“If you don’t want cycling on footpaths, support bike lanes and 20mph zones”: Town centre cycling bans and the fight against “cowboy” wardens + the year in cycling reviewed

Send us Fan MailIt’s the most wonderful time of the year… that’s right, it’s our annual podcast episode looking back over the biggest and most bizarre bike-related stories of 2024! Plus some less cheery but nonetheless important town centre cycling ban chat for good measure.In part one, Ryan, Jack, and Emily, paper party helmets firmly attached, discuss the stories and narratives that jumped out at them during 2024: the UK general election and its impact on cycling so far, the ongoing storms battering the bike industry, the latest wave of aero tech, Tadej Pogačar’s overwhelming dominance and much more. In part 2, we turn our attentions towards another cycling story that just wouldn’t go away over the last 12 months – town centre cycling bans.Ryan is joined by one of those activists who successfully stood up to the wardens and caused a rethink in their local council over how they approach so-called ‘anti-social cycling’. As well as discussing his group’s campaign against the crude and often incorrect implementation of the city’s cycling ban, Will Bramhill from the Colchester Cycling Campaign told the podcast that cycling PSPOs will always prove controversial until the UK fully addresses its decades-long failure in transport policy, which constantly shunts cyclists away from safe spaces and on to dangerous roads alongside motorists.