The woman who stops traffic – episode three

I watched the last episode of this channel 4 mini series last night.

Kristen was trying to deal with the people of Durham, where they have a great park and ride, a great cycle network, local amenities and no-one used it. They were still addicted to the car.

Editorially it was more of the same, very interesting but actually not a lot of extra substance than the previous programmes (albeit done on a larger scale, and in the middle of winter). It was great to see her end on a success though, and particularly with the wind and rain forecast on the day!

I also found it interesting that she didn’t call on 3rd sector “expert help”. In the first episode she made use of Sustrans, the second one called on Living Streets, but the third mainly focused on Durham council itself – which was lovely to see. It was also great to see a school travel advisor getting well deserved attention!

The thing that hit me most about the programme, however, was the adverts in the breaks. There were so many adverts for car insurance! More Than, Tesco, Money Supermaket, Go Compare etc etc. I felt it rather undermined the message of both the programme and the advertisers, but hey – maybe that’s just me!

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