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Celebrating Car Free Day 2020

25th August 2020 / Posted by Ross Phillips

Car Free Day will be celebrated on Tuesday 22nd of September 2020 globally and on Sunday 20th September 2020 in London. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the plans for a number of Car Free Day events around the world, however, there will still be great opportunities to promote walking and cycling and playing outside through digital events this year.

CRP will be hosting a workshop at World Car Free Day London Summit on the possibilities of using low emission freight strategies to encourage car free behaviour. We are excited to share how our partners and communities have been implementing cargo bikes, electric vehicles and consolidating deliveries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. These shifts are a brilliant way of demonstrating how businesses can react quickly to external factors and implement changes to improve their business operations and air quality in their area.

Whilst our Healthy Streets Everyday partners continue to promote active travel through Streetspace initiatives that improve walking and cycling, some are also implementing school streets that are encouraging and enabling social distancing through the removal of cars.

School Streets will play an important role in enabling social distancing at drop off and pick up times by creating more space outside of schools. It is brilliant to see so many of our HSE partners delivering these initiatives to give more space for children and parents when schools reopen in September.

International Youth Day – Youth Global Action

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

International Youth Day is United Nations (UN) initiative, celebrated annually on 12th August since 1999. The day promotes the education and awareness of young people among their responsibility as representatives of the future of the planet. Currently, through the Global Action for Youth, the UN encourages political actions and guidelines that support the improvement in the quality of life of young people around the world.

This year, the event “Youth Engagement for Global Action” will happen in a Podcast format in order to reinforce the importance of youth leadership in the face of current challenges, such as climate issues and COVID-19. With a focus on youth action at both local, national and global levels, the event aims to think of ways and strategies to improve youth representation and engagement in formal institutional policy by increasing democracy, contributing to better and more sustainable policies and promoting the restoration of trust in public institutions, especially amongst young people. Access the event here!

For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Carina Mesquita, carinamesquita@crossriverpartnership.org

#CycleToWorkDay

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

Cycle to Work Day is the UK’s biggest cycle commuting event, which took place on 6th August this year. With many of us continuing to work from home, why not go on a bike ride before or after work! We have come up with 7 top tips which may be of use to those starting out with cycling from lockdown, or a refresher for the more experienced cyclist.

  1. Take part in some cycle training (TfL free training is available for all abilities).
  2. Adapt for the seasons – check the weather, invest in a good waterproof! And make sure you’re always visible and illuminated, especially in the early Autumn evenings.
  3. E-bikes are a good option if your journey is longer. Take a look at the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory for some great bike suppliers.
  4. Look at where other cyclists are heading and don’t cycle right next to the pavement or on drain covers.
  5. Keep hydrated!
  6. Find a cycle buddy to help build confidence.
  7. Check out the cycle parking at your work space.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Rachael Aldridge, rachaelaldridge@crossriverpartnership.org

CRP Walking Meetings

11th August 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

The CRP team are still working hard remotely, respecting the desk capacity constraints at our hosting accountable body Westminster City Council. In order to reduce screen fatigue and support the health and wellbeing of our staff, we have started incorporating Walking Meetings into our regular schedules. The CRP team are also able to tap into support from Westminster City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Hub whenever they need it.

The CRP Team Walking Meetings have provided a great outlet for the team to share information, keep in close touch, feel connected and to get some exercise. At one recent meeting participants joined from a Park in Lewisham, a Garden in Kent, a Lake-side cycle path, and even a Vineyard in Switzerland! Susannah just about remembered all of the Actions Agreed to include in the notes afterwards!

For more information please contact CRP’s Director Susannah Wilks, susannahwilks@crossriverpartnership.org

Improving Air Quality? It Takes a Village!

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP’s Clean Air Villages 3 (CAV3) project is in its third year running and the team is excited to be working with both familiar and new areas of London. From Seven Sisters to South Bank, from Holloway Road to Richmond Town Centre, the CAV3 Project Officers are working across lots of London’s neighbourhoods – all in the name of better air quality.

Excitingly, this year’s participating villages are focusing on some of London’s busiest Business Improvement Districts, central-city communities and two hospitals. The CAV3 Project Officers have been developing their village-specific solutions to air quality problems, as well as planning an expansion of the Clean Air Walking Routes to the new areas. The Clean Air Villages Directory has been expanded to include all CAV3 sites in order to provide businesses with an array of low or zero emission services and deliveries.

In exploring the village-specific solutions, Project Officers are developing projects surrounding employee engagement programmes, cargo bike trials, air quality monitoring with citizen scientists, vehicle emissions data collection and much, much more! It’s going to be an exciting and busy summer as the team continues to work with more business partners and community representatives. Can one person make a difference in air quality? Definitely! But to really change the city? Well, it takes a (Clean Air) Village!

For more information, please contact CRP CAV Project Manager Kate Fenton, katefenton@crossriverpartnership.org

Consolidating New Covent Garden Market Deliveries

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

Just as the New Covent Garden Market (NCGM) consolidation trial was set to go ahead for Clean Air Villages 2, the lockdown was imposed and the trial was hence put on hold. We are happy to note that the market and suppliers are getting back to their routine. With this good news, we are working on the possibility of restarting the trial for Clean Air Villages 3 with our partners from the market and ecofleet.

Although we are excited to be discussing this trial again, it is important to make sure that the trial comes at a good time for the suppliers as they have had to make changes to their operations coming out of lockdown. Hence, we are sensitive to the current situation and want to ensure businesses have the flexibility to reconvene on the trial. For more updates from NCGM, please see here.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Anusha Rajamani, anusharajamani@crossriverpartnership.org

Understanding the Impact of Local Energy Systems

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

A whole calendar quarter has already passed on CRP’s Electric Vehicle Fleet-centred Local Energy System (EFLES) programme, giving us a chance to reflect on all the work done in designing the solution, and thinking ahead to what its wider impacts may be. With the energy and transport sectors supporting each other through an integrated systems approach, we hope this technology can support the rapid acceleration in electric vehicle fleet vehicle adoption with the associated environmental savings that can unlock. We’ve developed a postcard to help explain just how. The project is part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge, and is a partnership with UK Power Networks Services, UPS and Moixa.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Manager Sefinat Otaru, sefinatotaru@crossriverpartnership.org or CRP Air Quality Analysis Officer Abby McDougall, abbymcdougall@crossriverpartnership.org

Westminster City Council Seminar

11th August 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

CRP was very pleased to present at a dedicated Westminster City Council Clean Air Villages webinar on Tuesday 28th July. It was inspiring to hear questions from across the different Council Departments, as well as share ideas on how we can further improve air quality and carbon emissions across Westminster and beyond by working collaboratively. If you’d like to watch the recording of the event, please click here. You can also see the presentation slides here.

For more information about the CRP projects and tools that were discussed during the webinar, please click the relevant links below:

Contact details of all of the session’s CRP speakers are below:

Fiona Coull: fionacoull@crossriverpartnership.org
Kate Fenton: katefenton@crossriverpartnership.org
Sefinat Otaru: sefinatotaru@crossriverpartnership.org
Susannah Wilks: susannahwilks@crossriverpartnership.org

Cross River Partnership’s LiveShare sessions – Keep Informed!

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

We are now over a quarter of the way through our programme of 16 LiveShares and we would like to thank all of those who have attended them so far! We have been joined by experts from across the industries of transport, business, heath and environment to discuss a range of topics to help facilitate knowledge sharing, highlighting best practice examples.

We will be continuing to bring industry experts together and our next LiveShare on Thursday August 13th, 2pm will be no exception! This session will discuss
Pedestrian Priority Streets: The Benefits for Schools, Businesses and your Health where we will be joined by Global Action Plan, City of Westminster and our very own Healthy Streets Everyday programme. This will be your one stop shop, answering some of the questions you may have regarding implementing Pedestrian Priority Streets within your local authorities and neighbourhoods. To reserve your space, sign up here! We hope to see you very soon!

For more information, please contact CRP Guidance Manager Tomos Joyce, tomosjoyce@crossriverpartnership.org

Noise Monitoring Project Begins

11th August 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

As some businesses come back to a new normal, CRP are ready to monitor changes in terms of quiet streets and cleaner air. The Freight Noise Monitoring Study, part of the Central London Sub-Regional Transport Partnership, has now commenced, partnering with EMSOL. The innovative noise monitoring technology has been installed at our test site in London.

CRP are currently recruiting businesses to take part in the study, with a range of different sectors and vehicles to be involved. The study will be the first of it’s kind, focusing on monitoring of delivery points and helping landowners, freight operators and local authorities to test best practice in relation to quiet deliveries. The study will collect data through a two-month period and conclude in a report. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more information in the coming months!

For more information, please contact CRP Senior Project Officer Laura Jacklin, laurajacklin@crossriverpartnership.org

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