Cyclists to gather in city for mass clean-air protest
UP to 1,000 cyclists are expected to descend on Birmingham city centre later this week for Ride For Their Lives – a mass cleanair protest.
They will be calling for “cities that are safe, clean and green” where “all citizens can thrive”, and few of them will be travelling further than retired paediatrician Heather Lambert, who will be cycling 380km from Newcastle over the course of three days to attend the event.
For Ms Lambert, health professionals have a duty to demand better for children suffering in silence in cities with high levels of air pollution.
“Air pollution directly affects the health of our children and as a children’s doctor I feel a duty to try and improve it,” she said.
“Children don’t choose the air they breathe. We talk a lot about diet and exercise, but breathing isn’t a choice.
“We wouldn’t give a child a cup of dirty water to drink, but we’re happy to keep our cars idling outside
school gates.”
The Ride For Their Lives event will be held in Birmingham on Sunday, with riders assembling from 2pm along Grosvenor Street West at the Sheepcote Street end. They will set off for Centenary Square at 2.30pm. Every day in Birmingham, thousands of people breathe in dirty air that fails to meet health guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Ride For Their Lives group is a team of health professionals campaigning for cleaner air and better health outcomes for children in cities.
The bike protest will coincide with the start of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s annual conference being held in Birmingham.
Ride organiser Ewan Hamnett says the Birmingham protest is about giving children the basic human right of being able to be physically active and to breathe clean air.
“Ride For Their Lives is based around air pollution and climate issues, but for me it’s much bigger,” he said. “We all want safe, green and clean cities and to live in places where children can thrive.
“This isn’t an anti-car protest, it’s pro-people.
“It’s about what we want our cities to look like because at the moment they’re not working for a lot of people. If you care about the kids in our city then please turn up and make some noise.”
Dr Mark Hayden is a paediatrician from London and will be cycling up to Birmingham from the capital for the event.
He said: “As paediatrics, it is our job to speak up for children.
“We see the impacts that poor housing and the environment have on our patients every day. We want to create environments where cars don’t have the priority but where children do – so they can grow up healthy and better interact with their environments. Every child has the right to breathe clean air.”
Organisers are expecting anywhere between 500 and 1,000 riders on the day with interest from people “across the city”.
This isn’t an anti-car protest, it’s pro-people. It’s about what we want our cities to look like because at the moment they’re not working for a lot of people. Ewan Hamnett