News Archives - Health

Get cycling to improve nation’s health, urges Sir Chris Whitty

The government’s chief medical officer for England, Sir Chris Whitty, has urged people to get cycling. Speaking at the annual conference of the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Public Health, Whitty said people should be encouraged to incorporate walking or cycling to work into their daily lives to help combat obesity and that exercise is among…

Chris Boardman will call out councils dragging their feet on walking and cycling

Chris Boardman is to head up Active Travel England (ATE) – a new Ofsted-style organisation that will rate councils on how well they make provision for walking and cycling. ATE will be consulted as part of major planning applications to advise on provision for walking and cycling and inspect infrastructure built by local councils. Local authorities could lose funding if…

Over-reliance on cars will “replace one health crisis with another”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan this week warned that over-reliance on cars for short journeys ‘will replace one public health crisis with another – caused by filthy air and gridlocked roads’. His prediction followed news that over one third of car journeys in London could be walked in 25 minutes and that congestion associated with those trips costs the city…

UK left behind in race for cargo bikes

German cyclists buy over 25 times more cargo bikes each year than their British counterparts. It’s an astounding figure not lost on Volkswagen Group head, Herbert Diess, who late last year tweeted: “In overcrowded urban centres the car will only be accepted in the future if the bike has enough space in the mobility mix” – a sign that even the…

Side road zebra crossings needed on UK streets

New research by YouGov has revealed that 29 per cent of pedestrians have been hit by a car or suffered a near miss at a side road. The research was commissioned by Living Streets, which alongside national transport organisations, motoring bodies and charities, has issued a joint statement asking national government to authorise the use of zebra markings on UK side…