few money and with being more
[07:22:25] radical because you can always come back
[07:22:27] if it doesn't work.
[07:22:30] But we are also uh starting and
[07:22:33] considering the tacticalism is too slow.
[07:22:35] Sometimes we just need temporary
[07:22:37] activation that can help us uh creating
[07:22:39] the space for more engaging streets.
[07:22:42] This is a play kit. It's basically two
[07:22:44] cargo bikes that we created with full of
[07:22:47] games for kids that the city can bring
[07:22:49] you in order to activate the space if
[07:22:51] you are a community.
[07:22:54] And this is part of an incremental
[07:22:56] approach that is transforming our
[07:22:59] streets and particularly our school
[07:23:00] streets through time with a middle phase
[07:23:03] an intering phase that allow us to not
[07:23:06] discuss and face the peak of hysteria in
[07:23:09] the presentation project phase but
[07:23:13] understanding how the project can work
[07:23:15] through time by really engaging people
[07:23:18] in the in living in living experience.
[07:23:21] We didn't start this as a school street
[07:23:24] program. We started the program as a
[07:23:25] couple of pilots starting from this car
[07:23:27] parking lot for 25 cars that by changing
[07:23:30] perspective we've been able to transform
[07:23:33] in really three weeks of works thanks to
[07:23:35] the collaboration of Sky Dunk and GDCI
[07:23:37] and Janessa Khan in one of the most
[07:23:40] incredible party place I've ever been
[07:23:43] and the first immediate reaction that we
[07:23:45] had when uh we transformed the place is
[07:23:48] that kids started popping up immediately
[07:23:50] but we didn't know where they were and
[07:23:53] then We uh starting
[07:23:58] pilot after pilot to understand what
[07:24:00] kind of capacity we had and we face this
[07:24:02] intersection and again this is exactly
[07:24:05] what a city for cars looks like right
[07:24:08] but this is exactly what a city for
[07:24:10] people can look like and it doesn't cost
[07:24:12] much and it's not impossible it's just a
[07:24:15] matter of will and the imagination and
[07:24:17] change of perspective and place by place
[07:24:21] experiment after experiment we started
[07:24:22] understanding that Maybe this could be
[07:24:24] more than just a series of pilots and we
[07:24:26] delivered a program based on open calls
[07:24:28] for citizens. We've been asking citizens
[07:24:32] where do you want to collaborate with
[07:24:33] the city with the institution in order
[07:24:35] to create tactical projects. We thought
[07:24:38] we got more. We we couldn't get more
[07:24:41] than 10 15 proposals and we got 65 the
[07:24:43] first time 2019. And we established a
[07:24:46] process that brings citizens not to be
[07:24:50] frustrated asking for something that
[07:24:52] never happens but to be part of a
[07:24:53] process where they can implement
[07:24:56] together with us uh the transformation
[07:24:58] of a place. They present projects to the
[07:25:01] city physically. We allow them to
[07:25:04] present physically the projects which is
[07:25:05] the minimum stage. Then we met them,
[07:25:08] present to the community. We start
[07:25:10] co-design processes with them. And once
[07:25:13] everything is set up, we sign a
[07:25:15] collaboration packs. We say, "Okay, this
[07:25:17] is our contract. We do the
[07:25:18] transformation, you do the activation,
[07:25:20] you do the care, you implement the
[07:25:24] coloration, the painting of the space,
[07:25:26] and you take care not just in terms of
[07:25:29] maintenance, but in terms of putting
[07:25:31] your eyes uh on the space, on the
[07:25:33] streets, monitoring it. And this brought
[07:25:36] us to transform places like these uh car
[07:25:40] parking paradise into dancing heavens.
[07:25:43] Uh pata
[07:25:45] squares in the middle of historic
[07:25:47] neighborhoods transformed by artists.
[07:25:50] School streets or school roundabouts
[07:25:52] like these into places where people
[07:25:54] could gather together and could
[07:25:56] transform these places into playgrounds
[07:25:58] every day at least twice a day. And when
[07:26:02] we starting implementing projects in
[07:26:04] front of schools, we realized this could
[07:26:05] become a policy, a school street policy.
[07:26:08] And then we launched a second open call
[07:26:09] dedicated to school streets. And again,
[07:26:12] we thought maybe we can get 20, 30, 40
[07:26:15] proposals. And we got 87 in 3 months and
[07:26:20] asking for 110 projects facing something
[07:26:24] like 250 schools. Just imagine a city
[07:26:26] making a question to his community
[07:26:28] saying, "Do you want school streets?"
[07:26:30] And all the schools saying yes,
[07:26:33] you should try. And
[07:26:36] places like this have been transformed
[07:26:38] in places like this. And I mean the
[07:26:41] change is really impressive and it
[07:26:43] happens every day. This picture is taken
[07:26:45] by which is in somewhere in the room or
[07:26:47] maybe out of the room
[07:26:50] at 8:10
[07:26:52] a.m. in the morning. Have you ever saw a
[07:26:54] party at 8:00 a.m. in the morning which
[07:26:56] is not a rave?
[07:26:58] and and this has become for instance a
[07:27:01] place a symbolic place for the school
[07:27:03] community in the city and created
[07:27:05] emulation emulation and Ariadia is now
[07:27:08] representatives of huge community of
[07:27:10] people asking for this kind of change
[07:27:12] and we replicated and we transformed
[07:27:14] place after place we understood very
[07:27:17] simple things like cars don't play out
[07:27:19] of schools kids do
[07:27:22] if there isn't a playground in front of
[07:27:24] your school we just can invent one
[07:27:26] transforming a redundant car parking or
[07:27:28] a street. And if there is already one
[07:27:30] like in this place, well, you can easily
[07:27:32] expand.
[07:27:34] And the main question is after we
[07:27:36] implemented a 5,000 m school
[07:27:39] neighborhood project in the last months,
[07:27:41] should we bring kids to park after
[07:27:43] school or we should bring the park next
[07:27:46] to schools? What's easier? What's more
[07:27:50] city?
[07:27:53] And to
[07:27:55] go ahead and to finalize, we're not
[07:27:58] closing school streets to cars as
[07:27:59] Alexander was saying before. We are
[07:28:01] opening that up to people. And the
[07:28:03] program is called Patap, the open
[07:28:04] squares.
[07:28:06] People, they use the space in the most
[07:28:08] incredible ways you can even imagine.
[07:28:14] People is the is the legacy. What's next
[07:28:17] of this project? I always ask myself
[07:28:19] after 8 years, what is next? We do more.
[07:28:23] We do 300 projects. Well, Paris did it,
[07:28:25] but we do 300, 400, 500. Or maybe we
[07:28:28] just create a community, a community of
[07:28:30] people that can believe that
[07:28:32] transforming streets is easier than what
[07:28:34] they think. That they can establish
[07:28:36] collaborative processes and use allow
[07:28:39] imagination to transform places to make
[07:28:42] change happening. Rethinking streets as
[07:28:45] relational infrastructure. Streets don't
[07:28:47] move cars. streets make people encounter
[07:28:52] and engaging people through life
[07:28:54] experience not just on paper and
[07:28:56] multiplying the impact and the political
[07:28:58] impact that we all have
[07:29:02] not just because we want to deliver more
[07:29:04] projects. Of course we are challenging
[07:29:06] city after city. I mean we would like to
[07:29:08] be the best but the main thing is really
[07:29:11] creating the mo the stronger community
[07:29:13] possible that can strive for change and
[07:29:16] there is no better community we should
[07:29:18] look for and we should think to in order
[07:29:21] to leave the world the cities a better
[07:29:23] place than the one we found than the
[07:29:25] kids. Kids are 100% of our future no
[07:29:28] matter if it's few part of the
[07:29:30] population.
[07:29:32] So what we learned is that streets are
[07:29:34] public spaces. Public spaces for people
[07:29:37] and people build communities. And if you
[07:29:39] want to transform your school streets
[07:29:41] and if you want to transform your
[07:29:42] communities and your neighbors starting
[07:29:44] from schools, you just have to create
[07:29:46] those communities to empower them to
[07:29:48] listen to them and to make them louder
[07:29:50] than the people resisting and saying no.
[07:29:52] THANKS.
[07:29:54] [cheering]
[07:29:56] [applause]
[07:30:06] Hi everybody. So now it's about uh
[07:30:09] Paris. Um yes it works. So in Paris it
[07:30:13] was said I think everybody knows what we
[07:30:16] realized in uh with this um school
[07:30:19] street programs is 300 streets um
[07:30:22] delivered in a few years and hundreds of
[07:30:25] them completely redesigned. Um so often
[07:30:28] we are asked how was it possible and we
[07:30:30] are also asking ourselves how was it
[07:30:32] possible we are still not believing it's
[07:30:35] real and we often hear it's about it's a
[07:30:38] matter of money we had uh they say Paris
[07:30:41] had big investments in public space and
[07:30:44] of course it was a matter of money but I
[07:30:46] will try to highlight other factors
[07:30:49] which are I think um more important than
[07:30:52] money uh to implement this kind of uh
[07:30:55] program. So um first uh factor is a very
[07:31:00] clear urban vision about what uh our
[07:31:04] cities has to be to face to climate
[07:31:06] change. Uh when we the the school street
[07:31:09] program was launched after the pandemic
[07:31:11] we already have all these um ecological
[07:31:15] issue uh at the priority as a priority.
[07:31:18] So we were immediately asked to find uh
[07:31:21] streets to be planted and so that we can
[07:31:24] really uh create um uh permanent
[07:31:28] transformation of public space. It was
[07:31:30] just not about safer streets for kids.
[07:31:33] Of course it was. But the um climatic
[07:31:36] issue and adaptation was really a
[07:31:38] priority. So we can use some recent
[07:31:42] studies um about the um benefits of
[07:31:45] planting trees but also about the
[07:31:47] potential of planting public space in uh
[07:31:50] in Paris and we really had to invent um
[07:31:54] a new way to a new way to to work to
[07:31:56] find solution. So the street school
[07:31:58] program became uh an opportunity to uh
[07:32:02] rethink the streets for tomorrow or for
[07:32:05] today uh because it's actually 40° in
[07:32:09] Paris. So we tested solution you can see
[07:32:12] uh uh on these pictures about um
[07:32:15] planting trees about uh having light
[07:32:18] colored surfaces um about um putting
[07:32:22] fontain so to have access to water but
[07:32:25] also misting systems um this kind of uh
[07:32:30] solution and we have pretty good results
[07:32:33] because um we can prove that we have
[07:32:36] about five degrees
[07:32:39] um uh uh 55
[07:32:43] um temperature uh less hot in this
[07:32:46] street with this kind of solution that
[07:32:49] in other streets. Um another big factor
[07:32:53] is about mobility. Uh at the beginning
[07:32:56] the street school program is not about
[07:32:59] um making kids walking to school because
[07:33:01] in Paris they were already walking to
[07:33:04] school because we have um a very good
[07:33:07] network of public school uh and every
[07:33:10] child has a public school in a five or
[07:33:13] seven uh minutes walk. So it was not
[07:33:16] really um the goal of the program. The
[07:33:19] goal of the program is about health,
[07:33:22] about giving space to to kids and not
[07:33:25] just to kids. But it became a mobility
[07:33:28] issue. But because when you have to
[07:33:30] pedest uh dozens of streets, of course
[07:33:34] you have to consider the impact on
[07:33:37] mobility, not to create uh congestion.
[07:33:40] And we can um we already had lots of
[07:33:44] previous policies uh and we were very
[07:33:48] useful because we already had for the
[07:33:50] for example we had a parking reform
[07:33:53] which aimed to reduce um 50% the uh
[07:33:58] number of um on street parking and as
[07:34:01] you can see in the picture it was
[07:34:03] exactly what we did uh to plant in the
[07:34:07] um street school there you you can these
[07:34:10] previous states with all the cars uh
[07:34:13] parked on the streets and then where you
[07:34:15] had uh cars before now we have uh trees
[07:34:19] and um green uh and vegetation. Um
[07:34:24] that was possible also because of this
[07:34:27] previous mobility policies that we had
[07:34:29] during the last 10 15 maybe 20 years. So
[07:34:35] uh this program is a very fast program
[07:34:37] but we can um capitalize on all this
[07:34:40] work that was done uh before and we now
[07:34:44] uh have in Paris uh less car dependency
[07:34:48] than 20 years ago. We have 60% decrease
[07:34:52] in motorized traffic and we have just a
[07:34:55] third of the households uh having a car.
[07:34:58] So this is also why this program was uh
[07:35:02] possible and uh in the inner Paris uh
[07:35:05] the most of the journeys are made uh
[07:35:08] walking and we have nowadays more uh
[07:35:11] trips made by bike than by car. So this
[07:35:14] mobility transition is really uh
[07:35:17] underway and the active mobilities is
[07:35:19] really uh getting more and more um
[07:35:23] powerful. Uh and what is interesting is
[07:35:26] also that the street school program was
[07:35:29] the opportunity to scale up this uh
[07:35:32] mobility policies uh to implement the
[07:35:34] parking reform as I already said but
[07:35:36] also to um be the starting point to
[07:35:39] reflect on new mobility patterns at the
[07:35:42] neighborhood uh scale. So it's a result
[07:35:45] and it's a starting point at the same
[07:35:47] times.
[07:35:48] Um, another factor is that Paris is a
[07:35:52] really dense uh cities and it's a
[07:35:55] proximity based cities where it's the
[07:35:58] perfect 15-minute city we could say with
[07:36:00] lots of uh amenities and facilities and
[07:36:04] shops, everything you uh could look for
[07:36:07] in a walkable distance. And the school
[07:36:10] since this network has a real great uh
[07:36:12] place that citizens want to um priorize.
[07:36:16] So we had a real uh ask to have good
[07:36:19] places in front of school also because
[07:36:22] we have because of the density of Paris.
[07:36:25] I think we are one of the most dense
[07:36:27] cities in Europe. We have about 20,000
[07:36:31] habitants per square kilometers. So our
[07:36:35] and we we have small apartments because
[07:36:37] it's expensive. We have no outdoor uh
[07:36:40] spaces, private spaces because of the uh
[07:36:44] typology of buildings in Paris. So we
[07:36:46] have a real problem of lack of space.
[07:36:49] And this is also announced.
[07:36:52] These streets are the
[07:36:55] uh living room, the public living room
[07:36:58] for lots of people. And as you can see,
[07:37:00] they uh became a place where people can
[07:37:03] meet. And not just kids, it's not just
[07:37:06] for kids, it's for families, is for
[07:37:07] elderly people, is for uh everybody.
[07:37:10] Everybody. And it became uh this program
[07:37:14] became um the opportunity to uh change
[07:37:17] our um approach to planning and to have
[07:37:19] really uh to develop a neighbor scale uh
[07:37:23] approach which started with the school
[07:37:25] street program and then we um developed
[07:37:27] for um bigger um implementations.
[07:37:33] Uh another factor one more which
[07:37:36] explained how um we we could implement
[07:37:39] this program so fast it was the
[07:37:41] standardization of uh the processes and
[07:37:44] of design solutions. Uh all the street
[07:37:47] school in program are very similar uh
[07:37:50] one to the other. So uh you can say it's
[07:37:53] a little lack of creativity
[07:37:57] but we adapt to every different context.
[07:37:59] But we have the same materials, we have
[07:38:01] the same furnitureures and this is to
[07:38:05] optimize the uh decision making process.
[07:38:08] So you we do not have to validate for
[07:38:10] every street uh the kind of furniture or
[07:38:14] the kind of material. It's uh validate
[07:38:16] one one time for forever and it also
[07:38:20] accelerate the implementation and
[07:38:22] simplify the maintenance. So it's very
[07:38:24] important for the uh next years also and
[07:38:28] this was the main re reason to this
[07:38:30] standardization but we can see also the
[07:38:33] effects of this visual identity which
[07:38:36] helps to recognize um the street school
[07:38:39] everywhere in Paris you can be in the
[07:38:41] very uh center of Paris in very elegant
[07:38:44] neighborhood or you can be in popular
[07:38:46] districts and it's always the same. So
[07:38:49] it's also a kind of equity between um
[07:38:52] different areas of uh of paracy and it's
[07:38:55] also um it also helps to um uh realize
[07:39:01] that you are in a priority a pedestrian
[07:39:04] priority area nowadays. Uh it's very uh
[07:39:08] legible and it's very easy to recognize
[07:39:11] you are in a school street in Paris. So
[07:39:13] it helps uh to respect the rules of
[07:39:17] these uh of these areas and these are we
[07:39:20] think some of the reasons that helped uh
[07:39:24] to uh develop this program uh in the
[07:39:27] just few years in just uh uh the
[07:39:30] previous terms of four five years.
[07:39:33] So thank you. [applause]
[07:39:39] Wow. please.
[07:39:41] Thank you so much. Is this working? Uh,
[07:39:44] there we go. Excellent. Um, so they were
[07:39:47] both very inspiring presentations and
[07:39:49] for someone who works in the city
[07:39:51] government in London, a little bit
[07:39:52] depressing as a reminder of how much
[07:39:54] more we need to do in London. But um,
[07:39:57] we've got time for a few questions. I
[07:39:59] was just going to start off with one
[07:40:01] while perhaps the audience warms up in
[07:40:02] case anyone wants to ask one from the
[07:40:04] audience. I'm also going to sit down cuz
[07:40:06] it's a very hot day. Um and my question
[07:40:09] was going to be around there was a lot
[07:40:11] in there around engagement and around
[07:40:13] code design but I know from experience
[07:40:16] in London that sometimes you get
[07:40:18] although lots of parents and people in
[07:40:20] the public support these kind of schemes
[07:40:22] other people you know don't parents
[07:40:25] sometimes want to be able to drop their
[07:40:26] kids off at school by car and they want
[07:40:28] the convenience and you sometimes get
[07:40:30] quite a lot of push back. So how did you
[07:40:32] manage that in your process? Demetri,
[07:40:34] let's start with you.
[07:40:38] Well, um I think that Alexander before
[07:40:43] told about these peaks of ice know as a
[07:40:45] resistance as a peak as a moment that uh
[07:40:48] of resistance that don't last for long.
[07:40:51] Reality is that is exactly what's
[07:40:53] happening
[07:40:55] almost always in our projects in Milan.
[07:40:58] You do a lot of public meetings and
[07:40:59] engagement, nobody really care.
[07:41:03] Then when it's about starting
[07:41:05] implementation, you take out car parks,
[07:41:07] people understand something is happening
[07:41:09] and they understand something is
[07:41:10] happening because we put senior saying
[07:41:12] you cannot park here anymore and say wow
[07:41:15] we should react and in that moment when
[07:41:17] is you're just implemented the first
[07:41:20] transformation made the space free etc.
[07:41:22] people react and start complaining about
[07:41:25] everything and started say yeah you
[07:41:27] didn't ask us anything yeah but there
[07:41:29] was public meeting yeah we didn't know
[07:41:30] and these kind of things
[07:41:33] uh we should we listen to these people
[07:41:37] reacting because they want to keep the
[07:41:39] status quo in a place in a world in
[07:41:42] cities that are not liveable anymore or
[07:41:46] we should just make them adapting to the
[07:41:48] new and to something that is better I
[07:41:52] don't I'm not a politician, but to be
[07:41:54] honest, no way. They should adapt. So,
[07:41:58] if you want to bring your kids by car,
[07:42:01] maybe this is not the best way you can
[07:42:03] move and bring your kid in a school in
[07:42:06] 2026 in a big city in Europe.
[07:42:10] Is this something that we can easily say
[07:42:12] like that? Maybe not. But of course by
[07:42:16] taking measures that uh makes more
[07:42:19] difficult for people to do something
[07:42:22] like that and show the other ones
[07:42:24] playing before schools or after schools
[07:42:27] and engaging and having fun maybe they
[07:42:29] will change their mind. It's a process.
[07:42:31] It's not immediate but we cannot think
[07:42:34] that we can make everyone happy. This is
[07:42:36] this topic.
[07:42:38] Okay, that's really helpful. Yeah, I
[07:42:41] don't think in Paris we have a push back
[07:42:43] now about uh the street school program.
[07:42:45] Uh it's mostly the opposite. Uh lots of
[07:42:49] uh demands to have more uh school um
[07:42:52] street school. Uh and the opposition was
[07:42:55] um more important in the beginning of
[07:42:58] the program when we started. We had
[07:43:00] people saying I I heard myself I prefer
[07:43:04] the noise of a car to the noise of a
[07:43:06] kid. So we had this kind of reaction. It
[07:43:09] was in the beginning and I think the
[07:43:11] best uh answer uh of our um city was to
[07:43:16] uh develop the program and when we
[07:43:17] started having 10 20 30 40 and everybody
[07:43:22] was seeing it was pretty uh beautiful
[07:43:25] and there were people using them
[07:43:28] everywhere. It was harder to say I don't
[07:43:30] want it because kids make noise in
[07:43:34] public space. So the answer was to
[07:43:36] continue uh the program.
[07:43:39] I I from London's experience when we've
[07:43:41] done thing I really agree with all of
[07:43:43] that in terms of uh absolutely when you
[07:43:46] uh introduce something there's normally
[07:43:48] a period in the run-up to it where
[07:43:49] people are really nervous and then once
[07:43:51] it comes in and they get used to it if
[07:43:53] it's an improvement they often love it
[07:43:55] and can't imagine life without it but
[07:43:57] until it's there you get a lot of
[07:43:59] opposition and concern. Now, is there
[07:44:01] anyone in the audience? I can see a qu I
[07:44:03] can see. Wow. Okay. Popular topic. I
[07:44:06] think I saw this gentleman over there
[07:44:07] first. So, let's let's go to him.
[07:44:14] Thanks, uh, Roger Geffin from the Low
[07:44:16] Traffic Future Alliance. Question for
[07:44:17] Demetrio. I love Well, both both uh both
[07:44:20] speakers, I love what you're doing. Um,
[07:44:22] forgive me a bit of a devil's advocate
[07:44:24] question if I may, Demetrio. Um, you
[07:44:26] talked about effectively crowdsourcing,
[07:44:28] you know, inviting communities to come
[07:44:30] forward with proposals. And I know that
[07:44:32] over you what would tend to happen, I
[07:44:35] suspect in in in in Milan as much as in
[07:44:37] a British city is you tend to get
[07:44:39] responses more from sort of more middle
[07:44:41] class and affluent communities and
[07:44:43] therefore you end up with the risk that
[07:44:45] it becomes seen to be sort of, oh, this
[07:44:47] is all very well for the the affluent
[07:44:49] neighbors. Why are you kind of making
[07:44:51] why are you ignoring the sort of more
[07:44:52] downtrodden you know poorer poorer
[07:44:54] neighborhoods? Have you had that
[07:44:56] problem? And if so, what what have you
[07:44:58] done to mitigate that risk?
[07:45:03] Let's say that of course engagement is
[07:45:06] not as democratic it should be. I mean
[07:45:08] it's not just making a question doesn't
[07:45:10] mean that everyone can respond or can
[07:45:12] respond in the same way. And it's
[07:45:14] definitely true that communities that
[07:45:16] are more organized and maybe more
[07:45:17] informed um have more access. But when
[07:45:23] we when it's about uh receiving
[07:45:25] proposals and giving putting priorities
[07:45:27] to those, we of course consider also the
[07:45:29] fact that we can work and we want to
[07:45:32] work uh out of the center. We want to
[07:45:34] work in neighborhoods and particularly
[07:45:35] in suburbs and try to be democratic in
[07:45:38] the establishment of what is the
[07:45:41] priority. We collaborate with the
[07:45:42] borrows. Uh we have nine borrows in
[07:45:44] Milan. They prioritize the spaces. But
[07:45:47] then again from we we have to start from
[07:45:50] somewhere. Done is better than perfect.
[07:45:52] So if I have to say if it's better to
[07:45:55] start from those neighborhoods that are
[07:45:57] more ready to accept or don't do, I
[07:46:00] would always start from the
[07:46:01] neighborhoods that are more ready to
[07:46:02] accept and then expanding and creating
[07:46:05] sense of emulation. And honestly in our
[07:46:08] experience is also that uh project by
[07:46:11] project you really create this community
[07:46:13] and sense of
[07:46:16] want to to get something that is in the
[07:46:18] neighborhood next to yours. You know
[07:46:20] what I mean? And in there are areas
[07:46:22] where the projects are so many
[07:46:24] neighborhood after neighborhood that
[07:46:26] creates a network of spaces. That's
[07:46:28] probably the final outcome of in terms
[07:46:32] of space transformation in terms of the
[07:46:33] project. And Kiara, just before we move
[07:46:36] uh on to our next question, what's that
[07:46:38] experience with equity and fairness and
[07:46:41] making sure it's not just the richest
[07:46:43] and the loudest communities in Paris
[07:46:45] that benefit? How do you achieve that
[07:46:47] fair spread?
[07:46:49] Um in Paris, it was um this program was
[07:46:53] kind of top-down program. to the
[07:46:55] decisions. The decision to pedestrianize
[07:46:57] in front of school was a political
[07:46:59] decision and we have to develop the
[07:47:02] technical level and we didn't wait um
[07:47:06] families to ask for uh street school. Um
[07:47:10] some of them were already asking for
[07:47:12] them and of course they have been
[07:47:14] priorized but we also made this kind of
[07:47:17] program where there were no uh demand
[07:47:20] from families maybe because uh the
[07:47:23] families have other priorities and they
[07:47:26] it's not that they don't care about
[07:47:28] public space but they have other
[07:47:30] problems to to solve. So it was a kind
[07:47:34] of equity because in every district and
[07:47:36] in every neighborhood uh we try to have
[07:47:39] um this uh this kind of solution and it
[07:47:42] changed completely the map of pedestrian
[07:47:45] areas in Paris. Before this program we
[07:47:48] were pedestrianizing mostly in the city
[07:47:50] center in heritage areas in commercial
[07:47:54] areas. So mostly for economical reason
[07:47:58] and it changed completely um this uh
[07:48:01] aspect of ped pedestrianization. It's
[07:48:04] really peoplebased pedestrianization
[07:48:07] uh program everywhere.
[07:48:09] Excellent. Wonderful. Uh the lady with
[07:48:12] the sunglasses on your head. There you
[07:48:14] go.
[07:48:18] Thank you very much. Um I'm Charlotte
[07:48:20] and thank you so much for the speeches.
[07:48:23] Um,
[07:48:25] what approaches have you considered for
[07:48:28] longerterm maintenance and stewardship
[07:48:31] and engagement of children and the wider
[07:48:33] neighborhoods?
[07:48:36] Demetrio, you want to go first
[07:48:41] for engagement of kids in terms in
[07:48:43] general terms or about the process of
[07:48:47] maintenance.
[07:48:51] Okay, we we maintain the city is
[07:48:53] maintaining a tactical urbanism
[07:48:54] projects. Uh
[07:48:57] it's not so difficult to maintain to be
[07:49:00] honest. You have to be structured and
[07:49:01] once you get the right contracts and
[07:49:04] right people to do it it's not that
[07:49:06] difficult but we are also trying to of
[07:49:10] course transform them into permanent out
[07:49:13] 10 15% of the projects are already
[07:49:15] transformed permanently like I mean the
[07:49:17] same way Paris is doing with uh renewing
[07:49:20] the paving with greenery etc. uh what
[07:49:23] we're doing in terms of uh
[07:49:27] engagement we signed this collaboration
[07:49:29] pack with community that last for
[07:49:31] maximum three years and then can be
[07:49:33] renewed when you really define mutual
[07:49:36] responsibility with pieces of community
[07:49:39] and the other thing that we are doing is
[07:49:40] that in the transformation of projects
[07:49:43] uh we are of course monitoring and uh
[07:49:46] also transforming the spaces
[07:49:47] co-designing them uh with kids
[07:49:50] particularly to what is related to
[07:49:51] playgrounds and to playing playful
[07:49:54] elements that we want to choose. I'm not
[07:49:56] sure I asked you a question.
[07:50:05] Sorry. After the project's complete, the
[07:50:08] longerterm maintenance and revenue and
[07:50:10] stewardship, have you what what has your
[07:50:13] approach been for that? because it
[07:50:15] sounds like there's opportunities to
[07:50:18] engage children not just in the code
[07:50:20] design but actually also the
[07:50:23] opportunities to steward or maintain or
[07:50:26] engage them. So for example
[07:50:29] um growing plants or watering or you
[07:50:33] know these longerterm things which would
[07:50:35] then reduce revenue burden for local
[07:50:38] authorities etc. I think
[07:50:41] well to be honest engaging kids in
[07:50:43] watering plants in big planters I don't
[07:50:46] recommend it
[07:50:48] honestly speaking I mean it's it's
[07:50:50] really not something that even when we
[07:50:52] tried when we tried community
[07:50:55] uh maintaining the space physically
[07:50:58] results were not always so great because
[07:51:03] uh we saw that there was maximum one
[07:51:06] year capability to keep it
[07:51:11] at the right uh rhythm as is needed in
[07:51:14] order to maintain a space. August and
[07:51:17] warm months, people in Italy just go on
[07:51:19] holiday and this is something that not
[07:51:22] always work. So we shifted a bit the
[07:51:25] taking care from the proper maintaining
[07:51:27] part which is not that expensive though
[07:51:31] for a city uh to the activation site.
[07:51:36] The city can maintain the space but it's
[07:51:38] very difficult for the city to activate
[07:51:40] it. While by facilitating the activation
[07:51:43] procedures
[07:51:44] uh the main effort of citizens now is
[07:51:47] really activating the space with
[07:51:48] programs with activities involving kids
[07:51:50] etc. And to be honest we in the
[07:51:53] evolution of the projects we think this
[07:51:54] is much better in terms of multipation.
[07:51:58] Kiara did you want to come back with
[07:52:00] Paris's how do you engage children
[07:52:02] longterm in these projects?
[07:52:05] Um in some of the school most of them we
[07:52:08] have um meetings with childrens uh not
[07:52:13] to select the streets to uh to
[07:52:15] pedestrianize but to uh um to imagine
[07:52:20] the the streets of tomorrow. It was a
[07:52:22] little theorical uh exercise and as I
[07:52:26] told about uh design choice they were
[07:52:29] made by the municipality. So we couldn't
[07:52:31] really ask them what do you want where
[07:52:33] do you want to plant the tree because we
[07:52:35] just have one option to plant a tree for
[07:52:37] technical reasons. So it's not this kind
[07:52:39] of technical question that we we can um
[07:52:43] have with kids but we had a work about
[07:52:47] um their imagination and I think it's
[07:52:49] very interesting this kind of exercise
[07:52:51] because we changed their way to uh see
[07:52:54] the streets. It's not just for cars,
[07:52:57] it's not just for mobility, it's for
[07:52:59] living. So it's I I don't think there
[07:53:02] were an impact an immediate impact to
[07:53:05] the uh design but I think it can helps
[07:53:08] to uh change the mind and of course the
[07:53:12] kids end up using and enjoying these
[07:53:13] spaces and playing in them and that all
[07:53:15] helps. Um I was actually at a school
[07:53:17] yesterday where um absolutely as part of
[07:53:20] their school street the kids there's a
[07:53:22] big kind of planter box and part of
[07:53:24] their job is to maintain that. So I
[07:53:26] completely understand your point around
[07:53:28] what is the opportunity of actually
[07:53:29] getting you know their enthusiasm for
[07:53:31] this for the long term. The man in the
[07:53:34] green shirt.
[07:53:38] Thank you. Uh question for Demetrio. I
[07:53:40] think your before and after photos were
[07:53:42] really striking particularly the use of
[07:53:43] color. Um and I'm also aware that the
[07:53:46] Parisian examples were much more sort of
[07:53:48] restrained and a little bit more muted
[07:53:50] in their color but they were also more
[07:53:52] the final version. And I know your
[07:53:54] temporary tactical herbalism was was uh
[07:53:57] the approach there. The question is can
[07:53:59] you do that tactical temporary one
[07:54:02] without the bright color because there
[07:54:04] communities I've worked with but just
[07:54:05] run a mile from the the bright patchwork
[07:54:07] of spots and dots and they'd find it
[07:54:09] inappropriate for maybe a more heritage
[07:54:12] area. So have you done anything in Milan
[07:54:14] that that didn't involve bright paint?
[07:54:18] Well to be honest color is just a tool
[07:54:20] not a goal. So we can easily do projects
[07:54:23] without painting. And the funny thing is
[07:54:26] when we are not painting or when we're
[07:54:27] not painting immediately people and
[07:54:30] particularly kids color the space
[07:54:32] themselves
[07:54:35] but then I mean nothing to say in
[07:54:39] respect of heritage but heritage
[07:54:42] nowadays maybe is the one that doesn't
[07:54:45] allow us to put trees in front of
[07:54:47] monuments in places.
[07:54:49] Maybe it's not is the one that didn't
[07:54:51] allow us to put some playgrounds in
[07:54:53] places that are bounded. Maybe we should
[07:54:56] just overcome that concept. Just
[07:54:59] question
[07:55:03] [applause]
[07:55:03] you want it. So the other gentleman in
[07:55:06] green in the middle and then we'll have
[07:55:08] one more question and then we'll have to
[07:55:09] talk about
[07:55:10] Thanks very much. Um Am from Impact on
[07:55:12] Urban Health. Uh one quick question. Did
[07:55:15] you do any internal air quality
[07:55:18] monitoring in the classrooms uh where
[07:55:20] the school streets were put? And um what
[07:55:24] sort of treatments did you do on
[07:55:25] arterial roads where you couldn't close
[07:55:27] the entire road?
[07:55:38] We did some monitoring about the air
[07:55:41] quality. Um, and they were we had
[07:55:44] positive results of course. Uh, at the
[07:55:47] same time it's I mean I'm convinced 100%
[07:55:51] convinced and I would put it in an
[07:55:53] European law tomorrow morning and please
[07:55:55] let's create a campaign for this that
[07:55:58] school street should be a law should be
[07:56:00] an European law everyone. I mean I'm
[07:56:02] sorry for UK but [laughter] and
[07:56:06] we can make a global law but we should
[07:56:09] really I mean it's a matter of
[07:56:10] civilization. We should take out cars
[07:56:13] far from schools. Maybe 10 years
[07:56:15] adaptation program so you can move
[07:56:18] traffic somewhere else. But we should do
[07:56:20] it. If you cannot do it now, uh I mean
[07:56:25] our air expert says that we should put
[07:56:27] ventilation systems within inside the
[07:56:29] school. What's easy? What's the easier
[07:56:32] thing? What's easier? Take out cars or
[07:56:35] put ventilation inside schools? What's
[07:56:37] the more effective? I have no doubt we
[07:56:40] should get rid of cars as much as
[07:56:42] possible and as soon as possible
[07:56:44] particularly starting from school areas.
[07:56:48] Nob brainer [applause]
[07:56:52] and just maybe to give you the last
[07:56:54] word.
[07:56:55] Yeah, just to answer on the air quality
[07:56:57] in the classrooms. We had some good
[07:56:59] results in some uh schools where we
[07:57:03] developed street school and we had a
[07:57:05] decrease of uh pollution up to 30% in
[07:57:09] this class the classroom. So it's pretty
[07:57:11] encouraging. So I think it's a good
[07:57:14] answer and it's a good encouragement to
[07:57:17] continue.
[07:57:19] Excellent. Now I've been told very
[07:57:20] firmly that that has to be our last
[07:57:22] question. Apologies because there were
[07:57:24] so many. Uh but I just so impressed and
[07:57:27] inspired and I think that's part of the
[07:57:29] key takeaway for so many people who've
[07:57:30] come today is actually to see what's
[07:57:33] happening elsewhere around the world and
[07:57:34] to come and apply that in their own
[07:57:36] communities. So thank you so so much. A
[07:57:38] round of applause please. [applause]
[07:57:48] Thank you so much um Elliot and our
[07:57:51] wonderful panel from across Europe. We
[07:57:54] have arrived at the last session. Like
[07:57:56] literally, this is it. Um,
[07:58:00] quite exciting cuz I guess we're all
[07:58:02] buzzing, but it's also been a bit tiring
[07:58:04] and a bit hot. Um, so
[07:58:09] I'm going to very soon welcome uh
[07:58:11] someone very special on the stage. Um, I
[07:58:14] have to say Clean Cities has a bit of a
[07:58:17] special relationship to this city where
[07:58:19] this person is from. Um, and we also
[07:58:23] have a special relationship, of course,
[07:58:24] to our friends who, who you have just
[07:58:26] seen, uh, and also to London. And we
[07:58:29] love how London and this particular city
[07:58:32] are always in a little bit of a
[07:58:33] competition. And when we're in London,
[07:58:35] we can tell our friends like Elliot,
[07:58:37] it's like, but look, look, look, but
[07:58:38] look at what Paris is doing. And
[07:58:40] sometimes in Paris, like, well, you
[07:58:42] know, London's kind of doing it. Um, so,
[07:58:44] so we love this, we love this
[07:58:45] friendship. We love these two cities.
[07:58:47] They have been held up as the lighouses
[07:58:49] in uh many of the work that we do across
[07:58:52] the 30 cities in Europe uh as clean
[07:58:54] cities. And um it is also a huge honor
[07:58:58] that we welcomed Anhid Hago last year um
[07:59:02] in in her last stretch as mayor of Paris
[07:59:04] uh in uh New York at New York Climate
[07:59:06] Week. some of you were there and uh and
[07:59:09] we are extremely delighted to see the
[07:59:12] results of the election and the new
[07:59:14] administration and that they will build
[07:59:15] on the fantastic legacy of Mayor
[07:59:18] Hidalgo. So, it is my pleasure to
[07:59:20] welcome Dan Lert, deputy mayor of Paris
[07:59:23] on the stage.
[07:59:26] [applause]
[07:59:33] Thank you, dear Ollie. Dear,
[07:59:36] it's a a great pleasure to be here with
[07:59:39] you today and a personal honor to close
[07:59:42] this very first edition of the curious
[07:59:44] cities assembly. I would like first to
[07:59:48] thank Clean Cities for their invitation
[07:59:51] and all the staff for the organization
[07:59:54] as well as every panelist for these very
[07:59:56] interesting discussions we had today.
[08:00:00] As we are talking right now, it is sadly
[08:00:04] one of the hottest day ever recorded in
[08:00:07] Paris. Paris suffers its second heat
[08:00:10] wave in a row and we haven't reached
[08:00:12] July yet. This is unprecedented with
[08:00:16] temperature up to 42° C leading to me to
[08:00:21] to major power outage across France.
[08:00:25] 1,000 schools are closed along the
[08:00:27] country and we are facing a very serious
[08:00:31] AD crisis uh in Paris especially for
[08:00:34] elder people. In 2003
[08:00:38] uh we have uh an eatwave historic
[08:00:41] heatwave and we have 10 1,500
[08:00:46] deaths uh people linked to this uh it
[08:00:49] wave. This alarming situation makes our
[08:00:53] discussion even more relevant. What is
[08:00:56] even more alarming is that in France
[08:00:58] much politician do not talk that much
[08:01:00] about climate. But this situation will
[08:01:04] only get worse if nothing is done to
[08:01:06] attenuate the climate change impacts and
[08:01:09] if we do not adapt our cities. This is
[08:01:13] urgent for us in Paris and in other
[08:01:15] cities as Paris will reach 50° at the
[08:01:19] end of this decade.
[08:01:22] Paris is organized around schools as it
[08:01:26] was said by Mayor Dalago. A school is a
[08:01:29] capital, the art of the neighborhood. In
[08:01:32] Paris, there is roughly one school
[08:01:34] located at 300 m from every Parisian.
[08:01:38] During heat waves, schools and school
[08:01:40] streets can be used as climatic shelter.
[08:01:44] For instance, we created Ois schoolyard
[08:01:47] that aims to vegetitalize the very place
[08:01:49] where children used to play and to grow
[08:01:51] up. These days, as it it is the case for
[08:01:55] all heatwave, we let those schoolyards
[08:01:58] open on evenings and during weekends for
[08:02:01] them to be accessible to everybody.
[08:02:03] School streets are strong tools to
[08:02:05] attenuate the climate change
[08:02:07] consequences and to adapt our cities.
[08:02:10] With dense vegetitalization, they enable
[08:02:13] to address the heat island effect
[08:02:15] especially at night. As it was
[08:02:18] highlighted by Kara Molina that I think
[08:02:21] just before Paris has been profoundly
[08:02:24] transformed since 2020. It has been made
[08:02:27] possible thanks to a strong political
[08:02:30] willingness especially the one of
[08:02:32] Anidalgo the mayor Idalgo and my
[08:02:34] predecessor deputy mayor David Bellar.
[08:02:38] At date we have just reached 300 school
[08:02:41] streets in our city and they have been
[08:02:43] largely unbreeded. Most Parisians want
[08:02:46] these changes and we and have reelected
[08:02:49] us three months ago. By securityizing
[08:02:54] those streets and in reclaiming public
[08:02:57] space from the car, the journey between
[08:02:59] home and school is now safer for
[08:03:01] everyone. The younger person can walk by
[08:03:04] themsel and parents can leave the hand
[08:03:06] of their child. It is what we aim in
[08:03:09] creating a city adjusted to children. In
[08:03:13] fact, those school streets have tangible
[08:03:16] effects not only for the younger person
[08:03:18] but finally for all. Regarding air
[08:03:22] quality, it has been shown that the
[08:03:24] pollution were reduced by 30% near
[08:03:27] school streets. In Paris in general, a
[08:03:30] 40% drop in pollution has been recorded
[08:03:33] between
[08:03:34] 2012 and 2022. At the same time, we get
[08:03:38] a car 40% decrease of car traffic. We
[08:03:42] will continue our fight to reduce car
[08:03:44] traffic in Paris, especially on the
[08:03:48] periphery, the ring road highway around
[08:03:50] Paris. Noise pollution is also reduced
[08:03:54] supporting social interaction between
[08:03:57] children's parents and neighbors.
[08:04:00] Finally, a recent study has demonstrated
[08:04:03] that temperature where were 5° lower in
[08:04:06] average in school streets. road safety.
[08:04:09] We have less accidents and injuries
[08:04:12] around this uh these school streets.
[08:04:16] Let's talk about uh the the future we
[08:04:18] envision for school streets in Paris.
[08:04:20] Now our goal is simple. Increase and
[08:04:24] deepen our transformation because 300
[08:04:27] school streets are not enough. In the
[08:04:30] recent years, we start to develop a new
[08:04:32] generation a new generation of school
[08:04:35] streets
[08:04:37] of a school streets in Paris. We are
[08:04:39] giving a strong attention to details for
[08:04:41] them to be as welcoming as possible for
[08:04:44] children. For instance, as we were
[08:04:47] developing our concept of a city
[08:04:49] adjusted to children's, we developed
[08:04:52] street furnitureures adjusted to
[08:04:53] children such as an adjusted size of the
[08:04:57] typical Parisian bench less,
[08:05:02] drinking fontains. We draw playful and
[08:05:05] fun drawings on the grounds for streets
[08:05:07] to be appling for child use. We also
[08:05:12] vegetitalize them as much as possible by
[08:05:16] planting trees and shrubs. We use
[08:05:18] cooling pavement and implement sunshade
[08:05:21] as part to our mitigation strategy.
[08:05:24] Doing so is a way to reinforce nature's
[08:05:27] place in Paris and to conform to the
[08:05:29] Paris ecological strategy. This new
[08:05:32] school tweet uh this new school street
[08:05:34] generation will be the norm in Paris in
[08:05:37] the future. We will try to conform the
[08:05:39] previous school street generation to
[08:05:41] these new standards, but we will also
[08:05:43] create new ones along Paris. The goal is
[08:05:46] to reach 1,000 vegetitalized and
[08:05:49] pedestrian streets in the city. We want
[08:05:52] to develop the those streets not just in
[08:05:54] front of schools anymore, but also in
[08:05:56] front of public equipments such as
[08:05:59] swimming pools, public libraries, which
[08:06:02] are also places children used to occup.
[08:06:05] In fact, we do not speak of school
[08:06:07] streets anymore, but we call them
[08:06:09] children's streets. We will depend the
[08:06:11] transformation. Our goal is to transform
[08:06:15] not just streets, but avenues. We call
[08:06:17] them Avenue Jarda. We could which could
[08:06:22] be translated as green avenues. The very
[08:06:25] first one has just been unveiled by the
[08:06:27] mayor of Paris, Emanuel Gregoire, last
[08:06:31] Saturday. They are way more bigger and
[08:06:34] larger in size. They enable us to plant
[08:06:36] more trees and to create little parks in
[08:06:39] their middles. They also offer way more
[08:06:42] place for new projects and new uses such
[08:06:45] as children's playground. Our goal is to
[08:06:48] develop around 10 avenues during the
[08:06:50] mandate by recoming public space over
[08:06:53] cars on the streets which are often way
[08:06:56] more busy. It will be a new challenge
[08:06:58] for us. The one we just unveiled used to
[08:07:01] be a car park. We replace it by a 100
[08:07:05] 1,500
[08:07:07] square meters garden in the middle with
[08:07:10] 43 new trees and a 600 square m
[08:07:13] playground. We will increase the
[08:07:15] transformation also by creating 80
[08:07:18] pedestrian zone called Keton in every
[08:07:22] Parisian district. The idea is to create
[08:07:24] two walkable streets linked together
[08:07:27] with a small uh plaza. They will create
[08:07:30] new centralities in the districts as our
[08:07:33] goal to create them where the daily
[08:07:35] where the daily life is already taking
[08:07:38] place close to shops, public buildings,
[08:07:40] schools. The plaza will act as a
[08:07:43] pedestrian interconnection and therefore
[08:07:45] a meeting place. Those kpeton will be
[08:07:48] largely vegetitalized and designed with
[08:07:51] cooling pavement sun shades in order to
[08:07:53] continue to cool down our city. Thanks
[08:07:56] to their size, we will be able to
[08:07:58] develop new amenities such as children's
[08:08:01] playground. We would like also to
[08:08:03] implement sports facilities such as
[08:08:06] table tennis or muscular equipment and
[08:08:08] also to bring art into the street with
[08:08:11] culture that could be installed. Our
[08:08:14] careon will be child-friendly places,
[08:08:17] but also places to the benefit of
[08:08:19] everyone.
[08:08:21] As we continue to reduce car traffic in
[08:08:23] our districts, we will continue to make
[08:08:25] them safer, healthier, and accessible to
[08:08:29] all and to promote independence for
[08:08:31] everyone. We will reinforce
[08:08:35] uh social interaction and makes room for
[08:08:37] new uses of the public space. This last
[08:08:40] this last point is crucial for Paris as
[08:08:43] it is one of the danciest city in the
[08:08:45] world. Public space is therefore needed
[08:08:47] for children who are growing up in a
[08:08:50] very little flats which once are
[08:08:52] unlivable during it waves. Our goal is
[08:08:56] now to use school not just for schools
[08:08:59] for everyday life but we want we want to
[08:09:02] make room for sport and cultural events.
[08:09:05] For example, in some of them, we have
[08:09:07] implemented pedagogical pathways for
[08:09:09] children to learn how to move in the
[08:09:12] public space and how to drive a bike
[08:09:14] safely.
[08:09:16] We already have created an annual school
[08:09:19] streets party in September where
[08:09:21] childrens can participate to activities.
[08:09:24] We want to promote them all year long
[08:09:26] with public lecture, movie screenings or
[08:09:29] gardening initiative with the school's
[08:09:31] ner. That's also a way to tackle the
[08:09:33] rising time spent by children's over
[08:09:36] their screens. All those programs for
[08:09:38] children and pedestrian in general are
[08:09:41] integrated in a broader ambition to
[08:09:43] reinforce pedestrian pathway in Paris.
[08:09:47] The goal is to create continuities as to
[08:09:49] make Paris a walkable city. This
[08:09:52] walkable city must be adapted to the
[08:09:55] climate the climatic challenges we are
[08:09:57] facing. that that's why we are working
[08:10:01] to get at least one shaded sidewalk in
[08:10:04] every street during summer. We would
[08:10:06] like also to protect cyclists from the
[08:10:08] sun through shaded bike lanes. We need
[08:10:11] also to make them inclusive by
[08:10:13] implementing bench everywhere it is
[08:10:16] possible and water fountains and of
[08:10:18] course we continue to vegetitalize our
[08:10:20] street as much as we can in order to
[08:10:22] reduce the eat island effect in Paris.
[08:10:26] It is also a way to make the city secure
[08:10:28] for all and to reach vision zero to
[08:10:32] reach zero deaths or serious injuries by
[08:10:34] car or a trip as you do in London. We're
[08:10:38] going to continue to adapt Paris to
[08:10:40] address the consequences of climate
[08:10:42] change. For the 2024 Olympics, we
[08:10:46] invested 1.4 billion euro to make the
[08:10:49] sand river sumable. This will be the
[08:10:52] second summer Parisian would be able to
[08:10:54] swim every day in the sin river. Three
[08:10:57] sides in the art of Paris had welcome
[08:11:00] around
[08:11:01] 100,000 swimmers. Now you see Parisian
[08:11:05] swimming in the canal because Emanuel
[08:11:07] the mayor Emanuel Grego decided to open
[08:11:10] earlier this new swimming places as an
[08:11:13] answer to the heat wave we are currently
[08:11:16] facing. This investment we made will
[08:11:19] continue in the year. Regarding
[08:11:21] vegetitalization, the goal is to open
[08:11:24] 300 additional ectars of gardens. On the
[08:11:28] last uh on the last six years, we
[08:11:31] planted more than 160,000
[08:11:34] trees in Paris. We created three urban
[08:11:37] forest in front of the city hall for
[08:11:39] instance or in the 14th district in a
[08:11:43] place that used to be a very mineral and
[08:11:45] used by cars. One of our major challenge
[08:11:48] is to transform the periphery the
[08:11:51] busiest highway in Europe and the ring
[08:11:53] road that surround Paris with 1.5
[08:11:57] millions car using it every day. We are
[08:11:59] working to transform in uh as a common
[08:12:02] urban road by planting trees, reducing
[08:12:05] car traffic with ride sharing lanes
[08:12:07] since the Olympics and by creating a
[08:12:10] very first crosswalk in order to connect
[08:12:12] by walk Paris to the neighborhood the
[08:12:15] neighboring cities.
[08:12:17] Finally, as deputy mayor, I'm also in
[08:12:20] charge of transport and advocate to
[08:12:22] adapt buses and subways during heat
[08:12:25] waves. By implementing air conditioners,
[08:12:28] air conditioning, our transportation
[08:12:30] means encounter strong difficulties due
[08:12:33] to the heat and passengers are
[08:12:36] struggling. Nevertheless, they are
[08:12:38] crucial for firstline workers, but also
[08:12:41] for everyone when working is made
[08:12:43] difficult because of rising temperature.
[08:12:46] All these changes are also tools to
[08:12:49] address social justice. In doing so, we
[08:12:52] tackle inequalities for Parisian who
[08:12:55] cannot afford to leave the city at
[08:12:57] summer or the ones who are living in unl
[08:13:01] unlivable housings. Through this yuban
[08:13:04] cities through these yuban policies, we
[08:13:07] aim to improve public health for
[08:13:09] Parisians. A greener city is a healthier
[08:13:13] city.
[08:13:15] Here are in few points the future we
[08:13:17] envision for school streets in Paris. We
[08:13:19] want to continue to create a workable
[08:13:22] and greener Paris, a city that address
[08:13:24] climate change impacts and a city that
[08:13:27] is healthier and safer for children but
[08:13:30] also for all. I will be I will be really
[08:13:33] pleased to welcome you all in Paris to
[08:13:36] show you these tangible projects in the
[08:13:38] year to come. Thank you for your
[08:13:39] attention.
[08:13:49] [applause]
[08:13:51] Dan, thank you so much and
[08:13:53] congratulations to all your amazing work
[08:13:55] in Paris. Thank you. Thank you for being
[08:13:58] here. Um, and that brings Curious Cities
[08:14:03] Assembly inaugural edition to its end.
[08:14:06] UM, YES. YAY.
[08:14:09] UM,
[08:14:14] maybe we should we should stand here and
[08:14:16] I'm going to we shouldn't stand there
[08:14:18] because then you're still very much
[08:14:19] taller than me. Stand down there. FOR
[08:14:22] ONCE IN MY LIFE, I CAN GO LIKE THIS with
[08:14:24] Holly. Um, anyway, um, we are so
[08:14:28] grateful for all of you for holding on
[08:14:30] for the two days. Uh, all that's left to
[08:14:33] do now is the reception. And um I'm
[08:14:36] about to tell you some instructions on
[08:14:38] uh how you get there and what you can
[08:14:40] expect. Um on your way out, you will see
[08:14:44] some notebooks, some Curious Cities
[08:14:46] notebooks uh on the on the tables there.
[08:14:49] So if you're lucky enough, grab one. Uh
[08:14:51] I'm sure it's I don't know, it's a
[08:14:53] finite number, but
[08:14:55] um the recordings and the presentations
[08:14:58] uh importantly will be made available to
[08:15:00] all of you that participated. Um, and
[08:15:02] you all have registrations. And if for
[08:15:05] some reason the email doesn't reach you,
[08:15:07] just reach out to any of us. You know,
[08:15:08] all the tie-dye people, the dotty
[08:15:10] people, the amazing short people, all of
[08:15:14] us working for Queen Cities. Um, please
[08:15:16] also I I'm not even sure why I'm saying
[08:15:18] this, but like and follow us on social
[08:15:20] media. Check out our website. You can
[08:15:22] also check out how Paris topped our city
[08:15:25] ranking last year for child-friendly
[08:15:27] cities in Europe. Give it up for Paris
[08:15:29] once again.
[08:15:31] [applause]
[08:15:33] Um
[08:15:34] yeah, and finally, reception.
[08:15:37] The reception. Yes, we are going to be
[08:15:39] on the iconic roof garden of the South
[08:15:41] Bank. It's looking a bit breezy out
[08:15:43] there a little bit, so it's going to be
[08:15:45] pretty nice. There's some canopes and
[08:15:47] some drinks ready to greet you. And to
[08:15:50] get there, the river is directly behind
[08:15:52] us. There's a little map on the slide,
[08:15:55] and if you Google in Google Maps Queen
[08:15:57] Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden, you will
[08:16:00] find it. you look out for the bright
[08:16:01] yellow staircase and not just the bright
[08:16:03] yellow staircase, the people in tie-dye
[08:16:05] t-shirts at the bottom of it. But if you
[08:16:07] would like to leave with us, then a few
[08:16:09] of us will wait downstairs, look for the
[08:16:11] tie-dye, and we'll head over there as
[08:16:13] well or see you there in your own time.
[08:16:15] And at the stairs, you can expect a
[08:16:17] little bit of uh ticking off exercise.
[08:16:20] But if you get there and maybe no one's
[08:16:22] there, [laughter] no, not just lists,
[08:16:25] you know, um bit of security. Um, you
[08:16:28] can also just say curious cities and you
[08:16:30] know you will be just welcomed up
[08:16:32] because you have to climb those stairs
[08:16:33] to get on that rooftop.
[08:16:36] Okay, see you there and see you next
[08:16:37] year.
[08:16:37] Yes. AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR. CURIOUS
[08:16:40] [cheering]
[08:17:05] HEAT.
[08:17:35] HEAT.
[08:18:06] VERY