Streets Ahead

• Lisbon’s Streets and the People Trying to Change Them

  Lisbon’s Streets and the People Trying to Change Them: Lisbon is one of Europe's most picturesque cities with a reputation for being a safe place to live, work and visit. That's true from one lens, but look deeper and you'll discover a city with one of the worst road safety records in Europe and recently rated one of the worst European cities for children’s urban mobility.This time, Adam and Laura were in Lisbon, Adam’s new home, to look into some of the transport challenges ahead of the upcoming mayoral elections. Portugal has one of western Europe's worst road safety records and its roads are at least twice as lethal as Spain's. Portuguese cities disproportionately feature in fatal collisions (57%) compared to the European average (38%).Ahead of Lisbon’s mayoral elections, there's a divide between the main candidates: the socialist party's (PS) Alexandra Leitão, who Streets Ahead interviewed, who rather ambitiously wants to eliminate all road traffic deaths in just five years, up against incumbent Carlos Moedas (PSD), on the right of centre. We also spoke to campaigners and those running for office, headlining road safety in their campaigns. Three quarters of Lisbon’s cycle network requires improvement, according to Portugal’s motoring association ACP: https://www.acp.pt/o-clube/revista-acp/noticias-do-clube/detalhe/mais-de-75-da-rede-ciclavel-de-lisboa-exige-melhorias Air pollution in Portugal has increased and the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the country failed to fulfil its obligations to tackle this https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:62022CJ0220.Some comparisons between Portugal and the rest of Europe in road collision injuries and death https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/489f6875-12a4-421a-93fd-eb05acc2f589_en?filename=erso-country-overview-2023-portugal_0.pdf In this episode, we spoke to:Alexandra Leitão, mayoral candidate https://viverlisboa2025.pt/ (Viver Coalition)Francisco Costa and Pedro Franco (Livre Party, part of Viver Coalition); local campaigners who want less traffic and slower speeds to improve pollution and safetyAnd Mário Alves, Secretary General, International Federation of Pedestrians; a leading member of MUBi, the Portuguese association for urban mobility; and a transport and mobility specialist.For ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Women Leading the Way

  This time, Laura talks to four women, and one man inspired and backed by women, about the role of women in the world of cycling. Spanning three continents our interviewees tell us their stories. From improving adventure cycling access in Scandinavia to the need for better gender equity in the bicycle industry, via the role of women in advocacy in the USA, to women empowering women across Europe and Nepal, this is a globe-trotting pod.All of our interviewees Laura collared at the Velo-City conference in Gdansk in June. Show notes are below for each of them.Mark Ostrow from Seattle on expanding his efforts from creating one safe street to joining a citywide campaign, Seattle Neighbourhood Greenways. Mark credits advocate Cathy Tuttle, Senator Emily Alvarado, and legislator Julia Reed for backing him and his ideas. Seattle greenways aren’t what you’d think they might be…www.seattlegreenways.orgHenna Palosaari - Norway, cycle tourism expert, bike adventurer and content creator focusing on sustainable tourism and adventure marketing. Henna tells her story of the journey from novice bikepacker to advocate for mapping off-road adventure routes at a national level. https://www.velo-city-conference.com/en/programme/speakers/henna-palosaari/Carolina Cominotti - Barcelona, Spain. Citizen engagement officer at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology for Urban Mobility. Her project TandEM Women in Cycling https://engage.eiturbanmobility.eu/processes/tandemwomen?locale=en. Carolina talks of her work empowering women to cycle more and breaking down barriers to cycling access for women, from community to infrastructure and the life-changing power of this work.Anke Schȁffner - Chief Policy Officer for the German cycle industry Zweirad Industrie Verband (Bicycle Industry Association) speaks about the transformation of e-bikes' reputation and popularity in Germany, why bikes serve women so poorly and the untapped, and unmeasured, power of cycle tourism for the economy. https://www.ziv-zweirad.de/Anuradha Shrestha, an educator and advocate in Nepal, working with NGO Cycle City Network Nepal (CCNN) for the past decade, which trains women to cycle and to train other women. Anuradha speaks of the culture of celebration in Nepal and the need to train the trainers to maintain sustainable cycling growth - as well as the importance of community in fostering that growth. https://cyclecity.org.np/The book, Bikes and Bloomers, uncovers the Victorian women who invented clothing to cycle https://bikesandbloomers.com/book/More about the conference, which is held in Rimini, Italy, 16-19 June 2026 https://www.velo-city-conference.com/For ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Global Insights from The Future Design of Streets

  In this episode, Adam takes you to Guimarães, Portugal, where he attended The Future Design of Streets conference, and came away seeing our streets in a whole new way.Streets aren't only about transport, of course. Importantly, they're about climate, equity, social life, and how we experience a city day-to-day.To explore this expanded view, we’ve put together four conversations with global thought-leaders shaping the future of our streets:Maria Vassilakou: The former Green Vice Mayor of Vienna, who led a decade of transformation in public space, mobility, and citizen participation. Under her leadership, Vienna became a model for affordable, accessible public transport.Demetrio Scopelliti: Architect and Director of Urban Planning and Public Space at Milan’s AMAT agency, working on the front lines of environmental and spatial transformation in one of Europe’s major cities.Agustina Martire: Architect, Reader at Queen’s University Belfast, specialised in the study of everyday streets, their fabric, histories and experiences, through the StreetSpace project. She is especially interested in the way people experience the built environment and how design can enable a more inclusive and just urban space.David Sim: Architect and author of Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life. David brings a human-scale lens to urban design and planning. David talks about designing for comfort, connection, and how good cities make us feel.More about the conference: thefuturedesignofstreets.euFor ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on Bluesky and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://bsky.app/profile/podstreetsahead.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Women Changing Cities

  In this episode, Laura chats to Melissa Bruntlett about her new book, Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation.Melissa is an urbanist, author, and founder of Modacity, an urban mobility consultancy - and one half of urbanist power couple, Chris and Melissa Bruntlett. Melissa and Chris have authored two books to date, Building the Cycling City, and Curbing Traffic. Their social media posts from around the world feature positive examples of change, and inspiration for other cities and advocates. Originally from Canada, the couple have settled in the Netherlands, and often share experiential learning from one of the world’s greatest cycling nations. The book's narrative begins with pandemic street changes, and asks what was going on, beyond the public health emergency, that allowed the urban landscape to change? Why can cities do things differently at certain points in time, and how are women a part of that. The Bruntletts argue it's about listening and being humble, and taking that listening and humility with you into streetspace solutions. There are stories from leadership in Paris, Barcelona, Montreal and Bogota. There is also a grassroots angle, looking at a groundswell from young people in Manila, that spurred bike lanes in the city.The book: Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation, by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, is out in October 2025: https://www.ribabooks.com/Women-Changing-Cities-Global-stories-of-urban-transformation_9781915722409Melissa's project, Modacity Creative: https://modacitycreative.com/Melissa and Chris' work: https://www.modacitylife.com/For ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on Bluesky and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://bsky.app/profile/podstreetsahead.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Spending Review, Fake E-Bikes & Bike Racing

  Streets Ahead's presenters, well at least two of them, have been gallivanting around Europe in recent weeks, coming back together in this episode as a trio to embark on an audio roam through some of the current topics in cycling. From the link between bike racing and everyday cycling, to the spending review's implications, to the rise of 'fake e-bikes', a recent report which Laura and Adam worked on, we have it all here.Links from the show:The Robert Frost poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-eveningCycling superstar, Cat Ferguson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_FergusonThe Spending Review: https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/spending-review-cuts-active-travel-funding-by-40/Transport for New Homes' research on car dependency in new housing. https://www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/the-project/building-car-dependency/ and its award for the Bath Riverside housing development: https://www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/transport-for-new-homes-award-bath-riverside/And the recent e-bike report, by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Walking and Cycling, authored by Laura Laker: https://appgcw.org/resources/inquiries/unregulated-and-unsafe-the-threat-of-illegal-e-bikes/For ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We’ll even send you some stickers! We’re also on BlueSky and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://bsky.app/profile/podstreetsahead.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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