Kidical Mass ReadingSave the dates for our next Kidical Mass events, in Reading and Wokingham. No need to book: just turn up and enjoy a safe, family-friendly, joyful ride with us.
Circular ride from Tutu’s in the Palmer Park
Circular ride from a location to be confirmed!
The ride will be part of the Wokingham Bikeathon
We had a very cold but very successful ride today around the University of Reading campus today, with 50-ish brave people joining us. Gloves and woolly hats were de rigueur!
We had several falls when joining the bike lane on Shinfield road. The kerb is slightly raised there, enough to destabilise those with small wheels and little experience. We’ll have to be careful about this part next time.
Otherwise, it was a quiet and pleasant ride, as the campus is mostly empty of four-wheelers. There’s not many photos from the ride itself this time β have you every tried taking pictures with gloves? π
The ride was be followed by our Annual General Meeting, at 4pm at the Park House on the campus, where we discussed what we did in 2024, and what we’re planning to do in 2025. Stay tuned for more!
In August 2024 Reading saw a significant change to its transport network. A lane for general traffic on London Road was converted into a bus lane. This caused a bit of a stir, with repeated claims that congestion at the newly introduced pinch point at the start of the bus lane (opposite Liverpool Road) would lead to increased air pollution.
As it happens, an air quality monitoring station is located right next to this supposed bottleneck, just inside Palmer Park. If you were to design an experiment to monitor the effect of the bus lane, you could hardly pick a better location to place a monitor.
The data from this station, as well as many other UK stations, is available from Defra’s website (or using the R package called openair). This means we can now have an in-depth look at the data and determine objectively what has happened at this site.
The station on London Road monitors PM10 and NOx concentrations. PM10 stands for particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less. These are small particles in the air that can pass into the upper airways. They are associated with respiratory disease and cardiovascular effects. NOx stands for nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2). Exposure to NO2 is also linked to an increased risk of disease related mortality.
Both PM10 and NOx are generated in a wide range of human activity, including road transport, industry, energy production and domestic heating. Of the two measured pollutants, NOx is most sensitive to road traffic, with around 65 per cent of the NOx at the roadside originating from road transport.
We see this strong influence on London Road as well. The daily variations of NOx show a low of just above 20 ΞΌg/m3 at night, shooting up to 50 and higher at peak rush hour.
So what does the data look like in detail? The below image shows the measurements for November 2024.
The data gives a very detailed picture, with hourly values of NOx concentrations, wind speeds and air temperature. It is also clear that the data is noisy, showing a lot of variation. We therefore need to look at longer time periods (several months) to get a clear idea of any changes.
We also notice that the weather has a strong influence on pollution. For example, high wind speeds and warmer weather on the days before Nov 25 coincide with a sharp drop in pollution. This well-known influence of weather on air pollution muddies the water, making the influence of road transport less obvious. Is higher air pollution due to more traffic or due to a colder winter? Fortunately, we can use statistical models to estimate the influence of the weather and compensate for it. Here we have used a boosted regression tree approach, as implemented in the R package deweather.
The bus lane was only introduced in August, so we’ll only consider the last four mounts of each year (September to December).
We see that, apart from a post-pandemic bounce-back in 2021, NOx concentrations are steadily declining, likely due to cleaner engines, more electric vehicles and decreasing background concentrations (because of cleaner or reduced industrial activity). A similar trend occurs at other nearby monitoring stations and across the UK. For example, yearly NOx concentrations at Oxford Road have dropped from around 80 ΞΌg/m3 in 2016 to 40 ΞΌg/m3 in 2024.
Most importantly, the graph shows absolutely no influence from the bus lane introduction in 2024.
It is possible that while air pollution has dropped at the bottleneck, congestion has extended onto the Sutton Seeds roundabout and thus caused air pollution to be more spread out. Google Maps traffic data certainly shows congestion there. It is, however, unclear to what extent this has changed since the bus lane was introduced. There certainly was heavy traffic there before as well (see the Reading Buses account on π for past announcements of severe delays on the Orange routes). Reading Borough Council and Reading Buses should have more detailed traffic data on this, which we hope will be made public soon. It should also be noted that population density on the Wokingham side of London Road is a lot lower than on the Reading side and houses are further away from the road, reducing the health impacts of air pollution.
As in many important matters, it is difficult to gauge the impact of a change without good data. Humans are not very good at quantifying air pollution and are subject to all kinds of biases. Although more data would certainly be welcome, this investigation shows that, at least with respect to air quality, we’re certainly not seeing the catastrophic effects some had predicted.
While air quality in Reading is certainly improving, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Because of the strong impact on health, the World Health Organisation has produced air quality guidelines. Their recommendation is to keep yearly averaged NO2 concentrations below 10 ΞΌg/m3, PM10 below 15 ΞΌg/m3. For 2024, all three roadside monitoring sites in Reading exceeded both thresholds, with the worst offender at Caversham Rd measuring 23.3 ΞΌg/m3 for NO2 and 23.1 ΞΌg/m3 for PM10.
The council should be applauded for their support for action on air quality: the Clean Air Living Matters and school streets programmes for local shools, improvements to sustainable and active travel, and increasing parking permit fees for more polluting cars.
However, more needs to be done to reduce the air pollution that is affecting the health and development of our children. Census data shows that in Reading more than half of commutes between 2km and 5km are done by car and almost one in three commutes of less than 2km. Many of these journeys could be walked or cycled, but more carrots (cycling infrastructure, reliable public transport) and sticks (road pricing, lower speed limits, blocking through-traffic) should be considered to reclaim our streets.
Finally, to get an idea of what air quality is like at your own home, have a look at addresspollution.org. Caution: the results may cause a desire for radical change. If so, please consider doing some of the following: talk to schools about CALM and school streets, organize a bike bus, respond to council consultations, write your councillors, and of course participate in Kidical Mass rides!
Neither flood nor frost was going to stop Santa from keeping the most important event in his calendar (apart from Christmas Eve, of course) – the annual Kidical Mass Reading Christmas ride.
Our boys were super excited getting ready for the ride – this year I left plenty of time to duct tape the all important elf hat onto Mr 5’s helmet. These days Mr 5 prefers to ride his own bike on our rides – his grandfather usually comes along to ride next to him since his Dad leads the ride and I (his mother) am our back marker. However, this year as in previous years the boys’ grandfather was nowhere to be seen during the ride. He showed up too late, unfortunately just missing Father Christmas. So Mr 5 got to help lead the ride on the triplet with Dad and Father Christmas. And a very happy elf he made, with lots of waves and smiles for the people we passed.
And there were a lot of people that we passed. Though flood wasnβt going to stop Santa, it had a pretty good go. After days of heavy rain much of Kingβs Meadow was more than a foot underwater, and the river was fast and high and cold. Even more than usual we didnβt want to run the risk of a kid falling in so we changed our plan and routed the ride pretty much immediately away from the river and through the tunnel under the station, through town, along the Kennet by the Oracle (which has substantial fences and a much higher bank) before ending at Forbury Gardens. Going through the centre of town we got lots of smiles and waves from people out doing their Christmas shopping in the very festive town centre (made all the more festive, of course, by the presence of Santa on a bike and the jingling of bike bells).
It doesnβt escape my attention that watching for flooding on the route has become something of a feature of planning Kidical Mass rides – much of our child-friendly cycling infrastructure in Reading is river-adjacent, which can present a problem if you donβt have alternative routes for getting around. I felt for the family who showed up with wet socks because they came on bikes and had to cross through some rather deep puddles to get to the start of the ride! We will keep pushing for the day when the cycling network in Reading is more resilient to heavy rain and ice. We need to get there if we want cycling to be a viable primary transport option for meaningful numbers of people.
At Forbury Gardens the kids had a chance to mingle with Santa, who handed out presents to help make the kids more visible in poor lighting – many thanks to Reading Borough Council for their financial support of that project, which has also enabled us to provide lights to some secondary school children who were in need of them. Santa enjoyed congratulating the kids on their riding skills as he handed out the presents, and then slipped away just before the kidβs grandfather showed up to hear all about it.
We are all looking forward to the ride on Sunday 19th January, which will be on the university site and then followed by our Annual General Meeting, where we will reflect on what has been achieved last year and plan for what can be done next year. Until then, we hope you all stay safe and enjoy riding your bikes. From your Kidical Mass Reading team:
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
Nous vous souhaitons de joyeuses fΓͺtes!
We wensen jullie een vrolijk kerstfeest!
ΠΠΎΠ·Π΄ΡΠ°Π²Π»ΡΠ΅ΠΌ Ρ Π ΠΎΠΆΠ΄Π΅ΡΡΠ²ΠΎΠΌ!
ΠΡΠ½ΡΡΠ΅ΠΌ Π· ΠΠ°Π»ΡΠ΄Π°ΠΌΡ!
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Natal
Kidical Mass Reading celebrated Halloween with a themed ride on Sunday 20th October (it was a little early because we have realised that running rides in the school holidays and expecting people turn up is a Fools Errand). We invited attendees to come in costume if they wished (not was also fine of course, and our favourite characters are always families who ride bikes).
Our own boys have recently discovered Quidditch and wanted to dress accordingly. My husband (and Kidical Mass ride leader) Simon enjoyed hunting for a branch and some sticks with Mr 5 (the artist previously known as Mr 4, he recently had a birthday) to make a βNimbus 2000β and we had great fun (if slight time stress) working out on the morning of the ride how to attach it to the back of the tandem so it looked like Mr 5 was riding it. Simon sportingly agreed to wear a golden snitch picture on his back so our young Seeker could be following it, and Mr 8 (who also recently had a birthday) had a hoop on a stick on the back of his bike to form a Quidditch goal so he could be Wood, the Gryfinndor keeper.
I recycled an idea from the very first Kidical Mass ride in Reading and went as Room on the Broom (this time with soft toys instead of children as passengers), because I still think thatβs the most appropriate costume for a long tail cargo bike.
Despite our persistent badgering of the marshals who work in weather forecasting (there are six of them, which youβd think would be enough) the rain was only due to clear up in time for the actual Kidical Mass ride, and not for the marshals recce beforehand. Nonetheless, the marshals managed to accomplish their most important job on the recce, which was to place the ramps that would mean we could take the ride around the barrier blocking the end of Chestnut Walk (we continue our campaigning work to get a permanent workaround put in here, as itβs otherwise such a lovely car-free route into town).
With the rain we were worried turnout would be very low, so we were delighted that 34 people came along. Probably the most gratifying were the granddaughter-grandfather team who showed up. He informed us that he had been told they were going to come along that afternoon as she had enjoyed the last ride from the cycle festival so much. We were delighted to have them both!
We also had a family with a child on a scooter – her bike currently needs some work. They initially planned to only join the first bit of the ride around Kings Meadow, but actually having done that they kept with us for the whole ride. There was some great scooting going on there! I think the biggest difficultly for the scooter was on Kings Meadow itself, with the tree roots breaking up the path. Itβs tricky for bikes, but worse for scooters. And to anyone whose bike needs light maintenance we recommend the free Dr Bike sessions funded by the council.
I enjoyed the ride around Blake’s Wharf – the grey day meant that for the first time I noticed that the fountains are lit from underneath. It really is a lovely spot. Coming through town we cut down to Garrard Street from Friar Street rather than navigate the big junction at the top (literally) of Greyfriars road, which was a lot less stressful! The taxi drivers queuing on Garrard Street were very smiley and waved at the children, which boosted everyone’s mood.
Then back through the tunnel under the station (hooray!) and we arrived at Thames Lido, where our friendly marshalling team handed out sweets to our young trick-or-treating riders. Huge thanks, as always, to the marshals who turn up to make sure the rides are safe and fun for all riders.
By this point the rain had cleared so we hung around for a while whilst the kids played. We chatted about the ride, parenting, and where in Reading we’d love to see additional drop curbs installed (we’re a niche interest group, I know). After that, Kat (official spokesperson), Samuel (treasurer and webmaster) and Jeroen (bike statistics mastermind) headed off to work on a presentation to Green Party members, on what getting around a city CAN look like if there are the will and resources to make bold changes.
If you’d like to be part of demonstrating that there is a desire for change in Reading (oh, and also if you’d like to ride with Father Christmas) then do come and join us for our Christmas rides. We’ll be meeting:
Reading Cycle Festival is an event we will always be happy to have in our calendar. It’s full of people who agree with Kidical Mass Reading’s aims – to campaign for better cycling infrastructure, build friendships between cyclists and to have fun on bikes. It was also full of people who were keen to go for a Kidical Mass ride and we had our biggest ride yet with around 90 riders taking to the cycle paths and streets to, well, campaign for better cycling infrastructure, build friendships between cyclists and have fun on bikes.
It’s been an exciting time for cycling infrastructure in the town centre, with both the rebuild of the bridge on Kings Meadow and the reopening of the (newly bike friendly) cycle tunnel scheduled for the week or two before the Cycle Festival. Yes, of course we planned a route that used both of these, and yes, of course we had a backup plan (or three) in case the projects overran – but thankfully everything was open in time!
The bridge over the stream on Kings Meadow was previously an area where our marshals had to be on high alert – the railings were horizontal and wide enough apart that an oblivious child on a balance bike could have slipped under. The new bridge is not only better in that it doesn’t have dodgy planks, it also has high vertical railings. Much safer, and much appreciated.
We then went through the Napier Road tunnel and along the Kennet to Reading Abbey. This route is perfect for bikes except for the boom barrier that blocks Chestnut walk. This time we came prepared with ramps so everyone could get round it on the pavement. Our team who attend the council cycling forum have raised this – putting in a drop kerb here would make the route usable for anyone with wheels (bikes, wheelchairs, pushchairs etc).
Then it was through the town centre, down Greyfriars Road and finally – finally! – we were able to take a Kidical Mass ride through the station tunnel as it has reopened and is accessible to bikes. The turn in was a bit tight and some of our recumbent trikes/bikes pulling trailers struggled a little, but I assume that when the building work at the station is finished that problem will go away. The tunnel creates a much needed centrally located crossing of the railway that is suitable for young or less confident cyclists (Vastern Road and Forbury roundabout are not for the faint of heart, unless you routinely travel with a team of marshals). I’m so delighted that the council are taking action on some of the unnavigable pinch points as well as building longer cycle lanes (e.g. on Shinfield Road). Both are needed.
We arrived back over Christchurch bridge to the festival where our boys had the opportunity to try out the ramps brought by Avanti (which they loved), watch the stunt cycling (which they loved) and socialise with their cycling friends (who they love). We had a stand next to Reading Cycle Campaign and near to Dr Bike – it was great to see so many of our cycling friends around.
This blog will not be as frequent this year, though we will continue to post about the rides which of course continue to run as normal. The next ride will be Halloween themed ππ»π§πΈοΈ at 2pm on Sunday 20th October and, Dear Reader, we would love to see you there.
Come dressed up as your favourite character – or, if that doesn’t appeal, then come as our favourite characters: families who like spending time together on bikes.
Circular ride from the Reading Cycling Festival, with around 90 happy riders β probably our most popular ride so far!
How many bikes can you count?
In May Kidical Mass ran a ride at the University of Readingβs community festival. Over 50 people joined us for a ride through the university site. The campus is a great place to go riding with young children β there is very little traffic on the road, what traffic there is moves relatively slowly and many of the cycle routes are off road. It’s a very safe place to learn to ride and indeed our youngest regular attendee, Blake (aged 3) has learned to ride there this Summer. It was a very easy route to marshal and made for a relaxed and enjoyable ride.
Kidical Mass Reading have other reasons to be grateful to the university too β earlier this year they awarded us a grant which has enabled us to continue running the rides with related activities alongside (including offering bike maintenance to ride attendees).
So at July’s ride we were very pleased to welcome university researchers from the CALM (Clean Air Living Matters). The route went from Palmer Park to Forbury Gardens β back on our very first route β well, almost. There was a small change as the direction of traffic on Abbey Square, the one way road past the library, has reversed. This definitely made the route less stressful with small people (on this route the marshals always do most work on the stretch between coming off the Kennet and turning off Kings Road).
As part of their work, Dr Marta OβBrien and her team offer free assemblies and other resources to schools in Reading to help inform and empower students on these matters. If you have children and you think they would benefit from this please encourage their school to reach out – many schools in the Reading area have already taken advantage of the offer.
The researchers rode with us and sought views on cycling in Reading from the grown ups after the ride. I particularly enjoyed appropriating some of the pavement chalk that the children were using post ride to sketch out the new layout of Lower Henley Road and explain why it has made such a difference to our school run! I was also also able to explain why I am so glad that the tunnel under the station is opening to cyclists soon β the rivers and the train line are some of the biggest challenges for route planning in Reading and having a centrally located child friendly crossing of the latter is a welcome development. We hope to take a ride through the tunnel in celebration once it is finally open!
Going back to the university, and cycling, I made one too many puns about unicycles and the official Kidical Mass Reading route planner/leader (and my husband) has acquired one and is determined to learn to ride it with the idea of eventually being able to lead a ride on one. For now he looks quite funny wobbling about with one hand on the wall. With two small children finding the time to become proficient may take a while, but he’s a determined (stubborn?) man so watch this space for a future ride report featuring him.
This blog and the rides are on hiatus over the Summer so all that is left to say is that the next ride for Kidical Mass will be at 12pm from Reading Cycle Festival on Sunday 8th September – we hope to see many of you there!
