In praise of a humble bollard

Some things have actually got a lot better in the year I’ve been away. One of these is the trialing of a simple but highly-effective way of protecting our neighbourhood from ‘rat-running’ cars. It’s basically a few strategically-placed bollards, flanked by some nice wooden planters. These ‘modal filters’ allow healthy, positive modes of travel (walking and cycling) whilst discouraging dangerous, polluting ones (cars). There’s much more to do, but these are a great start - for the first time I will let my kids cycle on this previously lethal road, hurrah!