Sam Wakeling
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samwake.bsky.social
Sam Wakeling
@samwake.bsky.social
3.1K followers 400 following 560 posts
Loves streets. Make them safe. Set them free. Sheffield. Abolition.

Works at Living Streets.

Free free 🍉

🔗 sam.wakeling.me
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samwake.bsky.social
Sam Wakeling @samwake.bsky.social · Jan 4
What do you dream of your local streets being like?

For me it is making them welcoming public spaces for everyone to enjoy and move in without fear from traffic (including the remaining vehicles which are there).

I drew this of my local South Road, Sheffield.
Watercolour pen sketch of a street with people walking, sitting out, cars in side street and parked on the main street, people cycling and riding a tricycle and playing and trees and plants on the street.
samwake.bsky.social
“AVs will result in more cars on the road. If we don’t want to spend more of our lives inside them …and deal with all the externalized public health and climate impacts of driving … ask if AVs move us closer or further from the kinds of communities we want to live in.” @nondriver.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
samwake.bsky.social
A third Heathrow runway costing £33 BILLION is “expected to be fully privately financed.”

Recouped by the profits the aviation industry makes by being massively subsidised with tax-free fuel etc?
November 25, 2025 at 12:59 PM
samwake.bsky.social
In Barbara Streisand form, this makes the lectures that much more interesting and likely to get a bigger audience.

I’m guessing that wasn’t deliberate though.
rutgerbregman.com Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 9h
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
emmanuelspv.bsky.social
Vingt rues de Paris avant / après en une minute
November 24, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
benwheels.bsky.social
The claimed excuse for a cap on #Cycle2Work doesn't hold water & will be harmful for Disabled ppl.
If Govt was bothered abt rich ppl benefitting from Govt tax breaks for things rich people use for leisure, they'd tax aviation fuel, when air travel is disproportionately used by richest (by LONG way).
wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk Wheels for Wellbeing @wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk · 4d
Wheels for Wellbeing are concerned by reports that the Chancellor is considering putting a maximum price for cycles allowed through the Cycle to Work scheme.

We are calling for the scheme to be reformed rather than capped.

Read our full statement. wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/wheels-for-w...
A black woman on a red upright tricycle cycling in a cycle lane. The cycle has a basket in which is a blue bag. She is wearing a black helmet, yellow long-sleeved top and a purple high vis jacket. Behind her is a red bus, yellow and green ambulance and a green van. In the far background are houses.
November 24, 2025 at 11:27 AM
samwake.bsky.social
This is the only glacier I’ve been lucky enough to see in person. In 2010 it still reached around the corner.
Glacier with grey rocky valley in front
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
samwake.bsky.social
“And hope, detached from material reality, is just another word for delusion.”
ketanjoshi.co Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 1d
"Real hope, as opposed to the performance of hope, requires confronting uncomfortable truths. It requires being willing to say that the emperor has no clothes, even when your career depends on tailoring his wardrobe"

www.linkedin.com/posts/the-co...
COMMON Briefing Belém: The COP Of Post-Truth On the dangerous seduction of empty multilateralism: on why we need to stop performing hope while the planet burns We're sharing an open letter to our colleagues and friends in the climate community as the COP in Belém ends. We think it's important to speak truth in the so-called "COP of Truth". Belém, November 22, 2025 A letter to our friends in the climate community There's a particular strain of climate advocacy that has become not just ineffective, but actively harmful. It's the kind that mistakes theater for action, confuses participation with progress, and celebrates the mere existence of dialogue while the planet burns. We saw it again in Belém, and it demands a reckoning. We're told to feel moved by presidential speeches. To find something "powerful" in a country simultaneously expanding fossil fuel extraction while claiming climate leadership. To see "complexity" and "journey" where there is simply hypocrisy and moral failure. This is not complexity. This is cowardice dressed up as pragmatism. When a leader stands before the world and speaks eloquently about transitioning away from fossil fuels while their government approves new oil drilling, that's not a contradiction we should romanticize. That's not a tension we should find generative. It's a betrayal, plain and simple. And when climate advocates respond with gratitude instead of fury, they become accomplices to that betrayal. We're asked to understand that leaders "don't have the power" to stop extraction. This framing is insidious because it transforms political choices into inevitable constraints. History has shown that presidents don't lack power: they lack will. They lack courage. They've made a calculation that short-term economic and political interests outweigh the survival of future generations. Accepting this excuse means accepting that climate action is optional, something to pursue only when convenient, only when it doesn't threaten powerful inter…
November 24, 2025 at 10:01 AM
samwake.bsky.social
🎄
stopcambo.bsky.social Stop Rosebank @stopcambo.bsky.social · 4d
BREAKING 🚨: campaigners halt felling of iconic Trafalgar Square UK-Norway Christmas Tree.

Norway's gift to the UK this year comes with strings attached - they are pressuring the UK to sign off on the mega-polluting Rosebank oil field.

#StopRosebank
November 21, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
minnierahman.bsky.social
Shabana Mahmood's proposal to stop being told to "go back home" is to send people "home". Her proposal to stop black and brown people from feeling like they don't belong, is to bake in to the immigration system that they will never belong.
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
samwake.bsky.social
Good morning to everyone using the A57 in Sheffield this minute:

17 cars
31 pedestrians
November 21, 2025 at 10:44 AM
samwake.bsky.social
Sheffield city centre from the 9th floor 🌈
Looking over the town hall and peace gardens with festive extortion sheds and rainbow Stormy brooding view the other way with crane on horizon and red and white construction gubbins on Pinstone St
November 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
danielsohege.bsky.social
Government has today published its consultation into "earned settlement", the forward alone contains a hot mess of misrepresentation of the current system by the Home Secretary. I would strongly urge anyone affected by the current system to respond.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edd...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
samwake.bsky.social
STREETS FOR PEOPLE
November 19, 2025 at 10:29 PM
samwake.bsky.social
STREETS FOR PEOPLE
November 19, 2025 at 10:29 PM
samwake.bsky.social
“When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist”
BLESSED ARE YOU WHO ARE POOR FOR YOU SHALL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD WOE TO YOU WHO ARE RICH FOR YOU HAVE RECIEVED YOUR CONSOLATION
November 19, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
refrag.bsky.social
Today is the day to repost this meme about International Men's Day, one of the most unironically wholesome memes that has ever been made.

Shoutout to all my fellow champs, chiefs, and kings. ✊
Nerdy kid at keyboard: Hi guys, I've noticed that it is International Men's Day today, and I'm confused. Why do we need a day to talk about men? We're not a marginalised group like women, queer people, or people of colour. The media is already full of stories about men. Big buff shirtless dude at keyboard: I'm glad you asked, champ. Whatever your view on men's place in society, it's still true that we face a lot of issues - like social isolation, risk of suicide, health problems, and attitudes towards sex and child rearing. Having a day to talk about those doesn't take away from anyone else's problems. In fact, having a day to talk about them helps us be more mindful, and listen better at other times. Second shirtless buff dude on a couch at his laptop: The chief here is really on to something. I want to echo what he said, and also point out that the idea we should remain silent about our problems actually contributes to a lot of our issues. We are human beings, with human needs. Seeking mutual support and understanding isn't the same thing as placing a burden on others. Especially if we're providing it for each other. Third buff dude at his laptop: Right on, my fellow kings. We've inherited a social legacy of competition and division, and a lot of what makes a man in our era is under question. IMD is a chance for us to examine and rethink what we are together, and build the bonds of solidarity and support that will make a better way possible - like in this meme. Because in our hearts, we're all curious kids and buff guys on keyboards.
November 19, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
doctorvive.bsky.social
This is the problem with trying to inspire hope using the message "we have the solutions": such a message may inspire the kind of techno-optimism that actually fosters political *dis*engagement.

1/n
kristiansn89.bsky.social Kristian Steensen Nielsen @kristiansn89.bsky.social · 6d
⚠️ When “technology will save us” becomes a climate risk!

A new paper from great colleagues takes a careful look at techno-optimism — the belief that technology will largely solve climate change — and what it means for real-world climate action.
(1/4)👇
osf.io/preprints/ps...
November 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
samwake.bsky.social
Facing down the climate crisis is less like an Industrial Revolution and more like decolonisation, anti-apartheid, slavery abolition…
doctorvive.bsky.social Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 5d
We need to tell stories about fights that last over decades, against enormous odds, that continue wounded despite extraordinary challenges and painful losses, and that in the end overturn a dead order and found a new world.

4/n
November 19, 2025 at 7:45 PM
samwake.bsky.social
With free bus hype we have to ask “is that a big number?”

Reported reduction of 1.8m car miles.

In a city of 75k people.

Is 24 miles a year on average.

So perhaps up to 1% less driving per person.

Good/free buses are great, but not at reducing car use.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:17 PM
samwake.bsky.social
A quick experiment to see how Sheffield’s notoriously dangerous University Square roundabout might be made less terrifying - to drive on.

All arms get a direct left turn still, while the circulation is brought to one lane. Except the NW Walkley arm, exits don’t need any merging.

What do you think?
Aerial view of university roundabout. Dark areas are added to redraw where lanes go with entry roads split into left turning or joining the circulating single lane around the middle of the circle.
November 19, 2025 at 10:35 AM
samwake.bsky.social
I believe people who drive want to be safe and don’t want to do anyone else harm.

This guidance is simple, practical ways to design roads so they *help drivers* to be safe around other people, and to make it *easier for drivers* to stay in control and avoid making unwise or unsafe moves.
owlernook.bsky.social Owler Nook @owlernook.bsky.social · 8d
Just two days of Google Alerts for 'Active Travel England'.

This is what we're up against. Any announcement that benefits cycling, no matter how minor, will be attacked by a broad sweep of the media. It gets absorbed by people unthinkingly, and frightens decision makers. #Motornormativity
A Google Alert daily update for 'Active Travel England' for 16 November 2025. Of the four stories, two are leading on the 'narrowing of Britain's roads to make cyclists safer'. The Mirror headline looks benign, but the Mail subhead is clearly antagonistic. Another page of Google Alerts, this time for 17 November. Four stories, all about the same topic, three of which are clearly antagonistic.
November 18, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
davidho.bsky.social
As @glenpeters.bsky.social says, we're way off target for any 1.5°C scenario.

To see how far off, each of the red/green bars represents the decrease in CO₂ emissions during COVID. Even if we achieved that from now until the end of 2030, we would still miss our 1.5°C target by a significant margin.
A line chart titled “Global Emissions CO₂” shows global annual carbon dioxide emissions from the year 2000 to 2100. The vertical axis ranges from –10 to 40 gigatonnes of CO₂ per year (GtCO₂/yr). Historic emissions from 2000 to 2025 are shown as a thick black line with white circular markers, rising steadily from just under 30 GtCO₂ to nearly 40 GtCO₂ before flattening. From the most recent year onward, give short trend segments (green and red) extend downward, representing how much CO₂ emissions dropped during COVID. Dozens of thin blue lines fan out from the near-present into the future, depicting modeled emissions pathways from the IPCC AR6 scenarios database. These pathways generally decline steeply between 2020 and 2050, then taper downward more slowly, with many crossing below zero emissions later in the century. A shaded beige area below the horizontal axis is labeled “net-negative global emissions,” indicating the region where emissions fall below zero. Along one of the central blue pathways, white dots mark decadal points. A vertical dashed line marks the year 2030. A red callout arrow points to the intersection of this line with the emissions pathways, labeling a red circled point at 20 GtCO₂/yr. The annotation reads: “1.5 °C target for 2030: 20 GtCO₂/yr.” At the bottom of the figure is a small attribution note: “©Data: AR6 Scenarios Database hosted by IIASA.”
November 18, 2025 at 10:39 AM
samwake.bsky.social
Mundane pedestrian grimness of the day: the main pedestrian route between Hillsborough centre, bus station, council drop-in centre etc, and the Jobcentre (I’m standing by the door).

Across a sprawling petrol station forecourt and no footway or dropped kerb.
A curving road to a supermarket car park with a patrol station forecourt and large expanse of tarmac with hgv driving across it. A footway follows the road on the left before going up a ramp and away from the road.
November 18, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
francesryan.bsky.social
Before she died, Alice Wong was kind enough to give me an interview for my book, Who Wants Normal?

Here’s her wonderful advice to disabled women (from the Guardian extract): www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Alice Wong, activist and writer: Try not to feel the need to keep up or be as good as your non-disabled peers. Focus on doing what you love and knowing who you are and what kind of person you want to be in the world. Life can be messy and shitty and it’s totally OK to be full of rage and pain. Don’t do something because it’s what others expect – please yourself first and take your time. You don’t have to follow the typical path. You can find freedom when you let go of what you think success, perfection or happiness is supposed to look like. Asking for help and needing help doesn’t mean you are a failure. You have power, whether you realise it or not.
November 17, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Sam Wakeling
migrantvoice.bsky.social
We must stop the hostility towards, and demonisation of, people just trying to seek safety. Our statement on just some of the Home Secretary's proposed changes to the asylum system
The anti-asylum proposals being set out by the Home Secretary reinforce the dehumanisation of individuals coming to the UK to seek safety and set the UK on a course for even more inhumanity. We know from the existing 20-year-route how it put people's lives on hold and prevents them from settling. It leaves people in precarious positions and at more risk of exploitation. It denies them the ability to be able to rebuild their lives after suffering unimaginable horrors, as well as leaving them in fear that at any moment they may be ripped away from their family and friends once again. We need an asylum system which treats those coming for safety with dignity and respect. A system which processes their applications faster and more effectively. A system which allows them the right to work so that they can integrate and support themselves. What the Home Secretary proposes is one which treats them with contempt and hostility.
November 17, 2025 at 10:28 AM