Not just eco-towns in the UK, but cycle towns too

(I have been thinking quite a bit about transformational delivery of government services. I wrote about it last month, in terms of Arlington County specifically, but there are other examples such as Tower Hamlets' repositioning of libraries into Idea Stores and the Live Baltimore resident attraction program. I was talking about this with a colleague yesterday, and she said it's not just about transforming how the government delivers services, but about transforming people. That point has to be made clearer going forward.)

The Evening Telegraph of Kettering, UK reports, in "We're in chase to be first of cycle towns" that:

Cycling England, which was set up by the Government in 2005, is looking for 10 towns and one city to be transformed into cycling towns after a successful trial in six towns across the country.

Also see Demonstration Towns from the Cycling England website (note that this appears to be a better program than Bicycling Magazine's Biketown, which is very much focused on individuals within communities, rather than communities and the bicycling-walking-urban design environment) and Cycling Towns of the Future conference, 21st November 2007

Imagine the U.S. Department of Transportation doing that, instead of the Secretary of Transportation stating that bicycling isn't transportation. See "The bicycle thief" from Salon.

This is comparable to the Conservative and Labour Party candidates for Mayor of London competing in part on which is more committed to bicycling. (See "Livingstone plan for street-corner cycle hire stands" from the Independent.)