The Squeaky Wheel Podcast

When you listen to this month’s interview, you’ll understand why Marco te Brömmelstroet is a true lateral thinker and brilliant communicator. Marco is Professor in Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. He’s also Academic director of the Lab of Thought and Board Chair of the Urban Cycling Institute. With approximately a million followers on social media across his personal and organisation accounts, Marco is one of the world's most prominent advocates for liveable cities and is a sought-after keynote speaker for events around the world. Here are three of the many original ideas that Marco discusses during our conversation. The Hill of Hysteria ramps up every time a new project is proposed that will involve change such as removing car parking, lowering speed limits or re-allocating a motor vehicle lane for a protected cycling path. A small but vocal minority of resistance becomes amplified and reaches maximum volume just before the new measure is to be implemented. Marco and his colleagues have researched this phenomenon and found it to be repeated around the world. But if elected officials hold their nerve during this critical peak of pressure, they will find that it’s just a hill. The noise quickly goes down once the measure is implemented and people discover that things are actually better. The importance of language – rather than say, “We need to implement paid parking” say, “We need to stop subsidising parking.” Because all parking comes at a cost, so there’s no such thing as free parking. Marco also talks about “More meaningful mobility”. Engineers often look at journey time as a pure cost, with no intrinsic utility. But research found that most people who travelled by active modes (walking, cycling, public transport) missed their commute during covid lockdown. Marco calls this “friction”. The journey has meaning. These are just three of many highlights in this compelling conversation. Marco is also the author of multiple books and many academic papers. Two of his books that we discuss during the interview are: “Movement – how to take back our streets and transform our lives” “Mobility Language Matters – how language shapes our cities and lives” Marco recommended two books by other authors: “The Anxious Generation” by Johnathon Haidt, warning about the danger of social media for adolescents. The first part of the book addresses the loss of their freedom to roam. “To Save Everything Click Here” by Evgeny Morozov, questioning that the digital age can fix everything.   What’s Up Towards the end of each episode, Sara and Phil share news of the day and events they’ve been taking part in. Phil has just returned from a month in the UK and Ireland. One highlight was cycling all over London and seeing scenes like these: Phil observed a big jump in cycling activity and noticeably improved infrastructure in the two years since he previously rode around London. If only more other cities could take notice and follow London’s lead! By the time this episode goes live, Phil and Sara will have just returned from the National Transport Conference in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – look out for a future episode with one of the keynote speakers! Sara is currently in the middle or running three marathons in three months! Most recently the Gold Coast Marathon, followed by the Sydney Marathon and to be completed with the Berlin Marathon. Sara had a great experience running the Sydney Marathon that she said was a great example of enjoying the journey. Plus, Sara and some fellow supporters of Better Streets successfully raised about $15,000 so far for the ongoing advocacy work of this national Australian-based organisation. Their donations page is still open here. She’s hoping to run a personal best in Berlin of under 3 hours 15 minutes and will report back in a future podcast, so stay tuned!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roxanne De Beaux is a highly skilled, energetic and enduring cycling advocate who has been making a difference in her adopted home town of Cambridge, UK. As the first employee and later CEO of Camcycle – the Cambridge Cycling Campaign, Roxy spent a decade building the capacity of the organisation. Staff grew from one to seven and income increased approximately 10 fold. Meanwhile Camcycle achieved some major “concrete” achievements in and around the university city of Cambridge. One major piece in this puzzle, the Chisholm Trail, took no less than 20 years of campaigning to bring into reality. In our interview with Roxanne, she shares many great insights into how to build an effective organisation. Roxanne has also been a co-organiser of the Active Travel Café – a vibrant online meeting place for a wide range of people across the UK. She accepted an invitation to become a Board Trustee of Cycling UK – one of the largest and oldest national cycling organisations in the world. All of these activities were coming to a conclusion at the time of our interview because Roxanne is about to move back to her home town of Perth, Western Australia to take up an important State Government transport role. We wonder if the WA establishment is ready for the whirlwind of energy and ideas that is about to blow in their direction! What’s Up? Towards the end of each episode, Sara and Phil share news of the day and events they’ve been taking part in. In this episode Sara shares about a ground-breaking project carried out in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. It involved giving a diverse group of previously non-cycling women subsidised access to e-bikes, skills training and other support, then monitoring and reporting upon their changes in travel habits. This link takes you to a YouTube video of the evaluation report launch:  Transforming transport in Western Sydney Unfortunately the audio in that video is not ideal. Here’s a link via which you can download a .pdf of the report itself Meanwhile, Phil honoured two leading active transport planners, Riley O’Neil and Louisa Gag, located in Chicago and Boston respectively, who were both tragically killed by motorists in separate incidents barely one month apart. Both were riding their bicycles at the time, either to or from work. Streetsblog Chicago’s long-time writer, John Greenfield wrote this excellent article honouring the two young experts who were making a difference in their cities. Greenfield calls for their deaths to become a turning point in the ongoing battle for safe streets. The article also contains many links where you can see more specific stories about the lives of Riley and Louisa and reports of events that have been held in their honour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Henk Swarttouw had a distinguished career as a diplomat in the Dutch foreign service,serving in the US, France and the UK.This culminated in becoming Dutch ambassador to Finland and later, to Denmark.At the end of his term as ambassador to Finland the President of Finland granted Henk withGrand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland. This is an extremely select honour.Henk is now an independent advisor on sustainable mobility and international cooperation.In 2019, Henk joined the board of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), and becamePresident in 2021, a voluntary role that he still serves in today.Henk is also a certified EuroVelo long distance cycle tourism route inspector and served onthe EuroVelo Council from 2019 to 2025.He’s married with two grown-up daughters and when not on the road, divides his timebetween Amsterdam and Helsingborg, in Sweden.In our conversation Henk talks about his transition from diplomat to cycling advocate, thatbegan while his was still serving the Netherlands as Ambassador to Finland.He then shares about some of the biggest wins and challenges during his seven years on theboard of the ECF, which is one of the world’s largest and most influential cycling advocacyorganisations.Henk also talks about the wonderful annual Velo-city conference that the ECF owns andoversees, first held in 1980 and why they choose to hold it in relatively far-flung locationssuch as Matsuyama, Japan next year, rather than sticking to central, safer bets such asLondon, Paris or Berlin. What’s Up?We always finish each podcast with “What’s Up?” in which Sara and Phil share what they’vebe doing, about to do, or interesting things they’ve seen.Sara is in the middle of running three marathons in three months, Gold Coast, Sydney andBerlin and raising funds for Better Streets.Phil is not nearly so athletic these days, but about to head for four weeks’ holidays to the UKand Ireland that, all going to plan, will include a in person factory visit and podcast interviewwith the CEO of one of the UK’s most iconic bicycle brands.Meanwhile, Phil also spoke about the successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) on theNASDAQ exchange in New York City of bike and scooter share operator Lime. This IPOvalued Lime at over US$1.7 billion and is a financial vote of confidence in the future of bikeand scooter share schemes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ana Carboni is a cycling advocate living and working in a super-challenging environment. Brasilia is the purpose-built capital of Brazil. It has some famous modern architecture including its sculptural parliament building. But Brasilia was designed in the 1950’s, entirely around the automobile. The result is a sprawling, high speed car-dominated city that is deadly for cyclists and pedestrians and very poor public transport options. Ana graduated and later practised as a clinical psychologist, before moving to a career in human resources. She moved to London where she worked at the Brazilian Embassy and also completed a masters degree in Human Resource Management and Organisational Analysis at Kings College London. Upon returning to her home city of Niterói which is a beautiful coastal part of the greater Rio di Janeiro urban area, Ana became deeply involved in advocacy. She later moved to Brasilia where she is a Project Manager for the UCB (Brazilian Cyclists Union), the peak national lobbying organisation in this vast country of over 200 million citizens. Very rarely do cycling podcasts, including ours, stray far from the usual pattern of guests from Europe or North America. So it was both fascinating to learn more about Brazil, but shocking to hear how bad things are there, compared to many other developed nations. Here are some stark statistics that we share during this episode: Cyclists Between 2014 and 2024, Brazil recorded 14,834 cyclist deaths, maintaining a tragic and steady average of roughly four fatalities per day nationwide. Fifteen years ago, cyclist fatalities made up less than 1% of total traffic deaths. Today, they account for roughly 3.5% of all road fatalities. Most victims are male, working-class citizens, who rely on bicycles for transport. By far the largest cause of death is being hit by motor vehicles. Pedestrians The annual pedestrian death toll ranges from 5,000 to 6,500 per year. In 2023 5,340 pedestrians were killed, comprising 15.6% of the total road toll that was a staggering 34,110 people killed. Overall Brazil’s death rate through traffic violence was 15.7 people per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021, ranking it 118th in the world. By comparison, “best practice” countries such as Japan, UK, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries are in the range of two to three deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The Netherlands has 4.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Canada is 4.7 the USA, 14.4. Niterói’s Exceptional Example Niterói is a coastal city of about half a million residents located just across the bay from the centre of Rio de Janeiro. It is the wealthiest city in Brazil on a per capita basis. It has a citywide speed limit of 30 kph, extensive bike infrastructure including the three busiest bike lanes in Brazil. At least one of these lanes counts over 7,000 riders per day. In stark contrast to the rest of Brazil, between 2020 and 2024 there were no cyclist fatalities at all in the city of Niterói. Useful Links If you’d like to learn more about advocacy in Brazil, Ana provided us with the following extensive collection of links: Social media links: https://www.instagram.com/uniaodeciclistas/https://www.instagram.com/sistemas.seguros/https://www.instagram.com/rodasdapaz/ https://www.instagram.com/biciculturabr/UCB's website: https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/ UCB's Projects: Safe Street's Bill: https://pldasvelocidadesseguras.org.br/ National Cycling Strategy: https://estrategiadabicicleta.org.br/Bicycle Observatory: https://observatoriodabicicleta.org.br/Cycling map: https://ciclomapa.app/ Sustainable Mobility in the Election Campaign (started as Bicycle in the Election Campaign): https://mobilidadenaseleicoes.org.br/municipal/a-campanha/Best Practices Guide for Bicycle Parking: Bicycle Racks and Bicycle Parking Facilities (2nd edition): https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/biblioteca/guia-estacionamento-bicicletas/Manifesto from the Brazilian Cyclists’ Union for COP 30: https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/geral/pedalando-por-justica-climatica-equidade-e-um-futuro-sustentavel-possivel/The Bicycle as a Promoter of the 18 Sustainable Development Goals in the Brazilian Context: https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/geral/a-bicicleta-como-promotora-dos-18-ods/Legislative Advocacy Manual: Promoting Bicycles in the Legislative Branch: https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/biblioteca/manual-de-incidencia-legislativa/ World Bicycle Forum Memory Secretariat: https://uniaodeciclistas.org.br/memoria-fmb/ What’s Up? We always finish each podcast with “What’s Up?” in which Sara and Phil share what they’ve be doing, about to do, or interesting things they’ve seen. Sara began with World Bicycle Day, that was held the same day we were recording. Here are photos of events that provided by Sara’s colleagues on the World Cycling Alliance board: Sara’s What’s Up also included news of the Australian federal government’s historic announcement of half a billion dollars for cycling and walking infrastructure funding. Here is an announcement from the peak advocacy group We Ride Australia about the initial funding. And here is a follow up announcement that the funding will be “front loaded” to speed up its impact. Phil spoke about attending the massive China Cycle expo next year, instead of his usual annual trip to Eurobike. We previously had an interview with Sam Johnson from the World Bank who spoke about a resurgence of cycling in some of China’s major cities after decades of decline due to policies favouring cars over bicycles. You can listen to that episode here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New European Cycling Industries CEO Gets Proactive on Advocacy Our guest this month is Paul Walsh. Paul is originally from Ireland, has lived in Brussels for over 20 years and brings more than 12 years of experience working in Brussels-based industry associations. He holds a master's degree in Association Management and has worked across a wide range of sectors, including aviation, research and innovation, tourism, and medical devices. Exactly one year prior to our conversation, Paul took on the CEO role of Cycling Industries Europe, which since then has merged with Europe’s oldest industry group, CONEBI, to form European Cycling Industries (ECI). Paul was appointed CEO of the new group and has bold ambitions for this new, larger, united organisation. Multiple times throughout our conversation, Paul mentions the European Cyclist Federation (ECF) which is an advocacy group that Paul’s industry association not only works closely with, but also donates significant funds towards. We previously interviewed Jill Warren the former CEO of the ECF and if you’re interested in in learning more about that organisation you can find that interview here. Cycling faces an opportunity for increased government support and growth thanks to the current “oil crisis” In our conversation Paul refers to the 10 point plan to help reduce oil dependency, recently released by the ECF which Paul’s organisation and others have endorsed. Here is the ECF Manifesto He also outlined ECI’s Strategic Priorities: To create regulatory certainty for e-bikes. To do a better job on data, including bicycle sales. Infrastructure for cycling. Leasing – favourable for bicycle purchases. Reproducing existing successful German and Belgium schemes Europe-wide. Developing a Bicycle Industry Strategy that is adopted by the European Commission. We asked Paul about any recent increases in bike sales in Europe do to the current “oil crisis”. He said it was too early to have data about this. But here is a chart of what happened to bicycle sales in the USA as a result of the “Arab Oil Embargo” of the early 1970’s. It will be interesting to see what happens to bicycle demand over the coming months. Paul described a new “I cycle to work” campaign that the ECI will be launching soon. You’ll be able to see it via their website here: European Cycling Industries What’s Up? Sara mentions the new Oxford St protected cycleway, which is newly opened on a six lane arterial road into the heart of Sydney’s city centre, that’s getting thousands of rides per day. Sara also mentions the huge growth in share bike ridership. Phil mentions Lime and thought that they have exceeded US$1 billion in annual revenue. This may be true now due to their massive recent growth, but the latest published data shows US$646 million revenue for calendar year 2024. In October 2025 Lime announced that they had seen 1 billion total rides since their launch in 2017. Clarification Towards the start of our conversation with Paul, Sara says that there are more bicycle sales than car sales in Australia. That’s only partly correct… although it was true in the decade prior to covid and during the two covid years, since then car sales have slightly exceeded bicycle sales, even when combining analogue and e-bike sales.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.