About Sheffield SW Living Streets

We are a local campaign group based in Sheffield SW, run by volunteers. We align with the national Living Streets organisation. 

Our objective is for safe and equitable walking and wheeling for all in Sheffield.

Our strategy is to focus on children and safe routes to school. We choose this strategy because children deserve better and because if streets are safe for children, including disabled children, they are safe for everyone.

Tactics

Engage with the council, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), MPs and local journalists.


Gain knowledge to make compelling stories (creating a solid evidence-base for campaigning) using


Create new imaginaries - radical change of mobility requires radical ways of thinking. Radical ways of thinking requires new imaginaries, see here.


Engage in tactical urbanism.


Join us by coming to a meeting, contacting us over email sheffieldsouthwest@livingstreets.org.uk or X (twitter) @SheffieldSW_LS

Background

Our local Living Streets Group was formed in October 2021 by local parents after a campaign for a pedestrian crossing on a key route to local schools. Many signees suggested other improvements in the area to make walking and cycling both safer and easier. Our group initially covered three neighbourhoods adjacent to Hunter's Bar but we now cover a wider area - see map. 

Walking and active travel should be safe, pleasant and easy. But local pedestrian infrastructure is outdated and inadequate. We want this to change!

Member stories - What our members say about why Living Streets is important.

Our family moved to the UK many years ago and our younger child was born here. I have not had the opportunity to drive and running a car would be too expensive so we get around using a mix of buses and walking so I can only take on jobs that I can get to without a car.

Sometimes that makes me feel bad because even just to get to a bus stop with my children we sometimes have to wait a long time to cross the road and often we just have to go for it, which doesn’t feel very safe. It means we don't go to some activities that other children go to if they have a car. 

I am also concerned about the effect of traffic fumes on our health so we sometimes take longer routes to avoid the worst traffic even though it takes longer and the children might complain about it. We are breathing in all the fumes and we don’t even drive!

Also if we go through the parks sometimes there are dangerous dogs on the loose and lots of dog mess on the paths. I would like it to be nicer for walking around and to have safer areas for children to learn to ride a bike so I think it’s good that Living Streets wants to improve the local area for pedestrians.

Mother-of-two, Sharrow

As a family with young children, we depend on our two cars to get us to our many commitments. We switched one car to electric a few years ago for environmental reasons and, for the same reason, we would like to take the bus more often. However, the limited service and long wait times make it impractical and inconvenient for the school run and to get to work.

We feel it is currently unsafe to let our young children ride their bikes on the busy roads around us where speeding and careless driving is a problem. If there were a dedicated bike route to get us to Endcliffe Park and Hunter’s Bar, we would be on our bikes much more often. The narrow roads with cars parked on both sides make it dangerous as oncoming cars are often in the middle of the roadway.

We would love to see Sheffield as a truly green city, where we are all encouraged and able to walk/cycle more using a combination of pedestrian zones, cycle lanes, better public transport, stricter speed limits and more enforcement of parking violations.

R. Ramachandran

We previously lived in America where opportunities for everyday walking were limited; distances to amenities were huge due to urban sprawl and pavements tended to vanish into 6-lane highways. Our sedentary life there was dominated by car journeys, traffic congestion and long commute making our quality of life low. Our physical and mental health plummeted.

On our return to the UK we decided to see if we could manage with just one car. This has meant that we both walk around a lot more for everyday activities and to get to public transport. This has made us fitter and healthier, especially when the local hills are factored in! We are looking to reduce our use of our car even further now that our two young children can walk  and cycle further. But the roads and pavements need to be safer spaces.

To counteract the trend of increasing car use and ownership, everyone needs to play their part to create a city that allows people to move around by foot or bike so that the next generation inherits a better, safer and healthier city. We don’t want our children to grow up thinking that a car is essential to daily life because we don’t want Sheffield to end up like the US so the vision of Living Streets appeals to us!  

H&D, Nether Edge

I'm a father of two, an eight and a nine-year old. I'm from Leicester originally but like many people I moved to Sheffield and fell in love with the city. I settled down and started a family here. After moving here it wasn't a surprise to find out that Sheffield is nicknamed the 'Outdoor City'. 

I want my children to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Improved cycling infrastructure would make a huge difference to my family. I have personally been hit by cars twice while on my bike on Sheffield streets, fortunately not seriously. But, as it is, I don't feel comfortable letting my children out on their bikes. 

I would love for Sheffield to lead the way and to justify it's status as the outdoor city. I think the Council should be placing the upmost importance on improving cycling infrastructure. More people cycling and walking means less cars on the road, fewer accidents, better air quality and fitter, healthier people. Overall a greener and more active city. Surely we all want that for our families. 

Nikhil