The actions of the Mayor of London and such organisations as Extinction Rebellion are creating an environmental nightmare. In other words, they are creating the opposite of what they claim to be tackling.
As I write this Extinction Rebellion are blocking roads in central London and plan to continue doing so for the next two weeks. This group is effectively a terrorist organisation and falls into the UK definition of such – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_terrorism#United_Kingdom
Why do the police do nothing? They claim they need more powers to act against peaceful demonstrations but when the demonstrators block roads and threaten lives (as they are doing by restricting access to St. Thomas Hospital and hampering emergency service vehicles over a wide area) then the police have enough powers already. The Government could also proscribe them as a terrorist organisation. I suggest readers write to their Member of Parliament and urge some Government action.
The actions of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London in implementing a Transport Strategy that aims to reduce car use is very much the same as that tried in Paris, i.e. reduction in road space and slowing traffic in favour of cycling, walking and public transport. An article in the New York Times indicates just how counter-productive this has been. The Mayor of Paris’s policies have resulted in fewer cars but more congestion and air pollution is still a problem. See the article here for more information: https://tinyurl.com/y6d6mw4z
One example of how London’s Mayor is making the road network worse, slowing traffic and increasing congestion is his plan for a “Cycleway” between Hackney and the Isle of Dogs – see our previous article on it here: https://tinyurl.com/y6fxezmq . Transport for London (TfL) have now published the results of their public consultation on this scheme. They got 1,873 responses to the consultation after sending out 25,417 letters and 350,000 emails. How did they get such a large email contact list? We don’t know but we have submitted an FOI Act request to find out.
From the responses they got 419 people expressing concerns about the congestion the plans would cause and many people specifically complained about the closure of Grove Road to most vehicles during most of the day. They have a least deferred a decision on that part of the scheme and also have yet to indicate how they will overcome the abandonment of the Rotherhithe cycling/pedestrian bridge which was to be part of the plan. There were many detail objections to aspects of the scheme but TfL have made very few changes.
This also looks like another consultation biased by numerous cycling pressure groups. You can see why by reading the consultation report here: https://tinyurl.com/y4txpvwc . Photo above is from the report, as usual a very unrealistic impression of what it might look like in reality.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London
You can “follow” this blog by clicking on the bottom right.