Join our hybrid event on delivering successful urban traffic reduction, Tuesday 18 July

At Friends House in London and on Zoom

Riders on the Storm - How (and why) to cut traffic and boost sustainable alternatives without losing your head.

An event for councillors, council officers, campaigners and stakeholders on delivering successful urban traffic reduction.

Over the past three years, the Car Free Cities campaign has worked in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and London to put forward the positive case for more ambitious traffic reduction. We’ve been working with local communities - particularly those who are most harmed by the effects of mass car dominance - to co-design and deliver changes to their own streets. We’ve also been working hard to encourage and inspire local decision makers to raise ambitions and accelerate change in our cities.

As our Car Free Cities campaign draws to a close, we want to share our successes and learnings, findings and resources with you.

Date: Tuesday 18 July

Time: The event will run from 10:00 until 16:00, and the Zoom room will be open all day. The sessions suited for online participation are at 10:00-11:30 and 14:00-15:45. Please see below for details.

Location: This is a hybrid event. There are limited spaces for those who wish to attend in person - email carolyn@wearepossible.org if you'd like an invitation. To join us on Zoom, register via the link below and we’ll send you a link to join the event from your device.

On the same day, we’ll also be launching the last of our reports with Active Travel Academy: The impact of councillors’ LTN positions on voting behaviour in Greater London.

We are excited to be able to share our learnings from our Car Free Cities campaign work. From co-designing new visions of car free neighbourhoods with diverse local communities and becoming a lead advocate in the media for clean air zones, to supporting a thousand people across the UK to reduce their car use through our Going Car Free challenge, we’ve made the case for change and explored the barriers to progress on cutting traffic.

Our impact includes helping secure a commitment from councils to adopt parklet permit processes for more sustainable kerbside use, articulating an alternative vision for Hammersmith Bridge, publishing new evidence on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and producing a suite of reports and resources on everything to do with traffic reduction in cities.  

Programme

10:00 - 11:30:

Car Wars - delivering local change against a backdrop of misinformation.

Speakers:

  • Councillor Charlie Hicks, Oxfordshire County Council.

    Councillor Clyde Loakes, Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, London Borough of Waltham Forest.

  • Leo Murray, Director of Innovation, Possible.

  • Professor Rachel Aldred, Active Travel Academy.

  • Stefan Rollnick, Head of Misinformation Cell, Lynn Global.


11:55 - 13:00:

Parklets, Parking, Consultation & Engagement - how to introduce more equitable and sustainable uses of our kerbside.

*Please note, this session will not be available for online attendees.

Speakers:

  • Carolyn Axtell, Car Free London campaigner, Possible.

  • Councillor Rezina Chowdry, London Borough of Lambeth.

  • Joe Lindsay, Hackney Council.

  • Silviya Barrett, Campaign for Better Transport.


14:00 - 15:30:

Cities of the Future - How can we ensure that the shift away from car dependency increases equity and accessibility for all our communities?

Speakers:

  • Ben Coleman, Associate Director, PJA.

  • Carolyn Axtell, Car Free London campaigner, Possible.

  • Dr Harrie Larrington-Spencer, Research Fellow at Active Travel Academy, Wheels for Wellbeing Trustee.

  • Tiffany Lam, Strategy lead on Equity, diversity and inclusion, Sustrans.

Lucia Skelton