Streets Ahead

• 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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• Going Rural

  This episode Laura and Adam talk to two guests from PJA, who happen to be this week’s sponsors, about rural active travel. Phil Jones is chairman at PJA and Ben Coleman PJA's technical director.Active travel is sometimes associated with busy urban bike lanes and bustling city pavements. But rural areas’ transport needs are as, if not more acute. With fewer buses or rail services, and longer distances to travel along fast-moving country roads, people in small towns and villages tend to have few alternatives to the car. Rural car-dependence is high, rural transport poverty is higher. And while inter-urban paths connecting nearby settlements could offer transport independence from youth to old age, funding and delivering such connections can be fiendishly hard. Laura also spoke to Joaquim Muntane, Technical Lead (Movement and Place) at Oxfordshire County Council about their plans to deliver a network of greenways linking 60 settlements with the city of Oxford.PJA’s vision is to create better places through great design. They bring together place-led transport planning, civil engineering and environmental solutions, partnering with developers, landowners and national and local government to enable good growth in urban and rural places. You can find out more: https://pja.co.uk/ Some issues we covered in this week's episode:Lives will be lost without better routes, say MPs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1elnwn09vno; from a Parliamentary debate on rural cycling: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-12-10/debates/C12E8986-6FA2-4C57-98B8-2FC6F289C627/RuralCyclingInfrastructureFaversham's town-wide 20mph: https://pja.co.uk/2020/07/01/pja_faversham_20mph/English cycle route standards, LTN 1/20: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycle-infrastructure-design-ltn-120The planning and Infrastructure Bill https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill/guide-to-the-planning-and-infrastructure-billOxfordshire's Greenways Plan https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/oxford-greenwaysCambridgeshire Greenways plan https://www.greatercambridge.org.uk/sustainable-transport-programme/active-travel-projects/greater-cambridge-greenways The decade-long B4044 path campaign https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24718917.cycle-lane-oxford-step-closer-10-year-campaign/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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