About Micromobility Report Podcast with Irene McAleese and Phil Latz
The Squeaky Wheel Podcast is here to inform and inspire through engaging conversations with changemakers shaping the future of active travel and urban mobility. Your hosts, Phil Latz and Irene McAleese, speak with leaders across business, government, academia, and advocacy, sharing insights and ideas that drive real-world impact.
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Publisher
Irene McAleese and Phil Latz
Category
business · education · government · news · society & culture
The “Weird Little Bike” That Changed Will Butler-Adams’ Life
Will is the CEO and a major shareholder of one of the most iconic bicycle brands in the world, Brompton.
These folding bikes with small wheels and a unique kink in their frame’s top tube were invented by Guy Ritchie in London and first sold in 1975. Although they’ve been much refined the design is still largely unchanged, half a century on.
You’d probably surprised to learn that Brompton employs over 750 people worldwide and has made as many as 90,000 bikes in a single year.
These quirky bicycles are sold globally but remarkably, still all made in London.
That’s where I recently visited Will.
After a fascinating factory tour hosted by one of his team members, Will kindly gave me an uninterrupted hour of his valuable time, followed by posing for photos that you’ll see in our show notes.
I’d met Will previously and already knew two things about him, that he’s a great communicator and that he’s passionate. Of course, he passionate about the company that he’s devoted a quarter century of his life to, but even more so he’s passionate about what bikes can do for humanity.
Just days after I recorded this interview with Will, Actor Cate Blanchett (https://www.google.com/search?q=Video+of+Cate+Blanchett+Riding+a+Brompton+Bicycle#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:23c907a1-0642-4d4a-b02b-6cdd67496278_8a3d3a7a,vid:8NJnXkFNVSM,st:4) was caught on video riding her Brompton home after giving a theatre performance in London.
It was a scene not unlike when Timothée Chalamet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca47YJbyA9A) rode a Lime Bike to the London premiere of A Complete Unknown.
What’s Up
Phil and Sara recently attended the National Transport Conference, in Brisbane, Australia. It was held at the Brisbane Convention Centre, which is directly across the Brisbane River from the city centre. There are no less than four car free bridges linking the city to the opposite bank of this wide river, all of them relatively newly built. This one, the Kangaroo Point Bridge, is recording about 10,000 pedestrians and wheelers of all descriptions, per day.
On the opening morning of the conference Phil met Squeaky Wheel Podcast listener Marina Alexander, who is undertaking a PhD studying shared paths. She said her favourite podcast episodes so far have been with Prue Oswin (Season 2 Episode 9) and Ana Carboni (Season 3 Episode 5).
Phil and Sara loved the conference but missed riding their bikes…
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
16 Sept 2026
Marco te Brömmelstroet Explains How You Can Overcome the Hill of Hysteria.
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 (https://thelabofthought.co/) and Board Chair of the Urban Cycling Institute (https://urbancyclinginstitute.org/).
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 (https://www.amazon.com.au/Movement-take-streets-transform-lives-ebook/dp/B09JTW58M4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WCYZ18VD3U2R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nHmPYTQNwCsfI1JFNpE2eqduH0ujvdOyHUfh1g2QLN_78lUovjMfTk_h1h0--F-ZqNP9D_wNlbVjLd5YZ_mOZ-YBUhV-kd3W08yKpyhNfTd3KlGH8GglpaswDKzi3Skh.v3N567Fpdo39DhI6Dj42Mpjsn24GvRhMaQdOxYnM38w&dib_tag=se&keywords=Marco+Te+Brommelstroet&qid=1788739236&s=books&sprefix=marco+te+brommelstroet%2Cstripbooks%2C203&sr=1-1)”
“Mobility Language Matters – how language shapes our cities and lives (https://www.amazon.com.au/Mobility-Language-Matters-Marco-Br%C3%B6mmelstroet/dp/B0GX5BT47L/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2WCYZ18VD3U2R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nHmPYTQNwCsfI1JFNpE2eqduH0ujvdOyHUfh1g2QLN_78lUovjMfTk_h1h0--F-ZqNP9D_wNlbVjLd5YZ_mOZ-YBUhV-kd3W08yKpyhNfTd3KlGH8GglpaswDKzi3Skh.v3N567Fpdo39DhI6Dj42Mpjsn24GvRhMaQdOxYnM38w&dib_tag=se&keywords=Marco+Te+Brommelstroet&qid=1788739236&s=books&sprefix=marco+te+brommelstroet%2Cstripbooks%2C203&sr=1-2)”
Marco recommended two books by other authors:
“The Anxious Generation (https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/)” 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 (https://www.amazon.com.au/Save-Everything-Click-Here-Technological/dp/1610393708)” 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 (https://www.betterstreets.org.au/) 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 (https://www.betterstreets.org.au/whats-happening/sydney-marathon-2026-fundraiser).
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 (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
19 Aug 2026
Mini to Mighty! How a Cycle Campaign Transformed Itself, Then Britain’s Cycling Capital.
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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAq461oBONA)
Unfortunately the audio in that video is not ideal.
Here’s a link (https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2026/07/15/new-study-recommends-how-governments-promote-active-transport--.html) 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 (https://chi.streetsblog.org/2026/07/17/the-bike-crash-deaths-of-transportation-planners-riley-oneil-and-louisa-gag-should-be-a-turning-point-for-safe-streets) 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 (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
19,260
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
10 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
23
Social presence
0
YouTube
76
Engagement
32
Contact Micromobility Report Podcast with Irene McAleese and Phil Latz
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