About Us
Who we are
We’re a group of local volunteers united by a common wish to make our streets safer, healthier and happier, now and for future generations.
Across the borough, from North Kensington to Chelsea to Earl’s Court to South Kensington or Notting Hill we bring people together, whether parents with young families, wanting to be able to walk, scoot or cycle safely to school with their children, students getting to lectures, business people getting to meetings, people shopping locally rather than at superstores, enjoying some clean air and exercise, we have a broad group of all ages.
Over time we have built good working relations with RBKC, TfL and other residents’ groups, and we work collaboratively with all whose interests like ours are to improve our great borough.
We have a committee that helps organise things and many other active volunteers. We always welcome new people, whether because of a particular issue you have to raise or whether you’d like to get involved.
Background
Too many of our streets are unhealthy, unsafe and unhappy. We know why – it’s too many unnecessary car journeys and insufficient infrastructure for people to make other choices.
We want to change our streets so that those who can walk or cycle are able to do so safely and enjoyably, and those who can’t face less congestion, bringing cleaner air, reducing deaths and life-changing injuries, encouraging community and more active healthier lives.
Increased Traffic
Car traffic keeps going up, encouraged by navigation and ride-hailing apps. Since 2013 in RBKC alone, average yearly traffic has increased by 50 million miles
Rat Running
Since 2009 traffic on residential roads in London – known as “rat-running” has increased from 5.4 billion miles per year to 9.3 billion miles per year
Congestion
Cars – whether private cars or taxis – are the least efficient use of road space, and are the main cause of congestion.
Unnecessary Car Journeys
Most London car journeys are short and could be cycled or walked
Waste of Space
Most car journeys carry only one person – so using on average 1,300 kilos of metal measuring over six feet across to transport a single person
Pollution
Vehicular transport is a major cause of city pollution. This includes electric vehicles (EVs) which not only have a very large carbon footprint in their manufacture but emit harmful particles through brake tire dust, as well as stirring up particulates lying on the road surface
Danger to Lives
Vehicles are dangerous to people on foot or bike. There have been and inevitably will continue to be life changing injuries and deaths on our roads unless we put in place safe infrastructure
We see the results – children going to school in the back of an SUV, the young and fit going to the gym in an Uber, rat-running and the vicious circle continues.
We have the tools to make our streets better, tried and tested in numerous examples across the world and increasingly closer to home too.
RBKC is our home and we want to make it better. We’re currently towards the bottom of the Healthy Streets Scorecard. We’re proud of the potential of our borough and we want to be at the top.
Get involved!
Whether you’d like to join us for a specific campaign, want to know more about how you could help, or even just to get updates on how we are doing, please don’t hesitate to join us!
Keep in Touch!
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